This was given at the Lynnville (IL) UMC on November 14, 2004. The Scripture is from 2 Thessalonians 3: 6-13 and Luke 21: 5-19…
One of my uncles on mom’s side had a total of six kids, and the two boys were right between my brother and I in age. And with them living in Wood River and us in Hartford, two small towns about two miles apart between Alton and St. Louis, it was only natural that the four of us grew close and enjoyed spending as much time playing together as we could finagle out of our parents.
However, in the mid-sixties Uncle Cecil decided to follow his older brother and move his family to California, while at that same time, we bought our farm outside of Edwardsville and moved there. And so, it was with great joy and expectation that my brother and I received the news, about two years later, that they would all be coming back for a visit that summer, and we both went to work making plans for things to do during their visit.
For one thing, we thought it would be really ‘neat’ to camp out in the pasture, and to that end had borrowed a big tent from one of my aunts. When our cousins arrived, we all went out to the flat area behind the barn at the bottom of the hill that dominated much of our farm and went to work picking a suitable location and setting up what was to be our ‘home’ during their visit. The spot we chose was near the grassy waterway that ran down off of the hill, and was out-of-sight of the house, but not so far as to be inaccessible in an emergency.
Night came, and the four of us, armed with flashlights, comic books and snacks went out and crawled into our respective sheets and pillows. Believe it our not, we eventually fell asleep, and were only vaguely aware that a huge storm front had moved in. I remember hearing the thunder and listening to the driving rain as it hit the canvas of the tent and thinking how great all of it was, and how brave we were to all stay out there. Suddenly, my quiet retrospective was shattered by the screams of the two who had chanced to sleep on the east side of the tent as that side suddenly caved in upon them and water began streaming through the canvas! With shouts and such words as I was surprised to hear from my two cousins (after all, they were California boys now!), we scurried to salvage what we could and ran through the downpour to the house.
In the sunshine that followed that next morning, we went out to see what had happened. It seems that whoever had driven in the pegs on that side of the tent had driven them into the waterway. When the runoff from that heavy summer rain went through it softened the ground and let the pegs pull out, thus letting that side of the tent collapse! The other side was still standing tall and proud, but everything inside was soaked, and we knew it would take days for it all to dry out. And so ended another fine plan that just didn’t work out!
Had Paul been there, I’m sure he could have helped us air everything out, and probably given us a few really good tips on how to dry out all of that canvas… indeed, had he been there early enough he probably would have warned us against setting up in that particular place!
You see, in the 18th chapter of Acts, we read that, “Paul left Athens and went to Corinth. There he met a Jew named Aquila, a native of Pontus, who had recently come from Italy with his wife Priscilla, because Claudius had ordered all the Jews to leave Rome. Paul went to see them, and because he was a tentmaker as they were, he stayed and worked with them.” So I’m sure that he knew his way around such things.
The Life Application Commentary explains that, “Trained in the art of tentmaking, Aquila and Priscilla had packed up the tools of their trade and had made their way to Corinth. There they met Paul, who joined them in the business of tentmaking. Where had Paul learned tentmaking? Jewish boys were expected to learn trades from which they could earn their living. Apparently, Paul and Aquila had been trained from an early age to cut and sew leather into tents.
Tents were much in demand because they were used throughout the Empire to house soldiers. Tentmakers also made canopies and other leather goods. It is highly likely, therefore, that the Roman army was a major purchaser of Paul’s tents. As a tentmaker, Paul had a transportable livelihood that he could carry with him wherever God led him.
Paul chose to work to support himself during his stay in Corinth. The presence of so many religious promoters in Corinth may have added an incentive for Paul to earn his own living. Paul wanted to disassociate himself from those teachers who taught only for money.”
And so it may have been while he was in Thessalonica, for he says, in this morning’s verses, that, “We were not idle when we were with you, nor did we eat anyone’s food without paying for it. On the contrary, we worked night and day, laboring and toiling so that we would not be a burden to any of you. We did this, not because we do not have the right to such help, but in order to make ourselves a model for you to follow. For even when we were with you, we gave you this rule: “If a man will not work, he shall not eat.” Wow! What a novel idea! “If a man will not work, he shall not eat.” What would some of our politicians have to say about that?
