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Our reading from 2 Thessalonians today is one that has often been grossly misinterpreted over the years. Many have chosen to hear the words, “anyone unwilling to work should not eat” and nothing else. This verse has been used as justification for the Prosperity Gospel that has often been popular in America. This the idea that the harder you work the more good God will pour down on you, which anyone who has served in AmeriCorps or the Episcopal Service Corps can tell you is simply not true. Oddly enough this verse was also included in the constitution for the USSR.
I am here today to tell you that both those on the side of hardcore Capitalism and Communism are wrong. We have to look at the entire passage of 2 Thessalonians today to understand what our reading is truly saying. We have to understand it in its own context.
When I think of this passage from 2 Thessalonians, a different story comes to mind that helps frame what this Scripture is actually speaking. Many years ago, I worked with a young man, not much older than I am now. We’ll call him Sammy. Sammy lives with some form of mental disability, though I’m not sure exactly what his diagnosis would be. That limited him in his prospects, both in the world and in the church.
Yet Sammy wanted to serve. Sammy wanted to help worship. So we found a way to make that possible. We made Sammy an acolyte in the church. We made sure all the tasks he was given were things he could do. For more difficult roles we would have someone there next to him, often me, just to tell him what needed to be done and when.
Sammy always had a smile on his face, whether walking down the aisle or standing at the altar. He was happy because he was serving the Lord. He was happy because he was doing the work to praise God and to move closer to Him.
Sammy had so many reasons he could have just sat on the side and done nothing, but he didn’t. He wanted to help. He wanted to do his part, however big or however small, to help serve the Lord.
That is what 2 Thessalonians is calling us to do, so let me now lay out the context for this passage. It is important for us to understand this context because it is as alien to us 2000 years+ away from the start of our Faith just as our world would be completely inconceivable to the early Christians following on the Way.
You see, many in the early church thought the world would be ending soon. For them, Jesus the Messiah’s coming and Ascension were signs that He was getting ready to come back to gather all believers, and that His return would be imminent, would be soon. This is part of the reason for the fervor of the Apostles in spreading the Gospel. If people didn’t hear the Good News now, then they never would, and then it would be too late. They could not have even conceived that the world, and our spreading the Good News, would last all these millennia later.
The foreseeable problem here is that some began to think, ‘what is the point of doing anything if the world will end soon?’ It was these people who stopped working. They stopped doing the work God called on them to do.
2 Thessalonians is trying to point out this isn’t the way to go about things. For one, we don’t know when the end of the world will come. We are called to be prepared not matter what happens and no matter when the timing. Part of that preparation is continuing to do the work God has given us to do, mainly to make God’s presence known to the world through word and deed.
We should note too that 2 Thessalonians doesn’t say you only get to eat as hard as you work. It doesn’t say you can’t eat if you have been working hard but still got laid off. It isn’t even saying you can’t eat if it’s been a year of submitting résumé’s and you still don’t have work. 2 Thessalonians is merely stating that to be part of the community, you need to take part in the community. It doesn’t matter how hard you work or how big or small your role is. We are all called to have a place in the life and work of our Christian community.
As I’ve learned more about Psychology through course work in Pastoral Counseling, I’ve found myself drawn to the Adlerian idea that at our core all of us are looking to do work that is meaningful to the community and to the rest of the human race. We are looking for this meaning and purpose because it is part of what God intends for us to do. That is the lesson we learn from 2 Thessalonians. It is the truth I saw in the happiness in Sammy’s smile. It is what keeps me striving to spread God’s Word in my life’s service to the church. I hope it is what motivates you to be part of our work as a community too.
In a sense, our lesson this morning is really one of Stewardship. Not only are we called to give of our fruits and labors, we are also called to give of our time and talent. We have seen time and time again that the work of the church cannot go on without the active support and work of those in the community. That truth continues now.
There has been a lot of upheaval in the world in the last few years which the Pandemic certainly exacerbated. Because of that change and uncertainty, it might be easy for us to think, like the Thessalonians, that our work is hopeless and worthless. I have certainly heard many comments, from lay and ordained alike, that the church is dying and that things will never be like they were again.
Concerning the world, we have the hope of Jesus’ words this morning. We certainly have wars and insurrections occurring, yet Jesus reminds us that “the end will not immediately follow.” Either way, Jesus calls us to endurance. He calls us to continue to do the work God has given us to do, no matter what may be going on around us.
As far as the church is concerned, it may be true that our parish way of doing things is dying. That just means we need to be more creative with how we do God’s work, not that we stop doing it. We will have to be ready as new ways of bringing God into the lives of others come our way. We cannot be ready if we are not doing the work.
Our call as Christians isn’t to give up hope. Our call is to continue doing the work God has given us to do, no matter what we face or even how hopeless things around us may seem. We are called to live into hope. We are called to have the same joy at serving in God’s presence as Sammy did.
If you need help finding ways to serve, let us know. We will help you find where you can best do the work God has given you to do. Just make sure you are doing something to further God’s mission here, even if it’s just to tell a friend about what we have to offer. We all have a responsibility to do the work of God in the world. That is at the core of what 2 Thessalonians is trying to tell us today. The church needs you. God wants your help and aid. Now take the time to go out and give it.