As Others See Us
Children's sermon
Illustration
Preaching
Sermon
Worship
Object:
It's easy to throw stones at distant targets. We watch some profess love of God and people while living in huge houses and traveling in private planes. We have to remember that none of us are innocent, and it helps to humbly acknowledge that from the pulpit. What is the role that ordinary, everyday Christians have to play in living a lifestyle consistent with the gospel? Steve McCutchan writes on 2 Thessalonians 3:6-13 this week. Thom Shuman writes Another View this week. Also included are the illustrations, a worship resource, and a children's sermon.
As Others See Us
By Stephen McCutchan
2 Thessalonians 3:6-13
THE WORLD
The Los Angeles Times (October 13, 2007) reported that a decade ago an overwhelming majority of non-Christians, including people between the ages of 16-29, had a favorable opinion of Christianity's role in society. Today, just 16% of non-Christians in that age group had a "good impression" of the religion. These non-Christian young people have concluded that present-day Christianity is hypocritical -- saying one thing and doing another. That would be bad enough but the same poll discovered that 52% of Christians of the same age also shared that view.
Other studies have suggested that such skepticism does not reside among young people alone. Sexual scandals in the church and among prominent church leaders, treasurers embezzling funds, expensive court cases over property, denominational infighting: all these issues and more contribute to a growing cynicism among Christians and non-Christians. The reputation for integrity and compassion among Christians has been seriously damaged by such exposés in recent years.
In addition to the obvious scandals and public fighting among those who have been commanded by their Lord to love one another, now those who are often most prominently displayed as having successful ministries are being challenged. Recently Senator Grassley of Iowa has begun an inquiry into what he refers to as the lavish lives of some of the clergy of what has been referred to as the prosperity gospel -- that God will reward believers who open their hearts and wallets. Senator Grassley said in a telephone interview: "Jesus comes into the city on a simple mule, and you got people today expanding his gospel in corporate jets. Somebody ought to raise questions about is it right or wrong." From the governmental perspective, Senator Grassley is raising questions about whether tax-exempt gifts for religious purposes can be used to support lavish lifestyles.
As Christians, we have a deeper concern. How is our behavior and that of other Christians distorting people's understanding of the gospel? While it should not be a surprise to us, we learn again and again that the world is watching us and that our behavior is being measured against the gospel that we proclaim. In 2 Thessalonians 3:6-13, Paul said: "... we did not eat anyone's bread without paying for it; for 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." The deeper question is not whether we can defend our behavior as legal but whether how we live our lives creates an attractive invitation to those who hear the gospel. Mahatma Gandhi was once asked why he did not become a Christian. His response was that when he read the words of Jesus, he felt attracted to the faith, but when he saw the lives of Christians, the faith was not that attractive.
THE WORD
A couple of words about context are helpful when we approach this passage. First, while there are many questions about whether this letter was actually written by Paul, we will assume that it was at least written by the school of Paul. For our purposes, we will refer to Paul as the speaker as the canon suggests.
Second, the first couple of chapters are addressing the threat to the church from the outside. Chapter 1 addresses those who afflict believers and chapter 2 interprets those who rage against the faithful as being in rebellion against God.
When we come to our verses in chapter 3, however, the challenge to the faith is more from the behavior of those within the community of faith. It is clear from the beginning of this chapter that the focus of Paul's attention is on whatever would hinder the spread of the gospel. "Finally, brothers and sisters, pray for us, so that the word of the Lord may spread rapidly and be glorified everywhere..." Further, despite the challenges from without and from within, Paul urges his believers to remember that our real hope is in the faithfulness of God and not of other humans. "But the Lord is faithful; he will strengthen you and guard you from the evil one." In the midst of the confusion created by some of the scandals within the church and events in the world that is an important truth to stress.
From the beginning of this letter, Paul has been emphasizing the intimate connection between Christian behavior and the spread of the faith. In verses 11-12 he said, "To this end we always pray for you asking that our God will make you worthy of his call and will fulfill by his power every good resolve and work of faith, so that the name of our Lord Jesus may be glorified in you, and you in him, according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ." Now in our passage, Paul suggests that he has intentionally tried to act in a way that others might imitate (3:9b).
In contrast, however, he identifies certain believers whose behavior is not worthy of imitation. In fact, their behavior is a detriment to the spread of the gospel. Paul directs those who read his letter "to keep away from believers who are living in idleness and not according to the tradition that they received from us." Beverly Roberts Gaventa in her Interpretation volume on First and Second Thessalonians, suggests a more accurate translation would be those who are "living in disorder or being disruptive." While not being willing to share the work load of the church may be part of the issue, the word suggests more a sense of insubordination that results in disorderliness (p. 128). Later Paul suggests: "For we hear that some of you are living in idleness, mere busybodies, not doing any work." This, Dr. Gaventa suggests, is a play on words. "Literally the Greek refers to those who are 'not working but working around.' They do not do their own work but they busy themselves with the work of other people."
Christians who are acting disruptively and giving a false image of the church are commanded and exhorted in the Lord Jesus Christ "to do their work quietly and to earn their own living." While those of us who are immersed in a capitalist society immediately see economic implications in such a command, when we recall that we are talking about the Christian witness, we see other implications. If we are called to imitate Christ who was working for the reconciliation of the world, then to "earn (our) own living" as a Christian is to live out the servant ministry of our Lord in a way that builds up rather than disrupts the witness of the Body of Christ.
What would it mean for Christians to live in idleness within the church? Would it not mean that they were withholding their gifts from the church? They are people who feed off the body but do not contribute to the building up of the body. For Christians to be "mere busybodies, not doing any work," would mean that they focus their energies on critiquing others and serving themselves rather than working for the reconciliation of the world.
