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The following message is delivered by Reverend Dr. Bruce Wheeler Thielman. Today's sermon is entitled "The Carpenter of Nazareth." Let us continue in worship by giving attention to the reading of God's Word as it is recorded in Paul's second letter to the Thessalonians, the third chapter.

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I begin the reading at the verse numbered six. Now we command you, brethren, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you keep away from any brother who is living in idleness and not in accord with the tradition that you receive from us.

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For you yourselves know how you ought to imitate us. We were not idle when we were with you. We did not eat anyone's bread without paying, but with toil and labor we worked night and day that we might not burden any of you.

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It was not because we have not that right, but to give you in our conduct an example to imitate. For even when we were with you, we gave you this command, "If anyone will not work, let him not eat."

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For we hear that some of you are living in idleness, mere busybodies, not doing any work. Now such persons we command and exhort in the Lord Jesus Christ to do their work in quietness and to earn their own living. Brethren, do not be weary in well-doing.

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And may God bless to us and to our understanding this reading from his Word. Pray with me. In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, amen. Several summers ago now, I was invited to preach at the Oak Brook Church, which is located

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just a few miles north of Chicago. Trying to find a place of quiet to gather my thoughts, to pray and meditate before the morning services began, I went into a room which bore the sign, "The Chapel of the Carpenter." It was a very interesting room.

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On the left side and on the wall behind me as I entered, there was beautiful wood paneling. The right side was all glass and you could look out into a beautiful garden. But the front of the chapel, the chancel area, was the most interesting of all, for there was a complete carpenter's shop.

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When they built that church, they sent a delegation of their members to Nazareth and they combed the city of Nazareth to find the most ancient carpenter's shop in it that they could locate. And then they bought it lock, stock, and barrel, transported it all to the United States, and rebuilt it again as the front of this chapel.

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A very dramatic way of reminding people that from the time that he was 12 years of age until he was 30 years of age, Jesus was a carpenter in Nazareth. Actually calling him a carpenter is not quite fair, for the word in the Greek language actually means craftsman.

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Jesus was more than a worker with wood, he was an artist with wood. And what I would ask this morning is, what are the implications of Jesus being a craftsman to this, our very own time? Well the first of those implications is obviously this, Jesus being a carpenter dignifies the

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world of work. I've often wondered why it is that so many people look down on hard, honest toil. I suppose some of them do it because of a misunderstanding of the early chapters of the book of Genesis.

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You will remember that when Adam and Eve were expelled from the Garden of Eden because of their sin, one of the things that God says to them is that they must work and produce from the sweat of their faces. Now they understand this to mean that there was no work in the Garden and work is a punishment

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which we all must endure outside the Garden. But this is a complete misunderstanding of this passage of Scripture. Granted, the passage suggests that once they are out of the Garden of Eden, they must work harder than they have worked before to produce the same things.

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But still, while in the Garden, Adam and Eve were at work. Look at Genesis chapter 2, verse 15. It reads, "The Lord God put man in the Garden of Eden to work it and to take care of it." The Bible from its very first pages to its last pages honors labor.

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The creation of the universe is described as the work of God. There was a saying very common in Old Testament times, "He who does not teach his son a trade teaches him to steal." The rabbis of those days were all required to have another occupation beside that of

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being a teacher or rabbi. So we read of rabbis who were barbers, some who were bakers, some who were masons. Jesus was himself a carpenter. The apostle Paul was a tent maker.

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And remember the words that Paul wrote to the Thessalonians, which I read to you just a moment ago. "Let him who does not work not eat." Why is it then that so many people think that idleness is more to be honored than industry?

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Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob were herdsmen. Avis was a shepherd and a tender of sycamore trees. Plato was a stone cutter. Benjamin Franklin was a printer.

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George Washington was a farmer. Abraham Lincoln was a rail splitter. Walt Whitman, the poet, not only was a carpenter, but he was sufficiently talented as a printer to set the type for the first edition of his masterpiece, Leaves of Grass.

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Henry David Thoreau was a pencil maker. Herman Melville was a sailor, and the list goes on and on. Many of the great names of history in whatever field that you choose to identify began their greatness through hard and honest labor.

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And yet there are many in this day who think that working with your hands is in some way demeaning. I couldn't begin to tell you how many college young people came to me during the decade that I was a college professor and said to me, "The reason I am in school is to learn

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some academic skill so that I will not have to work with my hands." Now that kind of an idea might be appropriate in some religious traditions, but it is not appropriate within Christianity. When we look at heathen idols, we see them always sitting in indolence, being waited

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upon by others. When we think of the Greek or the Roman gods lounging on Olympus or at some other place enjoying ambrosia and nectar, there is idleness. When we think of how Islam or Hinduism or Buddhism all teach that the great goal of

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life is total repose, and that's what we should seek for both here in life and afterlife. Well, in those contexts, idleness might be all right. But we serve a Savior who said, "My Father works until now, and I work." Practical Christianity places great value on work.

