The Impossible Takes A Little Longer

The dark tone of our Scripture readings makes for sober thought. The temple was renowned for its beauty, yet in the Gospel reading it is the scene of destruction. An amazing engineering spectacle in itself, for apparently the smallest stones in the structure weighed two to three tons! Many of them weighed fifty tons! The walls towered over Jerusalem, yet this magnificent structure was to be reduced to rubble? The spectre of this event filled Luke's readers with great foreboding.

Luke's apocalyptic tone fits right in with the theme of 2 Thessalonians, which deals with the misguided belief that the day of the Lord's coming has already arrived. Paul corrects this notion, pointing out that before Christ returns evil and wickedness will reach a climax under the leadership of a mysterious figure called "the Wicked One" (2 Thessalonians 2:3, TEV) In other words, there is worse yet to come!

One Response to Doom and Gloom: Panic!

Both Luke and Paul were writing under an apocalyptic cloud, but Paul is particularly concerned with the practical effects this has on believers. People react to impending doom and gloom in various ways. A common response is to panic! If, as Luke says, we can expect persecution, arrest, dubious leaders, not to mention a whole series of natural disasters, panic seems like a reasonable response. Fear leads to desperation, and the impulse to run, quit or act in haste. We get anxious, feel lonely and afraid, and can't see any way out of our predicament.

Many people talk about the irrationality of fear and panic, but what they need is a good scare! One of the things that scares children — and some adults — is the dark. A mother asked her five-year old son to go into the pantry and get her a can of tomato soup, but he was hesitant; he said, "It's dark in there and I'm scared!" She persisted, however, saying, "It's okay! Jesus will be in there with you." So the little boy slowly opened the door of the pantry, felt overwhelmed by the dark cavern, and was about to leave when he spoke into the darkness, "Jesus, if you're in there, would you hand me that can of tomato soup?" (Charles Allen)

False comfort is of little help when you're scared. Fear and panic can be very real. I remember a dark, night-time event that spooked me as a child and its vivid memory has never left me; I still think of it from time to time.

Some of us know seasons of darkness. Some days, some weeks or months, we feel like we are surrounded by darkness. We have fears and insecurities about our employment, or about our health, or with respect to our marriage and family life. We face moral dilemmas that for all the world look impossible to solve. Young people experience the pressure of school assignments and high expectations from family and friends, or the risk of rejection from their peers or that special someone whose affection they would love to win.

Personal fears are real and threatening, but we can also get caught up in societal panics. Financial panics are not unusual in our economy, but any series of crises can cause people to think our society is unravelling. People's fear grows, they get hyper and they do all kinds of weird things. They withdraw all their money from the bank, or they stop travelling; they don't feel safe. I admit to great uneasiness about Yasser Arafat's death and worrying about its effects on the ever-volatile Middle East.

The word "panic" is associated with Pan, the god of woods, fields, and fertility in Greek mythology. Pan was a young man with an upper body of a male and the lower body, legs and hooves of a goat. Pan liked to ambush travellers, lying in wait for them and then giving them an awful fright! The Greeks called such sudden, unreasoning terror panic. Panic is that fear that comes on you out of nowhere and that you can't seem to control.

We all know that panic is of little use in the face of doom and gloom. Panic is panic, and one can't always shut it off, but Luke counsels a measured approach. Luke is seeking to persuade his readers to anticipate doom and gloom. In other words, if catastrophe strikes, don't be surprised. In fact, work it to your advantage! Think of it as an opportunity. When you face arrest and persecution because of your faith, says Luke, think of it as "an opportunity to testify." (Luke 21:13) "So make up your minds," says Luke — in other words, give some thought to it — but don't bother "prepar(ing) your defence in advance...." Relax. God "...will give you words and a wisdom that none of your opponents will be able to withstand or contradict." (21:14-15)

Idleness: The Response of Choice in Thessalonica

I think the Apostle Paul would agree that panic is not helpful in the face of trying circumstances, but that wasn't the problem he faced in Thessalonica. Idleness was the response of choice in Thessalonica. The apocalyptic cloud overshadowing congregational life there had lulled some believers into laziness. As I said earlier, some of the believers in this congregation were under the impression that the Lord's coming had already arrived or was very near. There were some in the congregation who considered the end so near they didn't even bother planting their crops! The crops might not ripen before the Lord came, so why bother planting!

Paul is very direct with the congregation, saying "...we command you, beloved, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, to keep away from believers who are living in idleness... ...we were not idle when we were with you, ...but with toil and labour we worked night and day, so that we might not burden any of you. ...we hear that some of you are living in idleness, mere busybodies, not doing any work." (2 Thessalonians 3:6-8, 11)

Now, it may be hard to imagine how one can combine idleness and busybody-ness, but I remember someone I worked with on construction at an open pit mine in northern Manitoba. A number of different crews were working on a whole complex of mining buildings spread across a large campus. My friend's name was Alfred, a very sociable fellow who rarely did any work. He was a wily fellow with an ingenious method for masking his laziness. He would walk from one construction site to another with two two-by-fours on his shoulder. His stride was purposeful and he never lingered at one site long enough to arouse suspicion. In fact, by the end of the summer I doubt that anyone remembered to which crew he belonged.

One can be busy without accomplishing anything. Paul's reference to those "living in idleness" does not refer to people who are unemployed or economically disadvantaged; the reference is to those in the congregation who were not contributing to the fellowship meals and other activities of the community. Some church members were sitting back and letting others do the work and meet the costs, while they took advantage of the principles of love and hospitality on which the church is built. Their dependence upon the hospitality and work of others gave them sufficient idle time to be busybodies, meddling in others' affairs when they should have been pulling their weight.

