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[Silence] In the book of the Gospel of John, the ninth chapter, the fourth and fifth verses are the words of our text. I must work the works of him that sent me while it is day.

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There is a night coming when no man can work. As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world. A good day's work. I must work the works of him that sent me while it is day.

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The night cometh when no man can work. On this Labor Day Sunday, we celebrate the significance of work. It is well for us to meditate upon the place of work in our lives from a Christian point of view.

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Work is the master word of life. It is the word that opens closed doors. It is the great equalizer. It is the magic word that transforms failure into success. makes the stupid bright, the bright brilliant, and the brilliant steady. While work brings hope to

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youth, confidence to the middle-aged, and repose to the aged. Jesus said, "I must work the works of him that sent me while it is day." Night coming when no man can work. Jesus identifies himself with the workaday world. He was the son of a carpenter. He knew what it was like to work long hours. He knew what it was to accept a job and complete it. He was

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equated with our concern for job security, good working conditions, and fair pay. Work is important. We measure our strength as a nation According to the rate of the employed and the unemployed,

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skilled and unskilled laborers, we measure ourselves according to our gross national product, the total amount of goods and services. This word of our Lord comes to us in the world of work,

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in the nitty-gritty of life. We are concerned with work. We are concerned with what we have to do to make ends meet. What we have to do to keep the wolf away from our door.

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what we used to say to keep Mr. Needmore away. Need more food, more clothes, more money, and the solution to that is work. Having a job that you can do. There's an old story about a man who

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came to ask a father for his daughter and he was putting before the father his qualifications, had the father to understand that he had a BA degree, he had an MA degree, and the father said that's all very good young man, but what I really want to know is do you have a JOB? So this is most important.

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Jesus says, "I must work the works of him that sent me while it is day." This is the King James translation of this passage. J.P. Phillips' translation of it is, "We must work the works of him that sent me." As members of the community of faith, we are workers together with God.

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Jesus was a worker. He went about doing good. Every day he had a full schedule from sunup to sundown. He was constantly engaged in purposeful activity. His was not busy work. He was not just doing something to be doing

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something, but he was engaged in meaningful activity. So this is what it, what is involved in a good day's work to be engaged in meaningful activity and to do it well and to put in the allotted time.

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I remember a statement that we were taught as children in school when a task is once begun never leave it till it's done, be the labor great or small, do it well or not at all." And yet so often people ask for jobs and get them without any intention of doing a good day's work. And I soon discovered on the first public jobs that I held,

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the many ways you can fail to give a good day's work. We had to punch a time clock. You know, some would come in and just barely get in to punch the time clock, and then they would go in and change clothes and spend 15 or 20 minutes almost in there

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before really getting to the job. And then come out in checkout, you don't, you come out from the job about 15 or 20 minutes before the time is over and you go in, it takes that long to change clothes and you get there just in time to punch out. And other ways that many workers did to keep giving the good days

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work, you know, would go to the restroom and just lotter in the restroom, I call that lollygagging, you know, just in the restroom and on the lookout for the supervisor, somebody's looking out to see if he's coming in and sometimes it seems that more energy would be spent trying to keep from working than it

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would take to do the job. Just a good day's work. And it's important that every person would have something to do. It's important that every person would be engaged in meaningful activity. And some have said that this is one of the evils of our machine age that so often a person just stands and puts a nut, a bolt on a bolt, and that's all he has to do, and he sees no real meaning in that.

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But somehow we must preserve the dignity and glory of work. Every man needs to have something to do. Now here in Texas, we have our right to work law. And there are unions organized to protect the workers. While most unions don't like the right to work law,

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we do have many states where unions are stronger and seek to protect the workers by bargaining with employers to secure good working conditions and fair wages. And it's into this kind of world, though we are some 20 centuries removed from the time when these words were spoken, yet it is into this kind of world that this word which our Lord has uttered comes today, "I must work." I must work. And when we think of a worker, we think of his qualifications, his preparation.

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We ask, "What can you do? How well can you do it?" Ever so often a person says, "Well, Reverend, I'm interested in getting a job." And when I asked, "Well, what can you do?" He said, "Well, almost anything." I said, "Well, you're too well qualified." Preparation and performance go together.

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The motto of Oberlin College is "Learning and labor." These two go together. Longfellow's admonition in his "Psalm of Life" is that we should learn to labor and to wait. So Jesus says to us, "I must work the works of him that sent me." When you read this passage, "I must work the works," and what does it really mean to work the works?

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Well, this is the Christian's role to work the works. The men go up and then make their space flights. They go through a certain routine. They're to do this, they're to do that.

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And there is a control center that communicates with these men. These men are up there working. They may do this on the moon, they may do that.

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But the people down there in the center, those persons down there are working the works. One person may be performing a certain task, but the person who controls the, is responsible for the entire operation,

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is working the works. And so the Christian's influence is, it's not just something that he does, But it is something that he does that is seeking to bring an impact upon the whole of society, to work the works.

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Jesus says, "I must work the works of him that sent me." He spoke these words during a period of crisis in his life. The tide of public opinion had turned against him. The religious establishment had organized against him.

