When I was a kid, we would pick flowers and make vases out of construction paper and leave simple bouquets on a neighbor’s doorstep. We did this kindness on May 1st which was May Day. I might have also danced around a May pole at school. But May Day was a fun way to celebrate spring and be kind to our neighbors. Do you have memories of May Day? Not sure what happened to celebrating May Day? Maybe that is why I was surprised to discover that for the rest of the world, May Day is the time they celebrate International Workers’ Day. In other words, say thank you to all those who labor and work hard. So, you might be saying wow, we have a similar day, but we call it Labor Day, which is tomorrow. Simply put, Labor Day celebrates Americans who labor. It is a day to appreciate the economic and societal impact of hardworking Americans and to reflect on the progress our country has made because of the American workforce. Since 1894, Labor Day has been celebrated on the first Monday of September.
I chose today’s reading for the line which is the title of my sermon, “Labor and Work Honestly.” What better testament to what Labor Day strives to honor. On this national holiday weekend, I will quote two presidents. Grant said, “Labor disgraces no man; unfortunately, you occasionally find men who disgrace labor.” President Ford said, “Tell the truth, work hard, and come to dinner on time.” In Ephesians, Paul isn’t calling us to dinner but he is calling the Gentiles into unity through baptism. To put away “your old self” and “clothe yourself with the new self” (4:22-24). Christ is creating a “new humanity” (2;15), so that we can all be one in God. READ Ephesians 4:25-32.
Be kind to one another, tenderhearted and forgiving to one another, as God in Christ has forgiven you. Oh, if that were the lens through which we consider our labor force, the workers of this great nation. Kindness has no place in our capitalist society. Profits, increased margins, outsourcing, AI, are the themes of the day, not kindness. Or deporting hard working people from our country based on the color of their skin, certainly not kindness. Or having a tax system that gives tax breaks to the rich and not to the working class. One study in 2022 showed that of the 300 billion dollars our government spent on subsidies to support asset building, meaning helping people to grow wealth, more than 80% go to the top 40% of earners. Or how about wage inequality in this country. Average CEO compensation in 2025 was over $17 million while the average median worker got paid less than $37,000. Or the average CEO-worker pay ratio, meaning how much more the CEO gets paid than the worker. In 1980 that ratio was about 40 to 1. The CEO made 40 times more than his employee. In 2025, that ratio was 614 to 1. With several companies reporting pay ratios of 1,000 to 1. (https://ips-dc.org/report-executive-excess-2026/). Breaking down the numbers for race, education, and gender is even worse. Women had to work until March 26 this year to make up the difference of what men get paid compared to women. Three more months of work simply because of our gender.
I know I have thrown lots of statistics at you, but numbers tell the story of how we are failing the American work force and it’s important on Labor Day to consider where we are as a nation in light of what scripture asks us to do.
Paul in Ephesians is offering a radical blueprint for this new humanity. Where human relations are transformed because of Christ’s death and resurrection. Today, we know this change through our baptism, God’s sign and seal upon each one of us. Like I said earlier baptism is the lens through which to see our passage. Earlier Paul writes, “There is one body and one Spirit…one hope…one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all” (Eph. 4:4-6). This unity opens the way to understand two truths we will consider from our passage; speaking truth to our neighbor and to labor and work honestly.
Today it is hard to tell the difference between the truth and a lie. With social media, polarization, conspiracy theories, and AI generated pictures and videos it is hard to know what is real. I know the name of a lake cannot be changed with a sharpie, and that truth exists and only lies are invented. Yet Mark Twain wrote, “A lie can travel half way around the world while the Truth is still lacing up her boots.” Truth is what our faith calls us to. To be honest with our neighbors and friends, because we value truth. The reason for this is because we are members of the body of Christ, members of each other. Our baptism gives us that membership. The unity of the church is the basis for our moral behavior. The same way you take care of yourself, by taking medications, getting sleep and exercise, and going to the doctor – for self-preservation, we are to live in truth because our community needs it. Truth preserves our life. Society breaks down when truth falls prey to lies. When partisan beliefs outweigh reality. “Justice is truth in action” (Benjamin Disraeli) and our faith calls us to truth.
You all know the value of labor, of hard work, building something with your hands and mind. You have found satisfaction in laboring as teachers, firefighters, dental hygienist, professors, salesmen, artists, business owners, secretaries, homemakers, and accountants, librarians and entrepreneurs. That is why most here are resting from your labors in retirement. Rest follows work. God showed us that example in the creation story. God worked hard to create the universe, and all that is good, and then rest was the reward. But that pattern should hold on a smaller scale. So that labor is valued enough for people to have a living wage, to be able to rest every week and not work four jobs just to get by. Labor should be more than the way we can afford to live. Labor can be our inspiration, our community involvement, our passion, even our identity, as well as our paycheck. Yet did you notice that Pauls’ admonition to “labor and work honestly” was given to thieves. Why does Paul not say that to each one of us? To labor and work honestly and then to rest. Paul’s prohibition of stealing is based not on the notion of respecting others’ property but solely on the motive of helping others in the community. Rather than steal from others the members of this community are called to work so that they can pass something along to the poor. It is a call to pay open-eyed attention to the needs of those around us, so that we can discern the good thing that our neighbors need and then do it. “So our embracing honest work is not just for our own benefit and security, but for the sake of meeting human need” (Working Preacher, Sally A. Brown). Paul is asking everyone to work hard and honestly, thieves just make for the extreme example. Why are we to work? According to Paul, we work to have something to share with others, with the needy.
So as we think about speaking the truth to our neighbors because we are members of one another. And laboring and working honestly so that we can share with those around us we can see that Paul is asking for these behaviors, not as “should” but as part of community building, as ways of strengthening the body of Christ. “Both moral action and moral speech are to be guided by the principle of doing what strengthens the community” (Working Preacher, Scott Shauf).
So this Labor Day weekend let’s heed President Ford, “Tell the truth, work hard, and come to dinner on time.” Soon you will be invited to Christ’s table, where we are nourished to the work Jesus has called us to do. To speak truth to our neighbors and labor and work honestly, to build up the community of grace.
When we sing the closing hymn, I want you to imagine God is speaking to you in your life, from your first cry to you last breath, God journeys with you. For many your time of labor is complete, but your baptism remains the seal God placed on you. Baptism helps you to speak truth and work hard then rest, because God has claimed you as God’s own. Baptism is not something forgotten in childhood, but a seal of God’s transforming love and accompaniment of each one of us through this journey we call life.
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