So what does Paul suggest that other believers do in light of this element of the church that is giving it such a poor image? It seems almost simplistic but the first thing that Paul urges is that we "not be weary in doing what is right." In this time of moral confusion, there is power in people quietly demonstrating what really gives life meaning and purpose. The hard work of being a Christian is to help the church reveal God's story by living the truth of our story. We can feel sad about the cynicism that is created by the misbehavior of some Christians but we must not doubt that the transforming power of the faith is proclaimed when someone sees another person actually living that faith with conviction.
This requires an act of faith. We are invited again and again to believe that "the Lord is faithful; he will strengthen you and guard you from the evil one." We are not charged with the responsibility of saving the church or the world. We are charged with the responsibility of being faithful disciples through which God can work God's saving grace.
CRAFTING THE SERMON
If you want to begin by noting the challenge by Senator Grassley about the lavish lifestyle of certain preachers, here is the link to that story: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/07/us/07ministers.html?_r=1&oref=slogin
The article that I was quoting about the growing negative image for Christianity is in the November 5 issue of The Presbyterian Outlook. Carlos has also provided a link to a parallel story in Time.
The thrust of such a beginning is not to delight in the failure of others but to use such news as a blatant example of how the behavior of Christians impact the proclamation of the word to the world. While I can't identify the exact source of the Mahatma Gandhi quote, I think that it is a valuable reminder of how those outside the faith seek to hold us to the standards of our own faith.
The next move would be to the scripture passage and a reminder that the verses we read are set in the larger context expressed earlier by Paul. "To this end we always pray for you asking that our God will make you worthy of his call and will fulfill by his power every good resolve and work of faith, so that the name of our Lord Jesus may be glorified in you, and you in him, according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ." Our task as Christians is to be worthy of the call to which God has called us. This move allows you to shift the attention from the stories in the headlines to the life of your own church.
The next move might be an exposition of the passage criticizing those who are idle in the church and the possibility that this includes more than inactivity. There are plenty of examples of those who focus their energy on stirring up controversy in the church and being unwilling to utilize their gifts to build up the body.
The concluding move might be to first remind people that our real hope is in God and the faithfulness of Christ. Building on that trust is the willingness to not grow weary in doing what is right. In Thom's response, you may find some examples of the power of the quiet witness that in time had a transforming effect on other people's lives.
ANOTHER VIEW
By Thom Shuman
It was one of those little blurbs off to the side of page 2 of the news, stuck over in the section about the goings-on in the lives of celebrities. But whereas the headlines of such articles usually contain words like arrested, rehab, or fined, this one mentioned "baptism"!
Seems the actor, Russell Crowe, has decided to get baptized. While in the past, he has had somewhat of a "bad boy" reputation, several years ago he married, and he and his wife now have two young children. In fact, they were married in a chapel Crowe had built (and consecrated) on his ranch in Australia, and this is where his first child was baptized, and now, when his second child is baptized, Crowe will be as well. "If I'm going to have my kids baptized," he said," I should be baptized, also."
Years ago, his parents had given him the choice as to when (or even if) he would be baptized in the faith. Given the "opportunity to testify" (Luke 21:13), they had simply spoke of what the faith meant to them, and what they hoped faith might mean to him at some point in his life. Now, in his own way, Crowe has also responded to such an opportunity, by making public what could have been a very private decision.
We all are given these opportunities to testify. Maybe, once in our lives, we can have a worldwide audience like Russell Crowe does. For most of us, our testimony is given to the members of our family, or to the neighbors on our street, or to a stranger on the street.
We do it, like Ron does, with his constant, steadfast, and unheralded work with Habitat for Humanity. For seventeen years now, he has organized a weekly workweek for members of his church, as well as being the one who pulls together the folks who put on a yearly fund-raising spaghetti dinner for Habitat.
Like Sissy, most of us do it with no one noticing. She has committed to work with a local food pantry every Wednesday evening, stocking shelves, putting together bags of groceries and other essentials for families in need, listening to the stories of those who find no one else willing to stop and take notice of their humanity. When the annual school supplies drive takes place, or Christmas gifts are needed for the children and youth in these families, you'll find Sissy testifying to the folks in her church about the opportunity given to them.
Lydia and Millen, typical teenagers, could be at the mall or texting their friends. But when it is time for us to serve a meal for the homeless downtown, they are the first to sign up. When kids in the elementary schools need tutoring, they are there. When the Youth Director asks for volunteers to go and see one of the shut-ins at the Alzheimer's Center, they always raise their hands. They are willing to respond to those opportunities to testify about God's hope, God's presence, and God's love, because when they immigrated here from Ethiopia seven years ago, folks testified this good news to them.
We all have those opportunities to testify -- every day it seems. Like St. Francis said, sometimes we might use words.
ILLUSTRATIONS
Talking about people who are watching and imitating our behaviors, there is a great country western song put to a video on:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oqYUns2YQik
It's about a young boy watching and imitating his dad. We used it in worship with powerful results.
* * *
David Kinnaman is the author of a newly released book, unChristian, which describes research concerning the growing dissonance between young Americans and Christianity. He commented on the gap between how teens live and what they learn at church. "Born again teens are four times more likely to learn about spirituality online than they are to receive helpful perspective and insight about technology at church. Moreover, although their world is inundated with choices related to media, movies, television, technology, art, music, leisure, and health, most churchgoing teens tell us they rarely recall learning anything helpful on these topics in church. Perhaps as a result, many teens grow up concluding that Christianity is boring, old-fashioned and out of touch with reality. Rather than simply giving teens do's and don'ts, effective youth ministry should help them become engaged, thoughtful Christ followers who have sophisticated, biblical responses to life."
