9/3/50

Scripture: II Timothy 2: 1-15

Text: II Timothy 2: 15; “Study to show thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.”

The true Christian is a worker. He is a follower of a Worker. For Jesus was a working man. He worked himself as a youth and as a young man in the carpenter shop of Joseph of Nazareth. He was familiar with the tools and skills of the craft, as his speech readily shows.

Jesus moved among all sorts of people who worked at other vocations for the common good -- among shepherds, vineyard keepers, fishermen, teachers, farmers and others. He knew from association, and from first hand experience the tug on one’s muscles of lifting heavy loads, and the demand on one’s skill and understanding placed by the need for craftsman-like output.

Jesus did a good deal to dignify the kind of labor that is performed with one’s hands. Often in the history of mankind, the man whose hammer has struck the crude handmade nails has been a slave or one not many steps outside the bonds of outright slavery. Manual labor has often been, in human history, regarded as somewhat beneath the dignity of those whose work is not so much with hands as with calculations or instruction. Indeed, a “gentleman” has often been supposed to be one who does not work with his hands. Those who have privileges have needed the strength of those who work with their hands, but have sometimes disdained their toiling fellows as men, according them few rights and no privileges.

Jesus changes that! A gentleman, in the light of Jesus’ example, is one who does an honest job to the best of his ability and who regards each of his fellow men with consideration and fairness. The seeming barriers between so-called classes of people are artificial in the light of Jesus. Jesus seems to have had no sense of class. His apostles were mostly laboring folk with callused hands, sincere hearts, and clear minds. Jesus thought so much of them that he entrusted the future of his church to their ability, enthusiasm and sincerity. But he did not confine himself to those who worked with their hands. He looked on a man referred to as “a rich young ruler” and loved him at first sight. He ate with rich folk and taught tax-gatherers. He may have been acquainted with members of the governor’s family. He never labeled anybody in the pigeon-hole sense -- saint or sinner, rich or poor, master or slave. People were souls to him, sons and daughters of God, his Father and theirs, each of whom did well or evil or some of both, and each of whom were his fellows and brethren. He made no difference in character between the man whose hands were callused and whose clothing rough and the man whose hands were smooth and who was clothed in fine raiment. He respected each person for what he or she was within themselves. In his heart they were all children of God.

This attitude is needed in American life today. It is the basic element of the democratic way of truth, justice, and respect that is the essence of what we call the American way of life, which we would like to continue to practice ourselves and to share with others. It is frankly and brutally challenged by the Marxists who teach and practice constant class struggle by every expedient of falsehood and force. It is that to which Christian folk must rally as enthusiastic volunteers with faith and passionate zeal.

The Christian worker, whether he labor with his hands or his head or both, must be able to say, from the conviction of his heart: “My labor is an honorable way of life, basic to all society. My labor is sharing with God in the process of creation.” This goes for unskilled worker, for manager, for craftsman, for professional man or woman -- for everyone of honest toil.

The Christian worker will take pride in his work, for he receives satisfaction from doing it well. He will be content with only the best standards of craftsmanship for his particular vocation. His work is not apart from his religion but is a part of it. Work, well done, is one aspect of the worship of God, offered to His glory.

Of course, even as we say this, we are acutely aware of the complex difficulties modern life presents to such a viewpoint. There are some kinds of occupation offered to people that are immoral and anti-social. In some cases men are asked to labor at tasks that are definitely harmful to society. In the early years of Christianity, Christians were required to give up such employment. And, in turn, the Christian community assumed a responsibility to these people and their families. New work, that could be a Christian vocation, was found for them. The Christian fellowship should have a like concern today.

Much more often than this extreme, however, people face the problem of trying to live by Christian principles in the intricate world of industry and commerce over with they have little if any control. One of the sinful aspects of society is that individuals so often see themselves helpless to exercise their Christian principles fully in their business life. This is true of modern labor and of management and even to a degree in the professions. And it must not be conceded as the inevitable!

Two centuries ago, industry was small. Employer and employee could know each other rather well and in a personal way. Relationships were on an individual plane. Then came what we have called the industrial revolution. Factories have grown in size until no employer, whether an individual, a corporate group of people, or even a governmental agency, could possibly know all of the employees of the factory. Men were referred to as “hands” -- impersonal, more or less soul-less “hands.” The work was increasingly narrowed, specialized. Even the functions of management have had to become specialized. This has meant that craftsmanship is hard to achieve, especially for those who simply care for a machine that turns out one piece with monotonous regularity day after day, or for those who make only one set of motions all day long, or for those who check only one detail of a complex process. And people find themselves like a cog in a great machine.

For a time those who were “hands” suffered more particularly from this cog-like existence than did others. Then came, through the past several decades, the organization of labor unions. And organized labor has reached new heights of influence. Here is a new factor for the Christian worker to consider. For labor unions are here to stay in our kind of society. They will probably grow stronger, not weaker. And the Christians within them must have the concern of all Christians that strength be used justly, fairly, in willing service not alone for self but for everyone concerned.

Within the labor movement, the union member grows from a helpless “hand” to a self-respecting person with bargaining rights. His opinions and ideas find avenues of expression valuable to himself and to management alike. The idea and the experience are good.

