Next week the United States will recognize the national holiday of Labor Day. For some, it will mean picnics, barbecues and beach days. For others, it will be the last weekend at summer vacation homes. For bargain hunters, it will mean sales and a good time to buy that new appliance. For some students, it will be a welcome break at the end of one of the first weeks of school, and for others, it will mark a last hurrah before school starts. Just as Memorial Day is thought of as the unofficial beginning of summer, Labor Day is often thought of as the unofficial end. We will all likely be hoping for good weather.

Two years ago, we wrote about Labor Day in an Integrity Idea—post #240 (Integrity Idea 059: Recognize “AvoDay” (Not Labor Day).  Last year, we went one step further and suggested that it is time to Re-Imagine “Labor Day”—post #292 (Re-Imagine “Labor Day”). This year, we have decided that this will be one of our few annual posts, updated to keep it interesting. Understanding the difference between man’s reality of “labor” and God’s design of “Avodah” is too important not to become a yearly reminder.

Refresher on the History of Labor Day

According to Wikipedia, Labor Day arose out of the trade union and labor movements in the 19th century.  When it became a federal holiday in 1894 for federal employees, it was already being officially celebrated in thirty states.  It is now a legal holiday in all 50 states, the District of Columbia and U.S. territories.

A 2014 article in The Atlantic titled “When Labor Day Meant Something” observed:

Labor Day began not as a national holiday but in the streets, when, on September 5, 1882, thousands of bricklayers, printers, blacksmiths, railroad men, cigar makers, and others took a day off and marched in New York City.

A 2025 New York Post editorial titled “Labor Day: A Holiday to Salute America’s Workers” explains:

Labor Day was once the most blatantly political US holiday — created by the trade-union movement to celebrate the right of working people to bargain collectively and to stage strikes to press their demands.

The Post editorial goes on to note that, “In 1954, more than one in three US workers was a union member. Now it’s just 5.9% of private-sector workers.”

In the 1800s, “labor” was the term commonly used to describe the working class, or what came to be called “blue-collar” workers in the early 20th century.  From 1894 to today, the percentage of U.S. workers engaged in industrial and manual labor has declined markedly.  Manufacturing alone accounted for 32% of nonfarm employment in 1910 and again when manufacturing employment peaked in 1953; by 2015, it accounted for less than 9%. The increase in “labor” jobs brought about by the Industrial Revolution was followed by a dramatic decline as America moved into the Information Age.

The Dilution and Commodification of “Days”

Although the evidence is anecdotal and personal, we believe Labor Day in the U.S. has become less about celebrating the contributions of “blue-collar” workers and organized labor and more about escaping work for picnics, barbecues, and vacations, marking the unofficial end of summer, the start of school years, and the start of sports seasons. That same article from The Atlantic laments:

Somewhere along the line, Labor Day lost its meaning. Today the holiday stands for little more than the end of summer and the start of school, weekend-long sales, and maybe a barbecue or parade.

While Labor Day remains a national holiday, our calendars and social media feeds have commodified the idea of “days”—almost every day of the year is now a “day” for a particular food or beverage. We have days for every type of relative—sons, daughters, mothers, fathers, grandparents.

If you want to see how crazy this has become, take a look at the National Day Calendar, which catalogs hundreds of these unofficial observances.  The day this post is coming out (September 2) is National V-J Day (a significant reminder of Japan’s formal surrender, which ended World War II) and National Blueberry Popsicle Day (one of those silly holidays, even though a blueberry popsicle sounds delicious).

September 7 this year is not only Labor Day, but it is also apparently National Beer Lover’s Day (oddly appropriate for many of the barbecues and beach days), National Grandma Moses Day, National Neither Snow Nor Rain Day (extremely fitting for the barbecues and beach days), National Salami Day, National Grateful Patient Day, National New Hampshire Day, and National Acorn Squash Day.

The “Labor Day” Problems

One problem with “Labor Day” is that it was designed to celebrate what has now become a minority of U.S. workers. Flowing from the first problem is a bigger problem—the meaning of the day has been all but lost to the average person—it is just a day off from work.  A third and even bigger problem for people who profess a Biblical faith is that the word “labor” fails miserably to celebrate the Biblical idea of “work.”

The Bible is clear about the power of words.  God created the universe by speaking, and Satan tried to tempt Jesus by twisting God’s word. The Bible tells us that words have the power to create (Genesis 1:3; Hebrews 11:3), to effect change (Mark 11:23), to give life or bring death (Proverbs 18:21), to build up or corrupt (Ephesians 4:29), to bring health (Proverbs 16:24), and to destroy (Proverbs 11:9; Matthew 12:36-37).

In prior posts, we have shown how the culture of the world is filled with words that blind us to God’s purpose for work and business.  Two examples are “retirement” and “work/life balance.”

