Endless Tasks
The ancient Greeks had a legend about a king named Sisyphus. Sisyphus was the king of Corinth. He was a bit of a troublemaker–so much so that he got on the wrong side of the gods. As a result, in the afterlife, he was assigned a troublesome task. Sisyphus was forced to roll a giant boulder up a mountain. But just before he got to the top, an evil force would cause the boulder to slip from his grasp and tumble to the bottom. Sisyphus would have to go to the bottom and roll the boulder the top again. Where, once again, the boulder would slip and roll to the bottom. Sisyphus was condemned to repeat this unending task forever.
Ever since, certain tasks have come to be known as Sisyphean–they are unending in nature. In our staff meeting last week we shared some of the Sisyphean tasks of ministry.
- ? Funerals–they just keep coming. You’re never done doing funerals.
- ? Meetings–we’re constantly putting pause on things to attend meetings. They are never done.
- ? Sermons. You write one and another Sunday feels like it’s just one day away. You’re never done writing sermons.
Can you think of a Sisyphean task in your own life? Something that just gets repeated and never seems to get done no matter how often you do it?
Sometimes our work feels that way. Scott Adams is the creator of a cartoon called Dilbert. In a strip that ran a few days ago in the Commercial Appeal Dilbert and his dog had this conversation about the Sisyphean task of work:
The dog makes an interesting point. You’d think, he implies, that someone who goes to work day in, day out, would be making a difference in the world. And yet, in spite of all that labor, the world remains messy. Suddenly, Dilbert feels as if what he’s doing is useless–as useless as rolling a boulder up a mountain. It’s never going to end.
Endless Mission
And sometimes the Christian mission seems like that–it seems like a Sisyphean task. In Matthew chapter 6 Jesus teaches us a prayer about the Christian mission:
Pray then like this:
“Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name.
Your kingdom come,
your will be done,
on earth as it is in heaven. (Matt. 6:9-10 ESV)
We call this the Lord’s prayer.
Your kingdom come your will be done.
God has a kingdom that he wants to come. God has a will he wants to be done. It’s a kingdom that is fully come in heaven. It’s a will that is fully done in heaven. And we are to pray for it to come and be done on earth as it is in heaven.
God’s Will Done
Urban Holmes III (A History of Christian Spirituality) says that we can think about this kingdom and this will and four ways: intellect, community, ministry, and spirituality. We see all four of these in the ministry of Jesus.
- 1. Jesus teaches and expands the intellect of people. People’s understanding of who they are and who God is and how the world works grows through Jesus’ teaching.
- 2. Jesus also invites people to his table people who were once outcast and and now they find community with Jesus.
- 3. Jesus also heals the sick. Jesus serves the poor. He does ministry which changes the lives of many.
- 4. And in Jesus we find a rich and authentic spirituality. We see someone who spends all night alone walking and talking with God the Father. We find one who is so intimate with the Father that he and the Father are one.
In Jesus we see the kingdom come and the will done on earth as it is in heaven.
And we catch glimpses of this in our own lives as we pray that prayer and as we practice being the answer to that prayer.
- 1. Some of us teach, whether it’s in the FriendSpeak program or on a short-term mission effort or as a Sunday school teacher. And people’s understanding of who they are and who God is and how the world works grows. And the kingdom comes and the will is done.
- 2. Some of us invite others in to find community. It may be through one of our small groups or through our Sunday hospitality ministries like serving coffee or helping at the Welcome Center or handing out Links. And people get connected. And the kingdom comes and the will is done.
- 3. Some of us engage in ministry. We help with the School Store, or with HopeWorks, or at LaRose Elementary, or at WorkCamp. And we see a real difference made. And the kingdom comes and the will is done.
- 4. And some of us have a passion for deep spirituality. And through prayer groups, discipleship groups, mentoring, retreats, or classes we invite others deeper. And some accept that invitation. And the kingdom comes and the will is done.
God’s Will Not Done
But it is perhaps even more often the case that we are like Sisyphus in that ancient Greek legend. When we are trying to answer this prayer, trying to bring the kingdom and see God’s will being done but it seems like day after day we roll that boulder as far as we can and the next day we find that that boulder has slipped to the bottom of the mountain and we’re back to where we started. No matter how hard we pray or practice, it seems as if God’s kingdom doesn’t come and God’s will isn’t done.
