God created man for work. It seems odd that this needs to be said. But we must. Work has become a bad word or a word to describe what you put up with to get what you really want. Until sin distorted the gift of work and added its cost to what must be done to provide food and shelter, this labor was only a gift. Today is a day to remember that even with sin's stain upon our labor, it is still a gift. If you do not believe this, ask the many who are searching for gainful employment, those who are underemployed and just want to work, those who were retired against their will or due to injury, and those who have given up searching for a job. Ask the 80% after they have had five years or so to contemplate what it means to live without work.
As you take your leisure today (unless you are one of those for whom this not a holiday), stop to thank God for your job, for the vocation that you live out in the work you have chosen because of skill, aptitude, or training, and for the fruits of that labor. God is behind it all. And it is a precious thing. Work is a gift not simply when it is rewarding or fun or we like it. Work is a gift because we were not created for leisure. God made us to take care of His creation and to have dominion over it, to use it to provide for those in our care. There is something wrong when we run from this purpose or find it demeaning. Remember the words of poet James Russell: No man is born into the world whose work is not born with him.
I do know that there are unpleasant jobs. Work is not glamorous. My dad was a plumber and worked like a dog to provide for his family. He put in long hours and endured distasteful duties for the goal of doing his best for God and his best for his family and his best for his neighbor. On my way through college and seminary I had a few unpleasant jobs. I was thankful for the work and for the money it provided to help me pay for school. The jobs and my employers taught me a great deal. Although at the time I was not sure the labor was good, I am more than grateful for the jobs when they came. As a pastor I looked out on people who struggled with their jobs, to find good jobs that will provide for their families, or to find better jobs.
And let us not forget those who labor without a paycheck -- to the moms and dads whose vocation is parenthood and whose calling is seldom appreciated outside the home. This is work, too. And it is godly and good. Though the world may not herald such labor or value it without financial compensation to commend it, God knows and the church dare not forget the work that it takes to turn a place into a home. Remember how Archbishop Fulton Sheen put the dignity of work: Let those who think their work has no value recognize that by fulfilling their insignificant tasks out of love for God, those tasks assume supernatural worth. The aged who bear the taunts of the young, the sick crucified to their beds, the street cleaner and the garbage collector, the chorus girl who never had a line, the unemployed carpenter – all these will be enthroned above dictators, presidents, kings, and Cardinals if a greater love of God inspires their humbler tasks than inspires those who play nobler roles with less love.
On this day let us not forget to give thanks for the opportunity to work and for the fruits of those labors. Only then let us enjoy the time off (if we have it). Even God took a rest on the seventh day after all His splendid work of creation! Just as the rejection of work is a rejection of who God created us to be, so rejection of His rest places ourselves above God and turns labor into a competing idol for God's attention and worship. Work was not meant to be without cost, not something we love doing so much that we cannot cease its labors for any purpose. No, even work as good and godly as it is must yield its activity before the Lord and so that we might enter into His rest, now in hope and one day face to face.
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Even though “Labor Day” is fundamentally celebrated as a secular holiday, we Christians might take to heart and reflect on this day with an attitude of gratitude in a spiritual sense. Too often people begin to take their jobs for granted, forgetting that even having a job which supports oneself and one’s family is not a right. It is a blessing. The paycheck you earned for your labor provides food and necessities for your table. Repeat: It is not that you have a right to it. It is not a right of entitlement, but it is a blessing, and it is the result entirely of God’s Providence and grace. When I was out of work at various times in my early adult years, I felt very depressed when I couldn’t find a job for one reason or the other. I would put on a suit and tie and go from place to place putting in applications, spending 8 hour days knocking on doors. Potential employers would give me some indication that I might be contacted and hired, but they never called, dashing my hopes for a time. My confidence wavered. But finally getting hired, even working a job I particularly disliked, made me feel worthwhile and productive once again. After days of failed efforts, I prayed that the Lord would open a door. Married and in my twenties, a secure job came to fruition, and with the supplement of part time work for additional income, enabled our family to prosper. Why I say that work is a blessing is because many things can happen, illness, company shut downs, economic upheaval. So today, I remember the blessings of God, and work was one of many that came from His merciful hand. Soli Deo Gloria
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