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It says that all should work except those who are handicapped and are unable to do so. We are to get ahead by effort, not just by good luck. We are to advance on the basis of our talents, not just by getting the breaks. We are to make progress through earning and not through any devious shortcut.

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There is no place for indolence within Christianity. The student who does not study, the professor who uses his same lecture notes year after year, the preacher who does not labor at his desk in preparation for ministry to his people, the doctor who does not keep up with the journals and is not anxiously concerned for each of

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his parents, the policeman or the politician who is always looking for a kickback, the clerk who is so involved in her own conversation that she is altogether indifferent to the customers who have gathered in the store and are waiting to be cared for. These people will find no support for their conduct in Scripture.

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Here the Christian view with regard to work is exemplified for us by a man like William Carey. William Carey was a great missionary to India, but he concluded his career by being professor of Sanskrit, Bengali and Maharatha at the College of Fort William in India.

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On one occasion at a very fancy meeting, one of the British bluebloods in attendance, a man who had never done an honest day's work in all of his life, referring to William Carey said, "You know, he was a shoemaker." Carey heard the slur and stepped over to this prominent Englishman and said, "Oh no, my

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Lord, I was never a shoemaker. I was only a cobbler." He understood, you see, that his savior was a carpenter and that because that was so, no one ever needed to be ashamed of toil or of tools.

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The second thing we notice here is that Jesus being a carpenter dignifies price and profit. If he was a businessman, then he obviously handled money. He paid it out, he gathered it in. He bought tools and timber.

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He also sold yokes and furniture. And it's interesting to notice that at the same time that Jesus was laboring as a carpenter in Nazareth, it says of him in scripture that he grew in favor with all people. That means he must have been an honest businessman.

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He must have been a businessman who gave you your money's worth. He must have paid his own bills promptly. He must have produced a quality product. He must have been a good employer when he hired other people in his service.

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Jesus knew about prices and profits. He practiced the discipline of a businessman. And he found favor with all men because of the excellence of the way in which he did it.

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When historians in the future sit down to write the history of the 1980s, they will undoubtedly note that one of the premier events of this decade is the fact that we have seen in it the final victory of capitalism over socialism. Even the most mindless commercialism has shown itself to be better than a state moralism.

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We have seen very clearly in these days that individual enterprise is superior to regimentation and the absence of any incentive. This is what we have discovered, or more appropriately, what the Soviets and those with them in the socialist camp have discovered.

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But these are truths that were taught by Jesus and the Bible many centuries ago. There is nothing wrong with honest private enterprise as it was carried out by someone like Jesus. Now notice, I say honest private enterprise.

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If anything will ever kill capitalism, it is cheating within its own ranks. It would be a tragedy of unimaginable proportions if the victory of free enterprise was now to be compromised by thieves who announced that they were practicing it. I remember once when an insurance man, a rather young man, said to me, "Sure, I'd like to

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build a big agency. I'd like profit as much as anyone does. But you know, the greatest joy that I get in my work is when I can sit down with a young couple who are just starting out and help them plan their financial future.

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I get great pleasure and happiness out of that." And Bruce, he said, "I really think of that as being just as much of a ministry as what you seek to do for them." And I answered him, "Amen."

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Whenever you serve people or respond to those who are serving you, you are engaged in a kind of ministry. Now the victory of individualism over a statist economy is very fragile. The secret to its longevity and to its continuing success lies in this, that those who practice

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free enterprise must practice it as Jesus did. The employer must be fair to his employees. The employee must give an honest day's work to the employer. There must be on every hand pride in quality of workmanship.

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I know when I say things like this, there are some individuals who say, "Fehlman, you're hopelessly naive." Well, I respond that I don't think so. I believe that the truism, honesty is the best policy, is nothing less than the word

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of God. I believe that person to be a fool who thinks he can get away with fracturing God's moral law. You see, it is our task as Christians to initiate, to demonstrate, to make the first steps, to

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be as vulnerable in our business and the conduct of our service as Jesus was. And when others ridicule us, when others seek to rob us and sometimes succeed at it, we must persist in being businessmen like the Lord Jesus Christ, because that is the victory which is ultimately unstoppable.

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And all the time that we are fighting the war, we will know in our own hearts that we are free and honest and genuine. God has willed that this be so, and Jesus has demonstrated it for us. Finally, I would suggest that Jesus being a carpenter dignifies the master's materials.

