Pausing for the Labor Day holiday gives us a chance to reflect on what this special day means for our seminary community. Labor Day traditionally symbolizes the end of summer. The day we commit to sweat out of our bodily systems all that barbecue consumed over the summer. The time we rise up from our prone and immobile positions to pray and read the Bible again in an upright manner. Labor Day presents an occasion for bemoaning or exulting the kickoff of the all-consuming college and professional football seasons. It’s the last moment we can enjoy our freedom from systemic discipline before a higher authority imposes on us a more regimented structure of classes, chapel, meals, study, and prayer.
Historically, Labor Day was instituted as a federal holiday at the height of the Industrial Revolution. According to Wikipedia, the day celebrates the American labor movement and recognizes the social and economic achievements of American workers. While the significance and power of the labor movement has fluctuated over the ensuing century, lifting up the important contributions of ordinary workers remains integral to our national identity and well-being.
Theologically, Labor Day is a time to recall that God also values our work, whether it involves the service of others at home, at school, in our workplaces or in prayer. We are fellow workers with God in Christ Jesus, writes the apostle Paul. That means throughout every day we present our bodies as a sacrifice – living, holy and well-pleasing to God – as we prove through testing which actions please God and enrich the lives of others (Romans 12:1-2). For Paul all of our actions offered sacrificially to God in service to others constitute “reasoned worship.” Worship is not just what we do on Sunday morning in church!
The collect for Labor Day in the Book of Common Prayer (p. 261) picks up on these important themes. All of our lives are so linked together that everything we do affects many other lives “for good or ill.” Remembering this, the collect reminds us to seek divine guidance of our work, so that we always offer ourselves in service to the common good rather than pursuing self-interest alone.
On Labor Day we begin to set the joys and memories of the summer behind us, just as we look forward to the promise of the new semester that lies ahead. Today marks not only the commencement of another academic year, but also the dawn of our future together. A future shaped by God through faithful work in the service of others. Through every Christlike action we take, every God-breathed word we speak, no matter who we are with or where we are located. As fellow workers with God in Christ Jesus, our work absolutely matters to God. Through our work God pours abundant life into God’s new creation in Christ.
John Lewis is the co-director of The Workshop, a ministry that guides laity in using the Bible to discern how to live faithfully. John studied at Houston Baptist University, University of Houston, Virginia Theological Seminary (M.Div), and the University of Oxford (Ph.D.).
