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Get to Work!                        2 Thessalonians 3: 6-13                   November 18, 2007

Jon Katz is quickly becoming one of my favorite authors. I had never heard of him, until recently, when I picked up - and literally couldn't put down - his wonderful, bestselling book, A Good Dog, and now I am hooked. I just finished his latest non-fiction work; another heartwarming tale of life on his farm simply entitled Dog Days.

I know why I have connected with Jon Katz and his books. He truly loves his dogs and the other animals on his aptly-named "Bedlam Farm" and he is clearly gifted in the way he describes them, their interaction with each other and, most of all, the way they inevitably manage to win his heart and enrich his life.

These books bring smiles to my face and tears to my eyes. Just as the animals that I have been privileged to welcome into my life have always done.

Katz says he is not a religious man, by the way, but yet he describes his collection of donkeys (including one named Jesus [Spanish pronunciation] for a reason you will learn if you read the book) and cattle, his dogs, his sheep and chickens - and a cat named "Mother" - as inhabitants of a "heavenly city;" a clear and intentional reference to Augustine's City of God.

And the way he cares for them and affectionately touches them - and lets them touch him - lets you know that he clearly believes - as I do, by the way - that these are truly God's creatures. He clearly suggests that we learn as much and from our animals as we teach them. Again, I agree wholeheartedly.

"Augustine probably had a different place in mind [when he wrote City of God]," Katz writes. "Perhaps a place a bit less pungent, with fewer curious, energetic and slobbering dogs."

Actually, if Augustine did have a different place in mind, I'm not sure he was correct. None of us know for sure what Eternity will be like, but I have trouble conceiving of a life spent in God's presence that doesn't also include the presence of animals in general and, for me anyway, dogs, in particular.

And it is Katz's dogs, as I'm sure you have guessed, who are the central focus of his writing. Particularly his border collies and, in this latest book anyway, particularly his hard-working border collie Rose.

Rose, John tells us, is happiest and most content when she is working. In fact, she needs - desperately, in John's words - to work every day. She is a small dog; just thirty-six pounds, but in many ways she runs the farm. The flock of sheep is hers. Their whole purpose on the farm is to be herded by her. John considers Rose to be indispensable. She is not a pet. She is an important part of the workings of the farm and she more than earns the respect and admiration of pretty much everyone who encounters her.

There's an obvious lesson here, I think. Rose the border collie is one of God's creatures, to be sure. And if she is to be what God created her to be, she needs to work. The need to work is imbedded in her personality - in her spirit.

That's not the lesson, however. The lesson is that this need to work is no more deeply imbedded in Rose than it is in you and me. We too, I believe, are made to be at work. We are intended, by our creator-God, to be toiling to do God's will.

Listen again to the words of Paul that we read earlier: "we command you, beloved, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ," Paul writes to the members of the Thessalonian church, "to keep away from believers who are living in idleness and not according to the tradition that they received from us. For you yourselves know how you ought to imitate us; we were not idle when we were with you, and we did not eat anyone's bread without paying for it; but with toil and labor we worked night and day, so that we might not burden any of you."

Here's the situation Paul was addressing: The church at Thessalonica had absolutely wonderful potential. The members were serious about their commitment to love each other and they were committed to their faith. They were literally an example of what a church should be.

But - and there is always a "but" - the Thessalonian Church had a problem. The one vulnerable spot in this otherwise exemplary church was the way some people were behaving because they believed that Christ was going to return any day - indeed at any moment.

Now it is true enough that the return of Christ was a part of the teaching of the apostles. Paul himself clearly believed that Christ would return in his lifetime.

But some of the members of the church were taking this teaching too literally. Why work, they thought, when Christ is about to come and deliver us from this world.

Paul pulls no punches in response. "We hear that some of you are living in idleness, mere busybodies, not doing any work," he writes. "Now such persons we command and exhort in the Lord Jesus Christ to do their work quietly and to earn their own living."

Paul suggests three things to the members of the church. His suggestions are timeless.

First, he tells them: Don't associate with the people who are refraining from work under the guise of false spirituality.

Second, he challenges them: The avoidance of work needs to be named for what it is. This is not a special devotion or super spirituality, it is laziness.

And third, he warns them: With time on their hands, living under a spiritual illusion, these so-called devotees have become "busybodies, people who meddle in other people's lives. They are to be avoided.

In short, Paul tells the church at Thessalonica to stay away from this group of people, don't feed them and stay the course in their own spiritual life, continuing to do what is right.

He reminds them that they have an example of how to live the Christian life - his example - the example of the one who brought the good news to them in the very beginning, and that example is not one of idleness, but one of work. Work night and day.

Paul's point, I think, is a simple one. To the members of the church in Thessalonica, and to us as well, he has a simple, straightforward directive: Get to work!

One scholar puts it this way: Work is an essential element of the human condition. We were created to work. Even Adam and Eve, in the wonderful story of creation, were to tend the garden - to order the creation for the benefit of all, to "subdue" and to "rule" it.

From the beginning, God reveals that work is a noble activity.

God's son, Jesus, in point of fact, was a working man. He carried a lunch bucket to work. He was a carpenter - a good one, if legends are correct.

His disciples would rise early before dawn to drag smelly nets through the water to catch fish in the Sea of Galilee.

It could just be that the most Godlike thing you and I can do is to get up in the morning and go to work. As is the case for Rose the border collie, it is the natural thing for us to do. It is us, being who we were intended to be. Or to put it more theologically, is how we fulfill the image of the Creator in our lives.

The good news is that all of us who work for a living have moments in our work when we feel God's pleasure. In fact, even the most menial job done well can give God glory.

Eric Liddell, the famous Scottish athlete and preacher whose story was immortalized in the film Chariots of Fire quotes his father, who goes even further. "Aye," he says, "and ye can peel a spud to the glory of God, providin' ye peel it to perfection."

The implications of this simple message are personal, political and congregational.

First, on the personal side, it means that each of us needs to find work to do. It may be work for pay, it may be work as a volunteer or it may be work keeping a home and raising a family, but one way or another it needs to be work. Sitting idly by is simply not what we were created to do.

Second, speaking politically, we need to do everything we can to be sure that our nation and its leaders value work and, just as importantly, value the workers who do the work. Which means making sure that our elected representatives advocate a fair wage and decent benefits and a reasonable amount of rest for every person in the workforce.

And finally, from the perspective of the church, the meaning of Paul's directive is just as clear: Everyone has w ork to do. None of us has the right to call ourselves a member of the Body of Christ without rolling up our sleeves and working to help accomplish God's work here in this place. Sometimes I am afraid I sound like a broken record, but it is worth saying over and over again, I think: Christianity is not a spectator sport. It is God's expectation that we work, tirelessly, as servants in God's name.

Jesus put it this way when he addressed his disciples: "So let your light shine," he said, "that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven."

The title of Jon Katz's latest book, Dog Days, is explained, finally, in the last chapter. It's a reference to those weeks during the hot, steamy summer months when Sirius, the "dog star" is not just visible, but is the brightest star in the night sky.

Everything on the farm slows down in the heat of the Dog Days. Everything, that is, except Rose, who, Katz tells us, is "as eager and energetic on a ninety-five-degree Dog Day as she is on a crisp fall afternoon."

Paul would have been be pleased, I think, if his friends in Thessalonica had Rose's eagerness for her work. And our church, our community and our spiritual center would all be stronger if we had a similar passion for the work God has called us to do.

                                                                             AMEN