Beautiful Stones & Hard Work

Sermon planned for Sunday, November 14th, 2009

Texts: Luke 21:1-19; 2 Thessalonians 3:6-13

I invite you to turn with me, in your bibles, to the prophet Isaiah 65:17-25, and read along with me. The prophets can be a miserable bunch; and yet, at times, like this text from the prophet Isaiah, the prophets can be hopeful. Their Word from the Lord wasn’t all doom and gloom. Isaiah told the people about a coming day when God would make all things new. That Jerusalem would become a joy and its people a delight. If all you ever read of Isaiah was this text, you’d say that he was an optimist. But that’s also what Israel needed from time to time.

When my friends and I get together and we start fixing all of the world’s problems – and by that I mean we sit and bicker about what’s going wrong with the world – it often takes a while before one of us stands up with a hopeful voice. We find it easy to just see the negative side of life, but one of us will stand up and point out the other side. The passages from Luke and Thessalonians give us a bit of a negative picture of life. That’s why I thought it would be good for us to start things off with a hopeful word from the prophet Isaiah. Be assured, God is going to do good things with us and through us. God is going to get things right. God is going to bring peace in our world. God is going to set things straight. Be assured, God has the big picture figured out. Keep this in mind as we head into Luke’s gospel.

While Jesus and his followers were at the temple, they saw a poor widow giving her last two coins to the treasury. In a temple filled with all kinds of treasures, this woman gave the greatest gift – by giving two small copper coins. So right off the bat, we get the sense that Jesus is turning the tables around. Things aren’t as they seem. God is interested in our intentions, our willingness, our humility and our passion for His Kingdom – God isn’t nearly as worried about dollar amounts as He is about passion, commitment and sacrifice.d

The second picture we get of this upside down Kingdom is when some of those present began focusing on the beautiful workmanship in the temple; how it was made with beautiful stones and gifts dedicated to God. Jesus responded to their amazement with a sharp comment. All of these beautiful things you see here – they will all perish. They’re all going to fade away. Jesus lived in a time when the temple and its guardians were doing quite well, financially speaking. The temple tax, the trading system, and large gifts from pious Jews all made for a good financial situation for the priests and the institution. For the most part, people were quite well off. And when people came to the temple, it was an impressive sight. But for Jesus, this wealth wasn’t impressive.

Jesus constantly challenged the injustices present in this kind of economy. The religious folks and the institutions were financially secure, but many of the people who loved God were poor. Jesus’ parables often aimed at critiquing this unfair set-up. The widow gave the greatest gift, even if it was two copper coins; it was a huge thing for her because it’s all she had. It just shows the big gap between the rich and the poor of Jesus’ time. And so, when these people talked about “the great things of the temple”, Jesus once again stepped in to remind them that these things were not of eternal value.

One of the great challenges of God’s people, from before the time of prophet Isaiah, was the problem of wealth and affluence. How can God’s people trust and rely only on Him, when they are financially secure and don’t really need anything? This difficulty can be summarized in Jesus’ teachings about being able to serve only one master – either God or wealth. This difficulty continues to challenge us today. But it’s not the only difficulty.

Another challenge that has always faced God’s people, which is related to the challenge of wealth & affluence, is that of boredom, laziness, and apathy; or as John says in Revelation – God’s people are lukewarm. This is the problem that the apostle Paul faced when addressing the Christians of Thessalonica. Why were the Thessalonian Christians lazy and apathetic? Well, someone had convinced them of a false teaching. Someone had convinced them that Jesus was going to return in the next few months or years and that this meant they could just sit back and enjoy the ride. They failed to feed the hungry, visit the sick, or do other good deeds, because they figured there was no point to it, since the end of the world was at hand. It’s not altogether different from some Christians in our world today who suggest that we focus on evangelism instead of serving the poor, because time is short, and so we should focus on saving souls, not feeding mouths. And so, the Thessalonian Christians became lukewarm, lazy, and apathetic about living out their faith; after all, the world was going to end.

Paul urged his readers to keep away from all those who live in idleness; to keep away from those who eat without paying for it; from those who are unwilling to work. This passage written by the apostle Paul is, perhaps, the foundational piece for what is often called ‘the Protestant work ethic’.

One of the lasting impressions I have, of my father’s financial advice, is that a person should work for their food. He would say, “You don’t get anything for doing nothing.” Which is why he was always suspicious of people getting good deals, or making easy money. According to him, there’s no such thing as easy money. If you are able to work, than you should work, and you should work hard. And if you don’t work, although you’re able to, than you shouldn’t eat. My dad would constantly tell me, in German, “wer nicht arbeiten will, soll auch nicht essen.” This is a straight quote from Paul, “Anyone unwilling to work should not eat.” I think that’s some pretty good moral guidance. Of course, this doesn’t cover people who, for a whole variety of good reasons, can’t work. There are plenty of good reasons why people can’t work, and for these situations it is important that the church or the community step in to provide support in any way possible. But there are always a group of people who want to eat, but don’t want to work, even though they clearly can. That’s the problem – laziness is a vice. Gluttony is a sin. It is a sin to demand to have things but not work for them.

