Sloth: One of the Seven Deadlies
Sloth is the most dangerous sin of our time. Sloth could be the sin that is the downfall of our nation. Sloth is an epidemic and that we are all infected.
Now the sloth I am talking about isn’t the sloth you might be thinking about. You might be thinking of sloth as the laziness described in Proverbs 26. We’ve all experienced this kind of laziness. I especially like the translation of verse 13 in the New Living Translation, “The lazy person is full of excuses, saying, "I can't go outside because there might be a lion on the road! Yes, I'm sure there's a lion out there!" Boy, I’ve had days like that, and I look forward to having them again. No, I don’t think that laziness is our problem.
Someone once defined Puritanism as the sneaking suspicion that someone somewhere might be having fun, and I think that people today might define conservative Protestants as the people whose greatest fear is that someone somewhere might not be working hard enough. I’m serious. You want to get people to vote for you or listen to your radio show all you have to do is mention that somewhere some people are standing around waiting for a handout and bam! you’ve said the magic words and you’ve got a following. No, Americans, especially Mid-westerners don’t need to be lectured on laziness. We’re the people who invented the rocking chair, so that even when we’re sitting, we can still be doing something.
Now habitual laziness is a sin, but as far as I’m concerned, it’s more like third-degree sloth compared to the deadly sloth that we’re up against today. It’s misdemeanor sloth. Not quite as bad as the second kind of sloth: boredom, or second degree sloth.
Boredom is a sin because it looks at the world and says, “Eh”. Boredom is a sin because God declared that the world is good and boredom disagrees. Boredom sits at the banquet table and surveys the great feast of life and says, “Oh. No. I don’t eat that.” And then there’s busy boredom. Sometimes boredom goes from thing to thing all day but has the look of a person who is waiting for something. Boredom is devoid of passion, has lost its feeling, and in the words of Mick Jagger, “can’t get no satisfaction.”
Boredom is a sin, it is offensive to God, because it is so self-centered. It is waiting to be entertained. It’s waiting for fulfillement to come from some outside force. Boredom is one of the inevitable fruits of the pursuit of pleasure. It’s a consumer’s sin.
But there’s a positive side to boredom too. It lets us know that something is wrong. It lets us know that the way we’re trying to live life just isn’t working. Boredom is a symptom of something wrong deep down. And what people usually do is treat the symptom.
But the real solution for boredom isn’t to do more and better things to make yourself feel less bored. Redemption from the sin of boredom comes from being reoriented from looking inward to being focused outwards. It comes from being called out of living only for yourself to living in relationship with God. Rescue from boredom come from being as interested in others as you are in yourself.
Laziness and boredom are nothing compared with the third kind of sloth. Sloth in its pure form is the most dangerous sin on the planet. It’s sloth in its pure form because it is directly derived from the latin word we’ve translated as sloth: acedia. Acedia literally means “absense of caring”. And as I look around the world today I see a resignation that borders on despair. If there was a phrase that summed up the last four years in this country, it would be, “Things are terrible, but there’s nothing I can do about it.”
I look around and I see that sloth has deeply infected our country, and the thing that infuriates me about that fact is that I believe it is entirely by design. The powers that be in this country want its citizenry to be two things: afraid and self-absorbed. And with few exceptions, the church has gladly complied. We’ve decided to live like the only thing the Bible has to say about war is that “there will always be wars and rumors of wars” and that the only thing Jesus has to say about the poor is that “they will always be with you”. And our silence and our compliance is what powers the whole operation. We’re placated just like the church in Laodicea.
Rev. 3:14 says
I’m a big Garrison Keillor fan. I grew up listening to a Prairie Home Companion with my parents and my brother. Garrison Keillor wrote in a column in the Chicago Tribune in Oct. 06,
Our sloth today, this pervasive first degree sloth, it’s only partly about the war and our inability to say anything about it. It’s only partly about our silence in the face of torture. It’s only partly about our resignation about the plight of the poor. But when you take all of these things together, they add up to a kind of spiritual paralysis, acedia...sloth, “the absence of caring”. And I truly do believe that it is our “absence of caring” that could enable the fall of this country from a noble nation of laws and virtures to an empire that exemplifies the seven deadly sins, an empire of greed, pride, gluttony, wrath, lust, envy... and sloth.
