Labor

Exodus 20: 8-11  

2 Thessalonians 3: 6-10

Matthew 11: 28-30

Labor

A Labor day is celebrated in many places around the world, most times in May (May Day) and it is a day to celebrate the achievements & strides made by workers & labor unions. The first Labor Day observed in the U.S. was in 1882 in NYC, but it wasn’t made a national holiday until 1894, just days after the horrific Pullman Strike in Pullman, IL.

Employees of the Pullman Palace Car Company, who made railroad cars, went on a wildcat strike after the company drastically decreased the employee’s wages because of diminished sales caused by the Economic Crisis of 1893. This strike caused a shutdown of practically all railroad transportation west of Chicago to a halt.

Within 3 days of Pullman employee’s walking off the job, 40,000 railroad workers walked off the job as a sign of solidarity. It rippled across America.

 President Grover Cleveland sent in U.S. Marshals & 12,000 soldiers to break up the strike. Of course, this controversial move is still debated as to its constitutionality, but never the less . . . the strike was broken up.  13 strikers were killed, 57 wounded and over $6 million of property had been damaged.  In the wake of the Pullman Strike, Cleveland, wanting to bring some reconciliation to the workers involved in the strike, had congress fast track Labor Day as a national holiday and six days after the end of the strike . . . we had ourselves a national holiday.

One can only imagine the horror, blood, tensions, pain, suffering of this event, but as a result many people in our country  don’t  have to work tomorrow and . . . as far as I’m concerned . . . that’s a good thing.

This is the Labor Day Weekend. Labor Day is a strange holiday. While we call it "Labor Day," we try to do as little labor as possible  and most working people have the day off. Nobody has wished me a "Happy Labor Day". We didn’t get any Labor Day cards. We don’t decorate the house, or give Labor Day gifts. The florists and greeting card manufacturers haven’t found a way to capitalize on it.

It’s a bad weekend for church attendance because everyone wants to take time away. But, Labor Day is different things to different people. To the factory or office worker, it may be a day off.  For policemen, who deal with extra traffic and alcohol abuse, it’s a tough day.  To farmers and ranchers, it’s just another day to feed the cattle and work in the fields. For preachers, it is an opportunity to talk about work.

Work is a very important part of God’s will for people. God gave us Sabbath as a day to worship,  A Christian cannot separate his every day activity from his spiritual life. He has no right to act differently Monday through Friday. The Christian does not live for self alone. If you’re a Christian, you’re a minister of God, a servant of his. We are not just Christians on Sunday morning, and then someone else during the rest of the week. Wherever we are, whatever we are doing, we are to be servants of God. We have his work to do, every day. And, everything we do, every day, affects someone else, either positively or negatively.

It is interesting to me that when Jesus chose his closest disciples, he chose everyday working men. He knew they could relate to the average people to whom Jesus wanted to spread his message. They knew hard work, long hours. But when Jesus said, “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest,” he was not talking about giving his followers time off from work.  He was talking about a different kind of work, or a different attitude toward work.

Notice that he follows this statement with, “Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” You all know what a yoke is, and the image of a person with a yoke on their shoulders is not an image of someone at rest. What Jesus was saying is not that his followers would not work hard. Instead they would find the work they were doing for him to be more fulfilling. It would feed their soul and give them joy. And the reason is, he, Jesus, would be with them in all they would do.

We all work. Some may not work for wages now, but work as volunteers, or around home. Everything we do at our work, and whatever that work may be, affects others. When we approach whatever work we do with the attitude that we are serving God not ourselves, and we do our work well, God will give us fulfillment. Serving God is how our souls find rest.

I have another story for you.

The U.S.S. Astoria was the first U.S. cruiser ship to engage the Japanese during the Battle of Savo Island in World War II. It was a night action fought August 8th and 9th in 1942. Although the Astoria scored two hits on the Imperial flagship Chokai, she was badly damaged and sank shortly after noon on August 9th. About 2:00 that morning, a young Midwesterner, an Ohioan, Signalman 3rd Class Elgin Staples, was swept overboard by the blast when the Astoria’s number one eight-inch gun turret exploded. Wounded in both legs by shrapnel and in semi-shock, Staples was kept afloat by a narrow life belt that he managed to activate with a simple trigger mechanism.

At around 6:00 that same morning, Signalman 3rd Class Elgin Staples was rescued by a passing destroyer and returned to the Astoria, whose captain was attempting to save the cruiser by beaching her. The effort failed, and Staples, still wearing the same life belt, found himself back in the water.

Close to 12 Noon, Navy seaman Staples was picked up again, this time by the U.S.S. President Jackson. He was one of 500 survivors of the battle who were evacuated to Noumea. Safely on board the ship, for the first time, Staples closely examined the life belt that had served him so well. It had been manufactured by Firestone Tire and Rubber Company of Akron, Ohio, and it bore a registration number.

Given home leave, Navy seaman Staples told his story and asked his mother, who worked for Firestone, about the purpose of the number on the belt. She replied that the company insisted on personal responsibility for the war effort, and that the number was unique and assigned to only one inspector. Staples remembered everything about the lifebelt, and quoted the number. It was his mother’s personal code and affixed to every item she was responsible for approving. Do you suppose Mrs. Staples was glad that she had performed well on the job?

As Christian’s it pays to do our very best at whatever work we have in front of us.