August 4, 2019                                                   Text:  Ecclesiastes 1:2, 12-14; 2:18-26

Dear Friends in Christ,

            If you stand in the courtyard of the Detroit Institute of Arts, twenty-seven fresco panels that show the beauty of work surround you.  The Detroit Industrial Murals by Diego Rivera make labor beautiful.  The two largest murals capture scenes from a Ford Motor Company plant.

            Back in 2013 when the city of Detroit declared bankruptcy, the murals were ironic.  In the murals you had the wonder of labor but it was contrasted with labor being lost in the city and the hardships that went with it.

            You don’t need murals and a bankrupt city to show that tension.  For many work is both a beauty and a burden.  After God created Adam he put him in the Garden of Eden and asked him to take care of it.  He was to serve his Creator.  But after the fall into to sin he told Adam, “In pain you shall eat of (the ground) all the days of your life.”

            As Christians we live in the same way.  Our work, our vocation is a gift from God for service to Him and others.  But our labor can also be difficult and dangerous and painful.  It can demand perseverance and the sweat of our brow.

            In our text from Ecclesiastes God offers some encouragement in the daily labor we pursue.  On this day of rest for most . . .

“GOD GIVES JOY IN DAILY WORK”

            The words of our text are from King David.  Even as king, he struggles with work.  “All is vanity…I hated all my toil in which I toil under the sun.”  Toil is a word used in Scripture for work.  In Psalm 90 we have a reminder about the shortness of life.  “The years of our life are seventy, or even by reason of strength eighty; yet their span is but toil and trouble; they are soon gone, and we fly away.” 

            The Preacher echoes this wisdom.  He cannot control what happens to his labor.  He can’t control that it will last and he has to leave it to others.  He could build barns from the fruits of his labor but then you heard the words of Jesus in our Gospel lesson.

            The encouragement comes toward the end of our text.  “There is nothing better for a person than that he should eat and drink and find enjoyment in his toil.  This also, I saw, is from the hand of God.” 

            The Lord wants us to have satisfaction in our daily work.  We don’t do it to build a kingdom for ourselves.  We do it in service to God, our Creator, who gave us certain skills and abilities.  We do it also to serve others.

            Have you ever said, “I couldn’t do that job.”  Perhaps a surgeon.  A cell tower lineman.  An IRS agent.  A nurse’s aid.  I even hear people tell me, “I couldn’t do your job.”  The good news is you don’t have to my job or any other job you don’t see yourself in.  God has placed you where you can do your work. 

            Don’t turn that work into an idol.  True happiness is not just beyond the horizon with one more purchase.  Work was never meant for that purpose – the car, the house, the vacation.  If you see it that way then the Lord needs to change your heart.  All of this is vanity, it eventually disappears.

            Jesus tells us, “Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden and I will give you rest.”  Jesus came to bring us into God’s kingdom, and His work for us will never fail.  He bore the punishment, He did the labor and He took God’s wrath to the cross so that we would be forgiven and have heaven opened for us. 

            Saved by Christ, work is no longer our master.  It does not define us.  Work is a joyful life of service as a follower of the Savior.

            Jesus has done all the work.  He has done the heavy lifting.  His work completes your salvation.  What we do is now done for Him.  We find great joy in raising our children.  We have a smile on our face when we prepare food or do the dishes.  There is a song in our heart as we meet with clients, farm the land, teach our students, or stare at our computer on a daily basis.  In all these things you are doing it for the Lord and you are doing it for others.  No work is too small to make a difference in our world.

            As we make your way to Good Shepherd Lutheran on Sunday mornings many of us pass shopping centers and restaurants and golf courses and ball fields and maybe even a lake.  To enjoy these places takes money which means we labor for them.  But as you come up the south drive or come in from the east you see the steeple of our church.  A cross mounted on the top.  In that moment you are experiencing the tension of Christian vocation in America. 

            For many having a job, means earning money so they can shop and play and eat.  This becomes their god, which they enjoy even on a Sunday morning. 

            As Christians we live differently.  We are not fulfilling a consumerist desire.  We are given an opportunity for faithful living.  Christ has forgiven our sins and called us to faithful service in the world.  In our work we have a chance to reveal to the world just a glimpse of God’s good design.

            You are doing that by being in worship.  You are here to thank God for your work and the gifts that go with it.  Find joy in raising your family, serving your community, caring for creation.  God created you for that purpose so you can serve Him and your fellow brothers and sisters.  What joy in our daily work!

                                                                                                                        Amen.