Whether we continue down the path that we’re on towards an empire of sin or whether we repent and turn around is not the decision of people in Washington. It’s our decision. It’s our choice. It’s our choice whether we will “go gently into that good night” or whether we will “rage against the dying of the light.” It’s our choice whether we will continue being consumers or will repent and return to being citizens. It’s our choice whether we will continue to be paralyzed by fear and sloth, or whether we will drink deeply of the Holy Spirit and find the courage to speak the truth to the power of government and to the power of sin.
Every generation must make this decision, not just once, not just 60 years ago against the power of fascism in Europe, not just 40 years ago against the power of injustice in America, but each generation must keep making this decision over and over again in every age of life. There is no retirement from the Christian call of duty. There is no age requirement for saying “NO”.
If you know what you feel called to do or say, but you are stuck in sloth and have lost your resolve, then these words from the same passage in Revelation are for you, “Those whom I love I rebuke and discipline. So be earnest, and repent.” If God didn’t love you, he wouldn’t expect anything of you. But he does. So much that he gave his only Son to set you free from the powers that bind you. Jesus sets us free from sloth and helps us to act. If Jesus has set us free from sloth, so why aren’t we living like it?
If you want to be free from sloth, all you need to know is that Jesus has set you free from it, and believe it. Live like it’s true. Don’t expect that you’re going to go set the world on fire, or be a different person than you’ve always been. But free from the sin of sloth, with the absence of caring replaced with the love of Christ, you’ll find that you are able to perform the small acts of obedience that you’ve felt called to do all along. So write that letter to the editor. Speak up and share your unpopular ideas. Don’t delay becoming the person you know you were meant to be. Don’t wait for the right feeling of motivation. Don’t wait at all. You are sent by Jesus himself. Go. Read more!
Now the sloth I am talking about isn’t the sloth you might be thinking about. You might be thinking of sloth as the laziness described in Proverbs 26. We’ve all experienced this kind of laziness. I especially like the translation of verse 13 in the New Living Translation, “The lazy person is full of excuses, saying, "I can't go outside because there might be a lion on the road! Yes, I'm sure there's a lion out there!" Boy, I’ve had days like that, and I look forward to having them again. No, I don’t think that laziness is our problem.
Someone once defined Puritanism as the sneaking suspicion that someone somewhere might be having fun, and I think that people today might define conservative Protestants as the people whose greatest fear is that someone somewhere might not be working hard enough. I’m serious. You want to get people to vote for you or listen to your radio show all you have to do is mention that somewhere some people are standing around waiting for a handout and bam! you’ve said the magic words and you’ve got a following. No, Americans, especially Mid-westerners don’t need to be lectured on laziness. We’re the people who invented the rocking chair, so that even when we’re sitting, we can still be doing something.
Now habitual laziness is a sin, but as far as I’m concerned, it’s more like third-degree sloth compared to the deadly sloth that we’re up against today. It’s misdemeanor sloth. Not quite as bad as the second kind of sloth: boredom, or second degree sloth.
Boredom is a sin because it looks at the world and says, “Eh”. Boredom is a sin because God declared that the world is good and boredom disagrees. Boredom sits at the banquet table and surveys the great feast of life and says, “Oh. No. I don’t eat that.” And then there’s busy boredom. Sometimes boredom goes from thing to thing all day but has the look of a person who is waiting for something. Boredom is devoid of passion, has lost its feeling, and in the words of Mick Jagger, “can’t get no satisfaction.”
Boredom is a sin, it is offensive to God, because it is so self-centered. It is waiting to be entertained. It’s waiting for fulfillement to come from some outside force. Boredom is one of the inevitable fruits of the pursuit of pleasure. It’s a consumer’s sin.
But there’s a positive side to boredom too. It lets us know that something is wrong. It lets us know that the way we’re trying to live life just isn’t working. Boredom is a symptom of something wrong deep down. And what people usually do is treat the symptom.
But the real solution for boredom isn’t to do more and better things to make yourself feel less bored. Redemption from the sin of boredom comes from being reoriented from looking inward to being focused outwards. It comes from being called out of living only for yourself to living in relationship with God. Rescue from boredom come from being as interested in others as you are in yourself.
