The Herald October 2, 2011
From the Rector: Of Life and Labor
Sixteenth Sunday after Pentecost
On the Calendar: Wednesday, September 28
Mary Robert and I have recently volunteered for a fundraiser for Fam9:15am L’Arche (Chapel) ily Promise of Mobile, an organization that houses among a network of 12N Holy Eucharist (chapel) 4pm St Cecelia Choir churches homeless families year round. Several area restaurants hosted IHN/Family Promise continues meals over five evenings with “celebrity” volunteer servers. Our job as 6pm Rector’s Forum the celebrity servers was to help serve meals and plead, schmooze, for 7pm Adult Choir generous tips which would go to the benefit of Family Promise. The Thursday, September 29 meal was to last two hours…and after the two hours I was beat. It was 12N Al-Anon hard work, and I thought of the many restaurant servers and cooks and IHN/Family Promise continues support personnel who do this day after day, night after night for a living. One young 6:15pm Choral Evensong with Musica Sacra woman waits tables at night at the restaurant at which I volunteered, and teaches at 7pm AA Baker High School during the day. How do you do it, I asked her….I don‟t have a choice she said. Having more than one job these days is becoming more and more Friday, September 30 common, a common necessity….the disparity of wealth grows exponentially. IHN/Family Promise continues We never took a break; things were too busy, but I couldn‟t stop thinking all evenSaturday, October 1 ing of people whose labor demands so much of not just their minds but of their bodIHN/Family Promise continues ies…. the laborers of our world, who are paid disproportionately relative to the energy Sunday, October 2 they exert. A recent study has shown that the lower one‟s income, the lower one‟s life IHN/Family Promise ends expectancy. That being said, there is dignity in a so-called honest day‟s work. There is 8am Holy Eucharist something sacred in serving….there was decided community among the people I 9am Breakfast worked with…and at the end of the evening we were satisfied with what we had done. 9:20am Sunday School 10:30am Holy Eucharist In order to make ends meet our oldest son has taken on an additional part time job, Reception following which at first grieved me…but as he puts it… “it‟s what I‟m good at…and we‟ll have 4pm Blessing of the Animals enough…..so I don‟t mind it.” I think the point I want to make in this reflection is that we would do well to value Tuesday, October 4 11:30 All Saints serves @ 15 Place those among us….and those out of our sight who do the common labor of this world, 3:30pm St Michael Choir labor that puts food on our tables, labor that removes our garbage and manages our sewers, cleans our laundry and houses, constructs our houses and buildings, repairs Wednesday, October 5 8am Race Relations Committee our automobiles, works the factory lines, hauls our cargo, tends our children, patrols 9:15am L’Arche (Chapel) our streets for safety‟s sake….the list is endless….but these are the moving parts of cre12N Holy Eucharist (chapel) ation…a creation that God sees as good, and in which we all are intimately connected, 4pm St Cecelia Choir one organism….but a creation whose order requires hard work of mind and body…. 7pm Adult Choir labor that requires endurance…and labor in which dignity is affirmed by all as sacred, never taken for granted. When the chance arises, thank a laborer for their good work; and let us also work for a living wage for all. The minimum wage in this country is scandalous. Fair pay for hard work. There ought to be a law about that….a guarantee of the dignity of our lives of labor….we‟ve got the means to do it, despite the fiscal hand-wringing in Washington; we just lack the moral will. Almighty God, who has so linked our lives one with another that all we do affects, for good or ill, all other lives: So guide us in the work we do, that we may do it not for self alone, but for the common good; and, as we seek a proper return for our own labor, make us mindful of the rightful aspirations of other workers, and arouse our concern for those who are out of work; through Jesus Christ our Lord who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God for ever and ever. Amen. (BCP, p.210)