Pull Your own
Weight
One of our cultural
compulsives within those people who come from the Dutch Mennonites is a strong work ethic. We value working hard. My
wife is a hard worker. I remember a Sunday School Picnic when our care group
was setting up for the day, including all the material for a cookout, and Lois
was hard at it, getting ready at full speed when one of the others in the care
group looked at her and said, Lois, you work like a Mennonite!” He meant it as
a compliment, and it’s true. She does!
I have seen this same
desire to pull our own weight when we invite people to our house. I can predict
with confidence the sentence that comes after “We’d love to come.” The guest
almost always asks, “What can we bring?” I’m from Zimbabwe, and when we invite
someone, I assume that they bring themselves. They’re Manitoba Mennonites, so
they want to help out. When someone invites us, Lois has to remind me as I’m
speaking, “Ask what we can bring!”
This is a good cultural
trait. A strong work ethic is a good thing. It makes life so much easier for
all of us. It’s the reason we can set up and break down for a common meal so
easily. Everyone pitches in. As we say, “Many hands make light work.” But, as
Reg Toews reminded us last week in the Going Deeper class, every positive trait
has its dark side.
What’s the dark side of a
strong work ethic? The same attitude that wants to contribute can become a
sense of entitlement. “I’ve worked hard all my life. I deserve the benefits of
my hard work.” We can start to feel as though we have earned the right to
whatever we have. This sense of entitlement can also become a lack of charity
towards those who are less fortunate. “It’s their own fault. If they worked
harder, they wouldn’t have so much trouble.” Used well, our work ethic is a
gift that helps everyone in the community. Used badly, our work ethic actually
becomes something that seals us off from each other and from God.
Luke 13
Jesus warns us against
this sort of mindset in the first part of our gospel reading. At the end of
Luke 9, Jesus “set his face towards Jerusalem”. He had asked the disciples who
they thought he was, and Peter, speaking for all of them, named him as Messiah.
As the Messiah, then, he began walking to Jerusalem, where the climax of his
ministry would take place. Chapters 9 to 19 then are on the road to Jerusalem.
At the beginning of this journey, Jesus tells his disciples that they also must
take up their cross and follow him. Then he starts walking, teaching as he
goes. Chapter 13, then, is part of this teaching, telling us what it means to
follow Jesus.
He taught the disciples
and assorted crowds on the way, and in chapter 13 some of those present ask him
about a local tragedy – some Galileans had been taken by Pilate in Jerusalem,
who executed them and mixed their blood with their sacrifices in the temple.
They had been killed, and they and their families had been shamed beyond
description. What did Jesus think of this?
Jesus replies that such
things happen in life. Apparently, some people thought that these Galileans
must have sinned greatly to receive such a fate. Jesus says, “It could have
been anyone. It could have been you.” He adds that another tragedy they knew
well could have been anyone – the collapse of the tower of Siloam. Again, some
people wondered if the victims were to blame. Jesus says, “It could have been
you.”
I’m reminded of a
well-known line from Solzhenitsyn, “The line separating good and evil passes
not through states, nor between classes, nor between political parties either –
but right through every human heart.” Solzhenitsyn echoes Jesus’ thought here,
“When you think of someone who has suffered a terrible fate, remember, it could
have been you.” Not just that you could have experienced great loss, like a
death, but that you could have been the one to perpetrate great evil. So Jesus
warns the people listening, “I tell you; unless you repent, you will all perish
just as they did.”
That’s the point of the
parable that follows. A man plants a fig tree. Fig trees normally take several
years to bear fruit after they are planted, so the man checks the tree in its
fourth year. He tells his gardener to cut it down, but the gardener suggests a
year of grace – a year of special attention with just the right amount of care
and water and fertilizer, and then we’ll see. If there is still no fruit in the
fifth year, he says, we’ll cut it down.
I take it that the meaning
is reasonably clear: God plants us, and God gives us all we need to “bear
fruit”. If we don’t, it’s because we don’t accept the gift we’re given. If we
don’t, we will be cut down. Putting the two parts of our gospel reading together,
“repent” means “turn around and accept the gift of life that Jesus gives.”
