This week the United States recognized the national holiday of Labor Day. It was a beautiful day in Connecticut. In fact, it was a beautiful three-day weekend.  For some, it meant picnics, barbecues and beach days. For others, it was the last weekend at summer vacation homes. For some students, it was a welcome break at the end of one of the first weeks of school, and for others, it is was the last hurrah before school starts.

About this time last year, we wrote about Labor Day in post #240 (Integrity Idea 059: Recognize “AvoDay” (Not Labor Day).  This year, we want to go one step further and suggest that it is time to Re-Imagine “Labor Day”.

Refresher on 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 article 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 article 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 (perhaps from somewhere between 60+% to 80+% to approximately 12-15% today, excluding retail and hospitality).  The increase in “labor” jobs brought about by the industrial revolution was met be a significant decrease with the information revolution.

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 the labor movement workers 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 tracks all these days.  The day this post is coming out (September 3) is U.S. Bowling League Day and National Welsh Rarebit Day.  September 1 this year is not only Labor Day, but it is also apparently National Forgiveness Day, National Hotel Employee Day, National Pastor’s Spouses Day, National Burnt Ends Day, National Acne Positivity Day, National No Rhyme (nor Reason) Day, and National Chicken Boy 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.  For example, the concepts of “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.

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 Knowledge):

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 serves to reinforce the fact that, under business as usual and the kingdom of 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.  Work was, and remains, a burden, rather than the blessing God intended.  Because work has become 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.

Re-Imagining “Labor Day”

By suggesting that we “Re-Imagine 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 its origins in the that movement.

We do believe faithful leaders and others of a Biblical faith can take steps to address the three problems we identified by pointing people to the sacredness and Biblical purpose of their work: its historical focus on a shrinking proportion of Americans, its loss of meaning to most Americans, and its unfortunate use of the word “labor”.

Just imagine if Labor Day became an opportunity to celebrate the work of all people and an opportunity 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 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”.

Workplace Reminders

If referring to Labor Day as “Avodah Day” seems too contrived or corny, a faithful leader can still use the opportunity of Labor Day to remind employees of the nature of work in Genesis as something good that is part of reflecting Imago Dei and, as such, part of being fully human. A leader can use Labor Day as an opportunity to thank workers for their contribution to the organization.

Institute 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 less than 10% of Christian workers have crossed he Sacred/Secular Gap.

Just imagine if there was 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 be sharing the day with National Grandparents Day and probably several other “national something or the other” days that would fall on that Sunday?

In the spirit of a quote often attributed to Winston Churchill (apparently erroneously), we believe Re-Imagine Labor Day is an opportunity.

A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty.

PERSONAL NOTE (from PM): I must give credit to Paul Gojkovich II for the idea of a National Faith/Work Sunday.  The idea came up when we worked together on Scripture@Work, thinking about ways to help people understand how the Bible is relevant to their work.

Although I suspect few people read Presidential Proclamations of National holidays, I did go read the proclamations for Labor Day 2025 and Labor Day 2024.  There was a noticeable difference in emphasis.

The Presidential Proclamation for 2025 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: It is time for people who profess a Biblical faith to Re-Imagine Labor Day. One problem with “Labor Day” is that it was created 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 less about celebrating the contributions of “blue collar” workers and the labor movement workers, and more about escaping work for picnics, barbecues, and vacations. 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 an opportunity 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 Imago Dei and the sacred nature of their work. Just imagine if there was a day when churches across the United States were encouraged to focus their sermons and homilies on the sacred nature of work and business. Re-Imagine Labor Day is an opportunity.

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