If I were listening to me saying what I’m about to say to you this morning, I would be really annoyed. Because you’re going to hear me tell you something that sounds so obvious and so unhelpful that you will wonder if I’m living in the same world you do. (Some of you wonder that already.) But you know, this is my role here – to study the scriptures and pray and then bring you a word that you were not expecting to hear or maybe that you were expecting to hear but need to hear in a deeper way. So, like I say, I’d be annoyed if I was being told this by my preacher, but I’m just doing my job.
So here’s what I have to say – and this is right out of Paul’s second letter to the Thessalonian church – if you don’t want to work, you shouldn’t eat. I know. That’s a really simple message. Lots of times we read a passage of scripture and we scratch our heads and wonder what it could mean or how it could be interpreted. But this one is pretty clear. If you don’t want to work, you shouldn’t eat. It’s very practical. Very straightforward. Not much getting around what Paul wanted to say here. He’s got a problem with lazy folks and he’s telling them, “Hey, buck up and pull your fair share of the load.” Which doesn’t sound very theological but it does sound right. All of us who have been in organizations or workplaces know how much better things go if everyone pulls their weight.
“But wait a second, Alex,” you might be saying to yourself. “Hold it right there. I see where you’re going and if you are going to try and relate this passage to our day and time and tell me that I’m not working and not pulling my weight, well, that’s…annoying.”
To which I say, “See, I told you.”
“But hold on, Alex. This just doesn’t look my life. Especially at this time of the year! Do you know what it’s like? I’m so busy I’d have to postpone a mild heart attack. I’ve got 3 papers, a book report presentation and a Spanish vocab test for Mr. Pereira standing between me and Christmas. I’ve got music lessons. I’ve got basketball practice. I’ve got to take the kids to basketball practice. They’re downsizing at work and I’m now doing three people’s jobs. I’m pulling multiple shifts at the hospital and I haven’t had a day off in a week and a half. My dad’s in physical therapy and may need a home health nurse. My folks are coming for Thanksgiving. I said I’d host the Christmas party for work and I’m not ready. The car needs to go in the shop. There are 16 special programs at school and Christmas play rehearsals at church. I said I’d make a cake for the UMW program and I haven’t even been to the grocery store for ingredients. I haven’t picked up the newspaper in three weeks just because there is no time. Bills need paying. The house needs cleaning. Cats living with dogs. It’s crazy here and you’re preaching about how we need to work? Forgive me if I laugh.”
So, O.K., I get it. You’re busy. But here’s a thought: What if being busy is not the same as working? What if what Paul means by working is something a little more life-giving, a little more holy, a little less annoying than busy-ness?
Because truth be told, I think we’re all looking for something a little more life-giving and a little more holy than we find in the midst of our busy-ness. We say to ourselves, “Look how much I’m doing. I must be fulfilled.” Corrie is a single mother with two kids. She puts it this way in a recent blog post: “You would think the kids and work and working toward my 2nd Masters and taking care of a home would keep me busy enough that I would never be bored. That is so not true….[My parents are moving in for awhile.] I'm sure in a few more weeks things will settle into a nice flow and it won't be so bad. In the mean time, anyone have a spare room for [me] to stay in because between the folks and the teenage girls I'm going crazy!!! Did you know that crazy feels bored too?”[i]
So just what was Paul telling the Thessalonians? We know what he says. In the passage we read this morning he tells the Christians there at Thessalonica to “keep away from believers who are living in idleness and not according to the tradition that they received from us.” Those are connected. The ones Paul is warning them about are idle because they are not living according to the traditions or teachings that they received from Paul.
This is where God gets into this teaching. Because you see the reason that there are lazy Thessalonians is because there has been some bad teaching in the community. Paul, who had started the church there, had been telling the new Christians to be prepared because Christ was going to return and no one knew when that would be but they should live as if it were imminent. Jesus had left them with this expectation. We still live with this expectation.
