REMEMBER WHAT WORK IT TOOK TO GET HERE

Today is the 50^th anniversary of the March on Washington, and a lot of words have been written about what it meant and what it means today.  I was 10 years old at the time, and to be honest, I don’t know how much of my memory of it is from that day, and how much of it from watching news and movies and reading books about that day.  I saw the PBS documentary “March” last night, and it brought up a lot of feelings: joy at seeing the faith of people in the midst of struggle, sadness and anger about how much still needs to be done, amazement at the organizational work (before the time of computers, cell phones and faxes) and the breadth of people who participated.

Monday is Labor Day, and I come at it with honor and anger as well.  I am honored to have known people who worked incredible hours, often at great danger, to fight for the rights of working people.  I am honored by the workers today—immigrants and non-immigrants, documented and undocumented—who pick and prepare our food, care for our pre-schoolers and seniors, repair our roofs, clean our offices and tend our gardens.  And I am angry that those very important jobs are among the lowest paid.

I am struggling with what to say in my sermon this Labor Day weekend.  In a lot of churches I’ve served in, it has been the custom to pray for all veterans on Memorial Day weekend, and at times include a hymn with a national theme.  We have done that in our current congregation.  But I don’t remember any big emphasis on lifting up the labor movement on Labor Day. Part of that is my own cowardice.  Remembering veterans usually gets approval from the congregation; talking about the labor movement and you hear “we shouldn’t be political in the church”.

And yet, whatever we say about our military is political.  Not every veteran is a hero or has made sacrifices, and most of our military adventures are not about protecting our “freedom”, but our power.  How often has the church acted like a cheerleader for the military, and how does that affect our soul?

The bible is full of calls to justice, and promises of its fulfillment. There’s more references to economics in the bible than to prayer (and a lot more than about sex, which is what we in the church get hung up on).  And there are this “great cloud of witnesses” (Hebrews 12) from 1963, from 1863 and from 2013 that are still marching, still organizing, still working to get us to the place we were meant to be.

Be justice.  Be Beauty.

Patrick