Hasn’t our whole social welfare system been based on ‘give, give, give’? With apologies to President John F. Kennedy, hasn’t the attitude of many recipients of that giving seemed to be, ‘Ask not what you can do for your country… ask what your country can do for you!’ And so, one generation has learned from the next how to ‘work the system’ to get all that they can for nothing! And all of our tax dollars go for naught!
It has been said, and rightly so, that if you give a man a fish, you have fed him for today… but if you teach a man to fish, you have fed him for a lifetime. Of course, it has also been added that if you teach a man to sell fish, he eats steak, but that’s another story!
Now, I don’t mean to say that there are not those who are exceedingly worthy of a helping hand every now and then… and indeed, there are certainly those who, for various legitimate reasons, are unable to work and support themselves. But Paul wrote that if those who were not busy, but were busybodies, would not settle down and earn the bread they eat, we were to distance ourselves from them, and work to follow the example set for us by Paul and others as to how to earn our keep. And I think that all of this is something we need to be very aware of as we elect people to represent us and our Christian ideals in all positions of government! However, there is also a deeper story going on in these verses than what might appear on the surface!
In Isaiah 65, verses 17-25, we hear God declare, “Behold, I will create new heavens and a new earth. The former things will not be remembered, nor will they come to mind. But be glad and rejoice forever in what I will create… Never again will there be… an infant who lives but a few days, or an old man who does not live out his years… They will not toil in vain or bear children doomed to misfortune; for they will be a people blessed by the LORD… Before they call I will answer; while they are still speaking I will hear. The wolf and the lamb will feed together, and the lion will eat straw like the ox… They will neither harm nor destroy on all my holy mountain,” says the LORD.”
God was talking about a great time of change! And in this morning’s Gospel reading, Jesus is talking about the same thing… the great change that God will wrought in the earth and all its peoples when the time comes for Christ to return!
And as The Life Application Commentary points out, it is very possible that the people Paul is concerned about in Thessalonica, “were being idle for what they considered to be “spiritual” reasons. Some people in the Thessalonian church were falsely teaching that because Christ would return any day, people should set aside their responsibilities, quit work, do no future planning, and just wait for the Lord. Or they may have thought that labor was beneath them and wanted to spend their time being spiritual. But not being busy only made them busybodies. Instead of working, they were minding other people’s business, prying into the private lives of others and interfering with their progress. Some were persuading others to adopt their point of view on the Second Coming.”
But in our verses from Luke, Jesus says, very specifically, “Watch out that you are not deceived. For many will come in my name, claiming, ‘I am he,’ and, ‘The time is near.’ Do not follow them. When you hear of wars and revolutions, do not be frightened. These things must happen first, but the end will not come right away.”
Now, I’m sure that there are many today who might read these verses and others, such as some in the Book of Revelations, then look at all that’s going on in the Middle East today, as well as other parts of the world, and wonder if some of this isn’t the portent of worse things to come. But Jesus also told us that it is not for any man to know when the end time might be! And I’m here to tell you this morning that it doesn’t make any difference!
We should be living every moment of our lives as if Jesus might be here at any time… because, the fact of the matter is, He MIGHT!! And if all you’re doing is sitting around and waiting for Him… He’s not going to be very happy! Because He expects each and every one of us to be busy doing His work! We need to feed the poor and heal the sick! We then need to teach them how to feed themselves and live healthy lives! But even more than all of that… we need to be feeding them on the Word of God… we need to be healing their souls with the message of Salvation… we need to be spreading the Good News of Christ!
We are about to enter the season of Advent… that time when we look forward to the coming of Christ into the world. And I’m sure that when most people think of that they think of the birth of the baby Jesus in a humble stable in Bethlehem. But I put it to you that we should also be considering that ‘other’ coming of Christ… that second coming… when He shall come to judge all of the living and the dead! Are you ready? If He were to join each of us for lunch today, would He turn to you and say, ‘What a strong and busy worker you are!’… Or would He, instead, shake His head and say, ‘Why are your hands so idle, when there is so much to do?’
scluebbert 