"Now we command you, beloved in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, to keep away from believers who are living in idleness and not according to the tradition that they received from us. …For we hear that some of you are living in idleness, mere busybodies, not doing any work.’
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2 Thess. 3: 6,11
I grew up in a house of six people …two parents, four children and one bathroom. Needless to say, things got a little congested around the bathroom door each morning. I had to catch a bus to high school each morning at 7:45 several blocks away and if you were late, the bus driver didn’t wait around for you to show up, he had a schedule to keep. So there was nothing leisurely about breakfast in the Lamont household during the week. When mom shouted for us to get up in the morning, you didn’t ignore it. Laying idle even for a few minutes, could jeopardize your chances of catching the bus, and if you did miss it, my mom was not a sympathetic chauffeur. She had a schedule to keep too. So the motto at our house was quite literally was ‘if you snooze, you lose.’
Idleness was not an option. The problem was, I loved to sleep in as long as I could. So I would shower the night before to avoid the bathroom lineup in the morning, and I’d get my books all together the night before, and set out the clothes I was going to wear the night before. (I learned that last discipline the hard way - in my haste one morning I forgot to put on a shirt – got to school, took off my winter jacket and didn’t have a shirt on! Thank God for that gym t-shirts.
Idleness was not an option in my family - but it must have been in some families because there were certain students at my school who were always showing up late for class …and the teacher always did the same thing with them…sent them down to the office to get a late slip. It never made much sense to me to send someone who was already late to go get a slip of paper that made them really late, but that was the school policy. And if you missed three times you got a detention after school. Idlers were not tolerated at school.
What about in the church? Is idleness a problem for the church? Well, it certainly was in the early church, in fact Paul spends considerable time addressing the problem in his letter to the Thessalonians. It seems there were some early Christians who actually ascribed to a life of idleness.
Back in those days you see, popular belief was that Christ’s return was imminent - any day now, Jesus was going to return and usher in the new kingdom. So there arose in the Christian community a group who believed they didn’t have to work anymore, didn’t have to earn their keep. They just sat around waiting and praying for the advent of the Lord. And they defended their laziness theologically. In the Greek world, menial labor was considered slave’s work. It was not fitting work for free person to engage in. And since they believed Jesus Christ made them free men and women, they needed to claim that freedom by refusing to do menial labor. So they didn’t…they just sat around all day reading their Bibles, praying and living off the good graces of others in the faith community.
It’s no surprise that the Apostle Paul had bi use for these foolish idlers. In fact, at the end of his first letter to the Thessalonians, Paul admonishes them for leading such undisciplined lives. Apparently his words fell on deaf ears however, because in his second letter to the Thessalonians he’s even more critical of them. This time he tells the church in Thessalonica to disassociate with idlers…have nothing to do with them. It’s there in black and white: ‘keep away from any brother who is living in idleness and not in accord with the tradition that you received from us.’ The tradition he’s talking about is the example Paul, Silvanus and Timothy showed when they visited Thessalonica. When they were there they didn’t sit around and expect others to serve them. No, they worked night and day for their keep so as not to be a burden to anyone. Paul is quite stern in his comment about being idle. He says ‘If any one will not work, let him not eat.’ And a little further ‘such persons we command and exhort in the Lord Jesus Christ to do their work in quietness and to earn their own living.’ Paul just has no use for idle people in the church. Oh, he’s not vindictive… ‘Do not look on them as the enemy,’ he says, ‘but warn them as brothers.’
Now why is Paul so hard on these folks? Is he over-reacting? Afterall, there are lots of people back in Jerusalem who aren’t working for a living. And Paul would have passed them everyday on streets…people with disabilities – the blind, the lame, people with health problems, people in advanced years. There were all sorts of people back in Jerusalem who did not work anymore and the community supported them! In fact I bet Paul dropped coins into their cups when he passed by. But he won’t give these idlers in Thessalonica so much as the time of day. Why? Because these idlers are different. They lack urgency in their living, they lack focus, they lack a reason for being, they lack a sense of discipleship. And Paul sees their attitude as a threat to the existence of the church. Imagine if everyone were to take on their lifestyle – how long would the church survive? Paul realizes their tribe must decrease for the sake of the church and that is why he is so hard on them.
