Labor Day 2016
9/9/2026
Hebrews 6:10: “God is not unjust; he will not forget your work and the love you have shown him as you have helped his people and continue to help them.”
Tomorrow is Labor Day, a holiday set aside to recognize the social and economic contributions of working people. First celebrated in 1882 and made a federal holiday in 1894, it grew out of a time when workers sought safer conditions, fairer treatment, and reasonable hours. For many, it is also the unofficial end of summer—a day for family, food, recreation, travel, and rest.
But Labor Day is more than a day off. It is an opportunity to notice something we easily take for granted: almost everything that blesses our lives has come to us through the work of someone else.
Before we arrived here today, someone prepared the roads on which we traveled. Someone made the vehicles we drove. Someone extracted the fuel, generated the electricity, maintained the water system, stocked the stores, grew our food, transported it, and placed it where we could find it. Someone built this church, cleaned it, repaired it, and prepared it so that we could gather in worship.
Many people work while the rest of us sleep: health-care workers, emergency personnel, caregivers, utility crews, farmers, drivers, store employees, and many others who serve through weekends and holidays.
Labor Day gives us a reason to say something we should say much more often: thank you.
The Scripture from Hebrews tells us something even more important. God does not forget “your work and the love” you have shown as you have helped His people. Notice that the verse joins two things together: work and love. In God’s sight, our labor is not only about producing, earning, achieving, or keeping busy. Labor can become an expression of love.
We call something “a labor of love” when it requires time, patience, skill, and sacrifice. It may mean caring for a garden, preparing a meal, restoring a home, organizing an event, or helping someone through a difficult time.
A labor of love may not bring financial reward. In fact, it may cost us something. But it brings another kind of reward: the knowledge that we have helped, encouraged, lifted, or blessed another person.
I would suggest today that love itself is our greatest labor. Love is not merely a pleasant feeling. Love works. Love shows up. Love listens. Love forgives. Love prepares, repairs, cleans, calls, gives, waits, teaches, carries, and serves.
The apostle Paul wrote in Galatians 5:13, “Serve one another humbly in love.” That simple instruction touches every part of life. A teacher serves children. A nurse serves the sick. A mechanic serves the driver who needs a safe vehicle. A farmer serves people who may never know his or her name. A parent serves a child, often without rest or recognition. A friend serves another friend by listening, encouraging, praying, or simply being present.
Labor does not always come with a paycheck. It may be caring for family, maintaining a home, volunteering, offering rides, making meals, visiting the lonely, or helping someone manage daily life. Retirees often discover new forms of useful service, while others may be seeking work, facing illness, carrying grief, or living with limitations. Their effort matters, and their worth does not depend on a title, position, or economic status.
Our value in God’s eyes is never based on income, occupation, achievement, or the number of things we accomplish in a day. We are first and always children of God.
Work has dignity. In Genesis, God placed humanity in the garden “to work it and take care of it.” The calling to tend, create, care, build, and serve remains part of our human purpose. We reflect God’s active love when we use our hands, minds, gifts, and time to bring healing, beauty, usefulness, and order into the world.
That does not mean every task feels inspiring. Some work is tiring, repetitive, frustrating, or difficult because of people, pressures, and burdens. But Colossians 3:23 gives us another perspective: “Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters.”
This does not mean we must exhaust ourselves or pretend every workplace is perfect. It means that our inner purpose can transform ordinary tasks. Whether we clean a floor, answer a phone, care for a patient, prepare a lesson, or lead an organization, no honest service is beneath us when it is offered to God.
God does not measure importance the way the world often does. We tend to honor the people in the spotlight: the athlete, the actor, the executive, the elected official, the person on the stage, or the one receiving public recognition. Yet none of those people arrived at their moment alone.
Behind every visible success are unseen people: parents who sacrificed, teachers who encouraged, friends who believed, workers who prepared, assistants who organized, technicians who repaired, and co-workers who carried part of the load.
Each of us has been lifted by someone else, a parent, teacher, friend, co-worker, or person who offered an opportunity, patience, prayer, or encouragement. Their love and labor became part of our story.
Labor Day asks us not only to give thanks for those who were the wind beneath our wings, but also to ask: Whose wings can I help lift? A call, a meal, a ride, an encouraging word, a helping hand, or simply our presence may become God’s answer to someone’s need.
Perhaps a family member needs a phone call. A neighbor may need help with a small repair, a ride, or a meal. Someone at church may need to know they have not been forgotten. A young person may need someone to believe in them. Someone carrying grief, illness, fear, or loneliness may need the simple gift of our presence.
We do not have to solve every problem. But we can do something. We can become, in some small but meaningful way, an instrument of God’s love.
Ephesians 4:28 tells us to do something useful with our own hands “that they may have something to share with those in need.” That is a beautiful purpose for labor. We work not only to meet our own needs, but so that we may have something to share, such as our resources, skills, time, strength, experience, and compassion.
To honor labor, we must honor workers. Treat the person serving you with patience and courtesy. Do not look down on work that is physical, routine, difficult, or unseen. We have different roles, but no title or occupation determines human worth. Every person is made in God’s image and deserves dignity, respect, and love.
Labor Day also reminds us that rest is sacred. We honor work best when we understand that we are not machines. We cannot continually give without being renewed.
God rested on the seventh day, not because God was weak, but because rest belongs in the pattern of a healthy and holy life. Jesus invites us in Matthew 11:28: “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.”
Rest is not laziness. Rest is trust. When we rest, we remember that the world does not depend entirely on us. God is still God when we set aside our tasks. God is still providing, healing, guiding, and loving.
So tomorrow, enjoy your Labor Day. Rest if you are able. Spend time with people you love. Give thanks for your home, food, opportunities, and the strength God has given you. Say a prayer for those who will be working while others rest. Offer a word of thanks to someone whose service blesses your life.
And remember this: our labor finds its greatest meaning when it becomes love in action.
It is my prayer that we will work with integrity and receive the work of others with gratitude. May we see dignity in every person and every honest task. May we use our gifts to serve rather than merely to advance ourselves. And I pray that we become the hands, the feet, the encouragement, and the wind beneath the wings of those God places in our path.
For God is not unjust. He will not forget our work and the love we have shown as we have helped His people and continue to help all of God’s children.
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