Work is love made visible

Hidden in Christ with God

GREG NICHOLS

“Keep interested in your own career, however humble; it is a real possession in the changing fortunes of time.' So reads the Desiderata. Is it true? Are careers, our work, our jobs, our labor, possessions to treasure and esteem? In Genesis, work seems a curse from God: 'In toil you shall eat of the ground all the days of your life. By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread until you return to the ground.' And the author of Ecclesiastes asks: 'What do mortals get from all the toil and strain with which they toil under the sun? For all their days are full of pain, and their work is a vexation; even at night their minds do not rest.'

The preachers and prophets of the Bible were also laborers: Tubal-Cain was a smithy, Noah a ship builder, David a shepherd. Matthew was a tax collector. Peter, Andrew, James and John were fishermen. Luke was a physician, and Paul a tentmaker. Lydia sold fabric, Tabitha was a seamstress and Jesus was a carpenter.

The workplace, where we spend a one-third of our lifetime, is more than a place of buying, selling, serving, building and maintaining. It is a microcosm of relationships, manipulations, helps, hurts, sacrifice, betrayal, reward and competition. The pains, expectations and frustrations of labor are evident.

Matthew records Jesus’ parable of workers in a vineyard, hired at daybreak, who bore 'the burden of the day and the scorching heat.' It reports workers who 'thought they would receive more.' It tells of grumbling against the boss.

Though the parable is a masterpiece, unveiling the unmerited grace of God upon all, if it were not a parable, it would seem to portray gross unfairness: workers who labored twelve hours get the same pay as those who worked three hours! And the fact that they agreed to that particular wage does nothing to diminish the unfairness. We are left nodding our heads at the words of Ecclesiastes: 'This also is vanity. So I turned and gave my heart up to despair concerning all the toil of my labors under the sun.'

But Ecclesiastes also looks at the other side: 'There is nothing better for mortals than to find enjoyment in their toil.' Finding enjoyment in toil—sounds a little suspicious doesn't it? So why do we hear songs like 'Nine to Five' and 'Take This Job and Shove it'? A recent survey informs us that 54% of American workers do not enjoy their jobs.

So where does enjoyment in labor come from? It comes from seeing in our labor more than labor. It comes from seeing our labor as a gift and purpose from God. This is what Ecclesiastes means when it says, 'Enjoyment in toil is from the hand of God; for apart from him who can have enjoyment?'

Who instituted the first Labor Day? Some say it was Peter McGuire of the Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners, and Co-Founder of the American Federation of Labor. In 1882, he suggested a day to honor those 'who from rude nature have delved and carved all the grandeur of the world.' We labor to join with God in creativity and maintenance of God’s world: 'So God placed the man in the garden to till it and keep it.'

I leave you with the words of another Christian, Khalil Gibran: “Work is love made visible. And if you cannot work with love but only with distaste, it is better that you should leave your work and sit at the gate of the temple and take alms of those who work with joy.