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A craftsman needs to know the materials with which she or he is working. Jesus had to know the worth of a piece of wood. He had to be able to tell it by sight and by touch. I remember when I concluded my ministry in California many years ago, being given as

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a going-away gift a pair of beautifully carved wooden seagulls that had been made out of driftwood found on the beach. I said to the woman who made them, "How long did it take you to make these?" "Well," she said, "it took two weeks to make them, but it took me three months to

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find the wood." I said, "The grain is absolutely beautiful." She said, "Well, you should have seen the wood. It was bent and twisted and gnarled, but that's the kind of wood that produces the most spectacular

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grain." Well, Jesus understood that principle. He knew when he looked at a piece of wood, whether there was a table in it or a door in it or a toy in it or something that would be the artist's pride, something of great

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beauty in it. And Jesus didn't forget this capacity to know and understand the potential in his materials. He did not forget that when he went out into his ministry. He could see heaven in a mustard seed.

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He could see the church in a broken loaf of bread. He could see faith in the trustfulness of a child. He could see disciples hidden inside fishermen and tax collectors. He saw the potential that was in people.

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Yes, as he worked with them, just as when he'd worked with the wood in the shop, he encountered flaws and faults. He had to use the plane and the chisel and the saw. He knew at one time or another pain and the requirement of patience.

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But out of all of this, he produced the very best. You don't think Simon became Peter on the basis of just a one-hour conversation with Jesus, do you? You don't think Matthew the tax collector was changed from being greedy to being generous

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in one afternoon by the Savior from Nazareth. You don't believe, do you, that Simon Zealot could be transformed from a lion into a lion in three days' time. It's interesting.

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There are some things that Jesus could do instantaneously. He could give a blind person sight instantly. He could give a leper purity instantly. He could give the dead life instantly.

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But it took time to make disciples, to make the church, that fellowship which would turn the world upside down. But Jesus was the master of his materials, so that out of the useless, he could make the useful, and out of the base, he could make the beautiful.

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Just as he could turn a tree trunk into a table, so he could turn a prostitute into an angel. Nothing deterred or defeated him. In fact, he demonstrated that the more twisted and gnarly the wood, the more beautiful the

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object that could be fashioned from it. Now we are Jesus' chosen materials for this hour, and as we carry out our tasks, our business, whatever it happens to be, we are going to have difficult times. I love the ministry, but I will confess to you that there are many times when I would

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much rather read a novel than the latest book on theological ethics. I'm sick to death of committee meetings. I'd like to have a Saturday evening every once in a while where I could do what I wanted to do instead of preparing for this pulpit in the morning.

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I'd like to have one week go by without ugliness and hurt and hate being puked out on the top of my desk. But every job has daunting moments. But notice this.

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Jesus never quits his work on us, and so it must be for us with our work on others. He never ceases seeking to bring a more splendid faith out of us, and so we must never cease in trying to bring a noble faith out of others, remembering that the gnarly can be the best. You know, it is no accident that in the Hebrew language the word "work" and the word "worship"

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are the same word. And Henry Van Dyck, commenting on that, said, "Honest toil is holy service. Faithful work is praise and prayer." So we are to be about our Master's business, for we are the material with which he has

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to work. He is bringing beauty and usefulness out of us, and so we are to bring beauty and usefulness into the world of work where we labor and into the lives of those with whom we associate. And just as Jesus never stops working in or for or with us, so we must never stop in working

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in and for and with others. I leave you then with two closing thoughts, one very profound, the other very simple. Alfred North Whitehead, the great philosopher, first of the University of London and then of Harvard University, enunciated for the first time what is now well known as the principle

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of concretion. The principle of concretion is that everything on earth is related to all things on earth. That is, that what happens anywhere will have repercussions everywhere. And that means that whether we are praying or playing or loving or laboring, all of it

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is related either positively or negatively to God's purposes for the world. Kahlil Gibran, commenting on that, said, "We fulfill a part of earth's furthest dream assigned to us when that dream was born." And over against the depth of that, I place these four simple lines of George MacDonald,

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who wrote, "I pray, O Master, let me lie as on thy bench the favored wood. That I saw thy plane, thy chisel fly, and make me into something good." Let us pray. O Father God, thou hast given to us a variety of gifts.

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We labor in different ways. Our tasks are diverse. May we see all of our efforts as honorable efforts, since Jesus was a working man. May we see in all of our efforts the need for honesty, for purity of intent, purpose,

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and product. And Father, may we understand ourselves to be the Master's materials in this day and age, and even as he works to make us into something useful and beautiful, so may we, in witness to others, help to make them useful and beautiful.

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We pray our prayer in the name of the carpenter of Nazareth. Amen. [BLANK_AUDIO]