We also know that itinerant preachers were becoming a problem as Christianity developed. We know, from sources such as 2 John and a manual called The Didache that it became necessary to be very cautious about visiting preachers. Some outstayed their welcome and were leeches on congregations. Others took great advantage of congregations, keeping on the move, like my friend, Alfred. They acquired great references, and letters of commendation setting out their spiritual achievements, then appealed for financial support, and were soon off to the next congregation! This was long before the advent of radio and television, so these shysters actually had to visit congregations.

Paul's advice is blunt: Let's not have people sponging off the congregation. Let them work and pay their way! "We were not idle when we were with you," writes Paul. "And we did not eat anyone's bread without paying for it; but with toil and labour we worked night and day, so that we might not burden any of you. This was ...to give you an example to imitate. For even when we were with you, we gave you this command: Anyone unwilling to work should not eat." (2 Thessalonians 3:7-10)

No doubt Paul was also concerned about the effect these lazy people might have upon the hard-working members of the church, for it might lead them to grow weary of doing what they were doing. Christian thought and action is based on the assumption that life has a purpose and that history will one day reach a consummation. However, in the absence of any evidence that this is so, it is not unreasonable to grow weary in well-doing. Given evidence that even "lovely things" may be rotten, it is not unreasonable to talk of the purposelessness and meaninglessness of life.

In his later years American novelist Theodore Dreiser (1871-1945) put it rather drearily, saying, "I can make no comment on my work or my life that holds either interest or importance for me. Nor can I imagine any explanation of any life, my own included, that would be either true, or important if true. Life is to me too much a welter and play on inscrutable forces to permit...any significant comment. I catch no meaning from all I have seen, and I pass quite as I came, confused and dismayed." Edna St. Vincent Millay (1892-1950), another writer, put it more succinctly when she said: "Life must go on, but I forget just why."

The Bible itself, in the book of Ecclesiastes, admits to some weariness and despair, saying: "Vanity of vanities... All is vanity. What do people gain from all the toil at which they toil under the sun? A generation goes, and a generation comes... The sun rises and the sun goes down, and hurries (back) to the place where it rises. The wind blows to the south, and goes around to the north; round and round goes the wind... All streams run to the sea, but the sea is not full... All things are wearisome; more than one can express... there is nothing new under the sun... I have seen everything that is done under the sun; and behold, all is vanity and a striving after wind. (Ecclesiastes 1:2-9, NRSV; verse 14, RSV)

Even those who are convinced of life's purpose and who have a deep commitment to the realization of that purpose can grow weary of the many obstacles that impede change for the better. William Wilberforce, the nineteenth-century British statesman fiercely opposed to slavery, brought in resolutions against slavery year after year; and year after year they were defeated. The abolition of the slave trade took much longer than Wilberforce and other reformers had thought; in typical understatement Wilberforce wrote, "We began to perceive more difficulties in the way than we had hoped there would be."

We Are in this for the Long Haul

Every parent knows the experience of travelling with children and having to answer the inevitable question, "Are we there yet?" The attention span of adults may be little different with respect to history. It takes all kinds of time and effort to right a wrong, and just when it looks like it might happen we are faced with several other injustices. It takes a lot of effort and courage to make peace, and just when we think we're making some progress, another nation declares war. Christians spend years — decades, generations — laying the groundwork for international understanding, much of it then laid to waste by warring governments fuelled by Christian support! It's discouraging! But if I take anything out of our Scripture readings, it's the thought that we're in this for the long haul.

Tom Ridge, when sworn in as Director of the American Office of Homeland Security (October 8, 2001), quoted what he attributed to his friends in the Army Corps of Engineers: "The difficult, we do immediately. The impossible takes a little longer." Apparently this was the motto of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers during World War II, but I find a certain irony in the fact that it was originally an Arabic proverb. (WorldofQuotes.com, Historic Quotes and Proverbs Archive)

"The difficult, we do immediately. The impossible takes a little longer." A 1943 issue of Newsweek (March 8, 1943, page 34) called it a "cocky slogan," and perhaps it can be used in that way, but I find it oddly appropriate to what we are about as Christians. We have difficult tasks to do, and in the immediate future we work away at them, but there is also something about the Christian enterprise that seems well nigh to impossible, like the impossible dream of beating swords into ploughshares! (Isaiah 2) It may not happen immediately! It make take a little longer, but that doesn't keep us from working at it.

Worthwhile things often take a long time. Noah Webster, for example, worked on his dictionary for thirty-six years, crossing the ocean twice to collect material, before publishing his dictionary. Thomas Gray wrote "Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard" seventy-five times before he was prepared to put his name to it.

Jesus himself seemed content to be obedient in his little corner of a nondescript region, and he left it to God to fit his efforts into the larger mosaic of redemption. What we are doing may take some time, but relax! Trust in God. Corrie ten Boom, who experienced the darkness of a Nazi concentration camp, said, "When a train goes through a tunnel and it gets dark, you don't throw away your ticket and jump off. You sit still and trust the engineer." Or as Martin Luther quipped, "While I drink my little glass of Wittenberg beer, the gospel runs its course." A comforting thought, even for those of us who detest beer.

Trust in God. When faced with the un-loveliness of things, today's Scriptures reminds us that God is moving things along, and that God will bring His kingdom to fulfilment. Today's readings are a reminder, as theologian Helmut Thielicke said, that "...despite all the chaos, all the stupidity, all the sin, (life) will not turn out to be a hopelessly tangled skein...." ("The Parable of the Seed Growing Silently," The Waiting Father: Sermons on the Parables of Jesus)

God will not abandon us. We are people of the promise. We are God's children. We are loved by God. God has a goal for our lives, and all darkness notwithstanding God will accomplish that goal.