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"Labor Day 2010 "
Sermon by Jo Campe
Matthew 5:13-16 (The Message)
Salt and Light
13 “Let me tell you why you are here. You’re here to be salt-seasoning that brings out the God-flavors of this earth. If you lose your saltiness, how will people taste godliness? You’ve lost your usefulness and will end up in the garbage.”
14-16 “Here’s another way to put it: You’re here to be light, bringing out the God-colors in the world. God is not a secret to be kept. We’re going public with this, as public as a city on a hill. If I make you light-bearers, you don’t think I’m going to hide you under a bucket, do you? I’m putting you on a light stand. Now that I’ve put you there on a hilltop, on a light stand—shine! Keep open house; be generous with your lives. By opening up to others, you’ll prompt people to open up with God, this generous Father in heaven.”
I don’t think there is anyone alive who likes job performance reviews except maybe the HR people. Even if you are doing a great job, review and evaluation are stressful. A few years ago Preaching Magazine ran a list of some quotes from actual Job Performance Reviews. I thought I’d share a few:
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“I wouldn’t allow this employee to reproduce, he must have gotten into the gene pool when the lifeguard wasn’t looking.”
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“This associate is really not so much of a has-been but a won’t be.”
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“Works well under constant supervision and cornered like a rat in a trap.”
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“This young lady has delusions of adequacy.”
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“Sets low personal standards and consistently fails to achieve them.”
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“This employee is depriving a village somewhere of an idiot.”
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“Gates are down, lights are flashing, but the train isn’t coming.”
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“If you stand close enough to him, you can hear the ocean.”
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“Some drink from the fountain of knowledge; he only gargled.”
Here it is Labor Day Weekend. There are at least two things that are certain about this weekend; first, there will be sales in all the stores. Ironically, the very people for whom Labor Day was established as a holiday, will have to work. Second we will see the annual Jerry Lewis Muscular Dystrophy Association Telethon. The first Telethon was broadcast on only 1 New York TV Station. This weekend it will be broadcast on 190 stations. The first telethon brought in an unheard of $1 million dollars. A while ago, the Annual Telethon raised a record $63,759,478 for Jerry’s Kids. What would Labor Day weekend be without it?
I personally think you can see God’s presence through the giving, research and care that takes place because of the Telethon. A lot of hard work goes into the event. And you can See God In The Ordinary through that work.
But the work of the Telethon isn’t the only place you can See God In The Ordinariness of Work. I wonder if we could SEE work differently… maybe we could SEE all of our life differently?
Work Is A Gift
We can See God In The Ordinary when we see Work As A Gift. A Gift from God. I know some of you are thinking I’ve gone off the deep end. This will probably show up in MY performance review and I know where you’re coming from. When I was a child and a teenager and even a young adult, I saw a lot of work as drudgery and even punishment.
And with that attitude we can look at the Scripture and blame it all on the Fall. When Adam and Eve got evicted from the Garden, God said they would survive by “the sweat of his brow.” From that moment on there have been two schools of thought, one that Work is punishment and the other, that Work Is A Gift. As you can tell, I’m of the second school....
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