Today's Daily Lesson comes from Exodus chapter 1 verses 11 and 14:
11 So they put slave masters over them to oppress them with forced labor, and they built Pithom and Rameses as store cities for Pharaoh . . . 14 They made their lives bitter with harsh labor in brick and mortar and with all kinds of work in the fields; in all their harsh labor the Egyptians worked them ruthlessly.
Today is Labor Day, a fitting day to remember that protest and organization in the cause against exploitation in the workplace has a seminal place in the Biblical story.
Today most of us are likely to celebrate Labor Day with an end of summer cookout. But in the late-19th century when the federal holiday was first established, in the North the day was filled with union parades, beer drinking, and sermons and addresses on the moral and spiritual meaning of labor and the laborer. I don't know if all the beer drinking made the sermons better or worse; but if you had been there you would likely have heard a reflection on Pharaoh and the harshness of his taskmasters towards the Israelite working/slave class.
Labor conditions have changed much for the better since the 1890s. But an honest day's wage for an honest day's work can never be taken for granted and must be guarded with vigilance from generation to generation. The conditions of what constitutes a fair and livable wage and standard of living are different in 2016 from what they were in 1896. So there are still serious questions to be asked about what is fair and what is decent.
Labor Day is intended as a reminder to us all that these are questions we all ought to consider.
And today's Lesson reminds us that these questions matter to God because the livelihood of the laborer and his or her family matters to God; and God cares enough to see that they are done right.
That's my sermon for today; sorry it came before the beer.
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