Labor Day

 

Today, we celebrate those who have kept their hand on the plow.  We celebrate those who have held on, especially over the last year.  We celebrate nurses and doctors who held hands of people afflicted with COVID.  We celebrate those who stock shelves in stores, the check out person who smiles as she scans our cereal asking if we found everything okay, who deliver items in brown boxes to our doorsteps.  We celebrate those who still plow the ground, those who are seeking more sustainable ways to live in harmony with the good earth, and those who grew the food we just ate or are about to eat.  We celebrate those who commune with cows and raise puppies.  We celebrate those who work as accountants and artists to hair stylists and helicopter pilots to photographers and parents/grandparents/adopted aunts and uncles to waiters/waitresses and warehouse workers and widget makers to zoologists.  From A to Z whatever work you did and still do, I celebrate you.

We celebrate those who plow through the rocky soil of injustice in our world.  Those who ask us to widen our vision of what could be when we let go of seeing the world through Pharaoh's eyes of sacristy and clinging to what is “ours”.  We celebrate parents whose office is now in spare bedrooms and whose deepest calling is trying to love children.  We celebrate those who volunteer to read with children, cook meals for the hungry, and listen to the lost/left-out/lonely.  Today, I celebrate those in our church who pull weeds, serve on teams, and find creative ways to lead.  I celebrate you, each of you.  I celebrate the ways you faithfully seek to embody the priesthood and ministry of all believers.  I celebrate that sometimes our profession and passion are the same thing; we recognize, realize that sometimes your paycheck paid the bills so that you could let your light shine in other ways. 

Today, I invite you to hear God whispering to you, “Beloved, thank you.  Thank you for the work of your hands, hearts, heads, and whole self.  Thank you for letting your light shine and letting Me move through you.  Thank you for what was.  Thank you for what is today.  Thank you for what will be in the months and year to come.”

Know that God’s love is not earned through our labor.  Rather, our labor is a response and prayerful way to share God’s love in this world.  Take a moment and share in the comments BOTH a celebration of your work and where God’s love is let loose in you for the sake of the world.  For example, I celebrate my work as your pastor.  I celebrate the labor of love in raising teenagers.  I celebrate the work of my soul ~ writing, teaching, and sharing God’s presence. 

Now…it’s your turn. 

On this Labor Day, thank you for being you…you are a blessing.