Significance of Labor Day

 Next weekend our nation will pause to observe Labor Day.  First proposed in 1882, it became a Federal Holiday in 1894 and has been celebrated on the first Monday of September ever since to honor labor and recognize the significance honest work adds to our lives.  We celebrate it with the scent and sound of sizzling steaks at the lake, rooting for our favorite football and baseball teams. And, of course, America’s favorite pastime, shopping. 

Labor has always been an important aspect of the Christian faith. Jesus grew up in a carpenter’s home and continued in the trade after Joseph’s death. Those who knew him in Nazareth referred to him as “the carpenter,” (Mark 6:3).  The Apostle Paul worked as a laborer mending tents in Corinth. He wrote to the Colossians, “Whatever you do, do your work heartily, as for the Lord rather than for men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the reward of the inheritance. It is the Lord Christ whom you serve,” (Colossians 3:23-24). 

Our work can be the most effective means for improving the world and sharing the message of the risen Christ.  A few years ago I met Debra.  She went to Uzbekistan on a short-term mission assignment and decided to stay.  She started a tailoring business, enlisted two women to work for her, mentored them as followers of Christ and helped start a new church.  After two years, she gave the business to her co-workers and returned to the United States.  I asked her what her church thought about what she did. She said no one asked.

When I served as interim pastor in Nuremberg, Germany, I met Kim. She and her husband had moved to Nuremberg a year and a half before.  She said they were “firmly convinced that God was using my husband’s company to bring us over to be “believers on the ground in this country.  We are very involved in our German church, seeking to help them develop a strong gospel and cross-centered emphasis, to support and help in any way we can.”

I was reviewing my sermon notes prior to the church service in Nuremberg when Eddie Wong walked in.  I introduced myself and asked if this was his first time to the church. He said he had attended the Nuremberg church a couple years ago, before going to China.  He came to Germany and worked in a bakery to learn the trade, then moved to China where he worked in a bakery as a means to share the gospel with others.

Debra, Kim  and Eddie are examples of a multitude of believers from all over the world who are discovering that work is far more than a way to make a living.  It is the place where we demonstrate daily the character and presence of Christ and it can be the vehicle that enables us to share our faith anywhere in the world. Perhaps this Labor Day can serve as a reminder that our work can be far more effective in communicating the gospel than many church programs.  How we use our professions to honor God and to serve others can change the world.