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The Rev. Frank Logue
An Example to Imitate God has a sense of humor. I see it all the time. And this fact proved true again as I prepared for our sermon today. This weekend we create the Susanna Wesley Chapter of the Daughters of the King here at King of Peace and admit its first members. I will say a bit more about the group, but just notice that on the week when we get a new women’s organization kicked off, we have a passage of scripture that says, “We hear that some of you are living in idleness, mere busybodies, not doing any work.” It sounds almost like we were a church that had women sitting around eating bon-bons while sharing gossip and so we started this group to get the busy bodies busy with something productive before we had to read this passage from second Thessalonians. Not a moment too soon, they have put down their bon-bons and come to church. The odd collision of this text and the start of our chapter of the Daughters of the King notwithstanding, this is an unusual little passage that would have been easy to pass by when deciding what to preach. It contains the line, “Now we command you, beloved, in the name of our Lord Jesus…” and later, “…we command and exhort in the Lord Jesus Christ…” These are very serious words of admonition. And what we are commanded is to not be idle. To work as “anyone unwilling to work, should not eat.” Now I don’t know what life was like in First Century Thessalonica, but in 21st Century Camden County, idleness is not the issue. Busy-ness is the issue. This is true for those who are in business, for those who are homemakers, for those who are retired, and even for the leisure class who are in ministry. Busy-ness is the problem more than idleness. But the apostles are in this letter both commanding and exhorting that those who are in a more literal translation of the Greek “busybodies rather than busy” that they should get busy with their own business rather than being disorderly and disruptive. Paul elsewhere lists gossip as a sin alongside murder. Here the Thessalonians who are minding other folk’s business are ordered to stop being disruptive and disorderly. What I want to do though is to push further to reveal what this letter is doing. How the case against being a busybody is made is instructive. You see in the first chapter, the Thessalonians were told the apostles’ goal for them: To this end we always pray for you, asking that our God will make you worthy of his call and will fulfill by his power every good resolve and work of faith, so the name of our Lord Jesus may be glorified in you, and you in him, according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ (II Thessalonians 1:11-12). They were told to be worthy of the call. This is not The Call in the sense of ordained ministry, but the call all Christians share to live into the faith that is in them. It doesn’t matter whether we serve the church as pastor, by helping with Kids in the Kingdom, by cleaning toilets, or by working in the community being the auto mechanic or sailor God wants us to be. Whatever we do, we are to do as for God. In that way, the goal for the Thessalonian Christians, as for us and all Christians, is that we may be made worthy to answer to the name Christian so that Jesus may be glorified in what we do. With this goal in mind the second letter to the Thessalonians in our passage for today, names a specific obstacle to living a life worthy of our Lord Jesus. Those who are busy with other people’s business rather than doing any real work were told to follow the example of the apostles who did their work quietly. Here the word for quietly is hesuchia which is Greek for a quiet calmness, an inner stillness. It is this quiet calmness and inner stillness which is the type of life that glorifies God. I would contend that though the issue in our church is probably that we are all busier than we would like to be, that the goal of hesuchia, quiet calmness and inner stillness, is just as or more important for us than for a congregation dealing with people who were idle and turning to being busybodies. From the hectic lives of students in school to stay at home moms and from two-parent working families to busier than ever retirees all of us fight being busy more than being idle. Yet, we can all benefit from finding an inner stillness that makes quiet calmness possible. This weekend, we set aside time to hear the pledges of a group of women in our congregation who are seeking to serve God through the Daughters of the King. Since 1885, the Daughters of the King has been a group of committed lay women in which its members undertake a Rule of Life, including both a Rule of Prayer and a Rule of Service. A Daughter of the King reaffirms the promises made at Baptism and pledges herself “to a life-long program of prayer, service and evangelism, dedicated to the spread of Christ’s Kingdom and the strengthening of the spiritual life of her parish.” The Vision of the Daughters of the King reads, “Empowered by the Holy Spirit, our vision as Daughters of the King is to know Jesus Christ, to make Him known to others, and to become reflections of God’s love throughout the world.” This commitment to prayer, service and evangelism is a way to cultivate the gift of God within you, and one result of that can be finding the place of inner stillness through prayer and service to others. Our Daughters of the King group chose to name our chapter for that supermom Susanna Wesley, who had nineteen children including the great Anglican pastors John and Charles Wesley. She homeschooled her children and we are told that, “They attended classes for six hours and on the very first day they were supposed to learn the whole of the alphabet. All her children except two managed this feat.” Susanna taught all her children Latin and Greek and tutored them in the classical studies. Just as our own Daughters of the King will do, Susanna Wesley practiced daily devotions throughout her life. Yet, shortly before her death, she wrote to her son Charles, admitting that she had struggled with doubt throughout her life and only now had finally found peace in her faith. It took a life of busy-ness before she got there, but Susanna Wesley was able to find that place of quiet calmness and inner stillness she needed. I pray that it comes more quickly for our Daughters whose chapter bears the Wesley name. The Daughters like Susanna and the other Wesleys, seek to imitate Jesus and the early apostles in working quietly for the good of the church and community through their prayer and service. Far from being busybodies, Daughters incorporate the business of the Kingdom of God into the business of their daily lives, not giving them more to do so much as giving meaning to all they do as service to God. In this, the Daughters of the King give all of us an example to imitate. One final way God has a sense of humor is this. Two weeks ago, our Senior Warden Robin Davenport-Ray spoke and last Sunday Bill Bruce did so, each telling their own stories of stewardship. This week, we would have offered a third lay person speaking on stewardship and surely we would have asked a woman to speak. Instead, God arranged for a group of women to all speak. Not through individuals getting up to tell their own stories. But a group standing together to make promises to God about prayer and service. This shows better than I could have ever arranged on my own, how stewardship may involve money, but stewardship is not all about money. In considering how you give back to God in thanksgiving for the gifts God has given you, it’s a package deal. Serving God through cleaning toilets or through cooking a Thanksgiving dish for the home bound are also ways in which we give to God. God honors all these gifts or prayer of service. I want to close with the prayer the Apostles offered to the Thessalonian Christians who were in need of inner stillness, which we can all use more of as life gets busier in route to Christmas. Please bow your heads before the Lord: I pray that our God will make you worthy of his call and will fulfill by his power every good resolve and work of faith, so the name of our Lord Jesus may be glorified in you, and you in him, according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.
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