Don’t think that you can earn your way into the kingdom of God. God gives you a
gift, you can either accept it or reject, but you can’t earn it.
Isaiah 55
Isaiah gives a similar
message. I remember these verses from my youth at a missionary children’s
hostel. Mim Stern, our hostel mother, loved to quote them to us, “Ho, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters; and you that
have no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and
without price.” You want to earn your bread. You can’t. You want to earn the
water of life. You can’t. You can only receive it as a gift from God.
Isaiah 55 is in the third
major section of Isaiah. The first 39 chapters assume the context of Israel in
their own land, facing captivity. Chapters 40 to 54 assume the context of
Israel in captivity, waiting for the return home. The last 12 chapters assume
the context of Israel in their own land again, but they are having real trouble
in trying to put their lives back together.
Israel knows all about
trying to earn their own way. They have tried working hard to make things
right. They have tried rebuilding the temple to make their worship perfect.
They have tried praying more and singing more and earning their way into God’s
favour. None of it has worked, because you can’t make yourself good enough to
be part of God’s kingdom. You can only receive it as a gift. The two passages
come together to affirm and critique our Mennonite ethic of hard work. It’s
good: We are to bear fruit. It will never be enough: We can only receive God’s
character within us as a gift.
Receiving the Gift
How do we maximize the
benefit of our work ethic? How do we learn to receive God’s gift instead of
earning it? I suppose it’s a matter of our inner attitude. Jesus said, “It’s
better to give than to receive”, and someone else has added, “It’s also a lot
easier.” We like giving. It feels good. It is good. The generosity of God’s people is a real benefit to
the whole of society.
We have taught this for
many years, and we have reaped the reward. An article in Steinbachonline last
March observed that southeast Manitoba is among the most generous regions of
Canada in our charitable donations, and added, “when it comes to the percentage
of tax filers who donated, Manitoba ranked number one and has been there a long
time.”
This is good. Giving to
meet the needs of people around us is a positive quality. But one can ask, are
we as good at receiving when we are in need? Lois and I are receiving from
various people at the moment. Lois had a hip replacement last Wednesday. We
received from the expertise and skill of the surgeon and the hard work and care
of many accompanying health professionals. We are also receiving food. Several
people have either left food or at our door or otherwise made sure that we
don’t have to cook for a while.
This is really cool, and
we feel cared for and loved. It is good. At some point, of course, we would
start to feel uncomfortable. We took a meal to someone else a few weeks ago.
Now we receive meals from others. Give and take feels good. But what happens
when you have to receive and receive and receive? What happens when you have to
receive and can never be the ones who get to give?
That’s the position we are
in with God. We can give God only what God has already given us. An old hymn
puts it this way, “Naught have I gotten but what I received; Grace hath
bestowed it since I have believed; Boasting excluded, pride I abase; I’m only a
sinner saved by grace!”
Our texts make this
spiritual truth clear: We can only give out of what God has already given us.
We can receive God’s life, God’s character as a gift. We can never earn it.
There’s another part of this truth, however, that is in the text even if we
don’t see it there right away.
Our culture centres on the
individual. We believe that “God helps those who help themselves.” We see our
response to God as a highly individualistic thing, which reduces the texts to
nothing more than receiving eternal life. That meaning is in the text, but
there’s more! But the Jews didn’t think that way. In the Old Testament and New
Testament alike, the Jews knew that they were part of a larger community.
You see this fact – the
basic importance of community – clearly in Paul’s letters. Paul has various
commands that he gives to the early church, but one command stands out above
all others. “Love each other.” “Carry each other’s burdens.” Submit to one
another out of reverence for Christ.” “Think of each other’s needs as more
important than your own.” Over and over again, Paul tells us to look out for
the community, to look out for each other. Do a Google search of the topic “one
anothering” and see what comes up. It is a major theme in the New Testament!
In this context, we give
and receive in community. God gives us what we need through each other. We are
Christ’s hands and feet.
