Labor Day Has Real Meaning
Monday will bring us to another observance of Labor Day. For most of us Labor Day marks the end of summer.
I always enjoy Labor Day weekend because it marks the beginning of the football season. Others take the opportunity to enjoy one last trip to the beach, while others simply enjoy the extra day of the weekend to catch their breath after the opening of school.
Labor Day has traditionally meant a change in patterns of dress. White shoes are not to be worn by women after Labor Day, requiring them to be put into the closet until Easter. Likewise men are to put away their seersucker suits and wear darker outfits until spring returns. The one exception to this rule was the television lawyer Matlock who was always dressed in seersucker.
For a number of years Labor Day also meant that Jerry Lewis was on our televisions raising money for research seeking to cure Muscular Dystrophy. Sadly, Jerry Lewis is no longer a part of the Labor Day telethon but the cause remains.
Like many holidays the celebration of Labor Day has drifted far from its original meaning. Labor Day was first declared a national holiday in 1894. At the time it was already a holiday in 30 states.
Congress approved the Labor Day holiday as way to mend fences with labor unions after President Cleveland sent federal troops to Chicago in order to put down a strike against the Pullman Railcar Company by members of the American Railroad Union.
The purpose of the holiday was to celebrate the accomplishments of American workers. It was not uncommon for labor unions to stage parades and rallies on Labor Day, particularly in the larger industrial cities of the Northeast and the Mid-West.
Today labor unions represent very few American workers; therefore, there really is no organizing force to put together Labor Day celebrations. Thus, the holiday has become more about recreation than a celebration of labor.
However, we would be remiss if we did not celebrate the value of work on this Labor Day. Whether one works at a job that is blue collar, white collar, entrepreneurial or professional, the truth is that hard work has built the lifestyle that we know in our society.
Scripture teaches us the value of work and God calls his people to be productive. The scriptures also say that in whatever activities we engage we should do our best in order that God might be glorified. In the third chapter of Colossians in the seventeenth verse Saint Paul writes, “And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.”
Many of us head off to work each and every day in all different lines of work. Regardless of our vocation we are called to do our work in such a way that Christ is reflected in us. Our labor is just one of the ways that we bring glory to God.
So if Labor Day finds us on a lake, on the beach, at a sporting event, on the golf course or simply maybe taking it easy, when we return to work on Tuesday may we do all that we do in the name of the One who created us.