In the search for productivity and efficiency, industry has grown to a size that puts great power in the hands of management. The formation of unions has eventually given the employee balancing power. Yet all these forces are too impersonal. The very terms we use --- “Organized labor” - “Management” --- indicate this. “Organized labor.” What’s that? Who is that? People? Which people? “Management.” What’s that? Who? What persons? Are you sure?

And if there is to be a Christian atmosphere in industry, Christians must insist that these problems of so-called “labor” and “management” must be human relationships, recognized as involving men and women who must live together in one community.

It has often been charged that industrial management has placed profits above people. And the demand is repeatedly made that people be placed before profits in the calculations of employers. I do not agree with this expression. I think it begs the question on the main point. An industry must achieve profits or else it eventually ceases to exist as a livelihood for either employer or employee. What becomes of persons then? Profits are simply the accrual of a successful enough operation to enable employer and employee, producer and consumer, to live and if possible to live better. They must be adjusted to a fair sharing for all, but there must be profits in a successful enterprise, else the human element suffers concretely. Without human cooperation there is, of course, no profitable achievement. The more willing, concerned, enthusiastic the cooperation of all people involved, the better chance there is of a profitable enterprise.

What I want to get expressed this morning is the conviction that both people and profits must be well and fairly considered in any successful industrial venture. I have the feeling (of one who is not at all an expert) that they are so considered by responsible people of both management and labor unions in the leading industry of our city. I hope that they will continue to be considered together in the years of the future.

The man in management ought to have a Christian concern for the people of the managing group and for the men and women of the unions with whom he bargains. The man in the unions ought to have a Christian concern for all the people of his union and for the men in management with whom he deals and bargains. When a contract is achieved, agreed upon and signed, let the Christian worker and the Christian manager stand for faithfulness in executing its provisions and meeting its terms. If, through inadvertence, inexperience, or error of judgment, the contract works an unfair hardship on one party or the other, let the Christian stand for justice and mercy in revising the matter when it comes time for a new agreement. And let him bring a Christian spirit into the arbitration and bargaining procedures. Let managers remember that the union member is a person like himself. And let the union man remember that his employer is a man or several men like himself. Let each have understanding for the other as he asks understanding for himself.

What of the church in this situation? If we are honest, we are not entirely happy or tranquil over the influence of the church in this area of experience. Many churches ignore relations in industry as an area in which they have no direct interest. This is a gross error. The livelihood of people is a Christian concern! It is true that few clergymen have or can achieve the specialized knowledge that would enable them to participate in contract bargaining with benefit to anybody. But clergymen and church laymen alike should be directly interested in the people of both unions and management alike -- their achievements and failures, their hopes and disappointments, their errors and verities, their needs.

Protestantism is accused especially of being a “middle class,” even a “privileged class,” fellowship. To a humbling degree this is true. In large cities there is a tendency for Protestant churches to leave crowded areas in downtown districts for the more prosperous suburban areas. In towns and villages, even, there is a feeling on the part of some that one would have to maintain a minimum standard of dress and appearance of affluence to be seen in a church. This is a false standard. Of course one ought to appear at worship before God dressed and prepared in heart so as to feel that it is an occasion that matters. But God sees the heart within the apparel, and Christian folk ought to try to do likewise, whether the human form be clothed with furs or denim.

The other side of the picture is this: Christianity is not a compulsion, but a privilege. This truth -- and it is truth -- is especially emphasized in Protestant Christianity. If the invitation should be extended to people of all walks of life to join in Christian discipleship, so ought those who have glimpsed enough of the Lord Jesus to love him to seek active fellowship in a free voluntary church membership.

I sometimes resent the insistent comment that the Protestant churches are middle- and upper-class institutions. Despite the humbling facts advanced in evidence of this assertion, I deny it as any sweeping generalization. Once, when smarting from such a comment about the particular church I now serve as minister, I hastily jotted down the names of 20 families I knew to be members of labor unions, some of them leaders in their particular crafts, and active in the work of the church. I did not take time to go through the entire roll of members, but I could easily have found many more.

The church of Jesus Christ, in all denominations, is a fellowship for all people of Christian interest and conviction. It is a fellowship wherein people ought to make a conscientious search for God’s judgments and leading. From the search for such guidance in truth, the people of every vocation can and should carry their Christianity out into the affairs of their working days. And many of us do. More of us must. Judgment is not a far-off event at world’s end. It is a daily action of God. We must daily submit to and participate in it.

A British noble is quoted as saying that the chief obstacle between us and the building of an enduring peace is “the small scale individual.” In the face of totalitarian determination to rule the masses of the earth, no man, in management, or the professions, or in organized labor today can afford to remain a small scale individual. We must all keep God’s vast perspective before us continually.

On this annual occasion of the importance of organized labor in our nation let all of us, and especially the membership of the labor movement ask the searching questions: “Will the maturing labor movement lead people to the class-consciousness and struggle of Marxist ideology?” Or to secular materialism with an attitude of selfish grab and get? Or to Christian justice, cooperation, mercy and classlessness? Much of the answer depends on the Christianity in the hearts and actions of Christian workers themselves.

Let every one of us in every vocation “study to show ourselves approved unto God, workmen that need not be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.”

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Delivered in Wisconsin Rapids, September 3, 1950.