United Church of Christ Daily Devotional 9th August 2025 Saturday Message
Laboring God.
By Vicki Kemper
From ages past no one has heard, no ear has perceived, no eye has seen any God besides you, who works for those who wait for [you]. – Isaiah 64:4 (NRSV)
There’s a hymn that picks up on Isaiah’s scandalous notion of a God who works for those who hope in God or, as Paul says in 1 Corinthians, a God who prepares unimaginably good things for those who love God.
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The song offers images of the boy Jesus at his workbench, fashioning yokes that make our labor light. It concludes with the line, “Christ the worker, love alive for us, teach us how to do all work for God.”
It’s a lovely, life-giving thought: that all our work can serve the Holy. It’s something to aspire to: living so that everything we do becomes a channel of God’s love. And yet.
In these days when people starve from the severe restriction of food aid entering Gaza, in these times when affordable health care is a commodity rather than a service, I want to linger with Isaiah’s metaphor of a mighty God who works for long-suffering mortals.
A natural artist: creating beauty that delights the soul.
A holy healer: tenderly knitting together what hurt has broken apart.
A divine dietician: putting everything from lentils to lingonberries, tacos to tofu, and apples to asparagus on the menu. A fierce advocate: protecting, defending, and lifting up the left out. A community organizer: drawing people together across lines of difference. A lover of bodies: affirming and inhabiting all shapes, sizes, genders, abilities, and expressions.
A wise teacher: showing us how to live.
Prayer
Thank you for all your good work. When I’m discouraged and think my work’s in vain, remind me that you are yet on the job.
About the AuthorVicki Kemper is the Pastor of First Congregational, UCC, in Amherst, Massachusetts, and a spiritual director.
