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Text:
Proverbs 6:6-11, 26:13-16; Galatians 6:7-10; Matthew 25:14-30 The
Seven Deadly Sins: Sloth In the name of him in whose
accomplished work we find rest, dear friends in Christ: this evening we come to
the penultimate item on our list of Seven Deadly Sins, the sin of sloth. It is, like several of the others we’ve
already considered, a sin of excess. At
least that’s one way to look at it; by which I mean there’s nothing wrong with
resting and relaxing – especially after a hard day’s work. The Lord tells us that he himself rested on
the seventh day after having worked for six creating the universe and
everything in it. He commanded his
people Israel to follow his example in this same pattern of work and rest. And each day, even, he divides into roughly
equal periods of light and darkness precisely so that we will have time and
opportunity to rest. So the Lord is not opposed to resting. He wants his people to do it. The person who tends toward sloth, however,
is ever trying to alter the divinely ordained six to one ratio so that he
increases rest and decreases work, with the ultimate goal of eliminating the
latter altogether. So, one way to think
about sloth is as excess of rest. The
other way you could look at it, and probably the way we usually do, is as a
shortage of work. But what I always find
amazing is to what great lengths and how much effort some people will go in
order to avoid having to do any work.
When you see a case like that you think, “What’s wrong with you? Can’t you see that it would be easier just to
get in and do what needs to be done?” But that’s an aside. The readings we have before us this evening
tell us a few things about the Lord’s perspective on the sin of sloth or
laziness. From the Proverbs, for
example, we told that the sluggard (that is, a person who practices sloth) is
someone who is more or less stuck on Newton’s first law of motion. That’s the law of inertia that says “Objects
at rest tend to remain at rest unless acted upon by another force.” For most people, the force that moves them
from a state of rest is some sort of self motivation or even self interest that
tells them they need to take advantage of the opportunities they have to
maintain or even to improve their present situation and status. The trouble with the sluggard is that he
never gets started. That internal voice
that tells him to get busy for his own good isn’t loud or forceful enough to overcome
the gravitational pull of the bed or sofa he finds so comfortable and from which
he’d rather not be disturbed. This is
why Solomon tells him to consider the ant.
It doesn’t need to be driven like a slave. It knows what it has to do to survive and it
does it. Even tiny insects are smart
enough to understand the basic principle of life that says: pay first, play
later. The sluggard has it backward. He wants to play first … and, well, he wants
to keep on playing. It’s sort of like
the way Congress spends money – just keep on spending without any thought that
one day the bills must come due. And so we see with the sin of sloth a number
of typical behaviors. There’s a
reluctance to get started on anything, or to follow through on projects begun
and later found to be more difficult than first imagined. There’s procrastination – always putting off
for tomorrow what can and should be started today. There’s apathy – the “who cares?” attitude that
stifles growth and paralyzes action, along with the “aw, that’s good enough” attitude
that achieves shoddy results and leaves jobs only partially done. And then there are the inevitable self
justifying excuses. Again, from the
Proverbs we read that the sluggard says, “There’s a lion out there.” The point is that he always has a reason for
not working. He’s got excuses, and it
doesn’t really matter how irrational, exaggerated, or just plain foolish they
are. All they have to do is sound good
to him. It’s like guy in the parable
Jesus tells who hid his talent in the ground.
When asked to report on his work for the master, he’s got an excuse for
his lack of performance. “I knew you
were a tough guy to please and so I was afraid.
That’s why I hid my talent in the ground.” In the master’s reply to his slothful
servant, Jesus stresses just how ridiculous the excuse is. “How stupid can you be? If you knew that I was a hard guy to please,
that should have motivated you all the more to do something productive with
what I gave you.” Though he’s not given
the opportunity to make a second excuse, we can well imagine what it might
be: “Well, you see, my Lord, the problem
is that I didn’t have as much to work with as the other guys. It wasn’t enough to make a proper
investment. You know what they say, ‘it
takes money to make money’.” Of course,
that excuse would have been shot down too.
