“The Labor of Love”  Genesis 3:17b-20; Roman 12:9-21 8/31/08 at lake Murray Presbyterian by J. Ben Sloan

“Work for the Lord with untiring effort and with great earnestness of spirit.” (12:11)

One of the images fixed on my mind of a labor of love is of a man, a former professor at Clemson, who lived at the Presbyterian Home in Clinton.  He lived in an apartment with his wife.  He had diabetes while his wife had Alzheimer’s.  They had been married over fifty years, and she was going downhill fast.  Eventually she had to move out of his apartment to the infirmary wing on the other side of the campus.  He would go see her at least three times a day, and would feed her.  She forgot who he was, but she in some ways did not forget who he was.  She would only eat for him.  He would comb her hair and read for her.  He would brush her teeth and care for her when she could no longer care for herself.  But that is not all.  Eventually his diabetes took a tole on his feet and legs.  He had to amputate one leg.  As soon as he was able, he made the long treck to see his wife in his wheelchair.  He lost his other leg.  But he still went to see his wife in his wheelchair, and took care of her and fed her.  She died first, I heard.  That was good. He died in peace.  He loved his wife deeply, and it showed in his labor on her behalf. 
He tells us in this passage about working for the Lord.  That is very appropriate for Labor Day and for the election of elders and deacons, and rally day.

Our passage in Genesis talks about how labor is hard.  In our passage in Romans 12 Paul speaks of three things that slow the good work of God down: the toughness of labor, trials that come, and sheer evil.
I. HANDLING THE TOUGHNESS OF  WORK- 
A. WITH UNTIRING EFFORT- Do not lag in zeal.  You know there are many who lag in zeal on purpose.  Have you seen them?  There are huge, fast, able football players who will fail because they don’t care- and don’t want to care.  There are people who are the same about their faith.  They don’t care, don’t want to care about God or their faith.  They might be afraid of standing out if they started to care.  They might be afraid of doing something really great for their Lord- and losing the approval of the world, who would really like everyone to sit back and not rock the boat. 
B. WITH GREAT EARNESTNESS OF SPIRIT- The word “sincere” and “without pretense” is used a lot in these verses.  Sincerity has to do with your motivation.  What motivates you to do good?  Do your work for the Lord- not for praise, not for 5 minutes of fame.  Plug into a greater cause and God will reward your work, even if no one else does.
II. HANDLING TRIALS THAT SLOW WORK (this is the verse on our men’s prayer card)
A. Have hope- When you are working, how important hope is.  When you work for the clock, it is nice to know when you are off.  It is nice to know you have a vacation week coming in a month or two, or a Labor Day Holiday. Hope helps you to persevere.
B. Persevere- Pioneer 10 was launched March 2, 1972 for a 21 month mission to Jupiter.  But it kept sending radio signals back to earth by an 8 watt radio (that takes about the energy of a night light).  It ended up sending this tiny radio signal for 30 years- its last transmission was 7.6 billion miles from earth- or 82 x the distance of the sun from the earth.   A tiny, persevering signal was so much better than one that would quit.  When life is tough, don’t quit.
C. Pray- Ivan was in a Soviet Prison gulag praying with his eyes closed.  A fellow prisoner made fun of  him and said, “It will do you no good to pray to get out of this place.”  Ivan opened his eyes and said, “I do not pray to get out- I pray to do God’s will.” 
D. Share- Share in terms of giving. Share in terms of hospitality.  Share in terms of sympathy (weeping with those weeping, rejoicing with those rejoicing).
There is just so very, very much in these short verses for us.  But if I could pass on one really wise thing to any young person, it would be these verses.
          When you tell someone to cheer up when they are down- it is like rubbing salt in their wounds.  When you tell someone to be sad when they are happy, it is like taking the air out of their balloon.  Pay attention to those around you.  When they are sad, sympathize with their sadness.  When they are happy, add to their happiness by rejoicing. A discouraged person does not need more guilt, or criticism.  They need you to be there and to listen.  I’ve been reading the book of Job in the One Year Bible with my Bible study mates.  The best thing his friends did was to come, and sit with him silently in the ashes.  When they tried to provide solutions to his problem, they got in trouble.  When we first got married Kay used to call me “Mr. Solution Finder.”  I have been trained all my life to find a way through.  Find a way through the guards to the basketball hoop.  Find a way to solve the math problem.  When I was a production scheduler after college, I was the one who was supposed to find a way to get the production done.   But in human relationship, it is important to listen, to observe, to sympathize, to understand, and only after you have earned trust- to help.  Henri Nouwen said that we often think of sympathy being given from those who are well toward those who are sick- the powerful toward the powerless.  Yet we find those whom we remember most having sympathy with us are those who are hurting who seek to share our hurts as well as their own. 
III. HANDLING EVIL THAT DIMS WORK
A. THE BALANCE- There is a real balance in handling evil.  The balance comes between loving others and holiness.  We are to seek peace and pursue it, live in harmony with all.  But that is not the end of it.  It is hard enough to live in harmony with people.  But we are also called to not conform to the world.  Some people seek to live in peace with others by becoming just like them.  When Patty Hearst, the newspaper heiress, was kidnapped years ago, she sought to get along with her captors by becoming just like them.  She actually helped rob banks,  and led in terrorist acts.  There are people who think there is nothing worth standing up for except for peace.  Peace and love are important concepts.  But they become wishy-washy and basically meaningless without a sense of what is right and what is wrong.  In our postmodern world in which we recognize the many differences in life, it would be easy to say that nothing is important and no choice, no truth really matters.  If I am in the drug store, and I am picking out things to give my children, there are some things that are healthy- like vitamins, and some things that are not healthy- like poison.  To say that no choice matters is foolish in something as small as choosing what to put in your mouth. 
B. NOT GIVING IN- BUT OVERCOMING- Paul is saying here to not give into evil, but overcome evil.  This is the echo of verse 2- “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.”  Overcome, transform evil.  The real question is who will overcome you- the light or the darkness.  It is a struggle that we must face-not just once in our lifetime, but every single day- almost every minute. 
He gives two ways to resist evil-
1. Not taking revenge- leaving it in God’s hands.  We cannot take revenge enough.  One act of revenge ends up in another act of revenge.  As someone said, “An eye for an eye means eventually everyone is blind.” 
2. Turning the other cheek- being kind to those who are not kind to you.  It is frankly easy to strike back when we are struck.  Paul here quotes from Proverbs, and he is not saying that when you do good to your enemy your hurting them, as much as you are turning them.  You overcome evil in yourself and the world when you do something as powerful as turn the other cheek instead of striking back. 
This means nothing if we do not believe God sees us, cares for us, and is able to help us.

