KEEP AWAKE

A Sermon for the 24th Sunday after Pentecost
November 18, 2007
by Pastor Laura Gentry

2 Thessalonians 3
Now we command you, beloved, in the name of our 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 you yourselves know how you ought to imitate us; we were not idle when we were with you, and we did not eat anyone's bread without paying for it; but with toil and labor we worked night and day, so that we might not burden any of you. This was not because we do not have that right, but in order to give you an example to imitate. For even when we were with you, we gave you this command: Anyone unwilling to work should not eat. For we hear that some of you are living in idleness, mere busybodies, not doing any work. Now such persons we command and exhort in the Lord Jesus Christ to do their work quietly and to earn their own living. Brothers and sisters, do not be weary in doing what is right. (NRSV)

Grace and peace to you from God our Father and from Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior. Amen.

The passage from Second Thessalonians reminds me of the fable of the Grasshopper and the Ants. When the weather was fine, the ants did toil hard to obtain and store up as much food as possible that would sustain them during the winter months. The Grasshopper, watching the ants labor diligently only poked fun at them. The grasshopper preferred to waste time making music, dancing and enjoying the warm weather.

One ant stopped to ask the grasshopper, "Aren't you going to store up for the winter, what will you eat?" The grasshopper just laughed and said, "I do not need to work all day, I just want to dance and play." So the ants left the grasshopper alone.

When winter approached, as winter always does, the ants were deep underground with their summer's harvest. The grasshopper unable to find a blade of green grass, cried out at the entrance of the ants' underground nest. The ants' reply was harsh, “When the weather was fair and food was plentiful you wanted to play, now you must dance hungry to bed each night."

Regardless of which version you’ve heard, the story of the ants and grasshopper is clear. Idleness may be fun at the time, but it has its price in the end. We must work and prepare ourselves, so as not to end up being caught by surprise in the future.

I place this well-known fable in beside Paul's letter to the Thessalonians, because he is responding to reports that certain members of the new church at Thessalonica are starting to abandon their jobs in anticipation of the final judgment. They are hanging around laughing and talking, sure that they do not have to work, as the day of the Lord is going to happen at any minute, they think. Therefore, they feel that working is a complete waste of their time. Paul says that they are “playing truant,” that they are, in essence, playing hookie from work that must be done. So Paul reminds the church at Thessalonica that when he was among them his example was one of work, not leisure like these busybodies. He maintains that he did not eat anyone's bread without paying for it. Not only did he do the work of an evangelist, but he did manual labor to make a living as well.

Idleness was a grave sin in ancient Jerusalem. All citizens were charged with learning a trade, even the Rabbis were not paid for their teaching but earned their living at another occupation. A wise saying once stated, "He who does not teach his child to work, teaches him to steal." It was very important that all people be active in a trade—and not just any trade, but a trade that would enhance the life of the community.

We do not hear near enough about Jesus' trade as a carpenter. We know that he received this training from Saint Joseph and the bible doesn’t tell us what kind of carpenter he was, but legend holds that Jesus made the best ox yokes in all of Palestine. People came from afar to obtain his work. Of course, this should does not surprise us. Since Jesus was the son of God, I imagine anything he crafted would be the finest in all of Palestine. Nevertheless this legend demonstrates that Jesus not only had a trade but was well-practiced at his craft.

So Paul is found urging the believers at Thessalonica to do the same. He condemns the people who are content with their idle behavior. These busybodies seem to have more time to meddle in the affairs of others rather than see to their own work, and it is doing much harm. Paul points out that it is a great error and abuse of religion, to make it a cloak for idleness or any other sin.

Why is having a task to do so important? Why do Paul and Jesus require believers to keep their hand at positive work? Well, we have heard the saying that idleness is the devil's playground. People with not enough to do soon find themselves making sport and entertainment out of the affairs of others. These things are not conducive to religious life, they are not sympathetic to the Gospel. Both the New Testament readings of today speak to the need for people to continue living their lives in the manner which keeps them productive and witnessing for God. They cannot grow tired and weary and cease doing what is right, they must wake up and do the work of a true Christian for we do not know when the final judgment will be.

When faced with the question of the final judgment our response should not be fear or panic. When asked what he would do if the world ended tomorrow, Martin Luther responded, "I would plant an apple tree," signifying that the news of all things coming to an end should not cause us to lose hope nor act in a fashion that is out of our ordinary character. We should be able to act as we always act: with confidence and with hope.

I heard an old story about a man, who was negotiating to buy a house and bought it without even seeing it. He was asked why he took such a risk; his answer was, “I know the man who built that house and he builds his Christianity in with the bricks.” The Christian should be a more conscientious worker than anyone else. Do you build your Christianity into the bricks of your work? Does your faith reflect in the way that you do your job? Is your conscientiousness evident in the way you farm your land or labor in the factory or heal patients or cut hair or process data or teach students or answer telephones or raise your children? No matter what occupation you hold, you should be doing it with all your heart and soul and in doing such quality work, you are being a faithful witness to the Lord whom you serve.

Mother Teresa was a great example of such faithful witness through service. In 1970, Malcolm Muggeridge, a European TV anchorman, went to Calcutta to do a special documentary on Mother Teresa. When met first her, she was working out in the streets with sick and poor people in a ghetto like he had never seen before—amid stench, filth, garbage, disease, and poverty that was just unbelievable. But what struck Muggeridge more than anything else, even there in that awful squalor, was the deep, warm glow on Mother Teresa's face and the deep, warm love in her eyes.

"Do you do this every day?" he began his interview.

"Oh, yes," she replied, "it is my mission. It is how I serve and love my Lord."

"How long have you been doing this? How many months?"

"Months?" said Mother Teresa. "Not months, but years. Maybe eighteen years.

"Eighteen years!" exclaimed Muggeridge. "You've been working here in these
streets for eighteen years?"

"Yes," she said simply and yet joyfully. "It is my privilege to be here. These are my people. These are the ones my Lord has given me to love."

"Do you ever get tired? Do you ever feel like quitting and letting someone else take over your ministry? After all, you are beginning to get older."

"Oh, no," she replied, "this is where the Lord wants me, and this is where I am happy to be. I feel young when I am here. The Lord is so good to me. How privileged I am to serve him."

Later, Malcolm Muggeridge said, "I will never forget that little lady as long as I live. The face, the glow, the eyes, the love—it was all so pure and so beautiful. I shall never forget it. It was like being in the presence of an angel. It changed my life. I have not been the same person since. It is more than I can describe." By the way, after Muggeridge made those comments, Mother Teresa continued to serve in that sacrificial way until the end of her life nearly twenty-seven more years. Yes, I realized that you and I are not famous nuns working in India, but we too, can work with that kind of spirit, putting our whole selves into the work that we do.

The day of the Lord will come one day and we, like the ants in the story of the Grasshopper and the Ants, must be prepared. Since know not the day nor the time, Paul's advice is to keep ourselves active in serving the kingdom with our respective gifts, keeping awake and not becoming idle as people are prone to do. We must not only labor with integrity at our profession, but we are to practice our faith daily in order to be the best possible witnesses for Jesus Christ. And this will keep us from the dangers of being busybodies—of meddling in other people’s affair when we ought to be concentrating on our own lives. May we awaken to the work before us and may our hearts be motivated to bear the best witness for our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

And now, may the peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus our Lord. Amen.


© 2007 Laura E. Gentry