* * *
More stats about American teens and spirituality from The Barna Group:
The most common teen spiritual activity -- like that of adults -- is prayer. Overall, three-quarters of teenagers (72%) say they pray in a typical week. The next most common activity is attending a worship service at a church -- a form of engagement embraced by half (48%) of today's teenagers. Roughly one-third of teenagers said they attend Sunday school (35%), attend youth group (33%), participate in a small group (32%), and read the Bible (31%).
Compared to American adults, teenagers are more likely to report engagement in corporate forms of worship and spiritual expression -- such as attending church, as well as participating in small groups, youth groups, and Sunday school. However, young people are less likely than their parents to pray (72% of teens, 83% of adults) or read the Bible in a typical week (31% of teens, 41% of adults).
However, the research raises caution that teenagers' prodigious appetites for spiritual activity may be waning. Since a decade ago, teenagers are less likely to pray (down from 81% in the mid-nineties), to attend worship services (down from 53%), and to read from the Bible on their own time (down from 37%).
* * *
Robert Burns' famous poem, "To a Louse," contains a subtitle that records his moment of poetic inspiration: "On Seeing One On A Lady's Bonnet, At Church." According to Burns lore, the poet was sitting behind a rather elegantly attired woman when he saw the insect crawling across her bonnet. It led him to reflect on the things others see when they look at us that we may not even be aware of.
The closing stanza of the poem is famous:
O wad some Power the giftie gie us
To see oursels as ithers see us!
It wad frae mony a blunder free us,
An' foolish notion:
What airs in dress an' gait wad lea'e us,
An' ev'n devotion!
The full text of the poem may be found here:
http://www.robertburns.org/works/97.shtml
***
The Stephen Wise Synagogue in New York City has just embarked on a project to create a new Torah. While this is a huge and costly undertaking for a Jewish congregation, there's nothing especially remarkable about that -- except that this particular synagogue is inviting all its members to participate.
There are strict rules connected with the transcribing of a new Torah. In order that the letters may be formed beautifully and with complete accuracy, typically only trained scribes, or sofers, are permitted to do the work. The Stephen Wise Synagogue is breaking this tradition. The first letter -- a bet, the first letter of a word translated "In the beginning," from Genesis 1:1 -- was written by a 92-year-old woman, Helen Margalith, under the watchful eye of Neil H. Yerman, a scribe. She did it holding a quill pen, using ritually blessed black gall ink, according to tradition. Other letters will be written by ordinary congregation members: men and women, boys and girls of all ages -- perhaps as many as 2,000 people in all. In the case of people who do not have a steady hand, the scribe will outline the letters for others to fill in.
While ordinary Jews commonly make contributions to cover the cost of the scribe's services -- even paying for individual letters or words -- to have congregation members actually take pen in hand and write the letters is quite unusual, and perhaps unprecedented. "We could just have hired a scribe to work on it in a studio, and present it to us, but that wouldn't allow the community to participate in the values of Torah," Senior Rabbi Ammiel Hirsch said.
It is a sort of public witness. God's people will see to the preservation and promulgation of their own scriptures themselves, rather than paying a professional to do it.
Click here for the full story.
***
Jesus said "You shall be my witnesses," and not "You shall be my marketers."
Almost no one in America could fail to recognize that marketing -- both its language and culture -- has become an epidemic. And that, more unfortunately, it has become a significant means of "promoting" the church and the gospel in American Christianity, with billboards, soundbites, slogans, and come-ons. The language and practice of marketing so saturates the Christian world, it is difficult to remember a time when it was not so fashionable.
In Jesus' day, marketing was not the rage, but still it was something Jesus prohibited on many occasions. Take his dramatic healing of a leper, after which he sternly commanded him, "See that you say nothing to anyone!" (Mark 1:44). Scholars call this repeated behavior "the messianic secret..."
When the church starts marketing itself or the gospel, something odd is taking place. It conjures up the idea that the church is offering them some benefit -- all well and good. But it also implicitly suggests that when they "buy" or consume that good, the church somehow receives some benefit. That's the assumption of the marketplace: it's an exchange of value for goods and services....
Should it surprise us that in this era, pastors increasingly think of themselves as "managers," "leaders," and "CEOs" of "dynamic and growing congregations," rather than as shepherds, teachers, and servants of people who need to know God?"
-- Mark Galli, "Do I Have a Witness?" Christianity Today, October 2007, posted on www.christianitytoday.com, 10/4/07
***
From "Sermons We See," a poem by Edgar Guest:
I'd rather see a sermon
than hear one any day;
I'd rather one should walk with me
than merely tell the way.
The eye's a better pupil
and more willing than the ear,
Fine counsel is confusing,
but example's always clear;
And the best of all the preachers
are the men who live their creeds,
For to see good put in action
is what everybody needs.
-- from Collected Verse of Edgar Guest (New York: Buccaneer Books, 1976), p. 599
Full poem at:
http://www.appleseeds.org/Guest_Sermons.htm
***
Only 40% of Americans can name more than four of the Ten Commandments, and a scant half can cite any of the four authors of the gospels. Twelve percent believe Joan of Arc was Noah's wife. This failure to recall the specifics of our Christian heritage may be further evidence of our nation's educational decline, but it probably doesn't matter all that much in spiritual or political terms. Here is a statistic that does matter: Three-quarters of Americans believe the Bible teaches that "God helps those who help themselves." That is, three out of four Americans believe that this uber-American idea, a notion at the core of our current individualist politics and culture, which was in fact uttered by Ben Franklin, actually appears in Holy Scripture. The thing is, not only is Franklin's wisdom not biblical; it's counter-biblical. Few ideas could be further from the gospel message, with its radical summons to love of neighbor. On this essential matter, most Americans -- most American Christians -- are simply wrong, as if 75% of American scientists believed that Newton proved gravity causes apples to fly up.
