Lynne Baab

Praying about the flow of time: Labor Day

Lynne Baab • Tuesday August 27 2024

Just over 30 years ago, I served as a pastoral intern at a Presbyterian church. For the Sunday of Labor Day weekend, the pastor wanted to get away with his family so he asked me to preach. (For my friends in other countries, Labor Day in the United States is a national holiday celebrated on the first Monday of September. This year, it is September 2.)

As I pondered the sermon, I kept getting a mental picture of a big mural of individuals doing joyful work, including industry, farming, homemaking, parenting, Christian ministry, and many forms of serving and caregiving. All the workers were contributing to human well-being and/or caring for creation, and all of them rejoiced that they could do that. To begin the sermon, I described the mural that I had pictured. I mentioned eight or ten different forms of work.

Then, I talked about the image of God in each of us and said that all kinds of work enable us to reflect God’s image. In almost all forms of work, we can show God’s intelligence, care, compassion, and creativity. We are called to serve God in all we do. Our workplaces are one place we live into that call.

I thought this was a pretty basic sermon, nothing too profound. To my surprise, at coffee hour a retired man came up to me with tears in his eyes. He told me he had worked for the railroads his entire career and had always felt that his work was inferior. He said that surely God must place a high value on forms of work that directly care for people or make the Gospel known. He had attended church his whole life but had never heard a sermon that affirmed that all work is valuable in God’s eyes. He said the mural I described was a powerful picture that spoke to him profoundly of his work’s value.

I told him that I viewed railroads as valuable for so many areas of human life. They transport people and grain and so many consumer goods. I said I was sad that he had never received affirmation for the value of his work. He continued to get tears in his eyes throughout our entire conversation.

I came away from that conversation furious. He had heard many different preachers over his lifetime. Why had none of them addressed the subject of everyday work? What’s wrong with Christian imagination that we can’t see God’s presence in every corner of human life, including a railroad job? Why had this man’s pastors and family members not affirmed that his work mattered to God? Why weren’t preachers taking advantage of Labor Day weekend to talk about the value of our work?

I admit there aren’t a lot of biblical passages that address working for a railroad. We might talk about Jesus working with Joseph as a carpenter. We might cite 1 Corinthians 10:13: “Whatever you do, do it all to the glory of God.” To understand how God views our work, we probably need to step back to bigger theological themes. God made us. God guides our life. All aspects of human life have value — mixed in with brokenness — and we work to bring wholeness and health to people and to steward God's beautiful earth.

I’ve been writing about Ordinary Time, our current season of the church year, for the past two weeks (here and here). Surely our jobs are part of the ordinariness of our lives where we meet God.

I wonder how you think and pray about your work. I wonder how you pray for people you love who are stressed in their work, don’t find joy in their work, or feel worthless because they can’t find work. If you’re retired, a homemaker, or unemployed, I wonder how the word “work” strikes you and how you pray in response to the emotions that word evokes.

Here’s a beautiful quotation from Jesuit poet Gerard Manley Hopkins (1884-1889). Notice all the things he believes can give God glory. As you read the quotation, think about how you might pray for yourself or others in response to his words:

“It is not only prayer that gives God glory, but work. Smiting on an anvil, sawing a beam, whitewashing a wall, driving horses, sweeping, scouring, everything gives God some glory if being in his grace you do it as your duty. To go to communion worthily gives God great glory, but to take food in thankfulness and temperance gives him glory too. To lift up the hands in prayer gives God glory, but a man with a dungfork in his hand, a woman with a sloppail, give him glory too. He is so great that all things give him glory if you mean they should. So then, my brethren, live.” [1]

God, we desire to bring you glory in everything we do. Please empower us to do that. Guide our prayers for the people in our lives for whom work is problematic in some way.

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Next week: National Piano Month and International Square Dancing Month. Illustration by Dave Baab: St David’s Café, University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand.

Related posts:

• A. W. Tozer on worship and work
• Benedictine spirituality: Hospitality, service, and work
• Unusual sabbaticals

[1] “The Principle or Foundation” by Gerard Manley Hopkins. In Ordinary Graces: Christian Teachings on the Interior Life, edited by Lorraine Kisly (Bell Tower, 2000), 170.

Lynne M. Baab, Ph.D., is a teacher and writer. She has written numerous books, Bible study guides, and articles for magazines and journals. Lynne is passionate about prayer and other ways to draw near to God, and her writing conveys encouragement for readers to be their authentic selves before God. She encourages experimentation and lightness in Christians spiritual practices. Read more »

Lynne is pleased to announce the release of her 2024 book, Friendship, Listening and Empathy: A Prayer Guide, illustrated with her husband Dave's beautiful watercolors. She is thrilled at how good the watercolors look in the printed book. Another recent book is Two Hands: Grief and Gratitude in the Christian  Life,  available in paperback, audiobook, and for kindle. Lynne's 2018 book is Nurturing Hope: Christian Pastoral Care for the Twenty-First Century, and her best-selling book is Sabbath-Keeping: Finding Freedom in the Rhythms of Rest (now available as an audiobook as well as paperback and kindle). You can see her many other book titles here, along with her Bible study guides.

You can listen to Lynne talk about these topics: empathy, bringing spiritual practices to life. Sabbath keeping for recent grads., and Sabbath keeping for families and children.

Lynne was interviewed for the podcast "As the Crow Flies". The first episode focuses on why listening matters and the second one on listening skills. 

Here are two talks Lynne gave on listening (recorded in audio form on YouTube): Listening for Mission and Ministry and Why Listening Matters for Mission and Ministry.

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"Dear Dr. Baab, You changed my life. It is only through God’s gift of the sabbath that I feel in my heart and soul that God loves me apart from anything I do."
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