The Destructive Nature of Disorderliness, by Rev Steven R Mitchell, First Congregational UCC, Rock Springs, WY

The Destructive Nature of Disorderliness
By Rev. Steven R Mitchell
First Congregational UCC, Rock Springs, WY 11/14/2010
Based on 2 Thessalonians 3:6-13

Just in case some of you wonder how I pick and choose what scripture I am going to use for any given Sunday’s worship, I can guarantee you that I don’t sit around each week seeing what problem we here at First Congregational might be dealing with and then go through the Bible looking for specific scripture that will help me “proof text” the points that I share with you. I follow what is call “the Common Lectionary Readings”, which is a three year cycle designed to look and examine a well balanced reading of the whole Bible. Once again, Paul is writing to not just of church some two thousand years ago but to us in this very congregation. It is one of those scripture lessons that tend to get pastors fired because it too often hits the nerve of issues going on in the church body. What I find interesting is, the lectionary throughout this whole year seems to be hitting directly to issues that exist here at First Congregational Church and I just know that God is trying to get me fired by bringing up these delicate topics.
But, as a minister of the gospel and in my effort to be true to my calling, I cannot ignore what seems to be the leading of the Holy Spirit and the word that God has for this congregation. Sharon Pribyl tells me that I like “confrontation” and I would have to tell her, she is correct in that assessment. But I don’t like confrontation that brings up arguing or anger just for anger and argument’s sake. It comes out of my own journey in life; I understand the value of confronting issues that are present in order to build a more healthy life.
The large part of today’s thoughts are going to come from the commentary, “Feasting on the Word”, with specific authors Rev Barbara Blodgett, Minister of Vocation and Formation, Parish Life and Leadership, Local Ministries of the national offices of the United Church of Christ, and of Rev Neta Pringle, Minister of Word and Sacrament, Presbyterian Church (USA), because they have expressed today’s thoughts in a way that far exceeds what I can formulate.
Some of the Thessalonians are letting the others down by refusing to contribute to the community by working. Paul has had to address this problem before in (I Thess. 5:14) but apparently now the situation has become even worse. So Paul admonishes them again. The writer does not mince words: he tells the responsible ones to keep their distance from the slackers and tells the slackers to either get back to work or expect not to eat!
It is important immediately to clarify three potential misinterpretations of the theological intent of this passage. First, Paul does not counsel the community to shun completely its idle members. All believers, even obstructive ones, are considered worthy of inclusion and concern. Secondly, Paul is not addressing individuals who were unable to work for some reason. There is no suggestion that dependents are being criticized for their dependency alone; such an interpretation would contradict the entire thrust of New Testament teaching on caring for all regardless of ability. Finally, Paul is not expressing “an early form of the Protestant work ethic” To early Christians, work and prosperity were not signs of individual grace but, rather, evidence of supporting oneself and thereby the whole community. To refuse to work was therefore to rebel and take unfair advantage of others, and this was the problem, not mere idleness.
In fact, in the history of interpretation of this text, many have suggested reading “idleness” as “disorderliness.” It is legitimate, therefore, to go beyond the specific issues of laziness and labor and consider more generally the problem of disorderly conduct within communities of faith like the Thessalonians or possibly like First Congregational of Rock Springs! This will help us better to appreciate the strict disciplinary tone of the text. Rev Barbara Blodgett, UCC
Paul’s most critical problem was the absence of a standard for settling intragroup disputes. This text raises two significant Spiritual issues. The first has to do with the individual. Each of us needs to take responsibility for our own life – our physical life and our spiritual life. Remember the line from I Corinthians 13:11? “When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child; when I became an adult, I put an end to childish ways.”
When grandson Brendan was two, if he wanted something he would grab it and demand,”mine!” At four he began to grow out of that childish way, but some people never do. To become mature Christians means that we do give up childish ways. We learn that we are not the center of the universe. We learn that sharing goes both ways. We learn to respect the needs and rights of others.
There are those who do not mooch just sandwiches, or money. They want to mooch spiritually as well. They may sit in the pew Sunday after Sunday, but they do not do any work themselves. “The preacher will tell me what the Bible says. The congregation will do my praying for me.” At that point Paul’s admonition – “if you will not work, you cannot eat” – becomes descriptive rather than prescriptive. If you do not read the Bible for yourself, if you do not have your own prayer time, no one else can do it for you. You will not be fed. You will not grow. You will not mature as a Christian.