-- Bill McKibben, "The Christian Paradox," in Harper's magazine, 7/27/05
***
I no longer think Hollywood stars are terribly important. They are uniformly pleasant, friendly people, and they treat me better than I deserve to be treated. But a man or woman who makes a huge wage for memorizing lines and reciting them in front of a camera is no longer my idea of a shining star we should all look up to.
How can a man or woman who makes an eight-figure wage and lives in insane luxury really be a star in today's world, if by a "star" we mean someone bright and powerful and attractive as a role model?
Real stars are not riding around in the backs of limousines or in Porsches or getting trained in yoga or Pilates and eating only raw fruit while they have Vietnamese girls do their nails. They can be interesting, nice people, but they are not heroes to me any longer....
A real star, the kind who haunts my memory night and day, is the US soldier in Baghdad who saw a little girl playing with a piece of unexploded ordnance on a street near where he was guarding a station. He pushed her aside and threw himself on it just as it exploded. He left a family desolate in California and a little girl alive in Baghdad....
We put couples with incomes of $100 million a year on the covers of our magazines. The noncoms and officers who barely scrape by on military pay but stand on guard in Afghanistan and Iraq and on ships and in submarines and near the Arctic Circle are anonymous as they live and die.
I am no longer comfortable being a part of the system that has such poor values, and I do not want to perpetuate those values by pretending that who is eating at Morton's is a big subject.
There are plenty of other stars in the American firmament. The policemen and women who go off on patrol in South Central and have no idea if they will return alive. The orderlies and paramedics who bring in people who have been in terrible accidents and prepare them for surgery. The teachers and nurses who throw their whole spirits into caring for autistic children. The kind men and women who work in hospices and in cancer wards.
-- Comedian Ben Stein, "Monday Night at Morton's: How Can Someone Who Lives in Insane Luxury Be a Star in Today's World?"
WORSHIP RESOURCE
By Thom Shuman
Call to Worship
Leader: This day! This day we will give thanks to God,
who cradles us in the waters of baptism.
People: This day! This day we will trust in the One
who has saved us, who strengthens us.
Leader: This day! This day we dance to the fountain of life,
drinking deeply of salvation's goodness.
People: This day! This day we praise our God for every blessing
telling everyone of God's amazing grace
in our lives and in our world.
Leader: This day! This day we sing God's praises
testifying to all creation of our God.
People: This day! This day our songs are filled with joy,
for God is with us,
this day and in all the days to come!
Prayer of the Day
Creating God:
you grasp chaos
and shake it into
new heavens brimming with light,
new earth teeming with life.
You delight in your children so much
that before we finish our sentences,
you have heard our hearts;
before we whisper our dreams,
you fill our needs.
Word of God,
you shape our lips
and loosen our tongues
that we might witness
to your kingdom
where enemies take naps together;
where meat-eaters become vegetarians.
Spirit of Wisdom:
open us,
that we might trust
without fear;
fill us,
that we might discern
our call to faithfulness;
teach us,
that we would make known
our thanks to the farthest
shores of the universe.
God in Community, Holy in One,
hear us this day and every day
as we pray as Jesus has taught us, saying,
Our Father...
Call to Reconciliation
God does not take our sins and stick them up on
a shelf in order to remember them -- God forgets
them! God does not hold them against us, but forgives
us! Join me as we pray to the One who delights in
us as we say,
Unison Prayer of Confession
We confess that our lives weaken us, Strengthening
God. We do not exercise our faith as we should, and
so fatigue easily. We see houses as investment property,
not as homes built on love, hope, and dreams. We
whimper our petty complaints about our friends and
families, rather than shouting our hosannas to heaven
for the gift of their lives.
You are our hope, Tender God, so forgive us. Create
in us new hearts, and fill us with new energy to serve
our sisters and brothers, bringing them to the deep wells
of salvation, where they can fill their parched souls, even
as we have been led to them by Jesus Christ, our Lord
and Savior.
(silence is observed)
Assurance of Pardon
Leader: Rather than remaining white hot, God's anger
melts into streams of living water, washing us
clean of our sins and refreshing our spirits
with hope and joy.
People: This day! This day we give thanks to the
God who is our strength and our salvation.
Praise God! Amen.
CHILDREN'S SERMON
Be an example
Object: a loaf of bread
2 Thessalonians 3:6-13
I am going to the store today. When I go to the store, I buy all kinds of things I need for my family. I get milk, cereal, fruit, and bread, like this. (hold up the bread) Before I can leave the store with my bread, I have to pay for it, right? I take it to the checkout counter and give the person my money. I get the bread and the store gets the money. That's what you do when you buy something.
Would it be okay just to take it? What if I stuck it in my coat and just walked out with it? That would be wrong. That's stealing, and it's not right. But who cares? What's the big problem with stealing? Why is it important to do the right thing? (get some of their ideas)
Here's one reason: People made that bread. They should be paid for it, because that's how they make their living. Here's another reason: It's against the law to steal. I could be arrested for taking something without paying for it.
Our lesson today is about this very thing. The apostle Paul tells us that he never ate anyone's bread without paying for it. Paul believed that we should live fairly with one another. He didn't want to be a burden by making other people take care of him -- he wanted to do his part to help. He also wanted to be an example to the people watching him. He taught about God and Jesus. He knew that people would learn the most about God if he lived the way God wanted him to live. What kind of teacher would he be if he did the things that God said were wrong?
It's a wonderful thing to be an example. If you know the right things to do, show people. Don't just say one thing but do another. If you want people to know about God's love, show them. Be an example of the good things God has done. People around us learn more by what we do than by what we say.
Prayer: God, help us be examples to those around us. Let others see in us the life-changing power of your love. Amen.
* * * * * * * * * * * * *
The Immediate Word, November 18, 2007, issue.
Copyright 2007 by CSS Publishing Company, Inc., Lima, Ohio.
