Our Lives and the Character of Christ
2 Thessalonians 3:6-16
Stephen H. Becker, M.Div.
St. Peter’s Lutheran Church
November 18, 2008
Evening Contemporary Service
As I was preparing this sermon, I took a look at the Forbes list of the richest people in the world. Do you know who #1 on the list is? Mr. Microsoft—Bill Gates. He’s worth about $40 billion dollars. At my present salary, I’d have to live another 800,000 years to earn what old Bill is worth today. And #2? Warren Buffet. Well, at least I’d only have to work another 610,000 years to get to his $30.5 billion dollars. And lowly #3 on the list? Well, the brothers, Karl and Theo Albrecht, my fellow Germans, the founders of Aldi Supermarkets. Their $25.6 billion is only 512,000 years away for me. I once saw a great bumper sticker that could be my new motto: “I can’t die before I finish all of my work, so I guess I’ll live forever!” Well, then, I guess we know who we are, don’t we? We are the regular people…the people who live their lives without being on the Forbes list. We are people who, like my dad used to say, have to work, in order to eat; we are the folks who live from our paychecks. Or if we don’t work now, because we are retired, we did at one time. Or we are the students are studying to prepare for what? You guessed it! We study to prepare to work. The news for the students here tonight is, guess what, that when you finally finish your education, somebody will expect you to work! When you get your B.A. or your M.A. or your Ph.D., someone will tell you to go out and get your J.O.B.! Work is a part of life. We work in order to live. And you know what, for me anyway, that’s fine. But the Bible, as always, brings another point of view. The Bible puts another spin—God’s spin—on reality. The Bible will tell us that life is more than working so that we can eat. The Bible will teach us how to eat in order to work. So let me ask this question of you tonight: do you work in order to eat or do you eat in order to work? There most certainly is, a difference. Let’s open with prayer…
The Christians of Thessalonica had gotten the wrong idea about work. Having heard that the Jesus might be returning soon, they decided that all they needed to do was sit down and wait. They were thinking, “Jesus is going to return, the end of the age is coming, so, hey, why work up a sweat? Let’s sit down, relax, and wait it out.” The Christians of Thessalonica figured that God would take care of everything, so why bother to work? So to these lazy bums, the Apostle Paul delivered a stinging word of rebuke; instead of being idle, lazy bums, they should follow Paul’s example and remember Paul’s motto: “If a man will not work, he shall now eat.” And that brings us back to the question I asked before the prayer, “Do you work to eat or eat to work?” What this question is really asking, is what is your ethic regarding work? Do you look at it as a necessary evil or do you look at it as an opportunity to live a Christian life? See for me, whether I do my job in the computer field or here, in my ministry, one thing is constant: I am a Christian. And in all that I do, I represent my Savior, Jesus Christ. As I do my work, I think of the Work Jesus did for me. So sometimes I wonder if people get lazy about their work ethics because they either don’t know Jesus, or maybe because no one ever shared with them the meaning of work, especially for a Christian.
Paul says that we work as an example to others. Our work is a part of our witness. He says in verse seven:
For you yourselves know how you ought to follow our example. We were not idle when we were with you, not 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.”
When I think about a person who worked hard his whole life without complaining about it, I think of my dad. If he were still alive, he would be 83 now. I’m thinking of my dad and his witness about work. As a young man growing up in a German community in communist Ukraine, he was only allowed to complete the fourth grade so that at age 10, he could go to work and bring in money for the family. His own dad was killed by the communists and his mother worked two jobs in the “big city” in order to support dad and his two brothers. My dad knew nothing, other than work, for most of his life. Later he was drafted into the German army where he worked 18 hours a day. Then, after the war, Germany was in a shambles and he worked on farms during every daylight hour. It wasn’t until mom and dad came to America that my dad could at least reduce his working hours to about 10 a day. But still, he worked hard. And he didn’t complain. He didn’t give in to despair nor did he give in to laziness. Dad was proud of his work. For him, his work was his witness. Dad would get up early and come home late, often working overtime, but he would not complain. Instead he would tell us that what he was doing was to make sure that people were satisfied with the quality of his work. His work was his witness. And, unfortunately, it’s not as easy to find this work ethic anymore.