Conclusion
Apply this aspect of
community, then, to giving and receiving. The danger of our strong work ethic
is that we may think that we deserve other people’s help. We’ve earned it! The
benefit of our work ethic is that we’re ready to help each other however we
can. The other person doesn’t need to have earned it. We give because we
receive. We don’t think in terms of earning our way; we think in terms of
receiving the gift of life – a gift God gives us both directly and through
God’s people.
An old preachers’ story
tells of someone who had a dream of heaven and hell. He found himself standing
in the entrance to heaven and hell with St. Peter. Peter said, “Let me show you
what hell is like.” “Okay.”
Peter opened the door and
the visitor saw a huge banquet table with the guests seated all around it. The
table was filled with wonderful food and drink, a real joy and delight. Every
guest had a spoon with which to enjoy the meal, but the spoons were too long to
reach their mouths, and the spoons were chained to their wrists so that they
could not eat. Similarly, the drink was held out of reach. Condemned forever to
sit in front a feast that they could not enjoy. A real torment.
Peter closed the door, as
the visitor reflected on the irony of such great good held forever out of
reach. Then Peter opened the door to Heaven. To his surprise, the visitor saw
the same scene. The same food and drink. The same long spoons chained to the
people’s wrists. But instead of despair and dismay, everyone was celebrating
and enjoying the food and drink. Because everyone was feeding each other.
As a theological
exposition of Heaven and Hell, this picture is nonsense. As a description of
Heaven and Hell already present in this life, this picture is precisely
accurate. God gives us the gift of life directly and through each other. We
cultivate the gift of receiving in place of the burden of earning and so we
enter into God’s reign. It’s up to you now in the Going Deeper class to put
specifics on this picture and figure out what it looks like in practice. May
God bless and guide us in a life of learning to receive God’s grace.
Focus Statement: As we seek God’s way, we move from believing
that we must earn our nourishment, our privileges, even our identity as God’s
children, to an understanding that abundant life is a gift from God to all.
Scriptures (NRSV)
Isaiah 55:1-9
An Invitation to Abundant
Life
55 Ho, everyone who thirsts, come
to the waters; and you that have no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine
and milk without money and without price.
2 Why do you spend your money for
that which is not bread, and your labor for that which does not satisfy? Listen
carefully to me, and eat what is good, and delight yourselves in rich food. 3 Incline your ear, and
come to me; listen, so that you may live. I will make with you an everlasting
covenant, my steadfast, sure love for David.
4 See, I made him a witness to the
peoples, a leader and commander for the peoples. 5 See, you shall call nations that you do not know, and
nations that do not know you shall run to you, because of the Lord your God, the Holy One of
Israel, for he has glorified you.
6 Seek the Lord while he may be found, call
upon him while he is near; 7 let
the wicked forsake their way, and the unrighteous their thoughts; let them
return to the Lord, that he
may have mercy on them, and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon. 8 For my thoughts are not
your thoughts, nor are your ways my ways, says the Lord. 9 For
as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and
my thoughts than your thoughts.
Luke 13:1-9
Repent or Perish
13 At that very time there were some present
who told him about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mingled with their
sacrifices. 2 He
asked them, “Do you think that because these Galileans suffered in this way
they were worse sinners than all other Galileans? 3 No, I tell you; but
unless you repent, you will all perish as they did. 4 Or those eighteen who
were killed when the tower of Siloam fell on them—do you think that they were
worse offenders than all the others living in Jerusalem? 5 No, I tell you; but
unless you repent, you will all perish just as they did.”
The
Parable of the Barren Fig Tree
6 Then he told this parable: “A man had a fig tree
planted in his vineyard; and he came looking for fruit on it and found
none. 7 So
he said to the gardener, ‘See here! For three years I have come looking for
fruit on this fig tree, and still I find none. Cut it down! Why should it be
wasting the soil?’ 8 He
replied, ‘Sir, let it alone for one more year, until I dig around it and put
manure on it. 9 If
it bears fruit next year, well and good; but if not, you can cut it down.’”
Steinbach Mennonite
Church
20 March 2022