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Jesus was the number one person on their enemy list. It was as if his telephone was bugged and his conversations were recorded and reported, analyzed, criticized, and publicized in search of evidence with which to bring an indictment against him. This was his position. And in the midst of this hostile climate, there would be those who would react much differently. People who would find themselves being opposed and with people waiting to get something on them so they could report them to the law officials.

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Many people would have an attitude in which they say, "Well, I'm damned if I do and I'm damned if I don't, so I won't do anything." But here in the midst of this situation, Jesus says, "I must work. There is a compelling urge within me.

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The Spirit of the Lord God Almighty is upon me. I must work." E. Stanley Jones suggests that this was a period in Jesus' life when he was near the cross. He was standing in the shadows of Calvary, yet he said, "I must work."

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Oh, it was a time, East LA Jones says, when the Greeks came to Jesus and encouraged him to retire, to withdraw from the pressures, the conflicts, and the dangers, and to take refuge in some quiet, secluded place, to get away from it all. And in the midst of a situation like this, Jesus says, "I must work."

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Let me for a moment compare the Greek concept of work with the Christian concept of work. You know, most of us really have what I, what is really a Greek concept of work, because the Greek concept of work is represented in what you call the white collar. We have, you know, the white collar jobs and the blue collar jobs, but the white collar job was represented by the Greek philosopher who would be engaged in philosophical dialogue in the marketplace and he kept himself clean and removed from the ordinary chores. The dirty work was to be done by the slaves. And the person who was really educated was the person who could be free to engage in what we call today the white collar jobs.

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But the Christian concept of work does not make this kind of difference. The Christian idea of work glorifies every task, dignifies it, and every task that contributes to the ongoing of humanity, whatever a man does, and if he does it well, he is to do it to the glory of God. what Martin Luther calls the sacredness of all callings. So if a man digs a ditch and he digs it well, then that

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that ditch needs to be dug. He is doing a work which is important and which contributes to the well-being of humanity. And so when Jesus says, "I must work," he's not talking about a Greek concept of work where some people ought to do certain things and they ever do a

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Main work while others ought to be free just to talk He's not talking about a kind of concept where people say well I'm working toward an early retirement. I want to work right now and do my work in just a few years 20 years

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then I can just take it easy so I can retire. Jesus is talking about the, an attitude toward life, an attitude toward work, where one is engaged in meaningful activity all of his days, and he says I must work. He utters these words in response to the open hostility of the religious leaders, they think that, well, there's certain work that just must be done on certain days.

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Six days they were free to do certain things but on the Sabbath day no matter what it was they had come to believe that only certain things were to be done primarily that of worship and other things could be done but they had to be very limited. But here is a man that is blind. Blind, the scripture says, from his mother's womb. It's the only story in the Gospels here where a man in the Gospels, where Jesus comes face to face with a man born blind in this condition.

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And here it is, the Sabbath day. And the scribes and Pharisees and Sadducees are gathered there to see what Jesus will do. Whether or not he will heal the man, whether he will be obedient to their thinking of doing no healing on the Sabbath, or whether he will heal this man. But there is a word of hope and comfort and strength that comes in the midst of all of their hostility. still a day, Jesus says, "I must work." There is a divine imperative here. I can't rest. I can't be content seeing conditions that need to be changed. I can't be content seeing a challenge that needs to be met. I must work.

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I know that my efforts will be misunderstood, but I must work. I know that if I heal this man, it will be used as evidence against me, but I must work. I know that I don't have a union card sanctioned by the Sanhedrin court that gives me permission, according to their laws, to heal on Sunday, but nevertheless, I must work. I know that the cross is not very far away.

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I know that I'll be falsely accused, but I can't let that stop me. I must work. I know that I will be unjustly condemned, but nevertheless I must work. I know that I will be bruised and beaten, but I must work.

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I know that the agony of humiliation will be mine, but I must work. That I will be called to suffer the pain of the cross, but in the midst of all of this, my response is, I must work. If you have that kind of divine compulsion, that urge to give your best efforts to somehow be engaged in purposeful activity no matter what happens,

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then this is the kind of Christian imperative that Jesus calls upon his disciples to have in giving a good day's work. And you know, you can do your work, but you know you aren't going to do your work without having some difficulties. You're going to have some difficulties, you're going to be misunderstood, and there's some dangers many times involved, but in the midst of it all, you can bear with these conditions if you really have a why, if you really know why you're working.

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If you really have a purpose in mind, if you really have a goal in view, then somehow the goal will give impetus to your, and motivation to what you are to do in the face of all of the difficulties that you face. One philosopher says, "If you really have a why, you can bear with any how." However dark and difficult may be that day, if you really have a why, you can do your work. But Jesus says, "I must work, for night comes when no man can work."