The second issue Paul focuses on concerns the life of the community. It is not enough to have an individual commitment to Christ. That commitment must be lived out in the context of the community of faith. Read Paul’s letters and see just how much his writings focus on building a community that is caring, supportive, and joyful. Moochers and busybodies disrupt the community. They build resentment and distrust. They shame us in the eyes of the world. Who wants to be part of a group that is always fighting? Moochers and busybodies tarnish our witness and keep us from being Christ’s body in the world. Rev Neta Pringle, Presbyterian (USA)
Our text today is ultimately speaking to church discipline and accountability. Over the past few months there have been a group of folks working on revising our church constitution and by-laws, trying to update its language and bring it into line with how we truly function within this body. One of the last pieces that need to be addressed is that of “Membership”. Questions such as: “what does it mean to be a member of First Congregational Church of Rock Springs?” “Does giving money to the church but never showing up to worship or participating in other functions in the life of the church, constitute membership?” “Or should we demand more commitment from an individual who wishes to call themselves a member?” “What about accountability?” “Where does church discipline come into play?” All these are very serious questions that as a body, we need to be in conversation about and defining, not just a few, but the whole body. Because of the magnitude of these questions, we are holding a workshop on Saturday December 4th, focused on the topic of Membership. This workshop will be lead by Rev Jean Wade. From this workshop those who are working on membership issues within the by-laws will have an idea of how we as a congregation wish to define this important piece of who we are.
One of the things that we have discovered in our review of the by-laws is there is no standard for dealing with issues that come up within the life of the congregation, or as Rev Reta Pringle puts it, “intragroup disputes.” We have standards in which ministers and denominational representatives are held to and procedures to which we can follow to deal with misconduct and grievances, but most churches do not have in writing any standards to which they hold their membership to when there are grievances or misconduct. This allows then for what we call living a “disorderly” life. It allows for dysfunctional living which demoralizes a congregation. This is what Paul was struggling with, with the church in Thessalonica.
In his book “Seven Deadly Sins”, author Dr Rev Tony Campolo speaks to the very first deadly sin as “Sloth”, which we call “laziness”. We tend to think of laziness in relationship to the Protestant work ethic and not a spiritual issue, but Dr Campolo quotes psychotherapist, M. Scott Peck as pointing to Laziness as a major cause of evil, a primary cause of psychological illness, and the main reason that Americans are increasingly failing at human relations. Peck points out that laziness is what prevents us from being loving. Love requires commitment and work, and those who are lazy are seldom willing to expend that kind of energy. Our culture promotes a view of love that makes this most important characteristic of being human and of being Christian seem to be a spontaneous emotion which can be neither controlled nor created. This failure to recognize that love is an art requiring discipline and hard work is largely responsible for the absence of love in so many of our interpersonal relationships. Pg 14 Dr Campolo continues to say, “Joy in Christ requires a commitment to working at the Christian lifestyle. Salvation comes as a gift, but the joy of salvation demands disciplined action.
If the Apostle Paul were to point out this churches greatest issue, I think he would say we struggle with the very same sin as the church in Thessalonica did, that of Sloth at a congregational level. He would say, we have abdicated our responsibility to work at our Christian faith. As members, we have abdicated our responsibilities to work on committees, to work on our spiritual growth, to work at making Christ the head this church. And what would give him cause to say this? It’s not hard. We have on our membership roles, 134 members, how many of them attend worship regularly? We have difficulty in having people fill committee and board positions. We have a missions committee, but when was the last time that committee has been active? When I got here there was no children’s education going on. Why? The two things that I heard were, “I’m tired of teaching, I’ve done my tour of duty” and the other was “the pastor didn’t think it was important.”
There are two types of churches, those that have a vital ministry through its laity and those who have a maintenance ministry through the pastor. In other words, there are those churches that have a disciplined and working lifestyle of their faith and those churches that have grown into Slothfulness. I would ask, “did your last pastor truly think Sunday school or committees like Missions were not important, or was he saying that as a congregation, the laity needed to be disciplined enough to work at fulfilling those needs?” The church at Thessalonica was a church that was plagued with sloth.
Disorder come to a congregation when it’s members have abdicated their responsibilities to the greater body. By their refusal to work within the body of faith, they allow moochers, and busybodies to drain the church overall of its energy and resources. It allows for resentments and distrust to rule within the life of the congregation.
How then do we live together? That is Paul’s concern. Do the folks outside the church look at us and say, “That is not any place I want to be!” Does the face that we present to the world embarrass our Lord?” Or, do we create a place that makes folks stop, look and think: “Maybe there is something happening there that I want to be part of? Might this be a place where I can grow in my faith? ”
I realize that this sermon sounds like I am beating you down. I am not. But like a parent who loves their children, and wishes only the best for them, and wants to build strong Christ like character within them, at times the conversation sounds harsh. You all are tremendous people! But, there is still deep hurt within this congregation. I know this not just because of what people say to me in confidence, but because of those who are no longer sitting in worship with us. What we are living with at the moment is the result of people who abdicated their responsibilities as members to this congregation and allowed “disorder” to enter into the life of this congregation. It is our responsibility to work at correcting this and work on bringing “order” back into our congregational life. That takes work, discipline, love, and lots of forgiveness.
Churches today, like the Thessalonians, are sometimes plagued by forms of misconduct. In response, they might do well to remember that discipline and community formation are not necessarily contradictory. As individuals and as communities, brothers and sisters need to be encouraged not to become “weary in doing what is right” for each other’s sake. Rev Blodgett Amen