All rights reserved. Subscribers to The Immediate Word service may print and use this material as it was intended in sermons and in worship and classroom settings only. No additional permission is required from the publisher for such use by subscribers only. Inquiries should be addressed to permissions@csspub.com or to Permissions, CSS Publishing Company, Inc., 517 South Main Street, Lima, Ohio 45804.
As Others See Us
By Stephen McCutchan
2 Thessalonians 3:6-13
THE WORLD
The Los Angeles Times (October 13, 2007) reported that a decade ago an overwhelming majority of non-Christians, including people between the ages of 16-29, had a favorable opinion of Christianity's role in society. Today, just 16% of non-Christians in that age group had a "good impression" of the religion. These non-Christian young people have concluded that present-day Christianity is hypocritical -- saying one thing and doing another. That would be bad enough but the same poll discovered that 52% of Christians of the same age also shared that view.
Other studies have suggested that such skepticism does not reside among young people alone. Sexual scandals in the church and among prominent church leaders, treasurers embezzling funds, expensive court cases over property, denominational infighting: all these issues and more contribute to a growing cynicism among Christians and non-Christians. The reputation for integrity and compassion among Christians has been seriously damaged by such exposés in recent years.
In addition to the obvious scandals and public fighting among those who have been commanded by their Lord to love one another, now those who are often most prominently displayed as having successful ministries are being challenged. Recently Senator Grassley of Iowa has begun an inquiry into what he refers to as the lavish lives of some of the clergy of what has been referred to as the prosperity gospel -- that God will reward believers who open their hearts and wallets. Senator Grassley said in a telephone interview: "Jesus comes into the city on a simple mule, and you got people today expanding his gospel in corporate jets. Somebody ought to raise questions about is it right or wrong." From the governmental perspective, Senator Grassley is raising questions about whether tax-exempt gifts for religious purposes can be used to support lavish lifestyles.
As Christians, we have a deeper concern. How is our behavior and that of other Christians distorting people's understanding of the gospel? While it should not be a surprise to us, we learn again and again that the world is watching us and that our behavior is being measured against the gospel that we proclaim. In 2 Thessalonians 3:6-13, Paul said: "... we did not eat anyone's bread without paying for it; for 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." The deeper question is not whether we can defend our behavior as legal but whether how we live our lives creates an attractive invitation to those who hear the gospel. Mahatma Gandhi was once asked why he did not become a Christian. His response was that when he read the words of Jesus, he felt attracted to the faith, but when he saw the lives of Christians, the faith was not that attractive.
THE WORD
A couple of words about context are helpful when we approach this passage. First, while there are many questions about whether this letter was actually written by Paul, we will assume that it was at least written by the school of Paul. For our purposes, we will refer to Paul as the speaker as the canon suggests.
Second, the first couple of chapters are addressing the threat to the church from the outside. Chapter 1 addresses those who afflict believers and chapter 2 interprets those who rage against the faithful as being in rebellion against God.
When we come to our verses in chapter 3, however, the challenge to the faith is more from the behavior of those within the community of faith. It is clear from the beginning of this chapter that the focus of Paul's attention is on whatever would hinder the spread of the gospel. "Finally, brothers and sisters, pray for us, so that the word of the Lord may spread rapidly and be glorified everywhere..." Further, despite the challenges from without and from within, Paul urges his believers to remember that our real hope is in the faithfulness of God and not of other humans. "But the Lord is faithful; he will strengthen you and guard you from the evil one." In the midst of the confusion created by some of the scandals within the church and events in the world that is an important truth to stress.
From the beginning of this letter, Paul has been emphasizing the intimate connection between Christian behavior and the spread of the faith. In verses 11-12 he said, "To this end we always pray for you asking that our God will make you worthy of his call and will fulfill by his power every good resolve and work of faith, so that the name of our Lord Jesus may be glorified in you, and you in him, according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ." Now in our passage, Paul suggests that he has intentionally tried to act in a way that others might imitate (3:9b).
In contrast, however, he identifies certain believers whose behavior is not worthy of imitation. In fact, their behavior is a detriment to the spread of the gospel. Paul directs those who read his letter "to keep away from believers who are living in idleness and not according to the tradition that they received from us." Beverly Roberts Gaventa in her Interpretation volume on First and Second Thessalonians, suggests a more accurate translation would be those who are "living in disorder or being disruptive." While not being willing to share the work load of the church may be part of the issue, the word suggests more a sense of insubordination that results in disorderliness (p. 128). Later Paul suggests: "For we hear that some of you are living in idleness, mere busybodies, not doing any work." This, Dr. Gaventa suggests, is a play on words. "Literally the Greek refers to those who are 'not working but working around.' They do not do their own work but they busy themselves with the work of other people."
Christians who are acting disruptively and giving a false image of the church are commanded and exhorted in the Lord Jesus Christ "to do their work quietly and to earn their own living." While those of us who are immersed in a capitalist society immediately see economic implications in such a command, when we recall that we are talking about the Christian witness, we see other implications. If we are called to imitate Christ who was working for the reconciliation of the world, then to "earn (our) own living" as a Christian is to live out the servant ministry of our Lord in a way that builds up rather than disrupts the witness of the Body of Christ.
What would it mean for Christians to live in idleness within the church? Would it not mean that they were withholding their gifts from the church? They are people who feed off the body but do not contribute to the building up of the body. For Christians to be "mere busybodies, not doing any work," would mean that they focus their energies on critiquing others and serving themselves rather than working for the reconciliation of the world.
So what does Paul suggest that other believers do in light of this element of the church that is giving it such a poor image? It seems almost simplistic but the first thing that Paul urges is that we "not be weary in doing what is right." In this time of moral confusion, there is power in people quietly demonstrating what really gives life meaning and purpose. The hard work of being a Christian is to help the church reveal God's story by living the truth of our story. We can feel sad about the cynicism that is created by the misbehavior of some Christians but we must not doubt that the transforming power of the faith is proclaimed when someone sees another person actually living that faith with conviction.