But some believers in Thessalonica had begun to teach that Jesus had already returned. In chapter 2 of this book he says to them, “As to the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our being gathered together to him, we beg you, brothers and sisters, not to be quickly shaken in mind or alarmed…to the effect that the day of the Lord is already here.” [2 Th. 2:1-2] There were some people saying, “Hey, maybe we are already living in the new age. And if this is the new age, then why do we keep up with old patterns and habits? Why do we need to obey the old rules? Why can’t we just have a good time? Why do we need to work?” These folks were idle for theological reasons. This is why Paul says that they needed to deal with those people “who are living in idleness” and not according to his teachings.
There’s something more to this, too. The word that is translated as “idleness” here has another meaning. It does mean idleness and that’s definitely what Paul means because he goes on to talk about how these folks should follow his example in working to earn his own income. But the literal phrase here is that these were people “walking in disorder.” It’s a military term. When you get a group of soldiers marching you want them to be in step and moving in the same direction. Rachel and I were doing this the other night – marching around the parsonage kitchen to the music from “Bridge on the River Kwai.” But if soldiers break rank – if they walk in disorder – it makes it impossible for the army to move forward with efficiency. The army can’t do what it’s supposed to do or be what it’s supposed to be if there are soldiers who walk in disorder.
This is the problem with idleness. It’s not just laziness; it’s a disorder for the whole community. In the early Christian communities this was a particular problem. These were folks who were sharing their lives at a deep level. The book of Acts tells us about Christians who sold their possessions and held everything in common. They devoted themselves to communal living, communal prayer, and communal meals. They did take care of those who were in need…the vulnerable in their community…but they also depended on the members being transformed by their experience with Jesus Christ so that they would give all that they had, including their work, to God.
Here’s the important thing, though: Even the idea of work was transformed by Jesus. Work now is the way that we invest ourselves in the world until Christ comes again. Work is our way of participating in God’s continuing work of creation. As children of God, made in God’s image, we are given the capacity to join God’s work, reflecting the Creator’s glory in what we do in the world.
Why do we do this? We could say, couldn’t we, “What’s the point? If Jesus is coming again, if the ultimate destiny of this age is to pass away, then why should I put my labor into it? Isn’t that kind of like rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic?”
To think like this is to deny what the incarnation was all about. The Word became flesh and dwelt among us. Christ was born of Mary. We have seen the living God who “emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, being born in human likeness.” [Philippians 2:7] As the Scottish sage George MacLeod was fond of saying, “Matter matters to God.” So what we do with the stuff of the world and the stuff of our lives matters to God.
What is that we have to do except to present ourselves and this world as “a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God”? [Rom. 12:1] What is that we have to do except to glorify God by adding to the beauty of the universe, the beauty that we glimpsed on that cross and in that empty tomb? According to Ephesians, we “must grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ” [Eph. 4:15]. We grow into the image of Christ as we do what he did, as we submit ourselves to the discipline of community, as we give ourselves over to something beyond ourselves, as we work for the kingdom of God rather than the kingdom of me.
All fine and good, but now I have to tell you the really annoying news. We are walking in disorder as a church. Nobody is going to accuse Franktown Church of idleness. If you come in here just about any night of the week you will find things happening. You will find boxes being prepared for Operation Christmas Child. You will find picture of orphans in Russia being supported by church members. You will find Emma cataloging and organizing our excellent Media Center. You will find bible studies, children’s Christmas play rehearsals, choir practice, the depression support group, Administrative Board and Council of Ministries meetings, Nora and Carolyn and Mickey and others cleaning the building. Come in the day and you’ll find kids at the Montessori school. You’ll see people dropping off donations for the Hispanic ministry. You’ll see more study groups. Oh, it’s a busy place here. We’re even busy beyond here, outside the walls of the church. But there is a difference between busy-ness and work.
The test of whether this church is a church is not based on its programming or its calendar or its busy hum. The test is whether or not we are being and making disciples of Jesus Christ. The test is whether our membership vows are being lived out so that we are glorifying God with all that we have. Do you remember what it is that we pledge in the membership questions? We are asked if we will uphold the church by our prayers, our presence, our gifts and our service.
