Starting, Ending, Remembering, and Continuing

8/29/2022 - by: Fran A. Bogle - Starting With Scripture

Rev. Fran Bogle, D. MIN coordinates the Just Peace Players Liturgical Drama Troupe, is a community chaplain, and a member of Edwards Church, UCC in Framingham, MA.

Scripture: Micah 6:8 (NRSV)

He has told you, O mortal, what is good;
and what does the Lord require of you
but to do justice, and to love kindness,
and to walk humbly with your God?

Reflection: Starting, Ending, Remembering, and Continuing

The Labor Day weekend was a paradoxical time of endings and beginnings when I was growing up…a last trip to the beach, the last picnic with friends at the park, and the last weekend to sleep late before school started! Then school was starting, church was re-energizing after a slower summer, and there were new places to go and friends to meet. So much going on!!! It was exhausting and invigorating.

In the midst of the doing, I never really knew the reason we were celebrating. Finally in college I found out that we were remembering. It was the workers, women and men, who advocated for decades for justice so that they could have reasonable working hours (10 instead of 16 hour days), higher wages, and safer working conditions. They were calling out for justice.

They organized unions, negotiated with factory owners, and welcomed immigrants into the workforce. They wanted everyone be be equal. Through their actions over many years conditions at their workplaces began to get safer. Wages increased and lives changed for the better.

The moral arc of the universe bent a little more.

Labor Day was created to honor these women and men! It was holiday of hope! A holiday of rest. A holiday to celebrate that when workers stood together for justice, acted with kindness, honesty and clarity, and walked humbly with God while protesting loudly, all things were possible.

Change happened, and yet today these same unions are being threatened by big companies. Workers are being told not to organize. Think of that the next time you buy a cup of coffee. That’s true here and across the world.

We must keep working for workers justice. We must work for justice so that women can have the healthcare they choose. We must work so that immigrants and migrants can have safe and welcoming homes. We must work for justice so that LGBTQQIAA+ and same gender loving people can have our rights protected. We must work for justice for all of creation! Climate change is real. So much to do…and if we unite and walk humbly with God, like those early workers, we can change the world.

PRAYER

Holy Hope Holder, fill us with courage and strength as we work for justice every day. Amen

New Prayer Requests:

We ask churches and church leaders to join us in the following prayers either by sharing them during worship, printing them in bulletins, or sharing them in some other way. To make a prayer request, please contact Marlene Gasdia-Cochrane at cochranem@sneucc.org.

Prayers of Intercession:

For the people of Ukraine whose lives continue to be shattered by war
For those grieving or suffering due to the over 28,400 gun violence deaths in the US this year
For the laborers who are overworked and underpaid

Prayers of Joy and Thanksgiving:

For the laborers who continue to show up
For the many who are working for justice for all

This Week in History:

August 30, 1967 (55 years ago): Thurgood Marshall becomes the first African American to be confirmed as a Supreme Court justice. He spent 24 years on the court, leaving a legacy of upholding the rights of the individual — particularly minorities — as guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution. [History]

“Study the past if you would define the future.”
— Confucius

Fran A. Bogle

Rev. Dr. Fran Bogle is a founding member of the Just Peace Players.

August 29, 2022