This requires an act of faith. We are invited again and again to believe that "the Lord is faithful; he will strengthen you and guard you from the evil one." We are not charged with the responsibility of saving the church or the world. We are charged with the responsibility of being faithful disciples through which God can work God's saving grace.
CRAFTING THE SERMON
If you want to begin by noting the challenge by Senator Grassley about the lavish lifestyle of certain preachers, here is the link to that story: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/07/us/07ministers.html?_r=1&oref=slogin
The article that I was quoting about the growing negative image for Christianity is in the November 5 issue of The Presbyterian Outlook. Carlos has also provided a link to a parallel story in Time.
The thrust of such a beginning is not to delight in the failure of others but to use such news as a blatant example of how the behavior of Christians impact the proclamation of the word to the world. While I can't identify the exact source of the Mahatma Gandhi quote, I think that it is a valuable reminder of how those outside the faith seek to hold us to the standards of our own faith.
The next move would be to the scripture passage and a reminder that the verses we read are set in the larger context expressed earlier by Paul. "To this end we always pray for you asking that our God will make you worthy of his call and will fulfill by his power every good resolve and work of faith, so that the name of our Lord Jesus may be glorified in you, and you in him, according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ." Our task as Christians is to be worthy of the call to which God has called us. This move allows you to shift the attention from the stories in the headlines to the life of your own church.
The next move might be an exposition of the passage criticizing those who are idle in the church and the possibility that this includes more than inactivity. There are plenty of examples of those who focus their energy on stirring up controversy in the church and being unwilling to utilize their gifts to build up the body.
The concluding move might be to first remind people that our real hope is in God and the faithfulness of Christ. Building on that trust is the willingness to not grow weary in doing what is right. In Thom's response, you may find some examples of the power of the quiet witness that in time had a transforming effect on other people's lives.
ANOTHER VIEW
By Thom Shuman
It was one of those little blurbs off to the side of page 2 of the news, stuck over in the section about the goings-on in the lives of celebrities. But whereas the headlines of such articles usually contain words like arrested, rehab, or fined, this one mentioned "baptism"!
Seems the actor, Russell Crowe, has decided to get baptized. While in the past, he has had somewhat of a "bad boy" reputation, several years ago he married, and he and his wife now have two young children. In fact, they were married in a chapel Crowe had built (and consecrated) on his ranch in Australia, and this is where his first child was baptized, and now, when his second child is baptized, Crowe will be as well. "If I'm going to have my kids baptized," he said," I should be baptized, also."
Years ago, his parents had given him the choice as to when (or even if) he would be baptized in the faith. Given the "opportunity to testify" (Luke 21:13), they had simply spoke of what the faith meant to them, and what they hoped faith might mean to him at some point in his life. Now, in his own way, Crowe has also responded to such an opportunity, by making public what could have been a very private decision.
We all are given these opportunities to testify. Maybe, once in our lives, we can have a worldwide audience like Russell Crowe does. For most of us, our testimony is given to the members of our family, or to the neighbors on our street, or to a stranger on the street.
We do it, like Ron does, with his constant, steadfast, and unheralded work with Habitat for Humanity. For seventeen years now, he has organized a weekly workweek for members of his church, as well as being the one who pulls together the folks who put on a yearly fund-raising spaghetti dinner for Habitat.
Like Sissy, most of us do it with no one noticing. She has committed to work with a local food pantry every Wednesday evening, stocking shelves, putting together bags of groceries and other essentials for families in need, listening to the stories of those who find no one else willing to stop and take notice of their humanity. When the annual school supplies drive takes place, or Christmas gifts are needed for the children and youth in these families, you'll find Sissy testifying to the folks in her church about the opportunity given to them.
Lydia and Millen, typical teenagers, could be at the mall or texting their friends. But when it is time for us to serve a meal for the homeless downtown, they are the first to sign up. When kids in the elementary schools need tutoring, they are there. When the Youth Director asks for volunteers to go and see one of the shut-ins at the Alzheimer's Center, they always raise their hands. They are willing to respond to those opportunities to testify about God's hope, God's presence, and God's love, because when they immigrated here from Ethiopia seven years ago, folks testified this good news to them.
We all have those opportunities to testify -- every day it seems. Like St. Francis said, sometimes we might use words.
ILLUSTRATIONS
Talking about people who are watching and imitating our behaviors, there is a great country western song put to a video on:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oqYUns2YQik
It's about a young boy watching and imitating his dad. We used it in worship with powerful results.
* * *
David Kinnaman is the author of a newly released book, unChristian, which describes research concerning the growing dissonance between young Americans and Christianity. He commented on the gap between how teens live and what they learn at church. "Born again teens are four times more likely to learn about spirituality online than they are to receive helpful perspective and insight about technology at church. Moreover, although their world is inundated with choices related to media, movies, television, technology, art, music, leisure, and health, most churchgoing teens tell us they rarely recall learning anything helpful on these topics in church. Perhaps as a result, many teens grow up concluding that Christianity is boring, old-fashioned and out of touch with reality. Rather than simply giving teens do's and don'ts, effective youth ministry should help them become engaged, thoughtful Christ followers who have sophisticated, biblical responses to life."
* * *
More stats about American teens and spirituality from The Barna Group:
The most common teen spiritual activity -- like that of adults -- is prayer. Overall, three-quarters of teenagers (72%) say they pray in a typical week. The next most common activity is attending a worship service at a church -- a form of engagement embraced by half (48%) of today's teenagers. Roughly one-third of teenagers said they attend Sunday school (35%), attend youth group (33%), participate in a small group (32%), and read the Bible (31%).
