From the Pastor

What is the worst job you have ever had? In other words, what is the lowest you have ever stooped to earn a buck? For me, it has to be the summer after high school graduation that I spent cleaning the bathrooms at a camp in the Adirondack Mountains of New York. It was humbling. It was eye opening. It was jaw dropping. It was disgusting! By the end of the summer, I recommended that all bathroom personnel be given haz-mat suits. That was a bad job! 

There are also good jobs. I need to look no further then being the pastor at Chestnut Level Presbyterian Church. This first year with all of you has been wonderful, and I am looking forward to many more with you. This is a really good job! 

 Let me ask you, if you had to choose between the worst job you ever had and no job at all, which would you choose? On this Labor Day weekend, the Bible reminds us that work is a blessing. In Genesis 1, we see a working God who makes the heavens and earth and trees, and the forests and rivers and streams, and all things living and breathing. Then God says, “I will make man in my image. As a working God, I will make working creatures, — human beings, and I will give him and her dominion over the works of my hands and over the birds of the air and the fish of the sea.” In other words, work is part of the very character of God. When we flip over to the New Testament, Jesus of Nazareth carried a lunch bucket to his job every day. He was a carpenter. His disciples rose early in the morning and dragged smelly nets through the waters to catch fish in the Sea of Galilee. One time Jesus was challenged for having healed on the Sabbath day. He responded, “My Father is working, and I am working still.” In I Corinthians 3:9, you and I are called “God’s fellow workers.”

 One of the most Godlike things you and I can do is get up and go to work in the morning. The poet, Kahlil Gibran, wrote, “And what is it to work with love? It is to weave the cloth from threads that were drawn from your own heart as if your beloved were going to wear that cloth; It is to build the house with affection as if your beloved were going to live in that house; It is to sow the seed with gentleness and to reap the harvest with joy as if your beloved were going to eat that fruit; It is to charge all things you fashion with the breath of your own spirit ... Work is love made visible ….” And so, may you love your work and may your work be love.  

 Pastor John

 Quote of the Week

 "A labor that uplifts humanity has dignity and importance and should be undertaken with painstaking excellence.”  

Martin Luther King Jr.

Martin Luther King Jr. was an American Baptistminister and activist whobecame the most visible spokesperson and leader in the civil rights movement from 1954 until his death in 1968. Born in Atlanta, King is best known for advancing civil rights through nonviolence and civil disobedience, tactics his Christian beliefs and the nonviolent activism of Mahatma Gandhi helped inspire.