WEARY IN WELL DOING

We might first ask, where the story of Christ’s temptations came from originally. Jesus had not yet called any of his disciples. According to the story Jesus was alone. Did Jesus tell his disciples about his experience of temptation, or is this an artful construction of the early church? Whatever embellishments the church may have provided to the story, there seems to be a central truth that after his baptism Jesus withdrew for a time to consider what sort of Messiah he might become. We need to consider this story then in relationship to several different expectations the Jewish people had of a Messiah in first century Israel.

Many people were waiting for a great military hero who would challenge the armed might of Rome, and free Israel from foreign occupation. Many people were seeking a great King who would re-establish the Davidic dynasty and the glory days of Israel’s past. Still other people were looking for a great prophet and miracle worker who would embody the very power of God. A few people were looking for a great teacher. Almost no one, including the disciples, was looking for the Suffering Servant Jesus would ultimately become.

The story of the temptation holds some marvelous insight into the developing messianic consciousness of Jesus. In a world in which most people went to bed hungry, the first temptation, changing stones into bread has implication far beyond Jesus’ own hunger after fasting. The first temptation speaks to the necessity of mastering physical appetites, and Jesus’ refusal to change stones into bread was also a rejection of the Roman tradition of "bread and circuses." Whether the temptation was primarily personal or political, Jesus’ response, "It is written, 'Man shall not live by bread alone,'" a quotation from Deuteronomy 8:3, was highly appropriate. As much as Jesus exhorts us to feed the hungry, he also invites us to minister to the spiritual hungers of people.

The second temptation in Luke’s version of the story is the will to power: "And the devil took him up, and showed him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time. . ." There are several forms of the will to power. First, is the desire to control others and to glory in perquisites of power—the desire for power for power’s sake. Even more insidious can be the desire for power in order to do good. Had Jesus become the Emperor of the world, he could have abolished slavery, established schools and hospitals, provided for the poor and the sick. Just think of all the good he could have done. But power can be illusory and deceitful. Trying to regulate goodness through government power without transforming the human heart is a doomed enterprise. If good is forced upon people, rather than chosen by them, it is no longer good. The world worships power. Jesus refused power for power’s sake. He answered the temptation with a paraphrase of the First Commandment: "You shall worship the Lord your God, and him only shall you serve."

The third temptation in Luke’s version of the story was the temptation to be the Messiah who gained a following by using magic. Jump off the pinnacle of the temple without hurting yourself, and people will believe you are the Messiah. Noting that Jesus had responded to each of the temptations by citing scripture, Satan, used a paraphrase of Psalm 91:11-12 in pitching the third temptation. (From this example comes the saying: even the devil can quote scripture.) Jesus rejected performing miracles as a way of gaining a following. During his ministry miracles occurred, but in each case the motivation was primarily an exercise of compassion, not an attempt to win a following. His purpose was to exercise compassion not magic.

The gospel of Luke includes an intriguing thought in the closing verse of the story of temptation. "And when the devil had ended every temptation, he departed from him until an opportune time." Anyone who has ever faced temptation knows the truth in that statement. When we are tired, depressed, feeling lonely, we are far more vulnerable to temptation, than we are well rested, and feeling good about our lives. If Jesus experienced temptation, then he was indeed fully human.

We are as vulnerable to temptation as Jesus. Have you ever noticed how when confronted by a temptation, when we are in a public situation, we will flee from temptation, but leave a forwarding address, where temptation can find us in private? I’m diabetic and I do not cheat on my diet in front of my wife, but when I am all alone, the temptation to cheat sometimes overcomes my will power. In a unit on ethics I helped to write for the Building Officials and Code Administrators, I asked people to imagine that someone was following them with a video camera and whatever they did would appear on the six o’clock news. Would they still do it?

Most good church folks are able to fend off the Big Sins, the Hot Sins, the Sins of Passion, like murder, rape, adultery, bank robbery, the public sins that can gain us notoriety -- the kinds of sins that might get us on the six o’clock news or the church gossip circuit. No as good church people we are far more likely to be guilty of the Cold Sins, what some people would mistakenly refer to as the Little Sins, like, self-righteousness, judging others, slander, gossip, white lies, the far more private and less notorious sins, that are every bit as spiritually damaging as the "Hot Sins."

But this morning I don’t want to talk about Big Sins or Little Sins. This morning I want talk about a temptation that Dan Kitchen shared with me is one of the greatest challenges facing this congregation. Do you know what that is? Let me pause for a moment for dramatic affect. It gets uncomfortable waiting for the answer, doesn’t it? What did Pastor Kitchen tell him about us? The challenge I would like to speak to this morning is the temptation to become weary in well doing.