Need to Work with grace- Under the recognition that all we do is by God’s grace-because of God’s grace, and with God’s grace-  who gives us life, strength, and gifts.  Maybe the greatest image of the Olympics that they showed over and over again was that of the Olympic runner who could not finish.  His name was Derek Redmond and it was the 1992 games. He had shattered the British record at 19.  He was to run in 1988 in Seoul, but had to withdraw because of an Achilles tendon injury.  He had four surgeries to repair this injury.  He and his dad had talked beforehand that they would forget all the heartaches of the past, and Derek would just run- and they both agreed no matter what he would finish the race.  But in the semifinal heat with Derek clearly ready to qualify, he heard a pop in his right hamstring.  He falls to the track, his leg quivering.  They bring the stretcher out but he waves them off.  He gets up and starts to hop toward the finish line 175 meters away.  His father, meanwhile, saw all this and was doing all he could to get to his son, and he finally gets there-dodging security, and goes to his son, who is trying to hop and limp on.  Derek’s father, Jim, puts his arm around him and says, “I’m here son.  We’ll finish together.”  Together they finish the race.  Afterward Derek’s father says, “I’m prouder of him than if he had won a gold medal.”  Really, the world remembers that moment more than whoever won the 400 that year.
You know, we are running this race called life, trying to finish well.  Something pops, we fall.  God comes and gets us through.  That is Labor.  That is effort.  That is what each officer elected here needs to know before we call them to work, and it is what each one of us needs to know as well.  Amen.