"The Good Life"

"The Good Life" FPC 7-18-10

Amos 5:21-24, 2 Thessalonians 3:6-13, Acts 2:43-47

          This morning we begin the first in a four-part sermon series called, “You Asked For It!” I borrowed the idea for the series from a friend of mine, Louise Westfall, the pastor of Fairmount Presbyterian Church in Cleveland Heights. As you may know, a few months ago, we invited church members, anonymously or with names attached, to write down topics for sermons. Four of you responded. Here’s this week’s topic. “Hard work equals living the good life. Not all earn the same life style.” Interesting theme, huh? And we’ll have a dialogue about it at 11:15 in the chapel this morning.

          “Hard work equals living the good life. Not all earn the same life style.” The Bible and the Christian faith hold many different responses in tension as we think about that statement.

          Speaking through the eighth century prophet Amos, God offers these cheery words as we worship. “I hate, I despise your festivals, and I take no delight in your solemn assemblies . . .  Take away from me the noise of your songs; I will not listen to the melody of your harps. But let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an everflowing stream.” And at this point, the pastor search committee placed Amos’ resume in the “not interested” pile.

          What was going on back then? Well, as one scholar writes, “. . . the wealthy and powerful have exploited the poor and weak (2:6-8; 4:1-3), denied them access to the courts and bribed judges so that the complaints of the oppressed cannot be brought (5:10-13), and engaged in false and deceitful business practices (8:4-6).” (Bruch C. Birch, Hosea, Joel, and Amos in the Westminster Bible Companion Series, 170.) So God says, “Worship all you like. But as long as you aren’t practicing justice and righteousness, I reject your worship. It’s disgusting to me!”

          Is it possible God is shouting such a challenging word at us today? Think about it. Wall Street Bailouts followed by multimillion dollar bonuses for Wall Street executives. Tax cuts for you and me, the relatively wealthy, while cutting programs to help the poor and marginalized. The BP environmental disaster, abetted by deregulation of the oil industry that itself lines the pockets of elected representatives. Capital punishment that falls again and again upon those who are not wealthy enough to “lawyer” their way out. Immigrants treated with contempt not compassion. More and more accumulated “stuff” for us, while much of the world is starving. I don’t like to think this, but is God yelling at us the way God yelled at Israel so long ago?

          Christian pastor and activist Jim Wallis talks about what biblical archeologists have discovered. He writes, “When they dig down into the ruins of ancient Israel, they find periods of time when the houses were more or less the same size, and the artifacts show a relative equality between the people, with no great disparities. Ironically, during those periods, the prophets were silent. There was no Micah, Amos, Isaiah, or Jeremiah because there was nothing to say. But then they dig down into other periods, like the eighth century, and find remains of huge homes and small shacks, along with other evidence of great gaps between the rich and poor. And it was during those periods that the voice of the prophets rose up, to thunder the judgment and justice of God.” (Jim Wallis, God’s Politics:Why the Right Gets It Wrong and the Left Doesn’t Get It, 199.)

          The first tension of Scripture and our faith is that Christians can and must care for the poor, the weak, the oppressed, and the marginalized in our personal behavior and in our support of appropriate church and government policies. As the Roman Catholic bishops described it many years ago, “God’s preferential option for the poor.” As we follow Jesus as Lord and Savior, God’s preferential option for the poor will be ours too.

          There’s a second tension for us. Paul wrote to the Thessalonian church in the first century, “Now we command you, beloved, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, to keep away from believers who are living in idleness and not according to the tradition that they received from us . . .  [and] Anyone unwilling to work should not eat.”

          And we think, “Thank you, God for a loophole!” But, the loophole may be smaller than we might think.

          For one thing, Paul was speaking to a Christian community. So we can rest assured nobody would’ve been allowed to starve to death. And Paul wasn’t talking about people who could not work or could not find work either.

          So what was he talking about? Apparently, there were some folks in the Thessalonian church who were lazy. Maybe they thought the end of time was coming soon. Maybe they just didn’t feel like working. We don’t know. We just know that Paul said, “We hear you have some busybodies in the Thessalonian church. Instead, what you need are some people who will get their bodies busy doing work!”

