Despair, Sloth and Hope
Course of Study School – Perkins School of Theology
Bueno. Aquí estamos en el segundo día de la segunda sesión del Curso de Estudio. Fuera hay luz y sol. El arrullo de la tórtola se oye en nuestro país. O por lo menos el sinsonte. Las clases parecen lleno de promesas. Los proyectos de final? ¿Qué proyectos final? Nos encontramos en el oleaje lleno de vida.
Entonces yo quiero hablar sobre... la desesperación. La pereza. Uno de los siete pecados capitales que roe nuestras vidas, poniendo en peligro la alegría que, naturalmente, debe sentirse. Especialmente cuando estamos en el oleaje de la vida plena. ¿Qué dice Dios acerca de la desesperación, la pereza y la esperanza?
So here we are on the second day of the second session of Course of Study School. Outside there is light and sunshine. The voice of the turtledove is heard in the land. Or at least the mockingbird. Classes seem full of promise. Final projects? What final projects? We are in the full swell of life.
So it seems appropriate today to turn to…despair. To sloth. To one of those seven deadly sins that gnaws at our lives, threatening the joy we should naturally feel when we are in the full swell of life. What does God have to say about despair, sloth and hope?
I actually want to start with sloth just because…well, it’s a neat word. Granted ‘sloth’ is not a word we hear much any more and when we do it usually is referring to the cuddly-looking, leaf-sucking beasts that swing in the rainforest trees. But that’s not the kind of sloth I’m talking about. The sloth I’m talking about is, like pride, envy, anger and the other deadly sins, something that is found deep inside and, like them, it threatens our life with God.
Now if someone has ever accused you of being a sloth, of the ten-toed variety, they were probably accusing you of being lazy. That’s the generally-accepted synonym for sloth. Slothful people lie about and do nothing. They refuse to put themselves out for anything or anyone. They just don’t seem to have a whole lot of ambition. That’s how this line of argument usually goes.
Now if that’s the case, sloth might seem to be a problem, and maybe even a character flaw, but we’d hardly describe it as a deadly sin. In fact, in a society where nobody seems to have enough time for anything…when 24/7 is the standard measure of how much we want to be available to work…when families are stretched because of work schedules, ball schedules, music lesson schedules and even church schedules…when everything is rushed…when high stress lifestyles lead to high blood pressure…when there aren’t enough hours in the day to do all that we feel we have to do…when cats are living with dogs…you know, a little bit of sloth might be a healthy thing.
In fact, there is a health researcher in Germany who has suggested just that! Professor Peter Axt, in a paper entitled “The Joy of Laziness,” says, “The benefits of procrastination are grossly undervalued in modern society. People are working longer hours and trying to fit more into every day. But when you are already stressed and anxious, it can be much better to do nothing than rush to the gym for a workout…People who would rather relax in a hammock than run a marathon certainly have a better chance of living to old age.” And they may be smarter.[i] Now that’s my kind of study.
So sloth, if it is laziness, sounds like a pretty minor sin. But what if sloth is something more? Surely it must be since it made the list of the Seven Deadlies. What was it about sloth that made this sin seem like such a threat to our very souls?
Desea iniciar con la pereza. Si alguien tiene alguna vez acusado de ser un perezoso, de la variedad de diez dedos, fueron probablemente le acusa de ser poncho. Ese es el sinónimo de aceptación general para la pereza. Los perezosos son indolentes y no hacer nada. Se niegan a ponerse a cabo por nada ni por nadie. Ellos no parecen tener un montón de ambición. Así es como esta línea de argumento generalmente es.
Ahora bien, si ese es el caso, la pereza puede parecer un problema, y tal vez es un defecto de carácter, pero no es un pecado mortal. De hecho, en una sociedad donde nadie parece tener tiempo para nada ... cuando 24 / 7 es la medida estándar de lo mucho que desea que estén disponibles para trabajar ... cuando las familias están al límite debido a los horarios de trabajo, los horarios de pelota, los horarios de clase de música e incluso los horarios iglesia ... cuando todo se precipitó cuando los estilos de vida ... de alta tensión provocar presión arterial alta ... cuando no hay suficientes horas en el día para hacer todo lo que sentimos que tenemos que hacer ... ya sabes , un poco de pereza podría ser una cosa sana.
