As I’ve said before, whenever I preach, the written and spoken versions differ. You can listen to the spoken version above and read the written version below. Enjoy!
Welcome and well come to Christ the Servant on this, the 23rd Sunday after Pentecost. Today’s readings are, in many ways, a tough pill to swallow. They have been used to harm people in so many different ways. They have fueled people who seem to feel that they need to prove that they are being persecuted in order to know that they are “right” because if they are right than they must be opposed by evil and that involves being persecuted. This Gospel is one of those passages that makes me want to do a Pastor Kari and say, “The Gospel (?) of Our Lord?”. I want to focus on the second reading today.
In the second reading today, verses 8-10 say, “nor did we depend on anyone for food. Rather, we worked night and day, laboring to the point of exhaustion so as not to impose on any of you—not that we had no claim on you, but that we might present ourselves as an example for you to imitate. Indeed, when we were with you we used to lay down the rule that anyone who didn’t work didn’t eat.” These verses have been used to justify the destruction of the social welfare net or the exploitation of the poor. After all, aren’t these verses just saying that if you don’t work, you shouldn’t eat?
On one level, that may be what they are saying. But if you look at the entire passage in context, something else is being said. Paul specifically mentions people living an “undisciplined” life or “acting like busybodies”. In other words, he is addressing people who are causing drama or other problems. He is not talking about those who are unable to work for a legitimate reason.
After all, throughout the Bible we are told repeatedly to care for the poor and the widows and the orphans and the outcast. In Leviticus 19:9-10, the Israelites are told: “When you reap the harvest from your fields, do not cut the grain to the very edges of the field, or gather in all the gleanings. Nor are you to completely strip your vines or pick up the fallen fruit. Leave the extra grain and fruit for poor people and foreigners to gather for themselves.”
Disdain for the poor, as exemplified by the destruction of the social welfare net and the exploitation of the poor, has been passed down through the ages and is still alive and well today. There was a tweet that says (and I quote):
“The Bible is anti-welfare.
The OLDEST part of the New Testament is Thessalonians, which says ‘The one who is unwilling to work shall not eat.’ (3:10)
The Church should say, ‘If you’re able-bodied we aren’t going to give you any food, but we’ll give you a chance to work for it.’”
And underneath this quote is an image of a buff Jesus in a sleeveless shirt with hair peeking out from under his collar. He’s holding a hammer in his right hand and a piece of wood (obviously for making something) in his left. And his right hand has a nail wound on it. Behind him on his right is a cross and to his left is a US flag. This image of Jesus is one that is common in Christian Nationalist circles, in case you couldn’t tell where his sympathies lie.
Before getting to the rest of his claims, I want to note that while First Thessalonians is in fact considered the oldest book of the Christian Bible, with scholars thinking it was written somewhere between 45 and 52 CE, the writer of this tweet doesn’t distinguish between First and Second Thessalonians, which is where our reading is from. Second Thessalonians is thought to have been written in either 52 CE (if Pauline authorship is accepted) or between 80 and 100 CE (if it is thought to have not been written by Paul). If the later date is correct then there were several books of the Christian Bible that are older than Second Thessalonians.
But, that is really neither here nor there. The important thing is the idea that the writer of Second Thessalonians is in fact saying that only those who work shall eat. But this flies in the face of so many other verses in the Bible. In addition to the verses from Leviticus quoted above we have Matthew 25 where it says, “The truth is, every time you did this for the least of my sisters or brothers, you did it for me.” and later “The truth is, as often as you neglected to do this to one of the least of these, you neglected to do it to me.” Or in Isaiah 58 where it says, “Share your bread with those who are hungry, and shelter homeless poor people! Clothe those who are naked, and don’t hide from the needs of your own flesh and blood!”
And I can keep going and going and going. The point being that throughout the Bible, we are instructed to care for those among us who have less than we do. We are called to feed the hungry, clothe the naked, give drink to those who are thirsty, visit those who are ill or in prison, and to welcome the strangers. We are called to love all people, regardless of their status in society. We are called to be a light unto all the world.
Contrast this with that tweet I mentioned earlier. Where in the Bible are we told to feed the hungry *IF AND ONLY IF* they work? Where in the Bible are we told to allow people to starve if they can’t work? The questions are, of course, rhetorical because we all know that these ideas are not in the Bible at all, unless you are willing to twist the words of the Bible into a Gordian knot.
I want to move on from this point and look at verses 11 and 12, “We hear that some of you are undisciplined, doing no work at all, but acting like busybodies. We command all such people and urge you strongly in our Savior Jesus Christ, to earn the food you eat by working hard and keeping quiet.” On WorkingPreacher.org, Miriam Kamell says, “Verse 11 gives us one of Paul’s fun plays on words that help us realize his rhetorical brilliance. These disruptive ones will not ‘work’ (ergazomenous), instead they work mischief (periergazomenous), building the counter to the positive of what they should be doing…This passage has nothing to do with whether a social welfare should be in place to catch the helpless in society; this is entirely concerned with those who should and can work but refuse and instead direct their energies to causing chaos in the community.”
As we read last week in chapter 2, the writer says “Concerning the coming of Jesus Christ and our being gathered to meet our Savior: we beg you, [our siblings], don’t become easily agitated or disturbed by some prophecy, report or letter falsely attributed to us, which says that the day of our Savior has come. Let no one deceive you, in any way. It cannot happen until the Great Falling Away occurs, and the rebel, the Lost One, has appeared.” So it appears that there were people who were causing problems by claiming that the End Times were nigh. (Yes, this sounds familiar!) When we link these verses with verses 11 and 12, a potential picture starts to emerge. There were people who were “End Times preachers” who were stirring people up and, it seems, getting them to think that they don’t have to work thereby causing problems. After all, if the world is coming to an end, why should anyone work to make the world a better place? So it seems that the writer was warning against these people and telling the Thessalonians to continue living the life that they were taught about.
I want to look back at the beginning of the reading to take another look at the initial verses given what we have just said. We know that the writer was not making a blanket prohibition on feeding those who need help. And we also know that the writer was concerned with people who were idle and were causing problems in the community. But we haven’t asked the question, “What is the work being talked about here?” We hear “work” today and immediately think about a 9-5 job or something like that. But what if the “work” being talked about here is more along the lines of what we would think of as a “vocation” or “using your talents”? What if the writer is telling people to use the gifts that God has given them to bring forth the Kindom of God? I think that idea brings a whole new complexion to the passage.
Rather than a passage that condemns the poor, it is castigating those who cause problems within the church. Rather than being a cudgel that we use against those who are already ostracized, these verses become an excoriation of those who benefit off the backs of others while doing no work themselves. It becomes much more in line with other Biblical teachings that condemn those who are rich and those who do nothing to help other humans. And I think that makes a lot more sense.
I want to end with a prayer entitled “Sharing the Loaves and Fishes” that I found on xavier.edu:
Sharing the loaves and fishes,/You gave us an image of solidarity with the hungry, O Lord./Sharing yourself in the bread and wine,/You called all to the table, O Lord./Give me the hunger to be a part of the feeding/And the healing of this world./Nourish me with your Grace,/So I may work with joy to serve your children./Open my eyes and my heart/To recognize those in poverty/And increase my awareness/Of the structures and systems/That need to be changed/So we may all break bread together./In your name we pray for the end of hunger.
- From Education for Justice, a website about Catholic Social Teaching
And let the church say, AMEN!