          How might this apply to us? Let me propose at least two ways. Maybe this seems obvious, but doesn’t it suggest U.S. government policies should always be designed to help people get out of the welfare system and into decent jobs? We know that in many urban and rural areas in particular, generations of able-bodied Americans have become dependent upon a welfare system that keeps them in poverty, saps their dignity, and destroys not only  recipients but the larger community. As Christians I believe we’re called to pray for and support government policies that will not suddenly cut off and abandon welfare recipients and their families, but will find ways gradually to move them into jobs that pay more than welfare does. What if we prayed for Republicans, Democrats, Independents, faith communities, and businesses to come together to find a solution to this ongoing tragedy? The Bridges of Hope program that meets here is just one partial but hopeful solution.

          This text also speaks to us as a congregation. In every church, there’s the tendency for a few people to do most of the work, almost all the ministry, and for a few other folks in the church to become busybodies, critics, and complainers. Paul holds a mirror in front of each of us and asks, “Are you busy doing and supporting ministry? Or are you mainly a lazy busybody stirring up trouble and gripping?”

          The problem with laziness is that it shortchanges the community and it shortchanges each of us. Inevitably, lazy people find something to do with their time–they cause trouble for productive people. And lazy people are ultimately unhappy people. As one person writes, “The malice of sloth lies not merely in the neglect of duty (though that can be a symptom of it) but in the refusal of joy. It is allied to despair.” (Evelyn Waugh, quoted in Kathleen Norris, The Cloister Walk, 130.)

          God wants us to experience joy in our work. And as Paul concluded, “Don’t get tired of doing the right thing.”

          Finally, there’s a third tension in Scripture and in our faith–the amazing picture painted in Acts chapter two at the coming of the Holy Spirit. “All who believed were together and had all things in common; they would sell their possessions and goods and distribute the proceeds to all, as any had need. Day by day, as they spent much time together in the temple, they broke bread at home and ate their food with glad and generous hearts, praising God and having the goodwill of all the people. And day by day the Lord added to their number those who were being saved.”

          Wow! Maybe this is an idealized picture, but what a picture it is. Do we see how the Holy Spirit changes the question? The question is no longer, “How do I work hard to get more money or things for myself so that I can live the good life?” No. The question is, “What does it look like when the Holy Spirit runs amok in the church?”

          As you know, advertising is designed to convince us that we don’t just want but we really need whatever is being sold in order to be happy, to be fulfilled, to live the good life. So people get into fistfights squabbling for bargains at Christmas time. They cheat their way to the top in business. And they live anxious, empty lives.

          But when the Holy Spirit runs amok in the church, generosity shines forth.  Sharing is central. And we realize that God gives us the ability to earn money and acquire things not only for our own pleasure but so we can know the joy of giving money and things away to people who need them.

          Preaching professor Tom Long says, "I remember a Sunday table set in a small farmhouse. I was a seminary student and had just preached a sermon in a country church for a congregation too small ever to afford a minister of 'their own.'  Each week a different student would appear in their pulpit, and on this day I had been the one. After the service, a man had shyly asked if I would care to join his family for Sunday dinner, and now I was seated at his table."

          "His wife brought out several dishes of food, plain but joyfully served--corn, green beans, sliced tomatoes, a few pieces of beef. All from the farm, I was told. The man told me how glad they were that I was with them. He prayed a blessing, and we began to eat. In the middle of the meal, another man, wearing hunting clothes and holding a shotgun, appeared at the door. He had a brief conversation with my host, and then left. The farmer returned to the table and said, 'He asked if he could hunt on my land, and I told him he could. I don't see this farm as my land, really. It's the Lord's land, and I'm supposed to take care of it. If someone else can get some pleasure from this place, I believe I should let them.'"

          [Long says.] "Somehow the gospel had taken root in that man's life, setting him free from the selfishness which consumes most of us. He was free to see himself not as an owner, but as a steward of what God had placed in his care. He could share his land and his food with the stranger. Who this farmer was and what he had said . . . formed the best sermon preached that day." (Thomas G. Long, Preaching and the Literary Forms of the Bible, 62-63.)

          I wonder what beautiful sermons God will preach through this congregation as we truly live “the good life.” Amen.