As I looked at the Scripture for this Sunday several weeks ago, I read a word that triggered a possible title.  As I’ve shared with you before, that can be a challenge to find just a few words that will sum up.  And I came up with “The ‘B’ Message”.  Just the letter ‘B’ because it stood for a word that you will hear later in the passage from 2 Thessalonians—busybody.  And I thought, well, if I tell them ahead of time those who like to talk about others might not show up because they think I’m talking about someone who is a busybody.   Then I saw the early promos for the movie called, “The Bee Movie”.  And that’s why you see the change printed for today—“The Bee Message”.  Because, in looking further in the promos, I thought maybe there would be some connection.  I have no idea until I see the movie.  So Joyce and I went last Friday and we saw “The Bee Movie”.  Jerry Seinfeld being the voice of the main bee.  There are Biblical messages in that movie.  It’s also a PG which means that you can take children.  Oh, they may not catch some of the adult humor but its not bad adult humor.  It’s something that you’ll say, “I know what they mean by that”.  And children will say, “I don’t know.”   

But “The Bee Movie” has a theme and here’s what the theme is—It’s that each one in their own way doing what they are called to be and they do not matter how accomplishments are going to be recognized, but there is no greater good that serves others beyond themselves.  Simply it means they work together and everyone is equal in one way because they have a job to do.  If we listen to that and say that when we choose to stop being who we are or what we are meant to be, society and even the world breaks down.  And that’s the messages of the movie. 

So I further tripped on with the word “be”, the being verb and parallel with “bee”, the insect.  I want to do a little embarrassment to Shakespeare and Hamlet’s soliloquy so don’t blame him for what I’ve written.   

To be or not to be, that is the question

Whether it is nobler the mind of a bee to suffer

The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune

Or the day to day tedium of ones assigned task

Let’s take arms against the sea of troubles

Caused by the human race.

And by opposing end them

And once our troubles are ended

When we no longer have to work

When we win the lottery

When we retire

When we get the rest that we deserve

That is, to die, to sleep no more

And by asleep to say that we end the heartache

And the thousand natural shocks that flashes hereto

It is a consummation that God meant to be wished

To die, to sleep, to sleep perchance to dream

Ah, there’s the rub

For in that sleep of death what dreams may come?

The “Bee” dream, according to the character that Jerry Seinfeld voice presents, was to find reason not to work and to get back at the human race for all of that honey that they had stolen from our hives.  He is successful; but unfortunately, what he finds out, the success gained is worse than the tedium that he thought he would have to be a part of.  For whether the bee realizes it or not, we need to know that God has created us, you and me, to be first of all one who praises God and gives in return.  And secondly to serve people.  That is our reason for being.  We are to give God our praise and our offerings in a regular way in our life.  Not something sporadic, but something we see as normal and expected part of who we are.  Just because we are God’s creation! 

And secondly and equal to it, is that we serve others.  As we say, in the name of Christ!  When we are not doing one or the other or both, if we are not giving to God in a regular basis in return for gratitude for what the Lord has done and praising God for that, and if we are not serving others, then we become lazy or busybodies.  We lose direction, we wander, we get lost on purpose.  And the bees in “The Bee Movie” did exactly that.  You ought to see it to catch the whole drift of the meaning.  They lost sight of their purpose of being and became those lazy busybodies which you will hear mention shortly in Paul’s passage. 

Today’s Scripture warns us of what can happen when we lose our focus and our purpose.  We can see it in the eyes of those people who are without work, who are extremely hungry, who are without purpose in life.  It’s a hollow, vacant look in their lives.  It is difficult for us when we see a person who has lost their way that way.  Yes, we can begin to believe God and life owes us something.  Certain ministries that are being questioned by Senator Charles Grassley in Iowa may find themselves wanting or maybe not particularly if the leaders begin to believe that they deserve what comes their way, that the blessings that come their way are entitlements.   

When we are human beings or bees as an insect, when we believe we deserve all the things that come our way, we have misunderstood the theme of life.  I know I struggle with that statement because there are people in this congregation and all throughout my professional ministry who have said, “You deserve that”.  And I’ve learned to respond, “Well, I may not deserve it but I hope I’ll enjoy it.”  For example, vacation, time off.  I spent last weekend with the family.  I struggle with that.  Do I deserve what I am paid to be a professional Christian?  That’s an issue that I’ll continue to struggle with.  And I believe that it’s the heart of Charles Grassley, Senator from Iowa, his questions. 

It touches upon the entitlement.  Hearing the siren song of Jiminy Cricket, “Oh the world owes me a living.  Dum, Dum, Dum, Dum, Dum, De Dum.”  Do you believe that?  That God owes you blessings and owes you a living?  Paul speaks to some of the Christians in the Church of Thessalonica who have heard the siren song that Jesus will return soon.  So why do we have to work so hard?  Why care about global warming?  God’s going to heat things up anyway. I’ve seen that sign.  World hunger—Jesus said we are going to have the poor with us always so why do we worry about it?  War—that final war, it’s going to be the war of all times and all the present ones we have will pale in comparison.  It will soon all be over and evil will be defeated.  But until that time let’s just rest and take it easy and trust in God that Jesus is coming.  There is even a group in Russia right now who apparently are held up in a cave.  They must have heard that message instead. 