The word “Labor” emphasizes the toil aspect of work that resulted from the Fall.  Merriam-Webster defines “Labor” as, most relevantly for our purposes:

Noun: Expenditure of physical or mental effort especially when difficult or compulsory.

Verb: To exert one’s powers of body or mind especially with painful or strenuous effort.

Work is hard.  Some work is physically strenuous, some work is mentally challenging, and some work is emotionally draining.  Given the history of Labor Day, it is not surprising that the “toil” of work was emphasized. Labor is an appropriate word for what we have called work as usual—work as experienced by most people. It is work broken by business as usual—business in the way of the world. You can read more about how and why business as usual leads to work as usual in these posts:

Post #171 – How the World’s “Way” Wrecks “Work”

Post #173 – The Toxicity of “Work as Usual”

But we believe “labor” unnecessarily focuses people on the punishment of Genesis 3:17-19 when God told Adam (as punishment for disobeying God and eating from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil):

Cursed is the ground because of you; in pain you shall eat of it all the days of your life; thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you; and you shall eat the plants of the field.  By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread, till you return to the ground.

Referring to work as “labor” can lead people to believe work itself is a curse—a necessary evil.  It reinforces the perception that, under business as usual and the kingdom of the world, work barely resembles the work God designed to bring life. That was certainly the case for “blue-collar” workers in the late 19th century.  For many, work was, and remains, a burden, rather than the blessing God intended.  When work becomes all-consuming and spiritually unfulfilling, we see it as something that keeps us from life—an oppositional force—when God designed it as an integral part of life as humans made in God’s image.

Don’t Settle for Labor Day

By suggesting that we shouldn’t settle for Labor Day, we are not suggesting changing the U.S. national holiday.  It has become part of the rhythm of life in the United States, and it remains an opportunity to remember the labor movement in the United States and for labor unions to celebrate Labor Day’s origins in that movement.

We do believe faithful leaders and others who profess a Biblical faith can use Labor Day as an opportunity to remind people of God’s original and beautiful design for work, which was intended as a blessing. It is a hopeful image of work captured by the Hebrew word “avodah.”

Avodah and related forms of the Hebrew root avad encompass work, service, and worship. The root is used for work (Genesis 2:15), worship (Exodus 8:1), and service (Joshua 24:15).  It reinforces that:

(i) God gave humans “work” as something “good” before the Fall as an aspect of Imago Dei, putting us into the Garden to “work and keep it” (Genesis 2:15);

(ii) God made the world perfectly imperfect to need our work (Genesis 2:5);

(iii) God commanded us through the Creation Mandate to work to steward and cultivate His creation (Genesis 1:28); and

(iv) we are to glorify God in all we do (1 Corinthians 10:31) because it is WHY we were created (Isaiah 43:7).

It reminds people that work is a vehicle for becoming more fully human by living out the commandments to love God and love our neighbors.

Just imagine if Labor Day became an opportunity to celebrate the work of all people and to encourage business leaders to transform work into the blessing God intended rather than the burden of “labor”—if Labor Day became the anchor of a movement to educate people about avodah, Imago Dei and the sacred nature of their work.

Here are a few ideas.

Rename Labor Day in Your Organization

This was the focus of post #240 (Integrity Idea 059: Recognize “AvoDay” (Not Labor Day)). It encouraged faithful leaders pursuing faithful integrity through business a better way toward Biblical flourishing to use the U.S. national holiday of Labor Day as an opportunity to speak life into work by referencing the work-affirming word “Avodah” rather than the work-devaluing word “Labor.”

“Recognize Avoday (Not Labor Day)” is simple because it comes down to using a different label for the national holiday that falls on the first Monday of September (you could call it “Avodah Day” but that doesn’t have the same rhythm). The biggest question for faithful leaders implementing “Recognize Avoday (Not Labor Day)” is how to explain it and how broadly to announce it—whether it is Overt, Very Overt or Highly Overt on our Covert-Overt Continuum.

For a faithful leader seeking to lead with faithful integrity through business a better way toward Biblical flourishing, renaming the holiday in your organization is a simple but potentially profound way to tell employees that their work is sacred and matters to God.  It is a way to say, “We are different.”

Use Workplace Reminders

If referring to Labor Day as “Avodah Day” seems too contrived or corny, a faithful leader can still use Labor Day to remind employees that God gave humans work before the Fall as something good and that their work is part of what it means to reflect Imago Dei and, as such, part of being fully human. A leader can also use Labor Day as an opportunity to thank workers for their contribution to the organization.

Institute a Faith/Work Sunday

As we mentioned, it seems that every day is a “national day” of something. If there are days to celebrate National Hangover Day, National Chocolate Covered Cherry Day, and National Fruitcake Toss Day (all in January), shouldn’t there be a national day to celebrate the sacred nature of work?

