A Living Wage Series

I expect the issue of minimum wage will come up in Congress again this year. There are good arguments on both sides - Those who are in favor of raising it will argue, rightly, that you can’t support a family on a minimum wage job, and that people who “work hard and play by the rules” should be able to make it. Those who aren’t in favor of raising will argue, rightly, that by far the most people who are working for minimum wage are either in entry-level positions and can be expected to move up to higher wages fairly soon, or they are students who aren’t yet trying to raise a family.

Well, the arguments are too big to get into here, and I’m not an economist anyway, but I was really struck by the words: “Dead-end job” and “living wage.” There’s such a connection, isn’t there, between work and life? A dead-end job isn’t just one that doesn’t pay enough to pay the rent and buy the groceries, it’s also one that doesn’t go anywhere. It’s a job that doesn’t give satisfaction, a sense of purpose and worth. And that’s a serious thing, because God made us to work, and to enjoy our work, and to get satisfaction from our work. Even before the fall, Adam and Eve were assigned the job of taking care of creation. The reformers, Martin Luther and Calvin and all that crowd, rediscovered the spiritual value of work, and taught that God honored all honest labor. And he does - even the boring, repetitive tasks that characterize minimum wage jobs, and even the boring and frustrating parts of high-powered careers, and especially the no-wage jobs that go into making a home.

But there’s still a big difference between a dead-end job and a job that leads somewhere. A living wage is more than the paycheck; it’s all the rest of the things that you come home with, like being valued, feeling that you’ve made a contribution, feeling that you’ve stretched and grown. From a teacher sparking a sense of discovery in a student, an accountant getting the books to balance on the first run-through, a sales rep landing a big account, feeding your family on tomatoes you’ve grown yourself - whatever gives you a sense of accomplishment is an important part of being a whole person. God made us that way, and work that fulfills is a really major blessing and gift.

There’s a similar difference between dead-end religion and living faith.

A dead-end job may put the meals on the table and keep the bank from taking your house back, but it doesn’t fulfill. Dead-end religion may keep you on the straight and narrow and it may keep the wolf from the door; God gave us the rules for a reason. A society that keeps the commandments is a much nicer place to live than one that doesn’t. But it doesn’t get you anywhere beyond temporary security. It doesn’t open up a door into a place full of meaning, and enjoyment, and satisfaction, and growth. It does not, in fact, lead you to God.

Working hard and playing by the rules is good - but it isn’t enough. Good works are good - but they don’t get you to God. You can earn a roof over your head and new shoes for the kids, you can earn the respect of your neighbors and a peaceful life, you can even earn fame and wealth and power. But you can’t earn your way to God. No matter what you do.

That’s what Paul means in this part of his letter to the Romans. “If Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about, but not before God... Now to one who works, wages are not reckoned as a gift but as something due.” Abraham had a lot he could have boasted about; after all, he was a wealthy man, with flocks and herds and servants so numerous that he and his nephew Lot had to split up because the country wasn’t big enough for both of them. But none of the things that raised his standing with his neighbors cut any ice where his relationship with God was concerned. And the wages Abraham had received from his works, that is his prosperity and so on, were at least in some sense something he had earned. But Abraham’s relationship with God, his place in the history of Israel as the Father of God’s covenant people, that was a gift. And it came because Abraham trusted God, not because Abraham did good things.

You see, God gave us the law as a gift, to keep us from destroying ourselves by accident. When we work hard and follow the rules we have already received the benefit of the law. Because the law keeps us safe, like a fence; it keeps us from falling off the cliff. But the law doesn’t point us the way to the top. It keeps us from killing ourselves, but it doesn’t give us life.