An odd holiday
Labor Day is an odd holiday. And if you aren’t American, what I’m getting ready to tell you will make it sound even weirder.
Labor Day was established as a federal holiday in 1894 to celebrate the contributions of “the working man.” But you need to understand that while “the working man” includes women, it does not include managers, executives, and small business owners, who also work but do not labor. They tell others to work, which the working man doesn’t believe constitutes real work, but that’s the way it is.
This may make more sense when you realize that Labor Day is really about labor unions, which were formed to “stick it to the man.” Labor wanted to stick it to the man because they felt the man was sticking it to them and not paying them adequately for the sticking.
Now, knowing this, you might expect Labor Day to include tributes to Samuel Gompers and alcohol-induced searches for Jimmy Hoffa’s body. But alas, no. Instead it involves picnics with hot dogs, hamburgers, and apple pie. Oh, and the day off, because it was believed the best way to honor the contribution of labor was to create a day when laborers do not contribute, except for the lowest paid minimum wage and tipped employees in restaurants because, after all, where will those of us eat who do not have ready access to a picnic table? Confusing, I know.
A biblical approach to Labor Day
But because this website is devoted to propagating a biblical view of work, I come on this Labor Day with a proposal. Now granted, I am not a working man—not because I do not work; I’ve been working 50 – 60 hours per week for the last 35 years. But I do so as an attorney, and that kind of work is not labor. Is this becoming clearer?
I’m not saying we shouldn’t honor the contributions of non-managerial, non-attorney workers and the unions that represent them. I just think the current conception of Labor Day is not ambitious enough.
Anyway, here is my proposal: a true “Labor Day,” one that is inclusive, celebrating the work of the managed and those who manage them, executives, and small business owners, attorneys and non-attorneys. It would be a celebration of the blessing of work itself.
It would recognize that work imitates our Father in heaven, who has been working from the beginning (John 5:17), and our Savior, Jesus, who glorified the Father by completing the work the Father had given Him to do (John 17:4).
Celebrating work
We would thank God, who—as Martin Luther taught—permits us to be used by Him to meet people’s needs through the products and services our work provides. We would thank Him for the role work gives us in managing the planet for King Jesus.
We would pray for those who are unemployed and separated from these divine purposes, and make it a point on this day to encourage them to continue to trust God as they seek work.
There would be some rules on Labor Day too. One would be that no one could complain about their job, their coworkers, or their boss. You couldn’t say, “I have to go to work tomorrow.” You would have to say, “I get to go to work tomorrow.” For one day, we would reverse the script and have a forced renewal of our minds about the sacredness of work.
We would call it a day of rest, not because we despised work but because God, the Great Worker, rested after performing His good work (Genesis 2:1-3) and because biblical rest honors work; it doesn’t repudiate it. And yes, there could still be hot dogs, hamburgers, apple pie, and picnics in the park.
A new attitude toward work
And who knows, when it came time to go back to work on Tuesday, we might approach our work differently.
We might see it as a gift from God, an opportunity to be like the Father, to participate in the work He is doing to meet people’s needs, and to manage the planet for King Jesus.
We might see work as something we get to do rather than something we have to do. GS
