Lent Midweek February 28, 2018
2018 Study of Acedia, Sloth (This file is a short study sent out in advance of the Lent midweek sermon.)
Lent Midweek
(Various Texts) 2 Thess. 3:6-13; Matthew 25:13-30; Hebrews 12:1-2; James 1:2-4
February 28, 2018
“Jesus vs. Acedia”
In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
If you go to Jerusalem you can walk the Via Dolorosa, the way of suffering, which is the supposed path that Jesus walked from Pontius Pilate all the way to the place of crucifixion. Of course, that route has changed over the years as they’ve argued about where exactly it should be but that’s not really the point. The point is that Jesus truly walked that roughly three-quarters of a mile. Part of the way carrying His cross. All of the way suffering. Bloody. Beaten. Weak. And already dying. And if you’re familiar with the Stations of the Cross, those are fourteen different stations along that path. For instance, one station is when Simon takes the cross.
We don’t really observe the stations of the cross. Half of them aren’t found anywhere in the Bible anyway. But we certainly do observe the Via Dolorosa, the way of suffering. The path of Jesus from His sentencing all the way to the site of His crucifixion. The walk to His execution. And that walk is significant for us tonight as we talk about acedia or sloth, one of the seven vices. (I’m going to be calling this sin acedia since sloth doesn’t fully cover it and there’s no perfect English word to translate. However, the usual English word used is, indeed, sloth.)
The opposite of acedia is Jesus. Specifically, it is the steadfastness, endurance, and perseverance of Jesus. Where acedia is lethargic, apathetic, and hopeless—Jesus is steadfast. Where acedia is busy being distracted and avoiding the task ahead—Jesus is steadfast. Nothing would keep Him from doing all He needed to do to save you and me from our sins and from death. Nothing! As Hebrews 12:2 says, “For the joy set before Him He endured the cross.” He endured for you. He persevered for you. He is steadfast.
When Judas, His own disciple, came to kiss Him and betray Him, Jesus was steadfast. When the guards arrested and bound Him, Jesus was steadfast. When the Sanhedrin put Him on trial and accused Him of blaspheming God His Father, Jesus was steadfast. When Pilate questioned Him and King Herod mocked Him, Jesus was steadfast. When they pressed down the crown of thorns and tied Him to the post for whipping, Jesus was steadfast. When they made Him walk to His death under the weight of His cross, Jesus was steadfast. When they nailed His hands and feet to the cross, Jesus was steadfast. From 9am to 3pm hanging on the cross, Jesus was steadfast. He didn’t despair. He wasn’t distracted. He persevered.
So my prayer tonight for all of you is the same prayer of St. Paul in 2 Thessalonians 3:5, “May the Lord direct your hearts to the love of God and to the steadfastness of Christ.” As you and I fight the good fight against acedia, as we confess our acedia, our slothfulness, our apathy, our despair—may the Lord direct our hearts to the steadfastness of Christ. He is steadfast, friends. And no matter how much we are lazy, slothful, and distracted—His love endures forever. And through His steadfastness we are made steadfast. To fight the good fight of faith. To endure all things until we reach our home in heaven.
From what I’ve read on acedia, I think one of the best English words for it is boredom. [i] I like that word because that is the sentiment of Americans today. We’re bored. Never have we had so much “entertainment” available to us and yet never before have we been so bored. Why is that? We have access to hundreds of TV channels, hundreds of friends through Facebook, hundreds of people just a phone call away, thousands of magazines, newspapers, movies, and what have you—and yet we’re bored.
God has given you and I blessings from shore to shore. They’re innumerable. The finest meats, fruits, and sweets that you could ever want to put in your mouth. The best coffees, teas, wines, and beers that have ever been poured into a glass. The most beautiful places to see—a drive up to Starved Rock, a walk along the Mackinaw, a trip to any of our National Parks. Every morning the gorgeous rising of the sun and every evening the dazzling sky of stars. A library three blocks away full of the world’s best novels, poems, and stories from the best authors. And one of the finest gifts God has ever graced humanity with—music. Located right here in your throat—music that we can make anytime we want. And we’re bored?!