This, after all, is why Jesus taught us to pray this prayer. He knew every generation of Christians would need to pray this prayer because in every generation this prayer would still remain unfulfilled and unfinished. And today, in spite of two thousands of years of Christians praying and practicing that prayer, the kingdom has not yet come and God’s will is not yet done on earth as it is in heaven.
- 1. You can teach Scripture for decades, but there are always some who never seem to get it. And even if everyone did get it, there are always waves of generations coming up behind who need instruction. The need is unending.
- 2. You can work tirelessly to create real community in a church. But it takes constant attention. It takes just one guest who comes one Sunday and has one bad experience and you feel like you failed. And there are always newcomers. Just when you feel you’ve found a place for everyone, there’s always a newcomer needing belonging. The need is unending.
- 3. You can minister to the community day and night to meet the needs of the poor and those who are victims of injustice. But there seems to be no end to the need. The job is never complete.
- 4. And you can work hard to lead others more deeply into God, to invite others into a richer spiritual life. But those who accept are always small in number and there’s always a countless number waiting beyond them.
In the 1990’s Highland invested hundreds of thousands of dollars and thousands of volunteer hours in launching six new churches among the urban poor: Downtown Church, Frayser Mission Church, Raleigh Community Church, Wonder City Church, Iglesia de Cristo Memphis, Iglesia de Cristo Hernando. And for a while those urban churches thrived. But one by one they encountered enormous challenges. And slowly they began to die. And today in spite of all of that investment of money and time only two of those churches remain as healthy urban churches. And it’s almost like we are right back where we started. No matter how hard we pray or practice, it seems as if God’s kingdom doesn’t come and God’s will isn’t done.
And that’s the kind of thing that leads to burnout.
- 1. You prepare your Wednesday night lesson or your Sunday School lesson or your small group lesson week after week after week. But the doubts begin to creep in. And you wonder, how much longer and I going to do this? Is this really making any difference at all?
- 2. You hand out the Links, you make the coffee, you stand at the Welcome Center, you host that small group or Huddle–all in an effort to help new people feel a sense of belonging. Week after week after week. But the doubts creep in. And you wonder, how much longer am I going to do this?
- 3. You pack the supplies in the backpacks for the School Store. You drive out the prison for the worship service. You hold the babies at LeBonheur. Week after week. Year after year. And you wonder, how much longer am I going to do this?
- 4. You lead that prayer group. You disciple or mentor those students or peers. You continue to engage in your own spiritual disciplines. But it just goes on month after month. And you wonder, how much longer am I going to keep this up?
Sometimes the Christian mission feels a bit like that Sisyphean task of rolling the boulder up the mountain. Because it’s never done. It’s never completed. No matter what part of it you talk about, you can never quite check it off the list. It’s just going to show back up on the list again.
Part of the reason for this has to do with the forces we’re up against. That’s one of the points of Revelation. In Revelation 12 we’ve seen the great red dragon, Satan himself go to war against heaven and against us. In chapters 13 through 15 we have seen the dragon raise up human entities and institutions on earth to carry out his warfare against us. The Dragon and his earthly emissaries do their very best to keep the kingdom from coming and God’s will from being done. And in chapters 16-17 we see yet another image almost designed to further discourage us. There is the image of a great beast and a horrible prostitute:
3 And he carried me away in the Spirit into a wilderness, and I saw a woman sitting on a scarlet beast that was full of blasphemous names, and it had seven heads and ten horns. 4 The woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet, and adorned with gold and jewels and pearls, holding in her hand a golden cup full of abominations and the impurities of her sexual immorality. 5 And on her forehead was written a name of mystery: “Babylon the great, mother of prostitutes and of earth’s abominations.” 6 And I saw the woman, drunk with the blood of the saints, the blood of the martyrs of Jesus. (Rev. 17:3-6 ESV)
The beast and the woman represent the human organizations and institutions, here Rome, which stand against the kingdom coming and God’s will being done. They represent everything on earth that stands in the way of the kingdom coming and God’s will being done. All the monstrous forces that keep pushing that boulder back down to the bottom of the mountain.
