As Martin Luther explained in the Fourth Petition of the Lord’s Prayer in his Large Catechism (“Give us this day our daily bread”), God intends for all people to have “everything required to satisfy our bodily needs, such as food and clothing, house and home, fields and flocks, money and property.” Luther saw the process of obtaining what we need through our labor as a holy act.
As Christians, we are encouraged to remember that wherever we work, we have opportunities to live out our baptismal calling in lives of witness and service. We must live as informed citizens, aware of how our food is produced and harvested, of the lives of garment workers who produce our clothing and the work environments of those who work in restaurants, motels or other service industries.
In doing so, we play a role in ensuring that all who lay their hands to any useful task may receive just rewards for their work. We rejoice in the knowledge that all labor is valued in the eyes of God.
This message is an excerpt from a Woman of the ELCA blog and Gather article by the Rev. Sue Larson. Today is Labor Day, a holiday that “honors the American labor movementand the contributions that workers have made to the strength, prosperity, laws and well-being of the country,” according to Wikipedia.
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