Are we praying for this church? Are we praying that it will be a place where people hear the good news of God and come to a saving knowledge of Jesus? Are we praying that it will be a place that reaches out to serve the community? Are we praying that it will nurture young people and older folks as they grow in faith? Are we praying that God will use it for whatever God wills? Are you praying for this church? It’s part of your work.
With our presence…Are we here? Are we here for worship? Are we here to serve and lead? Are we here for all those programs? Are we there in the community representing Franktown Church? This body is not a body without all of its members. Can’t you tell the difference when we are doing things together? When the place is full? Are you upholding the church with your presence? It’s part of your work.
With our gifts…this congregation has been able to do some astounding things through the ways that our gifts are offered. Through art and music and landscaping and nursery service and hospitality and witness we give what we have to God. These are our gifts. Last Sunday at the emerging service, not only did Gillian dance, but we all did. Dancing for God.
But also in our financial gifts. Our faithfulness to God’s call comes through the ways we use our money, too. Drury is here this month to talk about our budget and how it expresses our ministry as a congregation. Each of those line items should in some way reflect our primary mission, which is “to glorify God by making disciples of Jesus Christ as the Holy Spirit empowers and guides us.” That is the mission statement you see posted all over this building. As he said last week, if this budget makes the church seem like a business, it does, because the church is in the business of doing all those things.
Our financial giving is not done to meet a budget, though. Our giving is done out of a desire to imitate Jesus’ self-giving lifestyle. We give because it is a way of following Christ and opening space within ourselves for God to work in us. Giving is part of our work.
Finally, our service. Hands offered to do the work that needs doing. Hands to scrape paint from the walls of a house that was under ten feet of water during Hurricane Katrina. Hands to hold other hands as they make the transition from this world to the next. Hands to make the meals for dinners. We discover our identity as a disciple of Christ as we serve others. Are we offering our service? It’s part of our work.
But here’s the thing about the hard work we do here: When we do it right, it seems like hardly working. It’s pure joy. Yesterday at the UMW Day Apart that was held here, we sang a song from our hymnal called, “Lord, your Love through Humble Service.” The third verse asks God to make “known the needs and burdens your compassion bids us bear, stirring us to tireless striving your abundant life to share.” When we are trapped, seeing our work in the church or in the world only as tireless striving, it feels like Paul’s got it all wrong. We don’t want more work. We don’t want more reasons to feel stretched and frazzled. We don’t want one more candle to burn at both ends.
What we want is at the end of that verse. The tireless striving is for the purpose of sharing abundant life. Abundant life. Isn’t that what you’re waiting for? Jesus said, “I have come that they may have life, and have it abundantly” [John 10:10]. Isn’t that what we strive for? Isn’t that the deep desire of our hearts? All this work. All this busy-ness with which we busy ourselves. If it’s not getting you to heaven…if it’s not getting heaven into you…well, you might as well be idle because you’re walking disorderly. Annoying, isn’t it?, to realize that work might be the substance of our salvation. But the world is full of the presence and the beauty of God and so is the work that is done in Jesus’ name. Give thanks and let’s get to work! Thanks be to God.
2 Thessalonians 3:6-13
Now we command you, brothers and sisters, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, keep yourself away from every believer who walks without direction and without regard to the tradition which they received from us.
For you yourselves know how you ought to imitate us, for we were not idle among you. Neither did we eat bread from anyone without paying for it, but instead we worked arduously, night and day, so as not to burden any of you. We did this, not because we didn't have the authority, but in order to make ourselves a model for you to imitate. Even when we were with you we commanded this: "Anyone who does not want to work shall not eat."
We hear that some among you are walking without direction, not working but monkeying about in others work. To such as these we command and beseech them in our Lord Jesus Christ that they will settle down and work to earn their bread. But you, brothers and sisters, do not get tired of doing what is right.
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