The Lord is looking for a return on his investment. Obviously if he gives less, he won’t be
expecting as much. The question is: did
you put to work what I gave you? And
that’s the sluggard’s problem: he
doesn’t want to work. And here it’s revealed what the sin of sloth is
really all about: it’s a violation of
the seventh commandment. When all is
said and done, the slothful person is a thief.
He’s robbing God by failing to develop and utilize the talents and
opportunities the Lord has given him.
“I’ve given you so much” says the Lord, “I gave it all to you with the
expectation that I would get a return on my investment – that you will get busy
and make something of yourself – that you would serve me by your efforts to
improve yourself and help others.” You
know, in the field of business, money not earned that could have been is
counted as lost revenue. The Lord thinks
the same way. What we could have gained
and whatever goals we might have achieved by using our time and God-given
talents that we don’t due to our laziness and lack of motivation, the Lord
counts as stolen from him. And he isn’t the only one being robbed by our
laziness. In the epistle reading, St.
Paul admonishes us not to grow weary of doing good for our fellow man. The priority is on those who share our faith
– our brothers and sisters in Christ who are in want or who need a helping
hand; but all people are included in the expectation. If we can help someone and don’t due to our
sloth or apathy, we’ve robbed them of the aid, comfort, and assistance that the
Lord might have given them through us. Now, my guess is that in a community
largely comprised of hard working Iowa farmers who are deeply indoctrinated in
the American work ethic, few of you expected to discover yourself guilty of the
sin of sloth. We’re more likely to
think, “Yeah, I know a few deadbeats; but I’m sure not one of them.” Hopefully you see now that that’s not
true. The fact is that we all are guilty
of sloth. Why, even someone who’s a
full-fledged workaholic can be guilty of it by throwing himself one hundred
percent into his job, and neglecting his obligations to his family, to his
neighbors, and to his church family. And it’s even worse than that
because usually when we think of laziness, it’s with respect to physical work
and manual labor; but it can apply to other areas of life as well. There is for example intellectual laziness –
the failure to exercise and develop the mind.
Teaching over at the Lutheran school as I do, there’s nothing I find
quite so frustrating as a kid who has tons of potential to learn; but who
simply refuses to do it because “it’s too hard” or “it’s too much work”. At the same time, I wonder how many adults
haven’t cracked a book of any kind since leaving high school. And no, I don’t exempt myself. There’re plenty of times I think to myself, I
really should be studying this or researching that as I prepare a sermon or a
lesson – and then I think, “Naw. Why bother?
Nobody’ll know the difference.” That’s wrong of course. There is Someone who knows the difference. And I rob Him and I rob you whenever I
succumb to the temptation. And then there is what’s even worse,
and that is spiritual sloth. It’s the
neglect of God’s Word, the failure to spend time in meditation and prayer, and the
avoidance of our gathering together for worship. It’s skipping Bible study and other
opportunities to grow in Christian faith, knowledge, and life because – well,
because I’m satisfied right where I am, because I don’t want to expend the time
and effort to grow and develop my potential, and because it’s just too slow and
difficult a thing to do. So doing we
waste the talents God has given us, robbing him – and ourselves of the heavenly
treasures he wants us to have. We become
like the lazy person Solomon spoke of:
we put our hands into the dish of God’s grace and are too weary to lift
them to our mouths to feed ourselves.
Now, that’s lazy. And foolish;
because by it we don’t just rob from ourselves, we may end up murdering our
immortal souls through spiritual starvation. Small wonder then, that sloth is
included on the list of deadly sins.
It’s a lot more common and dangerous than we’re likely to think. And hopefully this evening I’ve given you
cause to appreciate just how serious it is – and how deeply we are infected by
it. Let us then repent of it. And receiving again Christ’s sure Word of
forgiveness and being empowered and inspired by his Holy Spirit, let us resolve
to stop robbing God, our neighbors, and ourselves through the sin of sloth. In Jesus’ name. Amen. Soli Deo Gloria! |