And these monsters may lead us to think that this task is simply impossible. This prayer is simply futile. There is no way the kingdom will ever come. There is no way God’s will can ever be done. Because the forces arrayed against it are too monstrous. They are too beastly. They are too strong.
God’s Will Done
But there are three words in English in Revelation 16 that speak hope into all of this:
17 The seventh angel poured out his bowl into the air, and a loud voice came out of the temple, from the throne, saying, “It is done!” 18 And there were flashes of lightning, rumblings, peals of thunder, and a great earthquake such as there had never been since man was on the earth, so great was that earthquake. 19 The great city was split into three parts, and the cities of the nations fell, and God remembered Babylon the great, to make her drain the cup of the wine of the fury of his wrath. (Rev. 16:17-19 ESV)
One of the angels simply says this: “It is done!” These same three words will be spoken later in Revelation 21 at the wedding of the lamb and his bride:
And he said to me, “It is done!” (Rev. 21:6)
“It is done!” This is the same word that Jesus taught us to pray: “your kingdom come your will be done.” Revelation 16 shows God finally and fully defeating the beast. Finally and fully defeating all forces the keep the kingdom from coming and God’s will from being done. And in the face of that the angel says, “It is done!” There will come a time when all of God’s kingdom comes and all of God’s will is done.
John is saying that God is going to bring about a day when everything we’ve ever hoped to see accomplished will be accomplished.
- ? we will pack the very last backpack for the very last School Store,
- ? we will send the very last volunteer for the very last day at LeBonheur,
- ? we will send our very last teenager on the very last TIME trip,
- ? we will paint our very last home for Work Camp,
- ? we will send our very last missionary overseas,
- ? we will teach our very last Sunday School class,
- ? we will hold our very last HopeWorks graduation ceremony,
- ? we will welcome the very last homeless pregnant mother into a FIT apartment,
- ? we will celebrate the last child or young adult served by Timothy Hill Children’s ranch.
Because not long after that we will hear a voice from heaven saying “It is done!”
- ? There simply are no more children in need of school supplies.
- ? No more non-Christians and poor people in need of TIME trips.
- ? There simply are no more unemployed people to be serviced by HopeWorks.
It is done. All of those beasts have been slayed. All of those monsters have been defeated. The kingdom has come. God’s will has been done. Revelation says that there will come a day on earth when all that we and God have been working toward will be finished.
Now what? This gives us the capacity for great endurance, to keep serving and working and pushing that boulder, because we know that one day, it will all be done. Again and again John calls for endurance in Revelation:
- ? I, John, your brother and partner in the tribulation and the kingdom and the patient endurance that are in Jesus, was on the island called Patmos on account of the word of God and the testimony of Jesus. (Rev.1:9 ESV)
- ? “‘I know your works, your love and faith and service and patient endurance, and that your latter works exceed the first. (Revelation 2:19)
- ? Because you have kept my word about patient endurance, I will keep you from the hour of trial that is coming on the whole world, to try those who dwell on the earth. (Revelation 3:10)
- ? If anyone is to be taken captive, to captivity he goes; if anyone is to be slain with the sword, with the sword must he be slain. Here is a call for the endurance and faith of the saints. (Revelation 13:10)
- ? Here is a call for the endurance of the saints, those who keep the commandments of God and their faith in Jesus. (Revelation 14:12)
Again and again John calls for endurance. For us to keep serving. Keep working. Keep praying. This becomes possible because we know that in spite of the fact that so often it feels that this work will never be done, one day it will. One day we will hear the words from heaven, “It is done.”
Last Thursday, Ream Mom, one of our custodians, walked into my office to empty my trash. He was wearing a t-shirt from Work Camp 2015. Do you know what the theme for 2015 was? It was “Unfinished.” That theme is a perfect reminder of what life is like right here, right now. Unfinished. The kingdom still needs to come. God’s will still needs to be done. There’s still so much work unfinished. That’s why we pray “your kingdom come, your will be done.” Every day we pray it. Every day we practice it. But one day, one day, we’ll hear these words, “It is done!” One day, it will be finished. And that gives us the capacity for great endurance.
