Rethinking Sloth

For Lent this year, our church is doing a study on the “seven deadly sins”. The sermons, throughout Lent, each focus on one particular deadly sin. The sin of the week for this Sunday is sloth. Those who know me well are chuckling, thinking of me preaching about sloth. Me preaching about sloth is equal to a pig standing at the front of the farm yard, telling the other pigs to stop rolling in their poo. Most every Sunday I find the Lord is speaking to me, personally, through what I think is MY sermon. The joke is on me! This week, the irony is more blatant than most weeks...so laugh, if you must.

Maybe I’m trying to make myself feel better, but “sloth” seems to encompass a whole lot more than just being lazy…you know, more than not making your bed or not cleaning your room, or not putting dishes in the dishwasher, or not cleaning out your car…ahhhh, the guilt is growing!! Procrastination--and just plain old being a bum--are part of sloth, but not the whole. As I do research, sloth appears to have more complex spiritual dimensions than I originally realized. Sloth has a lot to do with the “sin of omission": the good that we fail to do.

A brief description of this comes from www.beliefnet.com/story/110/story_11083_1.html in an article entitled, “The Spiritual Side of Sloth”:
“In many faiths, sloth is more than just laziness--though couch potatoes are frowned upon, too. World religions view sloth as more than simply lying on the couch for an entire afternoon. Though sloth today usually means physical laziness, in the original seven deadly sins, sloth was sadness, or depression. The word for sloth, acedia (from the Greek "akedia," or "not to care") meant "spiritual sloth." In many religions, sloth is seen as inhibiting or preventing virtuous conduct. It is considered sinful or wrong because inaction, in both the spiritual and wordly realms, can be just as bad as wrong actions. Sloth does include being a couch potato, but it is also often interpreted as wasting precious time, not doing enough to help the world, and avoiding a rigorous spiritual journey.”

A short story, from the same article, articulates the above sentiment:
“Orthodox Christians similarly view sloth as a spiritual idleness. This story from the Desert Fathers explains this view: A beginning monk, who went to a certain elder to confess, posed, among others, this question: 'Why, Father, do I fall so often into sloth?'
‘You lack the faith which makes you see God everywhere; for this reason you can be careless and lazy about your salvation,' the discerning elder wisely explained.’”

So, to be a spiritual sloth means failing to be the person God calls you to be. We were created to glorify God. Any time we fail to glorify God, we enter into sloth. This, of course, begs the question: what does it mean to glorify God? My short answer to that: I have no idea! My longer answer to that: It has something to do with the two greatest commandments. We are meant to love God first and most, and then to love others as much as we love ourselves. I do wonder, however, what that really means--what that really looks like in the midst of our every day actions. In part, it has to mean something about our responses to the world. A wise counselor once told me that, in my most difficult relationships, I needed to examine my thoughts, promptings and actions and ask: “What is the loving response here?” And by “loving”, he meant what is the most Christ-like response, what is in the best interest of the other (in the long run, not necessarily the short term...meaning, not always what that person likes/wants right now, but what will be of most benefit overall...you know, "tough love" and all that).

I had a teenager tell me one time that, if all he had to do was love God and love others, he already did that. I think that young man had a much smaller vision of love (and a pretty shallow understanding of himself and his motivations) than Jesus does. This love stuff—this sacrifice stuff—it is hard…and it rubs against the very grain of what we want and what we think we need. It is easier to NOT love at all…thus enters the sloth!

For my sermon this Sunday, I chose a familiar text to illustrate “sloth”…though, at face value, you might not label it as such. I chose the story of Mary and Martha. It might surprise you, but in that story, I think it was Martha who was most guilty of sloth. God calls us to do what will bring Him the most glory in the present moment. Meaning, there may well be an occasion where Mary needs to get off her butt and start doing some dishes. But in this particular story, Martha was the one making the wrong choice in the moment--the one who fails to chose love of God and neighbor above self. Some may argue (as I know my mom would!! Love you, mom!): “What could be more loving than wanting to provide a nice meal for your guests and family? People do need to eat.” That is true! But it is about timing, about attitude, and about where God is leading you in the present moment. Martha was focused on her sister’s lack of help in the kitchen, not focused on a sacrificial gift of love. Martha was not letting her sister be free to make her own choices to love and glorify God as He called her to do. For Martha, it was “me, me, me”. Maybe that is a good definition for sloth, or any sin: “me, me, me”.

This whole story (and when I say “story”, I do mean TRUE story) tells me that what it means for me, Tina Marie Dietsch, to glorify God in a certain circumstance may be totally different than what glorifying God would look like for another person in that same circumstance. There are people who are so busy, so driven, so overloaded that the most God-honoring thing they could do would be to take a nap. I had a professor say one time: “Sometimes the most spiritual thing you can do is take a nap”. I loved that! But, if you have been napping too much, if there are tasks undone, and people unloved in your midst--for you--the sloth-less thing to do would involve some kind of action.

It makes me think of “Chariots of Fire”, where Eric Liddell talks about why he runs. He says something like: “God made me fast and when I run, I feel His pleasure”. Within each of us, there are God-given gifts and graces, things that are peculiar and unique to us. When we fail to exercise those gifts, we enter into the realm of sloth. For Eric Liddell, NOT to run would be sloth. Is God calling me, Tina, to run? I hope not…because no one wants to see that! But there ARE things I must personally do to bring pleasure to God—and failing to do those things is failing to bring Him glory...meaning sloth.

Perhaps the question to ask, as we go through our days--making choices for action or inaction—should be: “What will bring God the most pleasure?” Too often, I think we ask: “Will this make God mad at me?” or “What is the most I can get away with and not end up in hell?” The more important question, in all that we do and chose, is: “Will this please God? Will He smile upon me? Will I be able to feel His pleasure?” The way to avoid sloth is seeking to please God, above all else. As the Westminster catechism so aptly states: “What is the chief end of man? Man’s chief end is to glorify God, and to enjoy him forever.”