Got Diligence?

Here is my sermon from Sunday. The text Proverbs 6:6-11; 14:23; 21:5, 25; 24:30-34; 26:13-14: 

In 1904, Max Weber, a German economist and philosopher, began writing what became his seminal work, The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism. It is considered one of the founding works in the creation of the field of sociology. Weber argued that it was the Protestant reformation which created the spirit of capitalism and drove the northern European countries to economic prominence because Protestantism imbued the idea that everyone was called by God to be productive in life, that all had a calling, and that the ideal was no longer to be secluded in the religious life, which eschewed things like making money, and instead the ideal became working hard for the community and for yourself, with all the benefits that came from that. Weber argued that in particular this was driven by the Calvinist belief in predestination, and since under predestination you didn’t know if you were truly saved or not, the only evidence might be seen in what happened in your life, and hard work and frugality were seen as signs of election, plus if you were gaining wealth it must mean that God was blessing you, and therefore another indication that you were saved. Now it could be argued whether Weber is correct or not in his analysis, but this idea of hard work has been tied to our understanding of labor, wealth and worthiness in America. That if you are poor, it must be your fault, at least to a degree, an idea we will come back to. And yet, some of our ideas about work go back much further than Weber. It goes back to scripture, and in particular, to the views, or at least some of the views found in the book of Proverbs. And so today we are going to be looking at some of the proverbs about work and laziness, or a more general term of diligence.

Now to help us understand these proverbs in particular, it’s important to remember the purpose of Proverbs which is to provide instruction to young men of a certain social position as they are about to embark into adulthood, meaning getting married and also assuming their proper role in society as leaders. And so while the proverbs may have been known to those of lower class, or day laborers, that was not to whom proverbs was primarily addressed. Additionally, as I said in our introduction, Proverbs is an overly optimistic book, and while it is not fully this way, it does at least give off the impression that if you do the wise things, and work hard, that good things will result, including wealth and success, and if you follow the way of foolishness that the opposite will result. That is if you do x, y will happen, and thus if bad things are happening, it is not because of outside forces, it’s not because God is punishing you for something, but because of what you have chosen, or not chosen, to do. And since one of the things that the teachings and laws want to do is to make sure first that there is a next generation and second that they will be protected and cared for, the proverbs can make a little more sense within that context.

Proverbs are supposed to represent a sense of collected wisdom that comes out of people’s experience, and the first proverb we heard is one from nature, and it comes from the section that isn’t even really part of what we think of as proverbs, as its part of the first 9 chapters which are a series of instructions. And it tells us to pay attention to the ant, and notice that it’s a singular, not plural ants. Now obviously they had not studied ants in intimate detail to know how they operate and live together. But it says the ant is not controlled by any boss, but instead does the work that has to be done because she knows it has to be done. As an aside, while the NRSV puts in the pronoun it, the word ant in Hebrew is feminine, and since this portion comes from the beginning of the instruction about pursuing wisdom, which is also female, and the ant represents the wise path, I think it’s important to recognize this little ant as female. The ant does the work that is necessary to do in the proper season. That is the ant is not gathering in summer and preparing in the fall, and so this proverb, and the others, are not telling us that we just need to work harder or work more, but that we need to be smart about the work we do. Prepare in the right season, harvest in the right season, and although it doesn’t say it here, and we’ll come back to it, resting in the right season. A few hundred years later Aesop would tell a similar story known as the ant and the grasshopper.

And so we’re being told that it doesn’t just take work, but it takes the right kind of work at the right time in the right way. And so we also heard this morning “the plans of the diligent lead surely to abundance, but everyone who is hasty comes only to want.” Since this was largely an agricultural setting to start, it’s knowing that farmers who rush through things, who don’t plan and execute properly are not going to bring in a successful harvest, but those who are diligent, who do the right work, will find abundance. Or alternatively, “In all toil there is profit, but mere talk leads only to poverty.” Or as we still say about some people “all talk and no action.” There has to be diligence involved, that even “a little folding of the hands… poverty will come upon you like a robber.” And notice that two of the passages we heard today end exactly the same way, reminding us of the repetition we do find in some of the proverbs.

Now the back yard at our house has both rocks and grass, and they are supposed to be separate, although they are not as separate as they are supposed to be. Because the truth is we have weeds and grass that grow up in the rocky area, and I’ll go out and get rid of everything, but it seems like just a few days later it’s all growing right back again. And then I have to go right back out and do it all over again. And so, when I hear about the field of the one who is lazy, that is overgrown, to me it reinforces the idea of diligence over complacency. So, it’s not just outright laziness that leads to things, but sitting back and relaxing at the wrong time, or inopportune moments that makes the difference. But, what most of the proverbs want to make clear that laziness does not lead to prosperity, with laziness being identified as wanting to sleep all the time, or making excuses about why you can’t do it right now. I love the lazy person saying they can’t go out to work because “there’s a lion in the street.” And so if you are poor, if you are having difficulties, if you’re struggling to make ends meet, then it’s your fault because you’re lazy. If only you worked harder than you would be prosperous. We certainly still hear that today.