Compared to American adults, teenagers are more likely to report engagement in corporate forms of worship and spiritual expression -- such as attending church, as well as participating in small groups, youth groups, and Sunday school. However, young people are less likely than their parents to pray (72% of teens, 83% of adults) or read the Bible in a typical week (31% of teens, 41% of adults).
However, the research raises caution that teenagers' prodigious appetites for spiritual activity may be waning. Since a decade ago, teenagers are less likely to pray (down from 81% in the mid-nineties), to attend worship services (down from 53%), and to read from the Bible on their own time (down from 37%).
* * *
Robert Burns' famous poem, "To a Louse," contains a subtitle that records his moment of poetic inspiration: "On Seeing One On A Lady's Bonnet, At Church." According to Burns lore, the poet was sitting behind a rather elegantly attired woman when he saw the insect crawling across her bonnet. It led him to reflect on the things others see when they look at us that we may not even be aware of.
The closing stanza of the poem is famous:
O wad some Power the giftie gie us
To see oursels as ithers see us!
It wad frae mony a blunder free us,
An' foolish notion:
What airs in dress an' gait wad lea'e us,
An' ev'n devotion!
The full text of the poem may be found here:
http://www.robertburns.org/works/97.shtml
***
The Stephen Wise Synagogue in New York City has just embarked on a project to create a new Torah. While this is a huge and costly undertaking for a Jewish congregation, there's nothing especially remarkable about that -- except that this particular synagogue is inviting all its members to participate.
There are strict rules connected with the transcribing of a new Torah. In order that the letters may be formed beautifully and with complete accuracy, typically only trained scribes, or sofers, are permitted to do the work. The Stephen Wise Synagogue is breaking this tradition. The first letter -- a bet, the first letter of a word translated "In the beginning," from Genesis 1:1 -- was written by a 92-year-old woman, Helen Margalith, under the watchful eye of Neil H. Yerman, a scribe. She did it holding a quill pen, using ritually blessed black gall ink, according to tradition. Other letters will be written by ordinary congregation members: men and women, boys and girls of all ages -- perhaps as many as 2,000 people in all. In the case of people who do not have a steady hand, the scribe will outline the letters for others to fill in.
While ordinary Jews commonly make contributions to cover the cost of the scribe's services -- even paying for individual letters or words -- to have congregation members actually take pen in hand and write the letters is quite unusual, and perhaps unprecedented. "We could just have hired a scribe to work on it in a studio, and present it to us, but that wouldn't allow the community to participate in the values of Torah," Senior Rabbi Ammiel Hirsch said.
It is a sort of public witness. God's people will see to the preservation and promulgation of their own scriptures themselves, rather than paying a professional to do it.
Click here for the full story.
***
Jesus said "You shall be my witnesses," and not "You shall be my marketers."
Almost no one in America could fail to recognize that marketing -- both its language and culture -- has become an epidemic. And that, more unfortunately, it has become a significant means of "promoting" the church and the gospel in American Christianity, with billboards, soundbites, slogans, and come-ons. The language and practice of marketing so saturates the Christian world, it is difficult to remember a time when it was not so fashionable.
In Jesus' day, marketing was not the rage, but still it was something Jesus prohibited on many occasions. Take his dramatic healing of a leper, after which he sternly commanded him, "See that you say nothing to anyone!" (Mark 1:44). Scholars call this repeated behavior "the messianic secret..."
When the church starts marketing itself or the gospel, something odd is taking place. It conjures up the idea that the church is offering them some benefit -- all well and good. But it also implicitly suggests that when they "buy" or consume that good, the church somehow receives some benefit. That's the assumption of the marketplace: it's an exchange of value for goods and services....
Should it surprise us that in this era, pastors increasingly think of themselves as "managers," "leaders," and "CEOs" of "dynamic and growing congregations," rather than as shepherds, teachers, and servants of people who need to know God?"
-- Mark Galli, "Do I Have a Witness?" Christianity Today, October 2007, posted on www.christianitytoday.com, 10/4/07
***
From "Sermons We See," a poem by Edgar Guest:
I'd rather see a sermon
than hear one any day;
I'd rather one should walk with me
than merely tell the way.
The eye's a better pupil
and more willing than the ear,
Fine counsel is confusing,
but example's always clear;
And the best of all the preachers
are the men who live their creeds,
For to see good put in action
is what everybody needs.
-- from Collected Verse of Edgar Guest (New York: Buccaneer Books, 1976), p. 599
Full poem at:
http://www.appleseeds.org/Guest_Sermons.htm
***
Only 40% of Americans can name more than four of the Ten Commandments, and a scant half can cite any of the four authors of the gospels. Twelve percent believe Joan of Arc was Noah's wife. This failure to recall the specifics of our Christian heritage may be further evidence of our nation's educational decline, but it probably doesn't matter all that much in spiritual or political terms. Here is a statistic that does matter: Three-quarters of Americans believe the Bible teaches that "God helps those who help themselves." That is, three out of four Americans believe that this uber-American idea, a notion at the core of our current individualist politics and culture, which was in fact uttered by Ben Franklin, actually appears in Holy Scripture. The thing is, not only is Franklin's wisdom not biblical; it's counter-biblical. Few ideas could be further from the gospel message, with its radical summons to love of neighbor. On this essential matter, most Americans -- most American Christians -- are simply wrong, as if 75% of American scientists believed that Newton proved gravity causes apples to fly up.
-- Bill McKibben, "The Christian Paradox," in Harper's magazine, 7/27/05
***
I no longer think Hollywood stars are terribly important. They are uniformly pleasant, friendly people, and they treat me better than I deserve to be treated. But a man or woman who makes a huge wage for memorizing lines and reciting them in front of a camera is no longer my idea of a shining star we should all look up to.
