Isn’t This the Carpenter?

September 6, 2026 homily on Genesis 2:4b–15 and Mark 6:1–6 by Pastor Galen

^“Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary and brother of James and Joses and Judas and Simon, and are not his sisters here with us?”  – Mark 6:3a

The Work of Ordinary Life

This week I’ve been listening to an audiobook called Founding Gardeners by Andrea Wulf. The book looks at the founding of our country through a rather unusual lens: particularly, our founding presidents’ interest in gardening and farming.

Normally, when we think about our first four presidents (Washington, Adams, Jefferson, and Madison), we tend to think about Washington as a Revolutionary War hero or Jefferson as the drafter of the Declaration of Independence. We picture them walking around in formal clothes and wearing powdered wigs. 

What we don’t often hear about is how much time they spent thinking and writing about gardening and farming. They exchanged seeds and experimented with crops. They studied farming techniques from other places and kept careful records of what they planted. When they traveled, they often made time to visit local gardens. Washington spent his Sunday afternoons writing detailed instructions to his workers about how he wanted his plantation managed in his absence, including while he was serving as President of the United States. Of course, there is the painful reality that much of the agricultural work on estates like Washington’s was performed by enslaved people.

There is one story in the book about John Adams that I found humorous. While serving as a diplomat in England, before becoming the 2nd President, Adams came across a pile of manure that was being prepared for fertilizer. Here was one of the most prominent American diplomats of his day, traveling in Europe and meeting with important people, and he stopped to inspect a pile of manure! After looking it over, Adams proudly concluded that his compost back home was better. I love that someone could be involved in international diplomacy and still get excited about compost!

Listening to the book has made me think about the place of ordinary work in our lives.

Tomorrow is Labor Day, which has been a federal holiday honoring American workers since 1894. Although Labor Day is a secular holiday, it seems like a good time to pause and reflect on the role of our everyday work and tasks, particularly as they relate to our faith. After all, most of us spend a relatively small percentage of our time at church, praying, or reading the Bible. Much more of our time is spent working or studying, taking care of things at home, or serving in our community. So we might wonder what spiritual value can be found in those things, if any.

It’s worth noting that work shows up remarkably early in the Bible. In the second chapter of Genesis, God creates the first human being and places him in the garden of Eden “to till it and keep it” (Genesis 2:15). This happens while creation is still described as good, before “the fall”, when sin entered the world.

Often we associate work mainly with what happens after the fall of humanity, when cultivating the ground becomes difficult and human labor becomes exhausting (Genesis 3:17–19). Yet the Bible introduces work before any of that happens. There is something good about having a role within God’s creation. We as human beings are given something to tend and care for.

Of course, our actual experiences of work can be complicated. With Dolly Parton’s passing just a couple of weeks ago, a lot of people have been remembering her music. And given that this is Labor Day weekend, it’s hard not to think about her song, “9 to 5.” It’s such a catchy song that it can be easy to miss how much frustration with work is contained in it. Dolly sings about people putting in their hours and doing their jobs while feeling that someone else has the power and receives the benefit. The song captures an experience that a lot of working people recognize.

True, our work can give us a real sense of purpose, but many times it leaves us feeling stressed, exhausted or feeling unappreciated.  Some workplaces are unhealthy or unfair. There are people who work very hard and still don’t have enough money to make ends meet. Scripture has room for those experiences too. And then there is important work that doesn’t come with a paycheck. Caring for children or an aging relative is work. Keeping a household functioning requires work as well. The same is true of studying, volunteering, and many other things that occupy our days. Work takes up a large portion of our lives, whether we find it meaningful or not.

Isn’t This the Carpenter?

That’s one reason I find a small detail in our Gospel reading so interesting. In the Gospel of Mark, Jesus returns to his hometown of Nazareth and begins teaching in the synagogue. The people who hear him are amazed. They wonder where he got this wisdom and how these deeds of power are being done through him (Mark 6:1–2).

And then someone asks, “Is not this the carpenter?” (Mark 6:3).

Since this was Jesus’ hometown, these people knew him. Some of them had probably watched him grow up. They saw how he spent much of his time. His growing reputation as a teacher and healer surprised them because they remembered him by his trade, by the work that he did. The Greek word here is tekton, which is often translated “carpenter,” but it can refer more broadly to a craftsman or builder. 

Whatever the exact nature of Jesus’ trade, Mark gives us a picture of someone who presumably spent a good portion of his earthly life doing manual labor, which I find quite remarkable. As Christians, we believe that in Jesus, God took on flesh and entered into our world. As the Gospel of John puts it, “the Word became flesh and lived among us” (John 1:14). God entered a human life that included suffering as well as the ordinary routines that can sometimes feel mundane. In Jesus, God fully entered into the broad spectrum of human life, and that included work. For much of his life, Jesus seems to have lived quietly in Nazareth and practiced a trade. People in town knew him by the work he did. That adds another dimension to the words we hear in Hebrews: “We do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses” (Hebrews 4:15). Whatever it is that we are going through, Jesus can relate. And that includes work, to the point where he was even known by his occupation.

