Homily

I want to speak about two things today—sin and vacuuming. I love the line that St. Paul writes to Timothy in today’s epistle: “This saying is true and deserves full acceptance, that Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the first.” We also use this thought in the prayer before Communion, of course. Was St. Paul the worst of all sinners? Obviously not. Yes, he was a sinner, but he was also a holy man, a great disciple of the Lord. So, what does he mean by saying he is the first of all sinners? I think in one sense he means that no one else’s sins are more important to him than his own sins. They shouldn’t be. Do I think more about the sins of other people than I do about my own wrongdoing? How many times a week am I disturbed by the sins of other people, and how many times a week am I disturbed by my own? Other people may indeed be bigger sinners and we may indeed be a target of their sin, or we may indeed have to notice their sin, and sometimes we may even have to point out their sins to them. But if we are so aware of the wrongdoing of others, and the damage it does to us, should we not be even more aware of our own sins and the damage they do to us? In this way let us put some fresh importance today on our prayer: “O Lord I believe and profess that You are truly Christ, Son of the Living God, Who came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the first.”

I said I wanted to talk about sin and vacuuming. Is vacuuming a sin? Apparently only at my house. Yesterday I was vacuuming here at church and I thought about how many times I have used a vacuum on this carpet. Hundreds and hundreds of times I have pushed and pulled that Eureka back and forth across this floor. The ancient Greek mathematician and inventor, when he suddenly realized how he could measure the volume of water, cried out “Eureka!”

I also have Eureka moments here at church almost every week. So I’m vacuuming and thinking, “Here I am vacuuming again and I will be doing it again next week and the week after that until I am physically disabled or dead.” I am doomed to vacuum until I die. But I realize it is a great blessing to have the ability to vacuum and without any pain or discomfort. That’s a good thing! It’s a mindless, repetitive task that takes very little talent or expertise. Couldn’t we just buy a Roomba and have a little robot sweeper do this carpet, freeing me up to spend more time contemplating the hypostatic union of the two natures of Christ? Or even why the word vacuum has two u’s in it?

Sweeping the carpet is one of those menial, repetitive jobs that are part of our lives along with doing the laundry, washing the dishes, mowing the lawn, and telling your children to behave. And some of those jobs are sometimes annoying and difficult. So why do we do them? At the very bottom level, we do them because they need to be done, they ought to be done. And yet the question can still come up, “weren’t we made for better things than this?” And the answer is yes! We were made for better things! We were made to live forever in the blessed presence of God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. We were made for heaven.

But we’re not there yet. We have work to do. Some of that work involves doing boring, repetitive tasks. I was thinking yesterday, “Why am I vacuuming this carpet?” Two reasons came to mind. First, because it leaves the floor cleaner and extends the life of the carpet. Second, because it serves the people who come here to church. So, by vacuuming I am serving other people. (And this explains why I don’t vacuum so much at home, because it would be self-serving.) Yes, it’s a boring and repetitive job, but it is protecting property and serving other people so it is a good thing to do and, I believe, especially understanding that I am serving others by cleaning, I think the importance of the job, when it is seen connection with my life in Christ, the importance of the job is elevated. It’s not the job itself that can add to my holiness, because I could pay someone else to do it and it would be done just the same. But as long as I am the one doing it, shouldn’t I work in a spirit of service, a willingness to put this job into my Christian life, as a part of my Christian life, and so it’s not just getting a job done but it is about working for myself and for others, in Christ. Therefore, I think it is true to say that I am vacuuming my way to heaven. And there’s another good point about vacuuming—it gives you time to think about a sermon for Sunday.

Many of the jobs we do may not seem very important in themselves and we do them because they need to be done. But, friends, every job we do can be a way, a means, an opportunity to draw closer to heaven. We can complain and grumble sometimes, and trust me, I do, but how much better to work in Christ and do our duties as servants of the Lord and one another. St. Paul worked as a tentmaker even though he was an apostle. We also work with our hands. Let us find the value of that labor not in the job itself, but rather in the Who and the Why we are working for. Let us serve one another even in sweeping, and in so doing we also serve Christ.

Whether it’s cooking or chauffeuring the kids, or sweeping the porch, or even if it’s our regular 40-hour-a-week job; let us try to put everything we do, and see everything we do within the context of our life in Christ so that all our labors, all, are works that lead us—not just to Medicare and Social Security—but to our retirement in our heavenly home.