On Buying Day

My grandparents and their generation suffered through the trying years of “The Great Depression.” Living through the first World War and the collapse of the stock market, their character was forged in a struggle for survival. It was a fire that purified their lives with determination and a humble pride. And my parents are products of that determination. Born in the early ‘30’s they were suckled on the values of lean times – creativity, opportunity, thrift, and, mostly -- hard work.

So my parents, who were not rich, but not poor by any standard, bought day-old bread. I remember riding to the “day old bread store,” as my mother called it, and wondering aloud why in the world anyone would want to eat old bread. “Well, it’s not really old,” she explained, “just old enough that the bread company can’t sell it as ‘fresh-baked,’ so they move it to these stores and cut the prices.” My parents would buy sandwich loaves and freeze them. Hamburger and hotdog buns that showed up, toasted, on the breakfast table. Specialty bread like and banana nut bread and cinnamon raisin swirl, that they hardly ever spent the money for at regular prices.

My parents bought day-old bread, and my mother never missed a coupon at Ed Perry’s Community Cash grocery store – no matter what it was for! We wore hand-me-downs and always out-grew our clothes -- they never wore out or went out of style. We wore almost as many clothes made by my mother as bought at Belk’s Department Store, and when the other beauty queens were wearing thousand-dollar pageant dresses, my sister went to the finals of the Miss South Carolina pageant one year in $60-worth of sequins. My father designed the dress, and my mother stitched it together in her upstairs sewing room. We seldom, if ever, went out to eat. My father was especially gifted at the art of the gourmet left-over! And they still won’t make a long-distance telephone call!

Yes, my parents bought day-old bread. I wonder what Jackson and Bennett will remember about their early years here in Charlotte? I hope there will be lessons to live by.

In the ancient world of the Middle East, there was a phrase in popular usage that would have rung familiar in every Semitic ear. Just as Amy’s dad sent her off to the first day of school with his now-famous aphorisms, “Do you know right from wrong?,” “The Lord don’t love ugly,” and “Act like you’ve got parents” -- I imagine that many Israelite youth were frequently reminded by their fathers “you must eat your own bread.”

The saying probably alludes to the narrative of the fall of Adam and Eve. When expelled from that garden paradise, the Lord God told the man and woman, “By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread until you return to the ground…”[1] “Eating your own bread, then, meant, “paying your own way,” “earning your own keep.” It was a stark announcement to the world’s first free-loaders, that unlike the Garden, there would be no free lunch in the real world!

Paul reminds the members of the church in Thessalonica the very same lesson. He had written to them, convinced that the return of Christ was imminent. Apparently he and the church were awaiting Christ’s literal return “any day now.” Like those who stockpiled their water and canned goods on December 31, 1999 anticipating a millennial doomsday scenario, the congregation at Thessalonica waited anxiously, but very patiently, simply biding their time for Christ to come and end their persecution.

Paul did share their belief, but he did not approve of the way the congregation was living in those days. Apparently he had gotten wind of their wistful waiting, so he sent another wire to correct their ways. To paraphrase some bumper sticker theology I have seen recently, Paul said to the people, “Jesus is coming… so look busy!”

For many in that church, belief that Jesus was coming soon was cause to kick back and relax in the confidence that “The Lord will provide.” This is always one of the dangers of such apocalyptic theology. But Paul said their “idleness” was disruption.[2] He employs a wonderful play on words that the English does not convey. “Some among you are not working (ergazomenous), you are just walking around (peripatountas), ‘working around’ (periergazomenous).” The difference in “working” and “working around” is like the difference in “sleeping” and “sleeping around.” Those who were only “working around” were doing exactly opposite what they should have been doing. Paul says to the church that “waiting on Jesus” means always waiting on Jesus – “so grab [your] waiter’s apron, and see who’s at the door.”[3]

Work is essential to life. In the narrative of creation, God created “Sabbath” because God needed rest from work. Work is part of the very nature of God, and the need for rest and leisure follow from the need to create. In the beginning, there was work, and, in Isaiah’s prophecy of the coming “day of the Lord,” the people are not freed from the requirements of work -- only guaranteed that on that day “they shall not labor in vain.”[4] The comical caricature of heaven as a place of eternal leisure – angels sitting on clouds and playing harps forever and ever Amen – is hardly a biblical picture. From beginning to never-ending end… work is who we are.

Last week in Amy’s sermon on the Stewardship of Traditions, she preached from this same chapter of Paul’s writings. “There is a difference,” she said, “in ‘traditions’ and ‘Tradition.’” Again today, Paul appeals to that Tradition. “Keep away from believers who are living in idleness and not according to the tradition that they received from us” (vs. 6)

The “Tradition” Paul had established among the people was simply this: to work in the service of the gospel. Please make a mental note that some people incorrectly use Paul’s words to condemn those who are poor. When Paul said, “Anyone unwilling to work should not eat,” he was not giving license to avoid the Christian obligation to aid the poor and needy, he was speaking to the church about its own internal discipline.

The Church has always had in its ranks those who are unwilling to work. A book called the Didache (which means “teaching”) circulated among the churches in the early years of Christianity. This manual instructed the people, “[N]o Christian shall live idle in idleness. But if anyone will not [work], that person is making Christ into a cheap trade; watch out for such people.”[5]

Christ is no commodity to be bought. No cheap trinket of salvation to be had. No “cheap trade” to be bartered. He is the one whose life is to be followed, in obedience. In so working out our salvation in fear and trembling, we come to see God at work around us, among us, in us.[6]

We are in a season of leadership in the life of this church, receiving the names of volunteers and taking nominations for all of our committees and the Diaconate. After this Wednesday our Church Council will take these nominations and add to them, if necessary, providing us with a slate of leaders for the coming year. The “Board of Education” is active, providing our children, youth, and adults opportunities to learn the gospel. The “Administration Committee” helps us hold together this institution so the mission of the church can take priority. The “Pastoral Ministries Committee” actively cares for members of this congregation, especially in times of grief and need. The “Worship, Music, and Music Education Committee” gives attention to special opportunities in which to enhance our worship. The “Mission Action Committee” is helping us “put our hands to the plow”[7] in active mission in this community. The Diaconate at Park Road Baptist does not serve as an administrative board, making the church’s decisions, but gives its leadership through service to our families.

Amy and I have come to you practicing what we call “Shared Pastoral Ministry.” This sharing does not just mean that we have divided the pastoral responsibilities between the two of us. Shared Ministry in the church parallels a change in the business world from a hierarchical leadership (the CEO model), to a model that Carol Becker calls “participatory leadership.”[8] Shared Ministry has its theological roots in Jesus’ washing of the disciples’ feet – it is servant leadership, and it necessarily employs us all.

When Jesus said that we should pray for “daily bread…” he did not say it had to be fresh-baked, and he did not say that we would not have to work for it. Buying day-old bread, might turn out to be the most important purchase we ever learn to make.

[1] Genesis 3.19

[2] “Identification of the conduct is debated, with the NRSV describing the irresponsible behavior as ‘living in idleness’ (ataktos, v. 11). The basic idea of the behavior, however, is that of disorder.” The New Interpreter’s Bible, Vol. 11, p. 767.

[3] From Kyle Matthew’s “Best Stuff in the World Today Café.”

[4] Isaiah 65.25

[5] Paraphrased by Beverly Gaventa in the Interpretation series, “First and Second Thessalonians,” p. 130.

[6] Philippians 2.12

[7] Luke 9.62

[8] Becker, Becoming Colleagues.

The Stewardship of Leadership

2 Thessalonians 3.6-13