It seems about every decade some major group of Christians or a small group but they make a major voice, will make that kind of statement.  And that’s the setting of Paul’s statement today.  So when we look at 2 Thessalonians, what I want us to hear is the context of the one phrase that many people pointed out and they use it for a reason not to serve others and not to give to God.  It is the quote that you will hear in the context that a man will not work, he shall not eat.  Well, the person who doesn’t work, why should we have a food pantry for those people who won’t get out and get a job?  But the context of the Scripture are for those who have given up being a part of the community and are just waiting for Jesus to return and do not see that we are given appointed rounds and duties and responsibilities until such time of Jesus’ return to which we will be faithful.  That’s where in Verse 6 of 2 Thessalonians, Chapter 3, Paul says, “In the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, we command you brothers to keep away from every brother who is idle and does not live according to the teaching or the tradition you have received from us.  For you yourselves know how you ought to follow our example.  We were not idle when we were with you nor did we eat anyone’s food without paying for it.  On the contrary, we worked day and night laboring and toiling so that we would not be a burden to any of you.  We did this not because we do not have the right for such help… (Did you hear that?  Not because we do not have the right for such help) but in order to make ourselves a model for you to follow.  For even when we were with you, we gave you this rule:  If a man will not work, he shall not eat.  We hear that some of you are idle.  You are not busy; you are busybodies.  Such people we command and urge in the Lord Jesus Christ to settle down and earn the bread they eat.  And as for you, brothers, never tire of doing what is right.”   

Hear that clearly.  Never tire of doing what is right.  This does not mean that we should not help people in need.  Clearly, that is what we are called to do.  You might be discouraged if you see someone who responds differently, makes you think they ought to, in the community or outside the community.  There is a story of a group of members in the United Methodist Women in a church in a town in Wisconsin who saw a woman who was single and had three children and she struggled to get by.  You could tell, obviously, that the children had little in the way of clothing.  So they did their best to help her.  They found a reason to provide suitable clothing for the children.  The Ladies Group corrected the situation with a very generous response. That’s what they felt called to do.  When the little girls and the woman failed to show up for church and Sunday School for several weeks, they called on her and she explained, “Well, the girls looked so nice, I decided I would attend the Presbyterian Church.”   

You can never guarantee what people will do with what you give them, but you can be assured that we are to be generous.  But generous for people within our own community, in the setting that Paul is placing these words is that we need, with our own people, those who believe in Jesus Christ who are a part of this congregation that we need to stress the value of education.  We need to stress the value of work for the sake of, not work itself, but that it gives you a purpose in life.  Stress the value of teaching a person to be self-reliant as possible.  And thereby, as we have offered in the past and will continue to do so, we need to help people of all ages, but particularly young families, to learn how to get out from underneath credit card debt and other burdensome debts.  This last week at Rotary we saw a videotape that talked about their “Microlending” down in other countries that are developing—giving people a small amount so that they can turn it around and start a business and be able to sustain and support themselves and their own families.  By the way, United Methodist Women have been doing that in many countries.  And I talked to David Muwaya from Uganda this week.  I said, “David, you have Rotary there and you have the United Methodist Women.  And both of them believe and support that principal of microlending, maybe we could do something together better than we are doing separately.”  He said, “That’s a great idea.  I’ll check in to it.”  The Heifer Project and others like it are to help people, not just to be fed for a day, but to learn how to feed themselves.  That’s the strength of what it means to not just meet the immediate need but help people come out of whatever it is they’ve been caught in.   

For you see, we are to feed the hungry and clothe the naked.  It is a command of Jesus Christ.  And as Paul states that within the context of a faithful community that we can not give out what we are called to do just because we believe the Lord is coming soon.  But Jesus says in Matthew 25, in a setting of the last judgment, clearly telling us if you want to know what is going to be important in the last days, when you come before God and before me as God’s representation, Jesus says the following in the 31^st verse of Matthew 25, “When the Son of Man comes in his glory and all the angels with him, he will sit on his throne in heavenly glory.  All the nations will be gathered before him.  He will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats.  He will put the sheep on his right, the goats on his left.  And then the king will say to them on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my father.  Take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world.  For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat; I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink; I was a stranger and you invited me in; I needed clothes and you clothed me; I was sick and you looked after me; I was in prison and you came and visited me.  And both the righteous and the unrighteous asked the question, ‘When did we do that to you, Jesus?’  And he said, ‘I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these, you did for me.’   

Not just the people in our community of faithful, but any who are the least, who are troubled, who are in a bad spot in life, even if they caused it themselves, we are to respond and feed them and clothe them and help them.  Not just in the immediate, to be restored though to an active life in whatever way that is possible.  To help them move from a life of laziness, busybodyness, a life of disappointment and discouragement into a life of hope and promise.  And those who did not do so in the name of Christ and failed to respond to the needs that were so evident, Jesus goes on and says, “Those will not be with me.  For I tell you the truth, whatever you did not do for the least of these, you didn’t do it for me.”   

Those are powerful words to say that when it comes to the standing in line to do a response to help people who are in need, the Christian should be in the very front.  There is no question about that.  We should never hesitate to be generous in that way as this church has been in the past and will continue to be so.  But more than just being for the moment, let us do all we can to restore people, to help them find a way out of the ruts that they have found in life.  We will not be perfect with all.  For some we may do great effort but not see the end result.  But Jesus didn’t say, “Help those and then if you are successful, I’ll let you in.”  Just in the very act!  And we are not the seasonal helping people just because of Thanksgiving, just because it’s moving in to Christmas.  There will be great generosity and people will respond, but it is we who will do it all year long.  And find ways to say to the Lord, “Thank you, praise you, gracious God.  Honor you by our gifts and by our service in your name.”   

And then we will be, like the bees, we’ll be happy doing what we are doing because that’s the way we are made.  God created us for a purpose and that was to glorify God and to love our neighbors as ourselves.  That’s the “bee” message for today.  May it be your message for Thanksgiving and beyond. 

Let us join for a prayer, “Gracious God, the simplicity of this story is that we are to respond in love in your name.  Let us be faithful to that glorifying you, honoring you, praising you and serving others in the name of your son and our savior, Jesus Christ.  In His name we pray, Amen.

E-mail Comments to: Pastor Bob Coleman

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