Have you ever experienced the temptation to become weary in well doing? You start on a project. You are excited. The project will actually do some good for some people. Maybe your passion is building houses for Habitat for humanity, or gathering relief aid for the poor starving children in Africa, (remember One Great Hour of Sharing is March 21^st. Maybe you have a great new idea for Sunday School, or you have agreed to serve as the Chair of the Stewardship Committee. Whatever responsibility you have taken on you are excited. You have some gifts to bring to the task and you feel a spirit of enthusiasm that must come from God. And then six months later, a year later, three years later, you become tired of the effort. You’re discouraged. And no one appreciates the time or effort you put into it anyway. You want to quit. How many people have experienced that temptation? How many of us have experienced becoming weary of well doing? Another term for weariness in well doing is burnout.

Remember how Satan departed from Jesus until an opportune time? Well, what are some of the times or circumstances in our lives, when we become most vulnerable to burnout?

One of the most common circumstances leading to burnout is a lack of results. It is amazing how much effort we can invest in a project, when we can see some improvement. One reason Habitat for Humanity is such a popular program is because we can see visible concrete progress, and there is an end product, a house, that is eventually finished. When a lower income family moves into a home they can afford, there is a tremendously satisfying feeling of accomplishment. But what happens when we go to work in projects where results are invisible? Let’s say we are responsible for the spiritual growth of a Sunday School class or a congregation? Maybe our task is organizing brownie troops in a neighborhood, where young families are moving out. Or we are working with prison inmates, alcoholics or drug addicts, where the recidivism rate is very high. Whenever we are working in a field that lacks significant concrete results, we can become discouraged. Lack of results can be a temptation to become weary of well doing.

Another circumstance that can lead to burnout is working along side others who lack meaningful motivation and commitment. Here we are working over time, giving 110%, and the other people leave early, don’t show, when they’re supposed to, don’t care. We’re giving our full tithe and then some, and the other folks aren’t even making a token contribution. We’ve been there right? If everyone was pulling together on this project, we’d be making some headway, and instead we’re experiencing failure. And so we get discouraged and we burnout. We become weary of well doing.

Discouragement in the face of a lack of commitment of others is understandable and natural. It can happen at our place of employment, the scouting program, the Little League, the PTA, our church. And here is a piece of wisdom. In any organization people will always have different levels of commitment. If we are waiting for everyone to share the same level of commitment to the task we possess, nothing will ever happen. There will always be people who have to give 200%, because there are people who will only give 10%. Life isn’t fair. And if we are going to allow people who are lazy or uncommitted to determine our level of involvement, then we will never reach the goal. In the words of Paul, Galatians 6:9 And let us not grow weary in well-doing, for in due season we shall reap, if we do not lose heart.

Another source of burnout is rejection. We have a vision; we prepare a plan. Boy this is the best idea since sliced bread. We take our idea to the Board of Directors, the Trustees, the Congregation, whoever the decision makers may be, and they just can’t see the vision, they reject the idea, they vote down the plan, and we feel like someone has just kicked us in the stomach. We get discouraged; we burnout.

Rejection offers an easy justification for quitting. But in response I would suggest the example of Winston Churchill, who experienced considerable success early in his career. Then as he approached mid-life he was rejected by his party and the public. Continuing in semi-obscurity he persisted in publishing his ideas as a lonely often ignored critic of the government. Until at the age of 62, during England’s darkest hour he was elected Prime Minister for the first time. Years later, in his eighties he was invited to speak to the students at Harrow his boyhood grammar school on the secret of his success. With a stern countenance, Churchill looked out over his young audience and said, "Young men, never give up, never, never, never give up!" And with that he sat down. Perseverance, courage in the face of adversity was the hall mark of Churchill’s life and the answer to burnout in the face of opposition, rejection and criticism.

Winston Churchill reminds me of an important tool in fighting burnout—humor. In the dark days after Dunkirk, when England stood alone against the Nazi menace waiting to be invaded, Churchill gave his famous speech: We shall go on to the end, we shall fight in France, we shall fight on the seas and oceans, we shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air, we shall defend our Island, whatever the cost may be, we shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills. . . At this point Churchill paused for dramatic effect. He placed his hand over the microphone, and said as an aside to the engineer in the radio studio, "and we’ll hit them over the head with beer bottles, because that’s all we’ve really got." Then taking his hand off of the microphone he finished his speech, we shall never surrender.