SERMON
How doth the little busy bee
Improve each shining hour,
And gather honey all the day
From every opening Flower!
For Satan finds some mischief still
For idle hands to do.
These words were penned by the early Eighteenth Century minister and father of English hymnody Isaac Watts who composed many familiar hymns including "Our God, Our Help in Ages Past." In this well known expression damning idleness to hell comes the common sense of the term. Why would anyone want to sing praises to idleness?
What I'm about to say to you is subversive. If you are fearful of looking the status quo in the eye or hearing non-conformist ideas--you may wish to leave now. If you believe without question that idle hands are the devil's playmate, this may not be a sermon you will be able to receive for consideration. But if you are curious as Adam was in the Garden of Eden considering the apple of wisdom; if you are the kind of person who wants to see what is behind the masks the Olympian Gods present to us; if you wish to understand life for yourself rather than obediently accepting what you are told; then stay and listen to my exposition on idleness.
Philomena laughed when I told her I would be speaking in praise of idleness this morning. She correctly pointed out that I am a workaholic and thus must have little insight or experience in the area of idleness. Maybe so, I responded, but sometimes that which you long for--you appreciate most. This sermon, as with all my sermons, was not just prepared for this congregation but also for Sam Trumbore to listen to. Ministers always preach most fervently about what they most need to learn themselves. With some time off coming my way this summer, idleness is on my mind.
As I like to do in preparation for sermon writing, I search the internet world using my sermon title to see if anyone else is thinking about my topic. Usually I draw a blank which either means I'm spending too much time in intellectual cul-de-sacs or I'm way ahead, out on the intellectual frontiers where few dare to tread. To my surprise, I discovered Bertrand Russell in 1932 wrote an essay titled "In Praise of Idleness." This gave me more than a little courage in tackling the topic knowing great minds have wrestled with it as well.
Russell argued in the essay for four-hour work days to allow the common man to join the ranks of the idle rich and share in the benefits of technological productivity gains. I quote:
For ages, the rich and their sycophants have written in praise of "honest toil," have praised the simple life, have professed a religion which teaches that the poor are much more likely to go to heaven than the rich, and in general have tried to make manual workers believe that there is some special nobility about altering the position of matter in space, just as men tried to make women believe that they derived some special nobility from their sexual enslavement…Manual work is the ideal which is held before the young, and is the basis of all ethical teaching.
Although I share Russell's deep concern for economic justice, and desire a more equitable distribution of wealth than our society provides today, it is not the particular direction I would like to go with praising idleness. Russell is speaking more about greater leisure opportunities for the masses than unashamed idleness.
The difference between idleness and leisure is significant. The root of the word idle comes from an Old English word which also means: empty, void. Searching my CD-ROM "Library of the Future" for European literary references before the early 19th Century, I found idleness most often in the company of drunkenness, laziness and sloth associated with unemployment and antisocial behavior. The dictionary defines idle as having no particular reason for existing or occurring; not occupied or employed; not turned to normal or appropriate use; given to rest or ease; seeking to avoid labor or employment. The idler is scorned as a non-contributor to society who should be shunned.
Leisure, on the other hand, comes from an Old French word which means to be permitted. The dictionary defines leisure as freedom or spare time provided by cessation of activities; gap in work time; free of engagement or responsibilities. Leisure is socially acceptable whereas idleness is not. Leisure assumes honest work is being done. Leisure is earned free time. Idleness, on the other hand is devoid of work and therefore hasn't paid its dues to society before enjoying its free time. And even though the time is free, the connotation of leisure is that it has a useful restorative purpose so the worker can return back to work rested and refreshed and become even more productive.
Generally speaking, society doesn't care much about our idle pleasures but cares greatly about individual productivity from which it derives its wealth. The social engine plows ahead to survive and to grow, not to provide its citizens with joy rides. And those who aren't working to pump in the fuel are likely to be bumped off the wagon.
