Katelyn B. Macrae
Hope United Church of Christ, Alexandria, VA
Labor Day Sunday
September 2, 2012
Deuteronomy 24:14 (New Standard Revised Version)
14 You shall not withhold the
wages of poor and needy laborers, whether other Israelites or aliens who reside
in your land in one of your towns.
2
Corinthians 8:1-4, 13-15 (New Standard Revised Version)
1 We want you to know, brothers and sisters, about the grace of God that has been granted to the churches of Macedonia; 2 for during a severe ordeal of affliction, their abundant joy and their extreme poverty have overflowed in a wealth of generosity on their part. 3 For, as I can testify, they voluntarily gave according to their means, and even beyond their means, 4 begging us earnestly for the privilege of sharing in this ministry to the saints.
1 We want you to know, brothers and sisters, about the grace of God that has been granted to the churches of Macedonia; 2 for during a severe ordeal of affliction, their abundant joy and their extreme poverty have overflowed in a wealth of generosity on their part. 3 For, as I can testify, they voluntarily gave according to their means, and even beyond their means, 4 begging us earnestly for the privilege of sharing in this ministry to the saints.
13 I do not
mean that there should be relief
for others and pressure on you, but it is a question of a fair balance between 14 your present abundance
and their need, so that their abundance
may be for your need, in order that there
may be a fair balance. 15 As it is written, "The one who had
much did not have too much, and the one who had
little did not have too little."
PRAYER: Worker God, you shaped us each uniquely, and equipped us to respond to the call you have placed on our lives. We hope that the cumulative efforts of our daily labors can transform the world and bring it more in line with how you created it to be - a place where there is enough for all; a place where peace, justice, and equality reign.
When this vision feels far off, grant us courage to seek your way.
Holy Spirit, as I prepare to preach I ask you to move in and make your presence known here. Please give me words to speak. Help our ears hears what they need to hear. Set our hearts aquiver with your presence.
May the words of my mouth, and the meditations of all of our hearts, be acceptable in your sight, O God, Our Rock and our Redeemer. Amen.
SERMON:
When I first moved to Virginia, I drove down Little River Turnpike each day and saw young men, mostly Latino, congregating outside of paint stores, McDonalds, and at certain designated spots, waiting for work.[1] They are hoping that a contractor, landscaper, or painter might choose them to work that day.
These men have to be strong and savvy and smart because they are working without insurance, guaranteed wages or safe and fair working conditions. Certainly there is no promise that they’ll be treated with respect. There is probably little legal recourse or protection if something does go wrong.
In Fairfax County, one of the most affluent counties in the United States, why do people have to stand on street corners and in McDonalds parking lots looking for work? Yes, there are complicated political answers about immigration and economics we can give to try to explain it. Or, explain it away. And this is just one example.
Labor
Day Weekend was founded over 100 years ago by Labor Unions in New York to
celebrate the value of the worker. That first year more than 20,000 people
marched down the streets of New York City with banners that proclaimed “8 Hours
Labor, 8 Hours Recreation, 8 Hours Rest.” In 1909, the American Federation of
Labor’s convention named the Sunday preceding Labor Day, “Labor Sunday” and
dedicated it to “the spiritual and educational aspects of the labor movement.”[2]
Today on this Labor Sunday, I’d like us to think about work in light of our Christian faith, as we consider how people of all ethnic backgrounds, educational attainments, and socio-economic statuses are currently unemployed, underemployed, or struggling to make ends meet.
MIT’s Living Wage Calculator[3] estimates that is costs $13.22/hr or $27,500/annually before taxes for a single adult working full time to live in the City of Alexandria, and pay for rent, food, health car, and transportation expenses. For a single adult supporting two children, the suggested living wage jumps to $29.40/hour or $61,000/year.
In Virginia the minimum wage is $7.25/hour or $15,080/year. Someone working full time at minimum wage for a whole year earns ten thousand dollars less than the estimated Living Wage!
When you look at MIT’s Calculations– most of the professions that we rely on each day, and probably many of the people working on this “weekend off” are earning below the living wage needed to live in this area. Sales, custodial, food prep, customer service, farming, fishing, forestry, transportation, childcare providers, health care assistants, office staff, and construction workers all earn less than a living wage. Only management, legal, medical professionals, architects, scientists, engineers, computer and business operations folks fall above the “red zone” on MIT’s Living Wage Calculator.
In our first scripture this morning
from Deuteronomy it says, “14 you shall not withhold the wages of poor and needy
laborers, whether other Israelites or aliens who reside in your land in one of
your towns,” (24:14). Thousands
of years before modern labor laws, our ancient sisters and brothers understood
the importance of paying workers (whether citizens or aliens), a fair wage!
I find this
incredibly significant in light of things about the Coalition of Immokalee
Workers’ Campaign for Fair Food[4]
that I shared with the Church School Children this morning.[5]
, Or, thinking about those men waiting for work on Little River Turnpike, or
the thousands of people who come to the US each year (legally and illegally)
seeking economic opportunity.