If we want to know what has happened with the work ethic in our time, then perhaps we should ask, “what you and I are doing with our witness about our work.” How do people talk about their jobs today? What’s the impression you get from people regarding why they work. Think about it. Some of us complain constantly about our jobs. We have nothing good to say. The boss is demanding, the people are nasty, the work is hard, the pay is small, the commute up 99 is tiring, and nobody down there appreciates me! And that’s just on Mondays! Sometimes, our witness is negative.
Or, like one guy I know at my job, – and this too is a negative witness – we work obsessively. We can’t quit. We don’t know when to stop. We feel guilty unless we are toiling away at something, anything. Some of us have taken the drive to accomplish and have made it demonic; there is nothing else in our lives but work, work, and more work. No wonder we burn out. No wonder no one wants to follow us. There’s no grace in it. In other words, many of us just work to eat. We work because it’s a necessity. But there’s no joy in it, no power in it. The witness is not one that others want to imitate. We need to work in a way that inspires others. We need to work as a witness. But how can we do that? Paul gives us some solid advise: He says, “never tire of doing what is right.” These words of Paul’s have been my inspiration in times where I personally have been frustrated with my job or times when I am just overwhelmed between work and school and my ministry. But then I hear Paul’s words: “never tire of doing what is right.” And the amazing thing is God gives us all the help we need to do just what Paul saying here. God gives us His Holy Word, the Bible. Jesus Christ gives us the example of His life and His ministry, along with perhaps the greatest example ever of not tiring of doing right: going to the cross.
God gives us Grace in order to be right with Him. He gives us the means of Grace in order to strengthen our faith, helping us in our lives here on earth as we await our future in heaven in Him. Tonight we will all together celebrate the Lord’s Supper. God refreshes us at His Table. Christ restores us at this banquet. Here He takes us beyond working to eat and gives us something to eat so that we may work. Here, at this Table, I begin to taste and see the meaning and the power of my work, for at this Table I am reminded that there was one who labored in order to accomplish the Father’s will, one who pressed forward and completed that work. Here at this Table, despite my frustration, I remember that there was One who was despised and rejected of men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. Yet He did the Father’s will, even unto death; and now God has highly exalted Him, God has given Him life, God has refreshed Him. Here at the Lord’s table, we find nourishment and strength to do what we are called to do, because here we can that His example, that He was obedient, He worked, He never complained, and, though He died, now, He lives. That redeems my work. That refreshes me.
So my friends, do you work to eat or do you eat to work? Remember at the beginning of the sermon, I said there is a big difference. And what is that difference? It’s all about perspective…taking things in perspective…in the perspective of Jesus Christ, and who I am because of Him. Just like my dad worked hard because he wanted people to be satisfied with his work, Jesus Christ gave His All because that is what the Father wanted of Him. Jesus’ work on the cross satisfied the punishment that our sin calls for. The Apostle Paul was telling the Thessalonicans to get off their hands and get back to work. He said to them, “you yourselves know you ought to follow our example.” And who was Paul’s example? Well, He’s the same example you and I as Christians have, the Lord Jesus Christ.
So in the challenges of life, especially in times when your work seems to get the best of you, remember Paul’s words, “we command and urge in the Lord Jesus Christ to settle down and earn the bread they eat. And as for you, brothers, never tire of doing what is right.” In doing what is right, you will find ultimately that you have a new employer, or a higher supervisor, Jesus Christ. Just as Christ looked to His father for advise, we can look to Jesus as our ultimate example of how to live, how to eat in order to work. Yes, my job can still be tough. My boss is still demanding. But until I thought of Christ and His broken body, my job is easy in comparison. Until I thought of this Table, where the emblems of Jesus spending Himself, for me and for you, are spread. Until I came to this Table, where, because He lives, my heart is restored, my determination is refreshed, and my work is made joyful. Until I came to this Table, where I no longer just work to eat, but I eat to work.
