As we complete our series of messages on the Seven Deadly Sins this morning I want to let you know where we are going for the next month or so. Beginning next week I will offer a brief series of messages with the theme Voices of Faith. That theme will take us to these topics – Voices of Faith, Under Persecution; Voices of Faith, In the Marketplace; Voices of Faith, In the Political Arena; and Voices of Faith, In the Family. That may expand as we go, depending on how I feel led.
Today we come to the deadly sin of sloth. Ironically, I
meant to do this one earlier but just couldn’t get motivated. The subtitle to this message is, eh, maybe later.
Our Scripture text for this morning is Luke 10:38-42, which is the
story of Mary and Martha. Those two personalities demonstrate, I think, the
delicate balance between work and rest, and knowing when it’s time to work and
when it’s time to rest.
Luke 10:38-42 –
38 As
Jesus and his disciples were on their way, he came to a village where a woman
named Martha opened her home to him. 39 She had a sister called Mary, who sat at
the Lord’s feet listening to what he said.
40 But
Martha was distracted by all the preparations that had to be made. She came to
him and asked, “Lord, don’t you care that my sister has left me to do the work
by myself? Tell her to help me!”
41 “Martha,
Martha,” the Lord answered, “you are worried and upset about many things,
42 but
few things are needed—or indeed only one. Mary has chosen what is better, and
it will not be taken away from her.”
As we consider the topic of the last deadly sin, that of sloth, I
will sum up this topic with three words – Work,
Responsibility, and Sabbath.
1. Work.
If you have young children, or grandchildren, you are probably aware
of the movie Zootopia. I have not seen the movie, but I did
see a preview a few weeks ago when Tanya and I were at a theater to see a
different movie. Zootopia is an animated movie, with an
all-animal cast, and in one scene two of the main characters go to the
Department of Motor Vehicles. All
of the animals working at the DMV were sloths, and with apologies to anyone who
works in a government office, it was, I thought, rather funny casting (you can
see it at this link – https://youtu.be/bY73vFGhSVk). I have
to confess, I could actually feel myself getting tense as the sloths moved so
incredibly slow. I wanted to shout
speed up! Please!
So here is the question I have about the deadly sin of sloth – is
sloth really a problem for many people?
I know we sometimes question the health of the work ethic in this
country but the pace and busyness that consumes so many lives today is not at
all healthy. For many people, it’s
not a question about the need to get moving and get busy as much as it is the
need to slow down and stop more often than they do, if they ever do. I’m not sure I need to tell anyone this
morning that they need to get motivated and step it up; I believe the message I
need to share, to many, is to slow down.
Work
is a gift of God, I believe. It is
not a punishment, although we sometimes act as though it is. Work is a gift of God that allows us to
use the gifts and abilities he has given to us, it allows us to be useful, and
it can bring meaning to our lives.
But
we also have a complicated relationship with our work, especially in a couple
of areas. Somewhere along
the way, for many people, work became the primary means of self-fulfillment. Having
a good career can be a wonderful blessing, but so often these days, it seems,
career becomes so consuming that it becomes almost an idol, as it becomes the
object to which we devote our highest loyalty and affection. In the past, it seems to me, that it
was more likely that people found their sense of self-fulfillment in areas of
life such as family and faith. Increasingly,
it seems that people turn to their work to bring them a sense of worth,
fulfillment, purpose, and meaning.
If you love your work and career, I say good for you, but I would also
caution that it can be very problematic when we tie our identities, sense of
worth, and sense of fulfillment to our work. Many of us have taken note that retirement can be difficult
for some people, as they struggle to fill the void that is left after leaving
their work. For some, they must
re-establish their sense of identity after retiring, and find it difficult to
reconnect with life apart from work.
Work also becomes, for some people, a way to avoid what might be
going on in their lives; that is, work becomes a tool of avoidance. If you keep moving, if you keep busy,
you have a reason not to stop and talk with someone you need to talk to, and if
you keep busy you might keep your mind active enough to even avoid thinking
about some of the matters that need your careful thought.
It is this avoidance that leads some to become workaholics. Workaholic
is a word that has a modern origin, first coined by Dr. Wayne Oates back in the
70s. Interestingly, being a
workaholic doesn’t have anything to do with work. Being a workaholic, I think, is primarily about
avoidance. A workaholic can’t slow
down because if they do, it might be necessary to talk about an issue they
don’t want to talk about it, and so
work becomes a very convenient method of avoidance. And our culture is happy to help with this avoidance,
because we sanctify workaholism into a virtue. We provide various rewards for those who put in long workweeks,
get to work early and stay late, and take work home on the weekends.