This is one of the reasons why the Church, throughout history, has had a moral problem with charging high interest rates – its because the lender is getting something while doing nothing to earn it; the same goes with buying and selling, just trying to find deals here, and then overpricing in a different location. What Paul is talking about here is that we work hard for our keep; that earning a living is not just about tricking others.

But he’s also talking about idleness and laziness in the church. The Church is the Body of Christ, active in ministering to others and proclaiming the gospel in our world – yet throughout history, the Church has often had problems with fulfilling important roles in its ministries. Preacher shortages, no one willing to teach children, no one willing to serve the elderly or visit the sick.

Can we say anything different about the churches of our time? Or about our own church? Perhaps we should allow our nominating committee to speak to that question. Or maybe we should just extend our sharing time: how many times have you said no to being asked to serve in the ministries of our congregation? How many times have we sidestepped an opportunity to say a kind word, or do a kind deed?

The problem in Paul’s day, it seems, was that people were idle – they didn’t do the good things that were needed. We’re in a different situation. We aren’t idle. We are running at 150% all the time; but how much of it is important? We are continuously busy, but are we busy with the right things?

Each in their own way, Jesus and Paul addressed the challenges of the day. What are the challenges of our time? Although we are constantly advancing in our ability to stay connected, and our networking technologies continuously progress, we are some of the loneliest people of our world. I confess, I just purchased a three-year deal with MTS for a Blackberry cell phone. It let’s me do all my emailing and scheduling together with my phoning. My fear with this device is that it will further isolate me from actual contact with you. Why call you when I can text you? Why visit you when I can just send you an email to check in? Please help me to not let this thing come between us; and if it does, tell me and I’ll throw it away.

We have Facebook groups, small-groups, house-groups, and support groups – but we are the fiercest individualists of our rime. We all know what others should do so that our culture and society would be better, but don’t you dare tell me what to change about my life. We all know that John Doe and his wife need to take better care of their children, and stop spoiling their son – but don’t you dare tell me how to raise my children. We are individualists to the core. Perhaps we Mennonites more so than any others – after all, we are the protesters of the Protestants. Don’t tell me I’m a heretic, I’ll just start my own church.

Individualism and loneliness are the symptoms of a sick Church. But Jesus gave the Church over to his disciples – as feeble as they were. And now we are the Church, and we’re still that mixed bag of sinners and saints. We still don’t know which end is up, half the time. We still get carried away with our Baal images, our affluence, and all other kinds of idolatry.

There’s a story in the New Testament that speaks to this sickness we have – it’s the story of Mary and Martha, when they hosted Jesus at their house. Jesus loved Mary and Martha equally, but it was Mary who chose the better part, to listen at the feet of Jesus. Martha was, like us, busier than ever doing important things; but in light of Jesus standing in their midst, it was Mary who chose the wiser option. There are so many good things for us to be busy with – but in light of our calling, in light of the Holy Spirit’s presence in our midst – we need to sit at the feet of Jesus. We need to make time for studying the scriptures together as a community, as families, and in small groups. We need to make time for prayer and listening to God’s voice in silence.

In hearing about the sickness of God’s people, in Jesus’ time and in Paul’s, we also see that sickness reflected in our own congregation. Can we also confess that we are stuck staring at beautiful stones, enthralled by materialism? Can we also admit that we are apathetic about the things that God has planned for us as a Church? Can we admit that there too few people present, last Sunday, to hear our missionaries, Phil & Julie Bender, share about what God was doing through their ministry in China? Will we confess that we need Paul’s critical word? And do we listen to his encouragement: that we never grow tired of doing what is good?

If we can confess and repent, than we can also be confident in hearing Isaiah’s words for us this morning: God is about to do a new thing among us – to create a new heavens and a new earth. God is about to create Gretna as a joy, and its people as a delight. There will be peace and justice in this town and in our communities. There will be Shalom. Be assured, God has the big picture figured out. The thing is, this community of faith – the Church here in Gretna – is a key part of this big picture that God has in mind. Do you believe me? Do you trust that Jesus knew what he was doing when he gave us the mandate to be His Church here in Gretna? Will we step out of the maze of busyness, of individualism and apathy – will we come out from among the nations and be the city on the hill?



May you know that although we shy away from our responsibilities – if we confess and turn towards Jesus this morning we will also conquer every enemy in his name. We will conquer all idleness, overcome all apathy, undermine all unbelief. By his name alone, we will endure. Receive the Holy Spirit and be encouraged as you go, for God is about to create a new heavens and a new earth. Do you see it? Will you join in that vision? Amen.