Scripture 2 Thessalonians 3:5-13 The Message
4-5 Because of the Master, we have great confidence in you. We know you’re doing everything we told you and will continue doing it. May the Master take you by the hand and lead you along the path of God’s love and Christ’s endurance.
6-9 Our orders—backed up by the Master, Jesus—are to refuse to have anything to do with those among you who are lazy and refuse to work the way we taught you. Don’t permit them to freeload on the rest. We showed you how to pull your weight when we were with you, so get on with it. We didn’t sit around on our hands expecting others to take care of us. In fact, we worked our fingers to the bone, up half the night moonlighting so you wouldn’t be burdened with taking care of us. And it wasn’t because we didn’t have a right to your support; we did. We simply wanted to provide an example of diligence, hoping it would prove contagious.
10-13 Don’t you remember the rule we had when we lived with you? “If you don’t work, you don’t eat.” And now we’re getting reports that a bunch of lazy good-for-nothings are taking advantage of you. This must not be tolerated. We command them to get to work immediately—no excuses, no arguments—and earn their own keep. Friends, don’t slack off in doing your duty.
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Red Skelton was a clown, and the son of a clown. He loved being a clown. He became famous performing in vaudeville and on radio and television shows from 1937 to 1971. He loved performing pantomime, which he usually did for at least one segment of his TV show, and he loved writing skits for a variety of strange characters, like Clem Kadiddlehopper and Gertrude & Heathcliff the Seagulls, and this guy in the picture. This is Freddie the Freeloader, a hobo, a man who lived in the city dump and sometimes slept on park benches where he was usually rousted by policemen who chased him off so they didn’t have to arrest him. You know, like Selma Police chase the people they see sleeping on the church steps. Freddie here was a stereotype born out of the Great Depression of the 1930s when so many men had to hit the road to find work, and some just gave up. Our image today of “the homeless” comes in part from this character. Wimpy - whose picture DeeAnne put on the church bulletin today - was another one of those stereotypes, the guy who always asking you to pay their way, you know, like the person who always forgets their wallet? My brother actually had a college classmate, a fraternity brother named Fred whom everyone called Freddie the Freeloader because he never paid when they all went out.
When I told my brother I was going to become a Protestant minister, his immediate reaction was to start attending Mass, which he had not done (except for funerals) in well over 20 years. From then on, the one thing we did not talk about was religion. The closest we ever got to theology was discussion of the coaching staff at Notre Dame after the football game on Saturdays. So you can imagine my surprise when he quoted 2 Thessalonians to me one day, saying, “St Paul said “Anyone unwilling to work should not eat.” He was quite happy to interpret this to mean there should not be welfare. (This is one of the dangers of interpreting scripture literally one line at a time.)
That is not what this means. It does not mean there shouldn’t be welfare. It does not mean churches shouldn’t help those in need. It does not mean that all the homeless need to go get jobs and a place to live. It does not that there should be no such thing as Social Security.
When Paul and his companions were starting these churches all over the place, they were what we call today “bi-vocational ministers” Priests in the Temple, in fact, all of the Levites, were supported by the tithe every Jew paid to the Temple. Rabbis, on the other hand, worked full time at a regular occupation and served as teachers in the synagogues voluntarily. Paul and company were rabbis, teachers, not priests. They could have asked the congregations to support them, but they preferred to support themselves, in large part as an example to the members of the congregations. We are told in Acts 18:3 that Paul was a tent maker, so he could and did work pretty much anywhere. He didn’t have to depend upon the kindness of strangers to provide his food. And he wanted to give an example to the congregations he started about how to live together as a community. Being financially self-reliant if you are able is an example of that.
In those days, the one law common to all cultures was the law of hospitality. If a stranger to your community needed help, especially food or shelter, you were required to help them. Thus the innkeeper helped Joseph and Mary, the Samaritan helped the man by the side of the road, and Abraham entertained angels. Lack of hospitality is what got Sodom destroyed. If you were a member of a community - a particular town or a congregation - and you were able to work, to contribute, you were expected to do so in order that the community had the wherewithal to help that stranger, that person in need. It was understood that some, even within the congregation, would not be able to support themselves, like widows and persons with disabilities. None of these are situations covered by Paul’s words, “If you don’t work, you don’t eat.”