Given society's strong survival orientation, it is strange to discover that religions often deviate away from work as the purpose of life. Take, for example, this well-known biblical passage:
Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not life more than meat, and the body more than raiment?
Behold the fowls of the air: for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not much better than they? Which of you by taking thought can add one cubit unto your stature? And why take ye thought of raiment? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin: And yet I say unto you, that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. Wherefore, if God so clothe the grass of the field, which today grows in the field, and tomorrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith?
Therefore don't worry, saying, What shall we eat? or What shall we drink? Or Wherewithal shall we be clothed? (For after all these things do the Gentiles seek:) for your Heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things.
But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and its righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you. Take therefore no thought of the morrow: for the morrow shall take care of the things by itself.
(Matthew 6:25-34, KJ adapted)
These are pretty radical words if you ask me. Jesus isn't worrying about the Romans balancing their budget or increasing the Temple offering level. I don't read here much of a work ethic being promulgated. He throws this out the window, saying "seek ye first the kingdom of God". (Interestingly, I was sent two free Bibles from the American Bible Society which translates that verse of Matthew, "But more than anything else, put God's work first and do what he wants. Then the other things will be yours as well". Adds a little different spin to the text, I think.)
Seeking the Kingdom of God requires looking beyond the earthly kingdom for direction in one's religious life. This critique of society should be familiar to Unitarian Universalists. I think all of us are aware of the ways society incorporates exploitation to serve its own ends. Society has a vested interest in preserving an underclass to do the menial work. It holds on to racism to provide a convenient scapegoat for its failures. The moguls of monetary policy believe they need a pool of unemployed people to control inflationary pressures. We sicken at the slick advertising techniques to hook children on cigarettes and soda pop alcoholic beverages; to cultivate our desire for pleasure objects as a consumptive substitute for spiritual satisfaction. We see through the transparent deification of starving teenage girls as objects for sexual worship. Society again and again turns our eyes toward lusting after the material world rather than allowing us to realize the complete satisfaction that comes from seeking that which transcends the particularity of matter and space.
Seeking the kingdom of God stretches our minds beyond day-to-day survival and pleasure concerns toward the realm of eternal truth. What were we before we were born? What way to live satisfies the yearning for meaning? What happens after death? Is it possible to dwell in the realm of eternal truth while living in this world? This seeking is not concerned with increasing the gross national product (love that term!) but rather individual growth, awakening, liberation, Union with God. Society would rather have you busy in the factory producing widgets than in the unproductive work of personal salvation. In an uneasy truce, society encourages religion as long as it supports the status quo by directing people to work hard as part of their spiritual life.
This is one of the great debates within Christian Theology. Does hard work developing one's unique potential to contribute to society earn one salvation (demonstrating to God our reformation from the ways of sin) or is God's salvation a free gift of grace that only needs to be accepted and can never be earned. Much blood has been spilt over this question and many feathers have flown in theological cock fights trying to settle it. As usual in such situations, I think both are right but define their arguments and terms to find the other side wrong.
Useful as work can be to help us develop our awareness that we exist interdependently as part of a larger whole, suggesting to our inner self that we may not ultimately be alone, religious exploration, seeking the kingdom of God, is found beyond the temporal, beyond circumstance. Sensible objects arise and pass away--so what remains at the end of the day, at the end of a lifetime, at the end of the world?
Finding those satisfying answers may require turning away from daily occupations and turning toward--nothing in particular. The idlers of this world know this wisdom particularly well. Hear these idlers' words:
I Meant to Do My Work Today by Richard Le Gallienne
I meant to do my work today
But a brown bird sang in the apple tree,
And a butterfly flitted across the field,
And all the leaves were calling me.
And the wind went sighing over the land,
Tossing the grasses to and fro,
And a rainbow held out its shining hand--
So what could I do but laugh and go?