De hecho, hay un investigador de la salud en Alemania, que ha sugerido justamente eso! El profesor Peter Axt, en un artículo titulado "El placer de la pereza", dice, "Los beneficios de la dilación son claramente infravalorado en la sociedad moderna. La gente está trabajando más horas y tratar de encajar más en todos los días. Pero cuando ya estás estresada y ansiosa, puede ser mucho mejor no hacer nada que correr al gimnasio para una sesión de ejercicios ... La gente que prefiere relajarse en una hamaca que correr un maratón sin duda tienen una mejor oportunidad de vida hasta la vejez." Y pueden ser más inteligentes. Es mi tipo de estudio.
Así que la pereza, si es indolencia, suena como un pecado bastante pequeño. Pero ¿y si la pereza es algo más? Con toda seguridad debe ser, ya que en la lista de las Siete Deadlies. ¿Qué había en la pereza que hizo este pecado parece ser una amenaza para nuestras almas?
In my first pastorate in Virginia I worked with a young man who was very gifted. He was bright, sociable and had all kinds of potential. He had a lot of things going for him. He had all these things going for him despite the fact that he had a lot working against him, too.
He was being raised by a mother who had overcome her own drug addiction to straighten her life out. She had been through a resurrection of sorts, leaving behind the death that her old ways represented and creating a new life for herself and her two boys. She had done this with the help of family and with the help of God who had given her this new life and who was opening her up to give to others.
This young man, in other words, had a great mother, who had a strong faith, but she didn’t have a lot of money and she worried over her son. He often got into trouble and, even though he was smart, he didn’t get the best grades. Even so, when he graduated from school she worked hard to get him into college.
It was late in the summer before he got a place and they were sure of being able to pay for his tuition. A generous scholarship from the school helped. Then he started school with all of his potential and all of his gifts.
But something happened to him at school. The dark shadows that often overtook him followed him there. Despite all that he had and the support that he had and the promise that this new life represented, he made some bad choices that got him kicked out of school. What finally did it was smoking pot in his dorm room, but something worse than drugs had gotten him. Something worse than laziness. He had given in to his own joylessness and given up on being what even he knew that he could be. What struck him was the sin of sloth.
En mi primera iglesia trabajé con un hombre joven que estaba muy dotado. Era inteligente, sociable y tenía todo tipo de potencial. Tenía un montón de cosas a su favor. Él tenía todas esas cosas a su favor a pesar de que tenía mucho trabajo en su contra, también.
Él estaba siendo criado por una madre que había superado su propia adicción a las drogas para enderezar su vida fuera. Había pasado por una especie de resurrección, dejando tras de sí la muerte que sus viejos hábitos representados y la creación de una nueva vida para ella y sus dos hijos. Lo había hecho con la ayuda de la familia y con la ayuda de Dios, que le había dado esta nueva vida y que fue su apertura para dar a otros.
Este joven, en otras palabras, había una gran madre, que tenía una fe fuerte, pero no tenía mucho dinero y se preocupaba por su hijo. Con ayuda el vino a un colegio. Y él comenzó la escuela con todo su potencial y todos sus dones.
Pero algo pasó con él en la escuela. A pesar de todo lo que tenía y el apoyo que tenía, y la promesa de que esta nueva vida representada, tomó algunas decisiones malas que tiene lo echaron de la escuela. Fumando marihuana en su propio dormitorio, pero algo peor que drogas le había conseguido. Algo peor que la indolencia. Lo que le golpeó fue el pecado de la pereza.
The ancients used to call sloth “sadness” and by that they meant despair -- a deep despair that kept people from living up to their potential. The desert monks of the fourth century referred to it as “the noonday demon” because it crept in in the middle of the day when the sun was at its hottest. It’s the time of day when the life and energy they experienced in the early morning was burnt off by the heat and what was left was a sense of the pointlessness of work in the midst of a desert day. Why not sleep? Why not give up on the work they were given to do?