In those early days of the church, Paul and many others believed that Jesus was coming back soon, maybe next week. They believed that Jesus was speaking literally when he spoke of the end of days and said, “Truly I tell you, this generation will not pass away until all these things have taken place.” One of results of this thinking was the belief among some church members that it wasn’t necessary to work the fields or do any work at all - that all they needed to do was pray and worship God day and night until that last day came and they would be gathered in Christ’s eternal embrace. (This happens periodically even today - groups of people will come to believe that the end is coming next week, they quit their jobs, sell everything and gather on a mountaintop or someplace waiting for the Rapture, which doesn’t come.) As time passed the leaders of the church, like Paul, would realize that maybe it would be a little longer till the Messiah returned, but even so, even if the end was to come next week, if the congregation was to prosper everyone needed to contribute.
Likewise, as in any group of people, there would have been those who didn’t think they needed to do anything. They could sit back and let everyone else supply their needs, either because they had entitlement issues or because they were, shall we say, less motivated to work and serve than others. Paul was talking about those people - the people anticipating the end of days and the new who just didn’t want to work - both of those groups. He was speaking of people who were able but unwilling to make any effort toward serving the needs of their church community.
Early on it became obvious that there needed to be some guidelines about how to be church together. When the Gentile Christians and the Jewish Christians were fussing over whose widows got better care, an apostle was delegated to oversee food distribution. It was equally obvious that people needed be told how to love one another. When the rich were bringing wonderful food to worship but not sharing it with the poor, Paul had to put his foot down. When some perfectly capable people were sitting back, contributing nothing and letting everyone else do all the work, Paul had to say, “. . . we’re getting reports that a bunch of lazy good-for-nothings are taking advantage of you. This must not be tolerated. We command them to get to work immediately—no excuses, no arguments—and earn their own keep.”
We recently ended our annual Stewardship month during which we asked everyone to consider how they might help to support the needs of the congregation. We are very grateful to everyone who took the time to fill out a pledge card and return it. On that card there was a line titled “Talents.” Many of you listed the things you are already doing to serve the congregation, and we are so grateful for all of those things. We had hoped that people would use that line to tell us what they love to do, even if it doesn’t seem like something that could serve the congregation. Alan loves working with wood. He makes beautiful wooden things for us to use, not as part of a committee or anything, but he because he loves to do that. Kathleen loves writing, so she wrote a children’s play that we will all get to enjoy right before Christmas. No one asked her to. She just loves doing it - and she is good at it. She has an incredibly fertile imagination. Sofia loves playing the bass, and she helps provide music on Thursday nights. Ally isn’t even a member, but loves to show up and add the sounds of a cello to our Sunday worship. And I don’t know what else Alfred loves, but when he worships he puts his whole heart and spirit into it. I get to watch, you know. And he inspires me.
Maybe you love to knit or crochet or quilt. Maybe you love hiking. Maybe you like to take photos. Maybe you love to read and would like to be part of a book club. Maybe you are a competitive shopper. (I’m pretty sure that’s a thing.) Maybe you make beautiful cards, or do healing touch, or . . . . I don’t know. What do you love? Think about that, and let me know. Send me an email or a text. Just for fun.
From the first days of the Church it has been necessary for everyone to do some part of what is needful. Yes, everyone has to help so that everything we need to do gets done. But also so everyone feels like they are part of this community. We all know there are some who cannot do much, perhaps because of work or age or mobility issues, and because they can’t do much, they may feel alienated from the community. This is depressing. They may feel a bit like Freddie the Freeloader, but they are not. They are simply contributing in different ways now. If all they can do is pray for us, that is a huge contribution. It is important that they know this, and that they know that we know this. Every one of our gifts and talents is valuable and necessary.
For, as Paul told the church in Corinth when they were fussing with each other over whose work was most important, “there are varieties of gifts, but one Spirit.” And all of those gifts, all of our talents, all of the things we love to do, are ways in which we can serve God and one another. So, let us stand and ask the musical question - What I can I give?
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