From Thoreau's Walden Journal
Sometimes, in a summer morning, having taken my accustomed bath, I sat in my sunny doorway from sunrise till noon, rapt in revery, amidst the pines and hickories and sumachs, in undisturbed solitude and stillness, while the birds sing around or flitted noiseless through the house, until by the sun falling in at my west window, or the noise of some traveler's wagon on the distant highway, I was reminded of the lapse of time. I grew in those seasons like corn in the night, and they were far better than any work of the hands would have been. [This was] not time subtracted from my life, but so much over and above the usual allowance…This was sheer idleness to my fellow-townsmen, no doubt; but if the birds and flowers had tried me by their standard, I should not have been found wanting. A man must find his occasions in himself, it is true. The natural day is very calm, and will hardly reprove his indolence.
Leisure by W.H. Davies
What is this life, if full of care,
We have no time to stand and stare,
No time to stand beneath the boughs
And stare as long as sheep or cows.
No time to see, when woods we pass,
Where squirrels hide their nuts in grass.
No time to see, in broad daylight,
Streams full of stars, like skies at night.
No time to turn at Beauty's glance,
And watch her feet, how they can dance.
No time to wait till her mouth can
enrich that smile her eyes began.
A poor life this if, full of care
We have no time to stand and stare.
These selections speak of an idleness most would find attractive and acceptable. In the enjoyment of the present moment, there is no effort, no goal, no final product. Surprisingly, there is great pleasure and delight in nothing in particular, just enjoying what is happening now. Chekhov wrote: Life does not agree with philosophy: there is no happiness that is not idleness, and only what is useless is pleasurable.
The Chinese have a deep appreciation for idleness as can be heard in this delightful poem:
The Farm by the Lake by Chu Hsi
For ten miles the mountains rise
Above the lake. The beauty
of the water and mountain is
Impossible to describe.
In the glow of evening
A traveler sits in front
Of an inn, sipping wine.
The moon shines above a
Little bridge and a single
Fisherman. Around the farm
A bamboo fence descends to
The water. I chat with an
Old man about work and crops.
Maybe, when the years have come
When I can lay aside my
Cap and robe of office,
I can take a little boat
And come back to this place.
There can be a deep kind of rest in idleness that restores the body and re-energizes the spirit. It usually takes breathtakingly beautiful landscapes we vacation to see to remind us that achieving work quotas, trying to eat right and exercise--laudable practices as they may be to maintain the body--are not the reason we exist.
There is a fundamental joy in existing that is so profound, its feeling so intoxicating, its satisfaction so complete, that it can overwhelm the mind. With just an occasional gentle contact with this bliss we all experience from time to time, we can sustain our mental health and keep our batteries charged.
The subversive secret is that this joy (also known in some circles as the love of God) is available now and requires no work to earn, no mastery to attain, no wealth to purchase, no distance to travel. Idleness is one path to the discovery of this joy. In the emptiness of idleness, we can embrace that which is beyond our daily worries and concerns. Seeking the Kingdom as hinted at by the lilies of the field and the birds of the air requires a simplicity and an abandonment of concern for the future which the idler knows well.
But make no mistake--the result of contact with that joy, that love of God, may bring new energy for new creation. This was my discovery in meditation which, to my mind, is the perfection of idleness. In the quiet of sitting in meditation, relaxing purposely into not doing anything, can come a delicious experience of peace and tranquillity which can open one to a stream of ideas and insights which brings new energy and inner vision. The inspiration that comes in idleness brings forth the best kind of effort, effort which is inwardly directed, which is far superior to any kind of obligatory outer directed work.
So I encourage you to embrace and enjoy your times of idleness this summer as they arise. They arise far too infrequently in my life, which is why I appreciate having some time off in the summer to wade lazily in the stream of inspiration that flows freely below those who are willing to stand and stare. After all, few come to the end of their life lying on their death bed and lamenting, "I wish I had spent more time at the office!"
Because your minister might do that, you know I need a vacation!
Closing Words
I close with a delightful quote from a poster of a sleeping cat:
How beautiful it is to do nothing …and then to rest afterwards!
Go in peace, make peace, be at peace.
(c) 1996 Copyright by Rev. Samuel A. Trumbore. All rights reserved.