I know this experience. I know it well. How many times have I met with people at the beginning of a project when everyone is excited by a new idea! We all sit around the table and say, “Yes, we will start an evangelistic campaign!” “Yes, we will draw up plans for a new building!” “Yes, we will read through the Bible!” “Yes, we will floss!” And everyone is intoxicated by the notion and assignments are made, plans are put in place. Then a few weeks later, the energy has flagged. Everyone still agrees that it is a good idea, but the work has ground to a halt. Nothing seems to be moving forward. Sloth has set in. It’s as if there is a great drowsiness in the land.
We all know the old saying that the road to hell is paved with good intentions. It is for this reason that Jesus didn’t say to folks, “Let your mind transformed. Believe differently. Try on a new mental paradigm.” He did want our minds to be transformed, but he wanted us to do more than that. He wanted us to bear fruit.
Los antiguos solía llamar la pereza "tristeza" y entiende por desesperación--una profunda desesperación que impidieron que las personas viven su potencial. Hay un dicho - el camino al infierno está pavimentado de buenas intenciones. Es por esta razón que Jesús no decir a la gente, "Cree de forma diferente. Pruebe en un nuevo paradigma mental". Él quería que nuestras mentes para ser transformado, pero quería que hagamos más que eso. Quería que nosotros a dar sus frutos.
Este es el punto de la parábola de Juan que hemos leído esta mañana. Cuando Jesús dice que él es la vid y nosotros somos los pámpanos, el siguiente paso es para que los pámpanos producir frutos. Si sólo escuchar la palabra…si sólo escuchamos y creemos…pero no vayamos a vivir la palabra y poner en práctica en nuestra vida, entonces ¿qué buena es la palabra para nosotros o para el mundo? El deseo de Dios es que damos sus frutos y que de esa manera ser discípulos de Jesús.
Bearing fruit is the point of the parable from John which we read this morning. When Jesus says that he is the vine and we are the branches, the next step is for the branches to produce fruit. If we only hear the word…if we only listen and believe…but then do not go on to live the word and put into practice in our lives, then what good is the word to us or to the world? God’s desire is that we bear fruit and in that way be Jesus’ disciples.
Sloth is the sin that threatens that fruit bearing. It is, as Thomas Aquinas said, “that sluggishness of mind which neglects to begin good.”[ii] This is a lot more than laziness. Even busy people can suffer this kind of sin. Wendy Wasserstein, who wrote a satirical book all about how to be slothful, says busy people in our society are the ultimate examples of slothdom. They are übersloths. She admits that it’s hard to imagine: “Any woman who is obsessed with her Palm Pilot, her Blackberry, and her cell phone can’t possibly be construed as” a sloth, but they are. “When you achieve true slothdom, you have no desire for the world to change. True sloths are not revolutionaries…It doesn’t matter if the world evolves, because your purpose is not to get things done. Sloths are neither angry nor hopeful. They are not even anarchists. Anarchy takes too much work. Sloths are the lazy guardians at the gate of the status quo.”[iii]
The lazy guardians at the gate of the status quo. Wasserstein suspects that there is no point to all of our work. It’s a lot of sound and fury signifying nothing. Are we really producing anything of value? Is all of our activity really leading us somewhere new? Somewhere important? Why are you so busy and how is that working out for you?
La pereza realmente no es acerca de la indolencia en absoluto. Se trata de prestando atención a lo que realmente importa. Él es aproximadamente prestando atención a Dios. Y si usted está sentado en un Barcalounger con un remota de la TV 7 horas en un día o trabajando como un maníaco 24/7 le puede aún ser atrapados en perezoso. O bien, uno puede ser inútil y puede llevar lejos de lo que realmente importa.
Cuando Jesús va con los discípulos en el jardín de Getsemaní a orar, lo qué pasa con ellos es simbólico de lo que ocurre a todos nosotros. Jesús tiene sólo una simple solicitud a Pedro, Santiago y Juan como él sale a orar: "Permanecer aquí y mantener despierto". Pero, ¿qué es lo que hacen? Ellos se quedan dormidos. Sus intenciones eran buenas. Estaban dispuestos a hacer todo lo que Jesús les pide. Pero ellos fueron superados por el sueño.
Nuestro dormiendo toma muchas formas. Nuestra capacidad para responder a Dios puede ser perjudicado de muchas maneras. Y podemos olvidarnos de lo que realmente es importante.