One of our aphorisms today is about people pulling themselves up by their bootstraps. Again that there is individual agency and we are fully responsible for what happens to us, and if good things aren’t happening then it’s clearly out fault, and if you want to be a success, you shouldn’t rely on others, but instead pull yourself up by your bootstrap. But, did you know what that phrase was first used it actually said exactly the opposite? The first time the phrase appeared was in a physics textbook explaining the impossibility of a person being able to do that. When it then got applied to economic advancement, it was in the form of sarcasm, again suggesting that it was impossible. Until the sarcasm was lost and it got applied that people should do that, and if they didn’t it was their fault.

Now I am not discounting the overall themes of what these proverbs are trying to instill, that hard work is important, that diligence is important that planning and long-term thinking are important because they are. But, we have to remember that proverbs have their own context and their own seasons, and that sometimes they contradict each other. What Proverbs also does, at least in some circumstances, is to recognize the realites of life, because what Proverbs also says is that you can work your butt off and still not get ahead. Proverbs 13:23 says “a poor person’s farm may produce much food, but injustice sweeps it away.” That is poor people can be working as hard, or even harder, than others who have wealth, but because of things beyond their control, they remain poor. They remain repressed. They remain unfortunate. But it’s not their fault, and so quoting one of the other proverbs back at them, or telling them if only they worked harder, or worked at all, does not reach the truth of the situation. It doesn’t account for the injustices that exist in the world, or the truly hard work that many people do. Just think of migrant workers in fields, doing back breaking labor day after day, but will never reach a level of economic prosperity. So, it’s not just about not working hard, there are other factors that come into play, and scripture, and the proverbs, have a lot to say about how we treat the poor, which we’ll return too much more over the next two weeks as we look at money and righteousness.

And just as the writers of Proverbs didn’t understand how ants act in concert with one another, they also didn’t understand things like mental illness or depression that may cause us not to be as diligent as we may want, that may cause us to want to sleep all the time, even if we know it’s not healthy, that may cause us to make irrational or detrimental short-term decisions. But if we are dealing with these issues and the response we hear to be told not to be lazy, or other things, that is not healthy. And, as we will talk about in Lent being told to constantly work and strive to be more, to be better, is not healthy for anyone. And if you are dealing with mental health issues or depression, asking for help is not a sign of weakness, but one of strength and there is nothing to be ashamed about and help is available.

But I want to close with something that Proverbs doesn’t talk about, but that I think is important when we talk about work and diligence, and that is the idea of rest. This too is obviously scriptural, and it’s not that I think the wisdom writers didn’t think it too was important, and that they weren’t practicing Sabbath rest, because they probably were, but that perhaps they didn’t have a good teaching to go with it. We do, which is that all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy, right? And notice that work and play are connected in that statement, just as they are connected in the reasons why we are to practice Sabbath. So, while we do need to talk about work, and the power of work, and there is importance in work and in diligence, but in our hyper-rushed world it’s probably even more important to emphasize the need for rest, and this is true even for those who are retired, because I know some retired people who work more now than they did before. But Sabbath is not just about creating another set of rules for ourselves, as Jesus said, the Sabbath was made for us, we were not made for the Sabbath. We need that time to refresh, to reconnect, to recreate. We can’t say, “I have too much work to do” or “resting will come later,” in order to be able to work and do our best it has to be combined with time, intentional time, for rest. Not only can’t we keep going and going and going, like the energizer bunny, and even his batteries will eventually run out, but we can’t run that pace and have the abundant life that Jesus called for us to claim.

Just as gathering at this table connects us with God in meaningful ways, so too does rest connect us with God in meaningful ways. It allows God time to work in us. It allows God to remind us that nothing we do, no work we do, can cause God to love us any more, that nothing we produce, nothing we create, none of our possessions, none of our stress and tension, is about our relationship with the God who loves us, and most importantly, rest helps us to remember that it’s not about us and we are not ultimately in control, and there is deep wisdom there. God says that labor is important, work is important, diligence is important, wisdom is important, and part of that wisdom is turning our lives over to God and following God’s injunction to us to rest. to rest from work, to rest from labor, to rest from social media, to rest from our phones, to rest from our email, and all those other things that serve to distract us and keep us focused on other things, rather than resting and allowing God to rest in us. I pray that it will be so my brothers and sisters. Amen.