Mark Twain wrote about a form of outsourcing in a famous scene from Tom Sawyer. Remember? Tom, is ordered by as his aunt Polly to whitewash her fence on a beautiful summer’s day just made for swimming. Tom’s friend Ben comes along and Tom convinces him that he likes whitewashing the fence so much that there is nothing he would rather be doing at that particular moment. Ben begs Tom to let him try and Tom hands him a brush. Twain writes:
The retired artist sat on a barrel in the shade close by, dangled his legs, munched his apple, and planned the slaughter of more innocents. There was no lack of material; boys happened along every little while; they came to jeer, but remained to whitewash. By the time Ben was fagged out, Tom had traded the next chance to Billy Fisher for a kite, in good repair; and when he played out, Johnny Miller bought in for a dead rat and a string to swing it with -- and so on, and so on, hour after hour. And when the middle of the afternoon came, from being a poor poverty-stricken boy in the morning, Tom was literally rolling in wealth.[1]
Tom knew how to outsource – except that he made money at it. For most of us hiring a landscaper, a cleaning person, a plumber costs money. And if it is a skilled trade it can cost lots of money.
That is why I was so intrigued when I heard columnist Joel Stein talk about how he had outsourced his entire life. He did it through two websites called TaskRabbit™ and Fiverr® . As Stein writes:
Got some shopping you want to do, but just don’t have the time? A site like TaskRabbit can help you find someone else to handle it at rock-bottom prices.
If your needs are more design or technical ... that’s not a problem either, on Fiverr you can get a 500 word article written or a graphic drawn for five bucks.[2]
Stein went a little overboard. He bought a logo, a press release, a ukulele jingle, 500 posters spread through-out the University of Chicago campus, a translation of his column into Chinese and a rap song. He also outsourced the writing of one of his columns of which he said, " I believe, per amount of work I put in, this is my best column ever."
We've just read the parable and it is pretty simple but a little context will be helpful. Jesus had just
wreaked havoc in the temple in the famous scene from Palm Sunday. The religious leaders are pretty miffed – as we would be if somebody came in started to upset the tables and chairs of this place. They question his authority, and in true
rabbinical form, Jesus turns their question back on them with one they cannot answer without risking the ire of the people.
The parable Jesus leaves them and us to ponder is about two sons who both, in their own way, begin to have second thoughts about doing the will of their father.
For some, deciding to do something or not, is more than saying to yourself " I need a TaskRabbit to help me with my lawn. Or, maybe a Fiverr can punch up my writing a bit." It is a decision that has implications far greater than one would expect.
You simply can’t outsource being a Christian. I read an article by Niki Whiting who several years ago walked away from church to follow her own spiritual path. She said " no" to the father’s invitation to follow. But now she misses it. She misses getting lost in the beautiful liturgy, the rhythm and flow of the services, the chants and the singing, even the incense.
She was a member of the Eastern Orthodox Church but now is practising her faith at home, in isolation. And what she misses most is the kindness of the people who surrounded her in worship and the beauty of the space – especially the altar. She writes:
It’s different from my altar, which I clean once a month. It’s different because my altar shares space with shoes and bags of outgrown baby clothes waiting to be donated to Goodwill. It’s different because sometimes when I’m chanting in a Christian liturgy I can feel the weight of two millenia of believers chanting with me.[3]
Do you have the feeling that someday Niki just might be back? Do you have the feeling she is going to be one of the brothers and sisters we all know who say " no" to God only to rethink their position and, before they know it, find themselves again working in the vineyard of their Heavenly Father.
It happens all the time you know. It happened to Pastor Bob Fuquay, Senior Minister at Saint Luke’s United Methodist Church in Indianapolis.
For a brief moment in his life he took an interest in alpine climbing so his wife Susan sent him to a climbing school because " if I was going to risk my life it might be good to get some training. Besides, my life insurance wasn’t paid up."
So off he went to Washington State where he was to spend a week on a glacier in the Cascades learning how to be a mountain climber.
On his first morning at the Starbucks he met a couple of his fellow would be mountaineers. A guy from New York, significantly bigger than Pastor Fuquay, turned to him and said.
" Okay, I understand you’re a pastor. Is that right?" I could tell by his tone he was not excited about this possibility. I said, " As a matter of fact I am." He continued, " Well, let me get this straight right now. I don’t want to hear a bunch of religious stuff all week. Got that? My girlfriend and I are on vacation, and we don’t want to be preached to!"
I responded, " It’s a deal. I’m on vacation and I don’t feel like preaching." He swallowed a shot of espresso like it was whiskey and then ordered a extra large dark roast. This was not someone to mess with. I would learn later that he was Jewish but not active in his faith.
You probably know what is coming. The group honed their climbing skills in twelve-hour days until their instructors felt they were ready to take on the summit of a local peak.
Pastor Fugual reported. " Right before we departed the guy from New York said, ‘ Wait! Before we start we need the Rev to say a prayer.’ Yes, this was the same guy who threatened me five days earlier about preaching. I just about fell out of my harness! A prayer request from this guy?"[4]
That may sound like a whitewash job where the good Reverend was being used as a TaskRabbitt. " Here Padre, for a fiver will you say a prayer before we run the risk of falling off a mountain?"
Tempted as we might we can’t use God as our Taskrabbit, there when we need a little help and then asking God to mind God’s own business when we don’t. Neither can we outsource our faith and we certainly can’t say one thing and do another as far as our relationship to God goes. The world is full of people who can say yes. What God wants, what God requires, what God demands are people who can live yes.
With Jesus there is always a surprise. He says to those who think they have their religious act together that they too have some decisions to make, too. He says to us, as we may be tempted to judge Niki and her ramshackle altar that looks like it is about to host a garage sale rather than the presence of the living God, don’t be so quick to come to any conclusions. She knows she’s missing something and today’s " no" may be tomorrow’s " yes".
He says to us who might judge the guy shaking in his boots at the foot of a mountain, don’t be too quick to come to a final conclusion. He may look like all he has is a Fiverr faith as he gazes up at the climb before him and decides he might just need a little Jesus right now. But, who knows, this one yes may be just the beginning of a life of yeses.
The problem with Jesus is that he keeps welcoming people that good upstanding folk would rather not be around. He keeps welcoming people whose view of life, and the life of faith, we can’t even begin to comprehend. He keeps welcoming people like you and like me. And, because we have been welcomed, we can’t pawn the job of welcoming others off on someone else.
A lot of people think that they can TaskRabbit their faith off on another – their parents, their cousins, their aunts or uncles. A lot of people approach their faith like the people who use Fiverr – its great to use it when they need it but otherwise it is enough to know it is there when, or if, they will ever need it again.
But God never gives the task of saving our lives to anyone else. God takes the initiative and God will not, God does not rest until " at the name of Jesus every knee shall bow ... and every tongue shall confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father."[5]
That is not a task that can be hired out but it something that all of us need to be about everyday – confess Christ as Lord to the glory of God the Father.
Thanks for listening.
___________
Endnotes:
1. Mark Twain, Tom Sawyer. (New York: Barnes and Noble Classic Series,2003), p. 32.
2. Joel Stein, " Here’s What Happened When I Outsourced My Entire Life." Time. September 11, 2014.
3. Niki Whiting, " What I Miss About Being a Christian." www.realclearreligion.com. September 14, 2014.
4. The Rev’d Robert Fuquay, " The God We Can Know." www.realclearreligion.com. September 17, 2014.
5. Philippians 2:10. (TLB) [TLB=The Living Bible]
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