Sloth is the shadow side of pride. If pride is thinking too much of ourselves, sloth can sometimes show up as thinking too little of ourselves and of our abilities. It is failing to claim the capacities that God has given us to be the people we were meant to be. Sometimes that comes across as low self-esteem. Sometimes it comes across as a busy-ness that distracts us from the abundant life Christ calls us to live. Either way, we fail to be what God has made us to be.
But the most devastating effect of despair and sloth is how it saps our joy and saps our hope. When we lose the capacity for hope we have entered into the deadly realm. What have we lost when we lose our ability to take joy in the world around us, to take joy in the people around us, to take joy in our lives, and to take joy in God?
The movie Life is Beautiful depicts the love of a father and son as they are taken off to concentration camps in the middle of World War II. The father is a born comic and he is able to convince his son that they are part of some great contest. It is the father’s ability to maintain his joy even in the midst of the most dehumanizing conditions that sustains the boy and sustains hope.
Jesus, when he went to the cross, was able to remind his followers that no one was taking his life from him. He was laying down his life willingly. He was suffering the worst that the world had to offer, but he was not giving up the joy, the hope and the promise that God had put into the heart of creation. Those things would remain. “Do not let your hearts be troubled,” he said. “And do not let them be afraid.”
La película La Vida es Bella representa el amor de un padre y su hijo, como son despegados a campos de concentración en medio de la Segunda Guerra Mundial. El padre es un cómic nacido y es capaz de convencer a su hijo que forman parte de algún gran concurso. Se trata capacidad del padre para mantener su alegría incluso en medio de las condiciones más deshumanizadoras que sustenta al chico y sostiene la esperanza.
Jesús, cuando iba a la Cruz, fue capaz de recordar a sus seguidores que nadie estaba tomando su vida de él. Él fue establecen su vida voluntariamente. Él estaba sufriendo el peor que el mundo tenía que ofrecer, pero él no estaba dando hasta la alegría, la esperanza y la promesa de que Dios habían puesto en el corazón de la creación. Serían siendo esas cosas. "No dejes que vuestros corazones se agitada," dijo. "Y no les permiten tener miedo". No miedo. No desesperacion. No perezoso. Gracias a Dios.
God does not want sour-faced Christians who do not know how to experience deep joy. God wants you with all of your capacities for life and joy and fruitfulness. It doesn’t matter what obstacles you face. It doesn’t matter where you have been or what you have done. It doesn’t matter how far you have felt from God to this point…God is calling you to life. This is our hope. This is our strength. This is the promise that we know in Christ Jesus, who will not be defeated, even by our slothfulness. Thanks be to God.
John 15:1-8 [NRSV]
"I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinegrower. He removes every branch in me that bears no fruit. Every branch that bears fruit he prunes to make it bear more fruit.
“You have already been cleansed by the word that I have spoken to you. Abide in me as I abide in you. Just as the branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless it abides in the vine, neither can you unless you abide in me. I am the vine, you are the branches. Those who abide in me and I in them bear much fruit, because apart from me you can do nothing.
“Whoever does not abide in me is thrown away like a branch and withers; such branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned. If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask for whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit and become my disciples.”
Juan 15:1-8 [Reina Valera 1995]
"Yo soy la vid verdadera y mi Padre es el labrador. Todo pámpano que en mí no lleva fruto, lo quitará; y todo aquel que lleva fruto, lo limpiará, para que lleve más fruto.
“Ya vosotros estáis limpios por la palabra que os he hablado. Permaneced en mí, y yo en vosotros. Como el pámpano no puede llevar fruto por sí mismo, si no permanece en la vid, así tampoco vosotros, si no permanecéis en mí.
"Yo soy la vid, vosotros los pámpanos; el que permanece en mí y yo en él, este lleva mucho fruto, porque separados de mí nada podéis hacer. El que en mí no permanece, será echado fuera como pámpano, y se secará; y los recogen, los echan en el fuego y arden. Si permanecéis en mí y mis palabras permanecen en vosotros, pedid todo lo que queráis y os será hecho. En esto es glorificado mi Padre: en que llevéis mucho fruto y seáis así mis discípulos.”
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