Happy Labor Day.
I've spent time this weekend thinking and praying about workers, Labor Day, and the strange political landscape we live in.
I'm troubled at the way some politicians cater to foreign investors and their wealthiest donors.
 |
| The Trump tax cuts are failing badly, Washington Post, May 31, 2019 |
I'm saddened by Christians who celebrate and admire a presidential candidate born to excessive wealth, whose business model depends heavily on cheating workers, creditors, and political supporters.
Looking back through earlier posts, I discovered I've written quite a lot about workers, wage theft and Labor Day. No need to repeat all that. The links are below.
What's your own theology of work? Grace? God's provision for the poor?
The Bible has far more to say on this issue than on other topics most Christians I know prefer to focus on. There's certainly far more about wealth, poverty, work and treatment of workers than we hear about in our Sunday services. This weekend I stumbled on a website called The Theology of Work, and a page titled What Does the Bible Say About Wealth and Provision? It's long, but worth some study.
Here's the section that most caught my attention:
We Are to Change the Organizations and Structures of Society
Christians are called to work not only at the small enterprise and person-to-person level in seeking to alleviate poverty, but also at the macro or structural level. The world contains resources enough to meet everyone’s needs. But the social, political and economic motivation and means to do so have never come together on a global scale. This too is a form of human sin and error. We are to be involved in changing the organizations and systems of provision and wealth in our societies. Although we may feel too small and insignificant, too far removed from the halls of power in our society, God has a habit of using outsiders and insignificant people to bring great economic changes in societies.
My own involvement in PA politics was a direct result of time spent with friends born into poverty, struggling to find a way out and too often trapped by structural roadblocks. I am still deeply involved with some of those friends, but after years of looking for ways to help on a personal level, I found myself challenged to look at political structures that cater to the wealthiest among us and fail our poorest children.
It's interesting to consider that Jesus, the center of the Christian faith, was born in a carpenter's family, lived his early years as a refugee, surrounded himself with fishermen, and chose to die on a cross between two thieves.
 |
| The Labor Cross, Fritz Eichenberg, 1954 |
From Pope Francis:
Solidarity means much more than engaging in sporadic acts of generosity. It means thinking and acting in terms of community. It means that the lives of all are prior to the appropriation of goods by a few. It also means combatting the structural causes of poverty, inequality, the lack of work, land and housing, the denial of social and labor rights. It means confronting the destructive effects of the empire of money. (Pope Francis, On Fraternity and Social Friendship [Fratelli Tutti], no. 116)
Here's another way to approach it, from the United Church of Christ's Witness for Justice:
To build solidarity is to entangle ourselves more deeply in the vulnerabilities of the world produced by injustice.
I like that word "entangle." It's messy. It suggests we find ourselves caught and held together in ways we can't control.
This Labor Day weekend, while thinking about the needs of workers, I've been fielding calls from a younger friend whose car died on Friday and whose family depends on her getting to work on Tuesday. "Entangled" suggests her problem is also mine.
Jesus entangled his life with his friends and followers. So much so that he gave his life for them and all who follow after.
I have lots of questions. Not many answers:
- What does it mean for us to entangle our lives with workers struggling to build a sustainable life in an economy that rewards some people richly and leaves others struggling to survive?
- How can we travel through this world in ways that encourage and enrich the poorest, weariest workers we encounter?
- Where can our own actions, our votes, our voices, help end structural injustice?
- How can we shop, travel, worship, give in ways that benefit workers most in need of help. rather than the wealthy who already have far more than they need?
I think maybe the first step in all of that is to make sure we step outside our safe bubble of belief and behavior, to know workers in different walks of life, different economic circumstances. Ideally, our congregations are places where that can happen. If not, maybe that's the first place to start.
Almighty God, you have so linked our lives one with another that all we do affects, for good or ill, all other lives: So guide us in the work we do, that we may do it not for self alone, but for the common good; and, as we seek a proper return for our own labor, make us mindful of the rightful aspirations of other workers, and arouse our concern for those who are out of work; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen (Collect for Labor Day, Book of Common Prayer p 261)
 |
Earlier posts about work, workers and Labor Day
