The Great Work, Preached in Bend Oregon Sept 1 2013

The first Labor Day holiday was celebrated on Tuesday, September 5, 1882.

It is important to remember that Labor Day was created to celebrate and value the American worker, not the American corporation. It does not exist to celebrate American employment opportunity. Labor Day exists to celebrate American productivity and creativity. This Labor Day let us celebrate the capacity to do meaningful work that is in all of us.

(Psalm 90:12-17 The Message) In the Hebrew bible, in psalm 90, the psalmist sings:

Oh! Teach us to live well!

  Teach us to live wisely and well!

…

Surprise us with love at daybreak;

  then we’ll skip and dance all the day long.

…

…

And let the loveliness of our Lord, our God, rest on us,

  confirming the work that we do.

  Oh, yes. Affirm the work that we do!

However we define the holy, as the beauty and wonder of the human community, the mystery and miracle of the universe, the interdependent web of all life, the spirit of compassion and love, the lure to diversity and complexity, the good...It is because of our connection to the holy that humans can work with purpose, power, and the right intent. Interestingly, the psalm does not bother to separate spiritual work from the work of daily life.

From birth it is embedded upon our minds that we should grow up and do something important with our lives. As adults, we learn that we must provide for our families, no matter what the personal cost. Our vocation and the labor of our hands can be all-consuming and encompassing.

Our capacity to be creative, to be productive, is blessed and sacred and there is more to our labor than merely sustenance. The phrase “Affirm the work that we do” or "Prosper the work of our hands" is a plea to the holy to participate in our labor.

How can the holy participate in our labor/vocation if we do not take our principles, our connection to the spirit of love, to work with us? Moreover, since we have been given this great and wondrous gift, the ability to work, should we not look to do the work where our passion meets the needs of the world? What has been laid before us to do is a blessing and all work is sacred.
(For more of this sermon see the sermon recording on my website http://www.amybeltaine.info/Home/ministerial-portfolio/Worship)