Labor Day comes again to remind us that our worthy work has a strategic place in the human economy. Without the blended skills of our hands and the shared productivity of our minds, our society would crumble. It is well to have a day that calls attention to the vast working force within our country. Such a day is both patriotic and religious. It is patriotic because the American way of life is dependent on a healthy work ethic. It is religious because God calls forth our most faithful commitment to our daily chores. Whatever we do for the betterment of humankind is our work whether we draw a salary for it or not, and it is sacred unto God. Perhaps we need a redefinition of work that separates it from salary so that God could be more obvious in the way we earn our livelihood.

The sacredness of life is found not only in church. It is found in the world of work where we discover a thousand ways to express our servanthood. It is found in the routine of life where so many express their servanthood toward us. Here we find hundreds of folk who become our priests. They represent God to us in the way they fix our cars, repair our plumbing, educate our children, manufacture our clothes, heal our diseases, clean our carpet, collect our garbage and pave our roads. These and other strange priests give life a sense of meaning for us and this is sacred.

This sacredness of life implies that it matters how we relate to one another. It matters what we buy or sell or make or give or do. It matters how we use what we have. It matters for what we work, for what we vote and for what we live. This means that the way we work is vitally related to the way we worship. Worship is sacrilegious if we have cheated God in the way we work. The sacred and the secular join hands, however, when what we do serves humankind. God almighty Himself takes pride in the performance of a job well done. Even those who have no "job" because of retirement, sickness, layoff, a lack of experience or any number of reasons can participate in the sacredness of work by giving what they have.

Jesus reminds us that not everyone who says, "Lord, Lord," will enter the kingdom of heaven. Not everyone who makes a splashy scene on the religious waters will be admitted. It is a good and faithful servant who will be invited to enter. Therefore, let us not grow weary in well-doing, for in such an hour as we think not the Son of Man cometh.