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The close of the day. There's a Christian imperative here to work the time when the books are closed the sun goes down to do your work before it's too late. Nighttime means a time when you can't work anymore. Somehow God has a plan for every person's life that

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involves engagement in some meaningful activity. Paul Lawrence Dunbar calls our attention to this fact in one of his poems when he says, "The Lord had a job for me, but I had so much to do I said you get somebody else I'll wait till I get through. I don't know how the Lord came out, no doubt he got alone, but I

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felt kind of sneaking like I knew I'd done God wrong. One day I needed the Lord, needed him right away, but he never answered me at all. And I could hear him say down in my accusing heart, "Child, I've got so much to do. You get somebody else, or wait till I get through." Now when the Lord has a job for me, I never try to

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shrink. I drop what I have on hand and do the Lord's good work. And my affairs can run along or wait till I get through, for nobody else can do the work that God has marked out for you. So it's not only important that Jesus is saying work, but But he's saying work right now.

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In other words, while you have this chance, while the opportunity is yours in the here and now, while the blood runs warm in your veins, to work now. This is the chance that I must work.

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And not just to work while you're young, while it seems that you have the strength that you'd like to have, the vigor. But this is something this here and now comes to us at every stage in life.

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You know, so often people in our culture think that after you get 65 that you're not expected to do anything. And we sort of bury them alive. But isn't that what Jesus is, what the scripture really teaches, that somehow this urgency to work is something, to engage in meaningful activity, is something that should follow us all the days of our lives. Oliver Wendell Holmes said, "At 62 life begins. At 73 it begins once more. At 95

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shouldst thou arrive, still wait on God and work and thrive." Keep on working until night come because the night will come when no man can work. W.E.B. Du Bois came to the night time in his life at 95 and when he died at 95 he left this word in the form of a letter which was to be given with at the time of his death and this is

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what it said. It's so much more difficult in theory than actually to say the last goodbye to one's loved ones and friends and to all the familiar things of life. I'm going to take a long deep and endless sleep. This is not a punishment but a privilege to which I have looked forward for years. I have loved my work. I

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I have loved people and my play, but always I have been uplifted by the thought that what I have done will live long and justify my life. That what I have done, ill or never finished, can never be handed on to others for endless days to be finished, perhaps better than I could have done. And that peace will be my applause. One thing alone I charge you, that as you live, believe in life, always human beings

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will live and progress to greater, broader, and fuller life. The only possible death is to lose belief in this truth simply because the great end comes slowly because time is long." And then he said, "Goodbye."

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a night time. It came to him at 95. It comes at different stages all along the way. Sometimes it may be a night time of sickness when you can't work anymore like you have worked. But there is always the certain night of death where one can not work anymore. Night surely comes just as sure as the day that comes the night.

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But there is the urgency of the child of God, and the urgency of the people of faith, that I must work right up to the end. I must work right now. That I must work while it's day, because I know that night's coming. I know, I know, I know that the time will come when I must close Him book and fire. I know that the time must come when I must fall at thy feet and place my sword in the stands of time.

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I know that it will surely come. I know that the night will come when I must wrap the great ring of my couch about me and lie down to pleasant dreams. But he says I must work because I'm not just doing my work, but I'm doing God's work. And above all, be sure that somehow what you do is related to God. Because you see along the way, we have to check out night time.

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Sometimes it comes at 33, sometimes at 43, 63 or 95, night time comes. But somehow, the psalmist looks at life and he recognizes how brief it is, and he says that the eternal God is our dwelling place. He's been our dwelling place in all generations, morning, noon, and night.

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God is our dwelling place, and he looks at it, you know, and he learns somehow there is the work, and the work goes on. And he said, he cries out, he said, "Oh God, the works of our heads established thou in us." Because what really matters is that if you work with God, it's going to be established.

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The work here, it may be left unfinished as far as man is concerned, but God has another work that carries on that work. And somehow to be related in the now to the eternal. And the eternal enables us to say, I must work. Oh, Jesus is our example here.

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And in the face of the cross, he says I must work. In the face of all of the difficulties, he says I must work. And the testimony of history is in this case. [indistinct talking]

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[inaudible] [inaudible] And he goes on to say that as long as you have faith, you have light. You have the light that will enable you to go through the darkest night,

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is the light that is within you. So it means to never step out of the way, even to a good day's work, if you will, it means that you have to have a kind of relevance,

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[inaudible] ♪ He's coming to set it out ♪ ♪ He'll make every day ♪ ♪ He'll make every step ♪

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♪ Out of the way of the wind ♪ ♪ Though the pathway to glory ♪ ♪ Is of my treachery ♪ ♪ To me, the way ♪

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♪ Is better ♪ ♪ Of the way ♪ [choir singing] [MUSIC]

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♪ Through the deserts of the north ♪ ♪ In the air there is joy ♪ ♪ With the sounds of the north ♪ ♪ In heaven, in heaven, and in the earth ♪

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[Music] [Music] ♪ To turn his heart ♪ ♪ He did ♪

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♪ He prays ♪ ♪ To turn his heart ♪ ♪ He prays ♪ ♪ Every day ♪

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♪ In the air ♪ ♪ Every step of your way ♪ ♪ Is a new way ♪ ♪ Oh, how great ♪

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♪ To know him ♪ ♪ Gave some time ♪ [Chanting] [ Silence ]