2. Responsibility.
My father was only nine years old when his father passed away, and
it became necessary for him to help support his family. My dad was a hard worker, and because
of his circumstances, it was ingrained in him from an early age to work, and to
work hard. He was a steelworker –
putting in long hours at the mill – and had a number of small business pursuits
on the side, as a farmer, a gunsmith, a sign painter, doing tractor work, and
other work as well. It was a very
rare occasion for me to witness my father either sitting down or being
still. Consequently, he worked
very hard to instill in my siblings and I a strong work ethic. All of us had regular chores to do, and
one of the first for me was shoveling the ashes out of our coal furnace. Did anyone here grow up with a coal
furnace? If so, you know what it
was like to be covered from head to foot in coal ash. I knew, on Saturday mornings, I was not free to do anything
or go anywhere until I went down into our cellar and shoveled out that coal ashes. And I didn’t like it, but it was good
for me. My parent’s insistence
that I have regular responsibilities around our home was good for me, as they
helped to teach me about responsibility.
It is important that we learn to fulfill the responsibilities that
we have in life, but how we do so can vary from one person to another, as we
are all different in our personalities. This
is why the story of Mary and Martha is so interesting, because people react to
the story according to their personality type. The Marthas of the world read or hear this story and think she’s right! It’s the people like us that do all the work and if it
weren’t for us nothing would ever get done! And they have a point.
The Marys of the world read or hear this story and think people need to slow down. Be more like me. Be laid back. That working all the time wears a body out!
Mary and Martha make an interesting contrast, because neither of
them are wrong. But take note of
something interesting – Martha complains about Mary, but Mary does not complain
about Martha. Martha goes to Jesus
and says, Lord, don’t you care that my
sister has left me to do the work by myself? Tell her to help me! Martha frames that question in an interesting way – Lord, don’t you care? It wasn’t a question as much as it was
an accusation – Lord, you don’t care that
I have to do all the work! Mary’s
sitting around when she should be helping me!
Part of what we can understand from this passage is that not
everyone approaches work in the same way, and that’s all right. Some people have a very driven, type A
personality, and some are not. Martha was a type A personality. Maybe a type A++. She is the one who criticized Jesus
when their brother Lazarus died (John 11:17-21 – 17 On his arrival, Jesus found that Lazarus
had already been in the tomb for four days. 18 Now Bethany was less than two miles from
Jerusalem, 19 and
many Jews had come to Martha and Mary to comfort them in the loss of their
brother. 20 When
Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went out to meet him, but Mary stayed
at home. 21 “Lord,” Martha said to Jesus, “if you
had been here, my brother would not have died). Only a strong personality would have
the boldness to approach Jesus in such a way.
Martha was not wrong because she worked hard. I would never fault
Martha for being a type A personality.
I am married to a type A personality, so I understand them very
well. I am not a type A personality. Some day I’ll get around to figuring
out what type I am, but not today.
We need those driving types of personalities in the world or a lot of
things would be left undone. But
in this story, Martha failed to realize that there is a time to work, but part
of the understanding of responsibility is to know when not to work.
We have a bit more information about Martha, but we don’t know as
much about Mary’s. Perhaps Mary
needed to be a bit more motivated.
Perhaps Mary was willing to let Martha do the greater share of the
work. But whatever the case may
be, Mary understood that at that moment, work was not the most important.
We have to work, but we are not just created for work. We are created by God with a spirit, a
soul, and they must be tended, and that is a different kind of work. It is a responsibility, and sometimes
that responsibility supersedes work.
That being said, our final word is –
3. Sabbath.
Exodus 20:9-10 says that for 9
Six days you shall labor, and do all your work, 10 but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you
shall not do any work, you, or your son, or your daughter, your male
servant, or your female servant, or your livestock, or the sojourner who is
within your gates.
Jesus and his disciples worked hard, but they knew there was a time
to rest, and at times he even led them away from the overwhelming need that
surrounded them, in order to find a quiet place to bring them refreshment and
renewal (30 The apostles gathered around Jesus and
reported to him all they had done and taught. 31 Then, because so many people were coming
and going that they did not even have a chance to eat, he said to them, “Come
with me by yourselves to a quiet place and get some rest.” 32 So they went away by themselves in a
boat to a solitary place. 33 But
many who saw them leaving recognized them and ran on foot from all the towns
and got there ahead of them. 34 When
Jesus landed and saw a large crowd, he had compassion on them, because they
were like sheep without a shepherd. So he began teaching them many things). I think that if Jesus saw the need for rest, we can give
ourselves a break and rest some as well.
I don’t believe in the idea that it’s
better to burn out than to rust away.
I worry about burnout in the church. As important as our work is, we need to make sure we are
getting adequate rest and spiritual renewal.
One of the most meaningful moments of my sabbatical last year came
on the last day, when I went to the Abby of Gethsemani near Bardstown. If you have never traveled to that
beautiful place I encourage you to do so.
I found it really moving to sit in the back of the sanctuary there and
to listen to the prayers and the songs of the monks. And the weather that day was beautiful, and I walked up to
the top of a hill across from the Abby, where there was a cross, and on that
hill you could look around and see for miles at the surrounding countryside. I told myself that day that I would
return there with some regularity but have yet to return, but I go there often
in my mind.
We are blessed by God to be given the opportunity to have meaningful
work, but we are spiritual beings, with souls that must be nourished. We must never forget to have times of Sabbath
rest. So rest today, and don’t
feel badly about it!
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