How can a man or woman who makes an eight-figure wage and lives in insane luxury really be a star in today's world, if by a "star" we mean someone bright and powerful and attractive as a role model?
Real stars are not riding around in the backs of limousines or in Porsches or getting trained in yoga or Pilates and eating only raw fruit while they have Vietnamese girls do their nails. They can be interesting, nice people, but they are not heroes to me any longer....
A real star, the kind who haunts my memory night and day, is the US soldier in Baghdad who saw a little girl playing with a piece of unexploded ordnance on a street near where he was guarding a station. He pushed her aside and threw himself on it just as it exploded. He left a family desolate in California and a little girl alive in Baghdad....
We put couples with incomes of $100 million a year on the covers of our magazines. The noncoms and officers who barely scrape by on military pay but stand on guard in Afghanistan and Iraq and on ships and in submarines and near the Arctic Circle are anonymous as they live and die.
I am no longer comfortable being a part of the system that has such poor values, and I do not want to perpetuate those values by pretending that who is eating at Morton's is a big subject.
There are plenty of other stars in the American firmament. The policemen and women who go off on patrol in South Central and have no idea if they will return alive. The orderlies and paramedics who bring in people who have been in terrible accidents and prepare them for surgery. The teachers and nurses who throw their whole spirits into caring for autistic children. The kind men and women who work in hospices and in cancer wards.
-- Comedian Ben Stein, "Monday Night at Morton's: How Can Someone Who Lives in Insane Luxury Be a Star in Today's World?"
WORSHIP RESOURCE
By Thom Shuman
Call to Worship
Leader: This day! This day we will give thanks to God,
who cradles us in the waters of baptism.
People: This day! This day we will trust in the One
who has saved us, who strengthens us.
Leader: This day! This day we dance to the fountain of life,
drinking deeply of salvation's goodness.
People: This day! This day we praise our God for every blessing
telling everyone of God's amazing grace
in our lives and in our world.
Leader: This day! This day we sing God's praises
testifying to all creation of our God.
People: This day! This day our songs are filled with joy,
for God is with us,
this day and in all the days to come!
Prayer of the Day
Creating God:
you grasp chaos
and shake it into
new heavens brimming with light,
new earth teeming with life.
You delight in your children so much
that before we finish our sentences,
you have heard our hearts;
before we whisper our dreams,
you fill our needs.
Word of God,
you shape our lips
and loosen our tongues
that we might witness
to your kingdom
where enemies take naps together;
where meat-eaters become vegetarians.
Spirit of Wisdom:
open us,
that we might trust
without fear;
fill us,
that we might discern
our call to faithfulness;
teach us,
that we would make known
our thanks to the farthest
shores of the universe.
God in Community, Holy in One,
hear us this day and every day
as we pray as Jesus has taught us, saying,
Our Father...
Call to Reconciliation
God does not take our sins and stick them up on
a shelf in order to remember them -- God forgets
them! God does not hold them against us, but forgives
us! Join me as we pray to the One who delights in
us as we say,
Unison Prayer of Confession
We confess that our lives weaken us, Strengthening
God. We do not exercise our faith as we should, and
so fatigue easily. We see houses as investment property,
not as homes built on love, hope, and dreams. We
whimper our petty complaints about our friends and
families, rather than shouting our hosannas to heaven
for the gift of their lives.
You are our hope, Tender God, so forgive us. Create
in us new hearts, and fill us with new energy to serve
our sisters and brothers, bringing them to the deep wells
of salvation, where they can fill their parched souls, even
as we have been led to them by Jesus Christ, our Lord
and Savior.
(silence is observed)
Assurance of Pardon
Leader: Rather than remaining white hot, God's anger
melts into streams of living water, washing us
clean of our sins and refreshing our spirits
with hope and joy.
People: This day! This day we give thanks to the
God who is our strength and our salvation.
Praise God! Amen.
CHILDREN'S SERMON
Be an example
Object: a loaf of bread
2 Thessalonians 3:6-13
I am going to the store today. When I go to the store, I buy all kinds of things I need for my family. I get milk, cereal, fruit, and bread, like this. (hold up the bread) Before I can leave the store with my bread, I have to pay for it, right? I take it to the checkout counter and give the person my money. I get the bread and the store gets the money. That's what you do when you buy something.
Would it be okay just to take it? What if I stuck it in my coat and just walked out with it? That would be wrong. That's stealing, and it's not right. But who cares? What's the big problem with stealing? Why is it important to do the right thing? (get some of their ideas)
Here's one reason: People made that bread. They should be paid for it, because that's how they make their living. Here's another reason: It's against the law to steal. I could be arrested for taking something without paying for it.
Our lesson today is about this very thing. The apostle Paul tells us that he never ate anyone's bread without paying for it. Paul believed that we should live fairly with one another. He didn't want to be a burden by making other people take care of him -- he wanted to do his part to help. He also wanted to be an example to the people watching him. He taught about God and Jesus. He knew that people would learn the most about God if he lived the way God wanted him to live. What kind of teacher would he be if he did the things that God said were wrong?
It's a wonderful thing to be an example. If you know the right things to do, show people. Don't just say one thing but do another. If you want people to know about God's love, show them. Be an example of the good things God has done. People around us learn more by what we do than by what we say.
Prayer: God, help us be examples to those around us. Let others see in us the life-changing power of your love. Amen.
* * * * * * * * * * * * *
The Immediate Word, November 18, 2007, issue.
Copyright 2007 by CSS Publishing Company, Inc., Lima, Ohio.
All rights reserved. Subscribers to The Immediate Word service may print and use this material as it was intended in sermons and in worship and classroom settings only. No additional permission is required from the publisher for such use by subscribers only. Inquiries should be addressed to permissions@csspub.com or to Permissions, CSS Publishing Company, Inc., 517 South Main Street, Lima, Ohio 45804.