In our second
scripture, Paul is writing to the Church in
Corinth from Macedonia. He is asking the congregation in Corinth to share some
of their resources with the people in the Jerusalem church who were struggling
in poverty. In Paul’s time, Corinth was a trading center. Located on an isthmus
between Athens and Sparta, the city controlled two harbors – one leading to
Asia and the other to Italy. It was a diverse city with Romans, Greeks, and
Jews living there. Money, goods,
and people flowed in and out.
Paul is not asking the Corinthians
to give up everything for their Jerusalem friends. Instead he is seeking a
“fair balance.” Paul elaborates – “13 I do not mean that there should be relief
for others and pressure on you, but it is a question of a fair balance between 14 your present abundance
and their need, so that their abundance
may be for your need, in order that there
may be a fair balance. 15 As it is written, "The one who had
much did not have too much, and the one who had
little did not have too little."
Paul provides a
community model of sharing where people share their gifts out of their
abundance. It’s a reciprocal relationship. Paul says that the people in the
Macedonian church experienced spiritual blessings because they were able to
share with the church in Jerusalem. Paul writes that the people in Macedonia
were “overjoyed.”
Let’s imagine
what it might be like for our economy if we applied these biblical principles
of 1) paying fair wages to all laborers and 2) seeking a fair balance, today.
Yes, there
would still be rich, poor, and middle class. Yes, there would still be
foreigners working in the land. But, if we applied these biblical principals,
laborers wouldn’t be exploited in order to make enough money to eat. We would
have living wages for all. In seeking a fair balance, everyone would share his
or her gifts, with the rest of the world. Furthermore, we would all be blessed
in the sharing!
It’s kind of
like the Loaves and Fishes story. When Jesus and his disciples were gathered
with the crowds and Jesus tells the disciples to go feed everyone but they only
have so many loaves and fish. Some biblical scholars think that miracle of the
story is that as the baskets began to be passed around people took out the food
they were hoarding for themselves and began to share. At the end of the meal,
they had more food leftover in the baskets than they began with! Generosity and
sharing begets generosity and sharing.
Or, as Proverbs
says, “the world of the
generous gets larger and larger,” (Proverbs 11:24).
On this Labor
Sunday we can begin to help God’s vision of a more just economy come into
being. And it starts within each of us.
1) God created
each of us with a unique call on our lives. It’s our vocation - the place where
the worlds deep needs and our deep gladness meet.[6]
Whether this is our paid work or not – God has gifted us with something special
to share and share abundantly.
As Hope UCC
goes through our visioning process, it is also an opportunity for each of us to
think about our vocations and spiritual gifts. How can we share them with this
faith community? And in turn, how can we share them with the world?
So that’s the
first thing that we can do and it’s a big one! We’re each called to discern
God’s call on our lives. And as we discern we are also called to act.
2) The second
thing we can do is to educate ourselves, and our workplaces, about the Living
Wage.
a. Find out if your employer pays a living
wage to their workers.
b. If not, ask why? You can educate them
about the Living Wage and encourage them to develop a plan to increase wages to
become more livable.
3) Third, we
can be choosy customers!
Go to the
Coalition of Immokalee Workers website and learn about their Campaign for Fair
Food. Support business that are working with Immokalee, and let them know this
is why you are choosing to shop there.
4) Fourth, we
can advocate for an increase in the Federal Minimum wage. Currently the minimum
wage is $7.25/hour. If there is energy at Hope UCC around this, maybe we could
plan a visit to our local legislators.
5) Finally, we
can put our faith into our vote. As this next election cycle approaches, let’s
think about these biblical principals of fair wages and fair balance as we
follow the current political conventions, and when we cast our ballots in
November.
On this Labor Day Weekend, as we think about work, worth and
biblical economics, let us return to that all to familiar image of the men on
Little River Turnpike waiting, hoping, praying for work!
Friends, we already have enough people standing on the side
of the highway. We do not need to stand on the side of the highway waiting for
change, or for someone to pick us
up and do this work.
The ride is
here, the time is now, and God is calling us to work for a world where all have
enough to eat, where all are treated fairly, and where abundance for all means
scarcity for none!
So let us go out and labor for a world that looks more and
more like the kingdom of God – a place where peace, and justice, and
righteousness reign.
I pray it may it be so. Amen.
[5] The CIW are
paid $0.50 for every 32lbs bucket of tomatoes that they pick. They need to pick
enough tomatoes to equal almost an elephant each day! As part of the Children’s
Sermon, I asked for a volunteer to stand in a big plastic bucket, and some
other children helped me lift the bucket up. Then, I demonstrated that farm
workers actually carry these heavy buckets on their shoulders and dump them
into large bins or trucks. The CIW’s Campaign for Fair Food, which has involved
several church organizations and the use of boycotts, has been successful at
getting Taco Bell, Whole Foods, Trader Joe’s, and other businesses to pay the
workers $0.01 more per pound for tomatoes harvested.
[6] Frederick
Buechner’s definition of vocation from Wishful Thinking: A Theological ABC
(1973) is, “The place God calls you to is the place where your deep gladness
and the world’s deep hunger meet.”
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