Laziness and boredom are nothing compared with the third kind of sloth. Sloth in its pure form is the most dangerous sin on the planet. It’s sloth in its pure form because it is directly derived from the latin word we’ve translated as sloth: acedia. Acedia literally means “absense of caring”. And as I look around the world today I see a resignation that borders on despair. If there was a phrase that summed up the last four years in this country, it would be, “Things are terrible, but there’s nothing I can do about it.”
I look around and I see that sloth has deeply infected our country, and the thing that infuriates me about that fact is that I believe it is entirely by design. The powers that be in this country want its citizenry to be two things: afraid and self-absorbed. And with few exceptions, the church has gladly complied. We’ve decided to live like the only thing the Bible has to say about war is that “there will always be wars and rumors of wars” and that the only thing Jesus has to say about the poor is that “they will always be with you”. And our silence and our compliance is what powers the whole operation. We’re placated just like the church in Laodicea.
Rev. 3:14 says
"To the angel of the church in Laodicea write: I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either one or the other! So, because you are lukewarm--neither hot nor cold--I am about to spit you out of my mouth. You say, 'I am rich; I have acquired wealth and do not need a thing.' But you do not realize that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked.”
I’m a big Garrison Keillor fan. I grew up listening to a Prairie Home Companion with my parents and my brother. Garrison Keillor wrote in a column in the Chicago Tribune in Oct. 06,
“I got some insight last week into who supports torture when I went down to Dallas to speak at Highland Park Methodist Church. It was spooky. I walked in, was met by two burly security men with walkie-talkies, and within 10 minutes was told by three people that this was the Bushes' church and that it would be better if I didn't talk about politics. I was there on a book tour for "Homegrown Democrat," but they thought it better if I didn't mention it. So I tried to make light of it: I told the audience, "I don't need to talk politics. I have no need even to be interested in politics - I'm a citizen, I have plenty of money and my grandsons are at least 12 years away from being eligible for military service." And the audience applauded! Those were their sentiments exactly. We've got ours, and who cares?”
Our sloth today, this pervasive first degree sloth, it’s only partly about the war and our inability to say anything about it. It’s only partly about our silence in the face of torture. It’s only partly about our resignation about the plight of the poor. But when you take all of these things together, they add up to a kind of spiritual paralysis, acedia...sloth, “the absence of caring”. And I truly do believe that it is our “absence of caring” that could enable the fall of this country from a noble nation of laws and virtures to an empire that exemplifies the seven deadly sins, an empire of greed, pride, gluttony, wrath, lust, envy... and sloth.
Whether we continue down the path that we’re on towards an empire of sin or whether we repent and turn around is not the decision of people in Washington. It’s our decision. It’s our choice. It’s our choice whether we will “go gently into that good night” or whether we will “rage against the dying of the light.” It’s our choice whether we will continue being consumers or will repent and return to being citizens. It’s our choice whether we will continue to be paralyzed by fear and sloth, or whether we will drink deeply of the Holy Spirit and find the courage to speak the truth to the power of government and to the power of sin.
Every generation must make this decision, not just once, not just 60 years ago against the power of fascism in Europe, not just 40 years ago against the power of injustice in America, but each generation must keep making this decision over and over again in every age of life. There is no retirement from the Christian call of duty. There is no age requirement for saying “NO”.
If you know what you feel called to do or say, but you are stuck in sloth and have lost your resolve, then these words from the same passage in Revelation are for you, “Those whom I love I rebuke and discipline. So be earnest, and repent.” If God didn’t love you, he wouldn’t expect anything of you. But he does. So much that he gave his only Son to set you free from the powers that bind you. Jesus sets us free from sloth and helps us to act. If Jesus has set us free from sloth, so why aren’t we living like it?
If you want to be free from sloth, all you need to know is that Jesus has set you free from it, and believe it. Live like it’s true. Don’t expect that you’re going to go set the world on fire, or be a different person than you’ve always been. But free from the sin of sloth, with the absence of caring replaced with the love of Christ, you’ll find that you are able to perform the small acts of obedience that you’ve felt called to do all along. So write that letter to the editor. Speak up and share your unpopular ideas. Don’t delay becoming the person you know you were meant to be. Don’t wait for the right feeling of motivation. Don’t wait at all. You are sent by Jesus himself. Go. Read more!
