A Job That Never Ends

Another Labor Day has passed.    Labor Day, like many of our holidays, has been made into more than what it was intended to be.  While Labor Day was created  as a day to honor American workers and how their work contributes to our quality of life,  most of us see  Labor Day as an opportunity to have a long weekend and as the “unofficial” end of summer.  

I find myself thinking about work in these days even though Labor Day is over.   I have known work up close and personal.  While many of you know my work as a pastor, there were a number of other jobs I had before I became a pastor.  They include: newspaper delivery boy… mowing yards for $1.50 a yard… stock  clerk at the A & P Food Store… mill worker at Burlington Industries… short order cook at our college grill… and working in the Stores Dept. at Duke Power Co. ….and the dream job of every college-age young man of being a night security guard for women’s college dormitories.     Then in my 20’s, I entered into this  holy, sacred work called pastoral ministry that I continue to feel called to even though I am at retirement age.    

Work has been central to life for humanity since the beginning.   In Genesis 2:15, we read these words about work:  

The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to till it and keep it

While many of us use the work “job” to talk about our work, I prefer the word “vocation” to talk about my work as a pastoral minister.   The word “vocation” comes from the latin word “vocare” which means calling.   I believe that my work as a pastoral minister is a holy and sacred calling.   As a person who now has been a pastor for 48 years, I know that I probably have fewer days in front of me as pastor than I have behind me.   How many more days, Sundays, weeks, or months will I serve as a pastor?   I do not know.   This I know:  there is a work and job that never ends and you never retired from, and that is the work of serving the Lord.

Robert Cushman was one of my professors when I was a student at Duke Divinity School.  Former dean of the Divinity School, he was in the final years of teaching when I was in Christian Theology class.   Dr. Cushman was also an ordained pastor and the son of a Methodist Bishop.   I was there when Dr. Cushman retired as a pastor.  I remember in his remarks he said this:   “Though I am retiring as a pastor and a member of the Annual Conference, I will never retire from serving the Lord.”   Whatever your work status these days, may those words be true for all who follow Christ.  Have a joy-filled week.-  Pastor Randy Wall

PRAYER    Almighty God, thank you for the high and holy calling to be your disciple.  Through the power of your Spirit and the grace of Christ, help me to do the work you have called me to do;  through Jesus Christ our Lord.   Amen.