Now I don’t know how successful Paul was in ridding the church of idlers, he never wrote a 3rd letter to the Thessalonias so we don’t know. But I’m pretty sure he wasn’t completely successful…because there are still some of them on the membership roles today. Mind you, they’ve lost their theological edge, now that the parousia has been delayed, Christ is not returning as quickly as first thought, so the notion of sitting around praying the ancient prayer ‘Maranatha – Come Lord Jesus’, is hard to defend theologically. We’re here for the long haul – get over it and get to work!
I don’t pretend to understand the mind of idlers today but maybe their idleness has to do with the fact that the return of Jesus hasn’t come so they lack a sense of urgency. I don’t know. Whatever it is, there are those in the church today who do not carry their weight – they want membership to have its privileges but not the responsibilities.
Two weeks ago Leslie Brooks stood up here and encouraged us all to take a step up in our giving to the church. She referred us to a staircase of pledges from 0 dollars per week up to 1000 dollars per week. She said she was surprised to hear how many members gave little or nothing each week to the church! Last week was Consecration Sunday, and we had 177 members make pledges to the church for 2008. That’s a great start! And according to our assistant treasurer there are another 110 households that made pledges in 2007 who he expects will make a pledge again for this coming year. If you are one of those persons I encourage you to do that soon. That’s about 280 pledges for 2008 which is a better number than in 2007. But there are almost 500 households in Hidenwood’s membership! That means there are nearly as many households that do not pledge to their church as do pledge. Now I understand that some people simply cannot make a pledge – they are living in financial uncertainty, they are unemployed, they are in serious debt. I understand that and don’t expect those people to make a pledge, but there is no way that half Hidenwood’s households are in that situation!
The word disciple and the word discipline come from the same root which means ‘to learn’. Disciples are to be disciplined. We learn to be disciples by adopting certain disciplines. And one of the things Jesus wants his disciples to learn is to how to be good stewards. The stewardship of our time, talents and gifts is a discipline that teaches us how to give of ourselves. Pledge is a discipline – a way of helping us to grow in our stewardship to God. So we encourage our people to adopt the discipline of pledging because it is a way to be grow as disciples of Jesus…to become more and more Christ-like.
Worship attendance is another discipline…a practice that feeds us spiritually. And yet in the protestant churches, only about 30% of the membership attends worship regularly. Now that is troubling because Christian faith is a communal affair. Granted, there are individual practices too (like reading your Bible, or praying), but there is probably nothing better you can do for the good of your faith than to join the worshipping community Sunday by Sunday. Why, because Christian faith has always been a communal affair. Jesus says ‘whenever two or more are gathered in my name, I am there in the midst.’ There is something about corporate worship that feeds the soul better than any other single practice. That’s why the church puts more time and effort into this one hour of each week than anything else. That’s why there are so many people involved in worship – ministers, organists, musicians, choirs, scripture readers, ushers, greeters, sound booth operators. Corporate worship is a central practice of the faith. And every once in awhile I come across someone who will say something contrary like: ‘I can be a good Christian without going to church’. And the church’s response to that has always been the same – ‘No you can’t.’ It’s like an athlete saying ‘I can be a good runner without ever going to the track.’ ‘I can be a good football player without ever picking up the ball.’ ‘I can be a good cook without ever turning on the stove.’ You can’t sit idle and expect to be good at anything. Discipline is the key to good discipleship.
So the response of the church, like the response of Paul is to encourage the idlers to get active. If you aren’t active in your faith, you need to get involved. Come to church, make a pledge, get involved in whatever it is that interests you – Bible study, choir, mission work, youth ministry, teaching.. The church needs your involvement and you need to be involved in the church. Imagine what our church could be if everyone got involved here. Imagine what our church could be if everyone worked together - side by side. Imagine the unity of spirit we’d feel, imagine the lives we could touch.
I don’t have to imagine it…I’ve experienced it. The mission trip to Biloxi (I know you’re tired of hearing about it), on the mission trip to Biloxi we were all involved every day fixing up that little house, we were all working side by side hanging drywall, taping, mudding, sanding. There was a bond of unity that developed…there was a sense of purpose we felt, there were lives that were touched by what we were doing and some of them were us.
I remember coming home on the Saturday night. We landed at Newport News airport and we the only thing keeping us upright I think was adrenaline. We waited for our luggage and waited for our rides to come and as I looked around at the mission team. I knew I wasn’t going to see most of them in church the next morning. They all looked how I felt… exhausted, scruffy, but intensely satisfied.
Tired but satisfied. Do you know that tired? It’s the best tired I’ve ever felt. I hope you know that tired. It comes from giving your all and feeling like it was all worth it. The best word I know to express that tired…joy. Yea, joy.
Amen