"Hanging laundry out to dry" by karenandbrademerson is licensed under CC BY 2.0.
Sunday was Mother’s Day. The sermon was the next in the Hidden Holiness series. It was titled Wash, Dry, Fold, Repeat. In the children’s moment, she likened this to Rejoice, Pray, Give Thanks, Repeat. The sermon passage is from 1 Thessalonians 5: 12-24.
12But we request of you, brethren, that you appreciate those who diligently labor among you, and have charge over you in the Lord and give you instruction,
13and that you esteem them very highly in love because of their work. Live in peace with one another.
14We urge you, brethren, admonish the unruly, encourage the fainthearted, help the weak, be patient with everyone.
15See that no one repays another with evil for evil, but always seek after that which is good for one another and for all people.
16Rejoice always;
17pray without ceasing;
18in everything give thanks; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.
19Do not quench the Spirit;
20do not despise prophetic utterances.
21But examine everything carefully; hold fast to that which is good;
22abstain from every form of evil.
23Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you entirely; and may your spirit and soul and body be preserved complete, without blame at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.
24Faithful is He who calls you, and He also will bring it to pass.
1 Thessalonians 5:12–24 (NASB95)
Pastor Lee opened with a quote from Paul that isn’t really a quote from Paul at all. In my research, I discovered it is from a paraphrase from the Living Bible. Here’s the paraphrase:
27 Idle hands are the devil’s workshop; idle lips are his mouthpiece.
Proverbs 16:27 (TLB) From Biblegateway.com
Now, here is the same passage from both the King James Version and the New American Standard Bible:
27An ungodly man diggeth up evil: And in his lips there is as a burning fire.
Proverbs 16:27 (KJV 1900)
27A worthless man digs up evil, While his words are like scorching fire.
Proverbs 16:27 (NASB95)
This highlights in great fashion why it is of the utmost importance to rely on a translation of scripture instead of a paraphrase. Is the TLB’s translation a good statement? Sure, but it is one made by Man, not God. It is not His Words but some fallen human being’s words. The ramifications of changing “a few words here and there” cannot be fathomed in the bigger picture of how those words fit together in the manual for how to live the life we have been given by God in the Bible.
All that has nothing to do with today’s sermon. It is a tangent I went down because I’m somewhat sensitive to translations vs. paraphrases. I’ll kick my soapbox back under the desk and get back to the sermon.
Pastor Lee went into a story about Abba Paul at the Acedia monastery, who wove baskets as the other monks did. The other monks sold their baskets in the market to pay for their food and other necessities. Abba Paul didn’t sell his. He kept them all year and set them ablaze at the end of the year and burned an entire year’s diligent productivity. He knew he would do this all year and still wove the baskets as quickly as the other monks.
The reason to bring this up is to mention the word that makes up the monastery’s name, acedia. It is an archaic word that used to mean a specific form of sin that dropped out of usage and came back around World War II. Here’s the definition from Dictionary.com:
acedia
uh-see-dee-uh
noun
Sloth (def. 1).Compare deadly sins.
Laziness or indifference in religious matters.
The sloth definition is as follows:
sloth
slawth or, especially for 2, slohth
noun
Habitual disinclination to exertion; laziness; indolence: Indifference, negligence, and sloth have no place in the classroom.
The version of the definition used by Pastor Lee is “Just not caring.” Acedia is specifically sloth in religious matters. For me, as I type these very words for Monday Morning With Jesus on Wednesday morning, it highlights my putting off writing this piece for two days. Could I have gotten it done? Yes. Did I? No. I had some acedia going on. I had some slothfulness in things revolving around religious matters, namely, writing up my thoughts on the Sunday sermon.
The double-edged sword on this one is particularly sharp.
As Pastor Lee gave her sermon, she dumped a basket of laundry onto a table at the front of the sanctuary. As she spoke, she folded laundry. As she folded laundry, she mentioned she didn’t know when she did this simple, repetitive, mundane task without a podcast going. For me, I play an episode or two of a television show or stream an episode of a new series to watch as I do it.
As she finished up her folding and her sermon, she ended with this. How could we invest a little more love into the mundane? How could we put a spiritual element into rote tasks for which we typically multi-task anyway? How could we get more God into our lives? Embrace a new rhythm.