We have written in many posts about the failure of the Christian church broadly to teach about God’s purpose for work and business and about the sacred nature of work and business.  Sometimes this is probably because the teachers have never been taught. Other times it is because Christian teaching has largely ignored the Old Testament and the Bible’s grand narrative from creation to the coming of God’s Kingdom (what we call the Four-Part Gospel), choosing to focus on sin and salvation (sometimes called the Two-Part Gospel). We believe even a fair amount of theology espoused in the faith and work movement can contribute to faithful leaders remaining “stuck.”

Whatever the cause, based on informal surveys by a few faith and work organizations, it would seem that less than 10% of Christian workers have crossed the Sacred/Secular Gap.

Just imagine if there were a day when churches across the United States were encouraged to focus their sermons and homilies on the sacred nature of work and business, ending their services and Masses by commissioning people into their work and businesses.  What if it was the first Sunday after Labor Day (the Sunday of Labor Day weekend would probably be a poor choice given that many people are still away enjoying the last moments of summer), even though that would mean sharing the date with several other “national-something-or-other” observances that would fall on that Sunday?

Labor Day is an opportunity to speak words of blessing while the world is speaking words of burden—an opportunity to speak words of life while the world is speaking words of death. Faithful leaders should not settle for “Labor Day” when they can use it to help restore God’s original and beautiful vision for work.

PERSONAL NOTE (from PM): Although I suspect few people read presidential proclamations concerning national holidays, I did read the proclamations for Labor Day 2025 and Labor Day 2024 (at the time of writing this post, a proclamation for 2026 has not yet been published), as well as the proclamation in 1988.  There were noticeable differences in emphasis.

President Trump’s 2025 proclamation celebrated all workers and noted our God-given nature to be productive and creative like God:

This Labor Day, we honor the proud legacy of America’s workforce — and we pay tribute to the unbreakable spirit that keeps it strong nearly 250 years later. The American worker is the beating heart of our economy, the foundation of our strength, and the living embodiment of the American Dream.  In every honest citizen lives the instinct to work, build, and create — an instinct seen in the welder, the nurse, the trucker, the farmer, and the machinist.  Every job, every shift, every hour worked by millions of talented patriots today adds another stone to the foundation of our prosperity.

President Biden’s Proclamation for 2024 harkened back to the political roots of Labor Day, focusing on labor unions, the labor movement and class differences:

Every year on Labor Day, we celebrate the dignity of America’s workers and the labor unions they have built.  I often say that Wall Street did not build America — the middle class built America, and unions built the middle class.  Labor unions have done so much for our Nation — giving workers a voice at the workplace, raising standards on the job, and fighting for better benefits and wages for us all.  Today, we honor the pioneers who fought for the rights of working people, pay tribute to the dedication of our American workforce, and honor the enduring movement that powers our economy and strengthens our Nation.

And here is Ronald Reagan from 1988:

We salute working people because they have built our land with skill, energy, and resourcefulness, transforming raw materials into a shining edifice of freedom and prosperity. On Labor Day we recognize these achievements and reflect on the meaning and dignity of work and on the values it protects and strengthens — the values we as a Nation hold most dear. . . . God gave us this land, but, under His good graces, the labor of our people has helped it flourish and pour forth its plenty for ourselves and the world.

ESSENCE: People who profess a Biblical faith should not settle for accepting “Labor Day” as merely a national holiday that has lost its historic meaning and become associated with picnics, barbecues, and vacations. Instead, they can use it as an opportunity to help restore God’s original and beautiful vision for work captured by the Hebrew word “avodah.” One problem with “Labor Day” is that it was created to celebrate “blue-collar” workers, who now represent a minority of U.S. workers. Flowing from the first problem is a bigger problem: as America lost blue-collar jobs, Labor Day lost much of the constituency, identity, and shared meaning that had made it significant. To the average person, it is now less about celebrating the contributions of “blue-collar” workers and organized labor and more about escaping work and saying farewell to summer. A third and even bigger problem for people who profess a Biblical faith is that the word “labor” fails miserably to celebrate the Biblical idea of “work.” The word “labor” emphasizes the toil aspect of work that resulted from the Fall and can lead people to believe work itself is a curse.  Just imagine if Labor Day became an opportunity to celebrate the work of all people and to encourage business leaders to transform work into the blessing God intended rather than the burden of “labor.” Just imagine if Labor Day became the anchor of a movement to educate people about avodah, Imago Dei, and the sacred nature of their work. Just imagine if there were a day when churches across the United States were encouraged to focus their sermons and homilies on the sacred nature of work and business. Labor Day is an opportunity to speak words of blessing while the world is speaking words of burden—an opportunity to speak words of life while the world is speaking words of death.

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Image Credit: Original image by Paul Michalski using Gemini
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