But that’s not even the worst. God has given us treasures even greater than any of these. He has given us Himself. He Himself has come down to earth in the person of Jesus Christ. And we’re bored with Him. He Himself has written down His very words and thoughts and feelings for us in His holy Word—66 books—1,189 chapters of the very Word of God! And we’re bored with it. He Himself has promised to listen to us anytime we address Him in holy prayer—anytime we want an audience with God the Father Almighty, maker of heaven and earth. And we’re bored with it. He Himself in this water of Baptism has promised us that we are His children forever and ever and has promised us new life every single day. And we’re bored with it. Who cares about Baptism?! And He Himself comes to us for forgiveness in this bread and wine for us to eat and drink. And we’re bored with it.
Are you starting to see how ugly this demon of acedia is? How dangerous it is? All of these good things that we can fill our hearts and minds and souls with every single day, but we have no appetite for them. We’re bored with them. We escape all of this love of God by one of two things—either pure laziness and apathy. Or secondly, through total avoidance and distraction. Either we do nothing with God’s good or we do everything to avoid it and not think of it. Dorothy Sayers says acedia is an empty heart, an empty brain, and an empty soul.[ii] No wonder acedia is closely interwoven with depression.
And in America—this will only get worse. We are quickly becoming the culture of “I don’t care”. Nothing is sacred and nothing has any lasting meaning. The only things that Americans universally care about is pleasure. Nothing should get in the way of your pleasure. But, of course, all of our pleasures are simply fleeting and meaningless. Nothing of any lasting value. So we get busy. We go, go, go. From here to there and everywhere. We don’t have time for anything of real purpose. We certainly don’t have time to read God’s Word or spend time in prayer. We’re way too busy! It’s a “spiritual morphine”[iii] – all this busyness – a drug that keeps us from contemplating or enjoying anything of real lasting value.
For the Christian, it’s laziness. It’s sloth. Acedia is refusing to fight the good fight of faith. It’s the Old Adam, our sinful nature, resisting the work of the Holy Spirit. We want to stay negative and discontented. We want to keep living in the dark where nothing matters and no one cares about anything. We don’t want to do anything that requires real thought or real work or real love. We’re the one-talent-guy in Jesus’ parable that takes all of God’s good and buries it in the ground so we can go do whatever else we want to do. We figure that God’s just a mean ‘ol hardhead anyway so we’ll just dig up His goods if He ever comes back.
For all this, Jesus words are simple. As He says so often, “Wake up! Stay awake! Watch!” Look around you, Christians. Look at what God has given you. Put away that old, bored sinful nature that’s never happy with anything, never enjoys anything, never cares about anything, and never loves anything. Drown that bored guy full of acedia every single morning and wake up the new man in Jesus Christ. The man of steadfastness. Wake up in the morning and say, “This is the day that the Lord has made. Let us rejoice and be glad in it.” Look around at the good that God has given you and see where you might bring that good to others. Does that sound boring?
And when you come to church, have a care for what’s going on here. The church today looks like it suffers from widespread spiritual ADD. We come to church looking like it’s going to be the most boring part of our entire week. We daydream, we don’t think about the words we’re saying or singing, we hardly want to put the work in to actually sing with any real joy, we grumble and complain about each other, and we take Communion with hardly a thought about it.
Fight against that demon of boredom. Fight against it! There’s nothing remotely boring about the living Lord of heaven and earth coming down here to speak His Word into our ears, to listen to our prayers, and to place His very body and blood into our mouths for forgiveness. Does that sound boring?! Jesus Christ our Savior comes down with all His angels, the host of heaven, and speaks with us and sings with us and kneels with us and listens to us. God is good!
So I’ll pray the prayer of St. Paul one more time for all of us, “May the Lord direct your hearts to the love of God and to the steadfastness of Christ.” Be steadfast. When you live with Jesus and in His joy, the word boring shouldn’t even exist.
In Jesus’ name. Amen.[iv]
[i] See Harold Senkbeil. “Engaging Our Culture Faithfully.” Concordia Journal 40.4 (Fall 2014):305.
[ii] Sayers, Dorothy. “The Other Six Deadly Sins”, October 1941.
[iii] Senkbeil, “Engaging our Culture Faithfully.” p. 305. He uses this phrase from Kathleen Norris, Acedia & Me: A Marriage, Monks, and a Writer’s Life (New York: Penguin, 2008).
[iv] Other sources consulted include Kreeft, Peter. Back to Virtue: Traditional Moral Wisdom for Modern Moral Confusion. Ignatius Press, 1992; Okholm, Dennis. Dangerous Passions, Deadly Sins: Learning from the Psychology of Ancient Monks. Brazos, 2014; and DeYoung, Glittering Vices: A New Look at the Seven Deadly Sins and Their Remedies. Brazos, 2009.