Proper28C, Sullivan Park Care Center, November 17, 2013 by
Annette Fricke
When I was
born and a few years after that, my dad was a poultry farmer. What did that mean? It meant that he had 1,000 Leghorn
chickens. I don’t imagine he kept many
roosters for breeding purposes although I know he must have had some because he
also had an incubator to hatch eggs. The
other roosters were likely to show up on the dinner table. The rest meant
gathering and sorting eggs, lots of them. I was young and impressionable. My favorite childhood story was that of the
Little Red Hen. In the second grade, I
wrote a paper about different breeds of chickens. This was not surprising considering I grew up
on a poultry farm.
The
story of the Little Red Hen goes like this: The hen found some grains of wheat scattered in the barnyard and
asked for help to plant it from the other animals and they all said, “Not I!” All through each step to making bread out of
the wheat, each animal continued to say, “Not I!” The little red hen, after the bread has been
baked and ready to eat asks who will help her eat it and the animals say, “I will!" said the lamb. "I will!" said the cat. "I will!" said the pig.
"No, you
will not," said the Little Red Hen. "You didn't help me plant it, or water it, or harvest it, or mill
it, or bake it. I shall eat it myself!" And so she did.
"Oh
me!" said the lamb.
"Oh
my!" said the cat.
"Oh me, oh
my!" said the pig.
The next time the
Little Red Hen found some grains of wheat, the lamb planted it in the rich,
brown soil, the cat watered it carefully every day, and the pig harvested the wheat when it had grown tall and
strong. When the dough was baked, together the animals made hot chocolate and
ate the fresh, warm bread. It was delicious! The animals lived happily ever
after, cooperating and helping every day.[1]
Similar to our
second lesson from 2 Thessalonians, the moral of this story is that those who show no willingness
to contribute to a product do not deserve to enjoy the product: "if any
would not work, neither should he eat.”[2]
In my mind
for many years the lesson was quite straightforward, you don’t work, you don’t
eat. It was that simple. But it’s not that simple any more. In my research for the origin of this story,
I only find that it is thought to be Russian in origin. If I look at the context of this text, I see
the repeating of the word idle once as well as idleness twice and busybody once.
In the dictionary, the word busybody is a noun meaning a meddling or prying
person: a meddler, interferer, mischief-maker, troublemaker, gossip,
scandalmonger, eavesdropper, snoop, buttinsky, and a host of other synonyms.
In this
epistle, the context is the Christian community. The purpose of this section is to give
guidance and encouragement in the form of some very direct language. We are not to be mean to people who are
idle. In fact, we are to love them with
the same love that Christ showed us. We
should show our inclusiveness and concern for all in the Christian community. This
text also is not about those who are unable to work. We are to care for all
regardless of ability. This text rather, is directed to those who are perfectly
capable of work, but aren’t working.
On Thursday,
since it was one of my days off, I decided to visit with a friend of the family
from Mt Hope. For those of you who don’t
know where that is, it is close to Rockford and Fairfield, south of here about 25
miles. I went with a friend from the
church. After that, she suggested we see
another person in an Adult Family Home in the same vicinity. So we got back into my car and drove about a
mile south. We were told that the person
we came to see was taking a nap. We
decided that we would stay since she would be getting up soon for lunch. While waiting, the therapy dog, Bentley, came
up to greet us, seeming to favor me of the two of us. In time, the resident appeared to us in a
wheelchair. The connections were
made. She had sung in the choir where my
friend and I still sing. She excitedly
informed us that she wanted us to come for her birthday on February 8th
and she would be 96 years old! Then she looked at me and said, “How old are
you?” I said, “56.” She said, “Do you want a job working here?” I hesitated.
“Well,” as the main provider of the facility approached, “I work pretty
much full-time at Rockwood, but I could work part-time.” The Adult Family Home provider gave me her
card so I could apply. She said the job
was posted on Craigslist, but I never found it.
So, I applied.
From our
first lesson is addressed all the arrogant and evildoers. This goes beyond idleness into outright
purposeful behavior meant to do harm to others.
I was observing one of our residents one day. He blatantly told one of the servers from the
kitchen that he disliked her newly colored red hair and will sometimes refer to
her as the one with the mouth. A couple
of minutes later, he made it a point to apologize to her formally. Previous to that, one of the staff decided
that she did not want to put this resident’s hair into a pony tail, as he had
requested. These are just some of the
examples that I see around me. I am sure
that you are able to fill in the blank for your own conversations. It is OK to be different. We are all different, but that is what our
make-up is as a community. And so we are
admonished, “Brothers and sisters do not be weary in doing what is right.”
Do not weary
in doing what is right. Many temptations
will surround you and you will be tested in your faith many times over. The early Christians knew this well,
especially as they experienced the destruction of the temple in Jerusalem. Jesus’ words about the coming destruction of
the temple in 70 AD are still valid and we are called to remain faithful to
him. There will continue to be wars,
revolutions, rebellions, and resistances against civil authorities and established
governments. But, as the text also says,
the end will not follow
immediately. That means that we will
continue to see phenomenon like the typhoon which devastated much of the people
and land of the Philippines. We will
continue to see bad things happen to people over which we do not have any
control. There will be famine and
disease. There is an ongoing controversy
about immunizations in this country.
Many of my co-workers and some of the residents in my care refuse to get
flu shots because they believe that they will become sick with the flu when
they get the shot. Right now, some would
say that is a choice and we should respect those who choose that path. Others
would say that it increases the possibility of passing along the flu.
But,
regardless of how you might feel about contagion or the severity of the weather
systems of the world, this will continue till we are at the end. What are we to do? Jesus says that we are to endure. False prophets will also come. Never mind them. They are not Jesus. Do not follow them or pay attention to their
new teachings. Be strong and of good
courage because Jesus is ever near around us and inside of us to comfort and
lead us. He has conquered the
world. Dear brothers and sisters, do not
be weary in doing what is right. Do not be frightened. Your
reward will be your faithfulness to God.
Put your trust in God who will safely bring you from this life to the
next. You will never die in God’s hands.
Amen.
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