God in Ordinary Places

This is encouraging to me because a large portion of our own lives is spent doing ordinary things. For many people, that means going to a workplace each week. For others, the work happens at home, at school, or somewhere in the community. There are days when our work feels worthwhile and other days when we wonder whether our work made any difference at all. Jesus knows this part of human existence too.

Sometimes we have a tendency to identify certain parts of life more easily with our faith. Prayer clearly feels spiritual, and worship does too. Once the workweek begins, it may be harder to recognize how God is involved in what fills the rest of our time.

Yet Jesus being known by the people of his hometown as a carpenter suggests that God meet us even in seemingly ordinary places. Jesus spent years doing ordinary work in Nazareth. So when we walk into an office, a classroom, a kitchen, a hospital room, or wherever else our work happens, we can trust that God meets us there. Even in a garden (or beside a compost pile) God can meet us there.

The Value of Ordinary Work

There is also something about Jesus being known as a carpenter that challenges the way our culture often measures the value of work. We frequently attach importance to how much a person earns or how much recognition comes with a position. Jesus spent most of his earthly life doing work that never made him famous. We do not know about any particular project he completed as a craftsman. The Gospels do not preserve any account of the things he built. His neighbors simply remembered that he was the carpenter.

That makes me wonder how much worthwhile work happens every day without attracting much attention. A teacher helps a student understand something that had been confusing, while someone at home prepares a meal for their family. A custodian gets a room ready for the people who will use it the next morning. Here at our church, someone at the food pantry carries another box or stocks a shelf.

Most of those things will never be recorded anywhere, and often the work has to be done again soon afterward. The room gets dirty again, and people get hungry again. 

Yet these ordinary tasks are part of the way human beings care for one another. Martin Luther reflected on this through the idea of our daily bread. When we pray, “Give us this day our daily bread” (Matthew 6:11), God often answers that prayer through the work of other people. Bread reaches our table because many human hands have been involved along the way. 

Our work, then, can become one of the ways we participate in God’s care for our neighbors. For some jobs, that connection is easy to see. In other situations, we may have to look harder. One useful question might simply be: Who is helped by what I do? That question can help us see our own work through a different lens. It might also cause us to notice work that we often overlook.

The Gift of Rest

The creation story also gives us the gift of rest. After the work of creation, God rests on the seventh day and blesses it (Genesis 2:2–3). Work and rest both have a place within the rhythm God gives to human life. Faithfulness includes taking up the work that is in front of us and recognizing when it is time to stop. 

Most of us eventually discover that some work will remain unfinished. There will always be another email or another task waiting somewhere. Sabbath reminds us that the world continues to belong to God even when we stop working for a while. It gives us a regular reminder that our lives have value beyond what we are able to accomplish or produce. That may be an especially important word for us on Labor Day weekend. A holiday that honors work also gives us permission to rest from it.

The Carpenter at the Table

And all of this brings us to the Communion table. In a few moments, our communion prayer will describe “Jesus Christ, who came to be born in the home of a carpenter, a trade he learned and practiced, a laborer in our midst.” I love that image of Jesus because the one who meets us at this table also knew ordinary human work. 

Later in the prayer, we will offer God “our daily lives and our unique locations for ministry in the world.” I especially like that phrase: our unique locations. Your place of ministry may be the place where you spend most of your week. Perhaps it is somewhere you have never thought of as ministry at all. Wherever that place is, Christ is already familiar with ordinary work.

So when we come to the Communion table this morning, we bring the lives we actually live, including the work that gives us satisfaction and the work that leaves us tired. We bring whatever has filled our week, along with the things that are still waiting to be done. Christ meets us here and gives us grace for the life we will return to. 

The people of Nazareth looked at Jesus and asked, “Isn’t this the carpenter?” (Mark 6:3). Yes! This is the carpenter, the Christ who meets us here at the table. 

Amen! 

Questions for Personal Reflection:

1. What parts of your work or daily responsibilities give you a sense of purpose? What parts leave you tired or discouraged?
2. Jesus was known in Nazareth as “the carpenter.” How does it affect the way you think about Jesus to remember that he spent much of his life doing ordinary work?
3. Who is helped by the work you do, whether that work is paid, unpaid, at home, at school, or in the community?
4. Do you ever measure your worth by how much you accomplish or produce? What might Sabbath teach you about your value apart from productivity?
5. Where might God be inviting you to see your everyday surroundings as a “unique location for ministry”?