Hello, and welcome to this week's episode of
Trinity Sermons. Have you ever caught yourself
doom -scrolling? Maybe you feel more informed,
but you also feel more defeated. Or maybe you
always find yourself busy, but when you look
back on the week, you can't actually point to
the real fruit of your labor. We've all been
there. But what you might not realize is that
the Christian tradition actually has a word for
this, and it's sloth. Sloth. Not that cute little
animal in the forest. but the feeling that life
has no purpose and that we can't actually do
anything that matters. In this week's teaching,
Rob unpacks what sloth is, what it looks like
today, and how we can overcome it to find meaning
and real rest. Today's reading is from Ecclesiastes,
chapter 1, verses 1 to 11. The words of the teacher,
son of David, king in Jerusalem. Meaningless,
meaningless, says the teacher. Utterly meaningless.
Everything is meaningless. What do people gain
from all their labors at which they toil under
the sun? Generations come and generations go,
but the earth remains forever. The sun rises
and the sun sets and hurries back to where it
rises. The wind blows to the south and turns
to the north, round and round it goes, ever returning
on its course. All streams flow into the sea,
yet the sea is never full. To the place the streams
come from, there they return again. All things
are wearisome, more than one can say. The eye
never has enough of seeing. nor the ear its fill
of hearing. What has been will be again. What
has been done will be done again. There is nothing
new under the sun. Is there anything of which
one can say, look, this is something new? It
was here already long ago. It was here before
our time. No one remembers the former generations
and even those yet to come. will not be remembered
by those who follow them. This is the word of
the Lord. So here we have a picture of a sloth.
Right? A sloth, their main point in life is to
do as little as possible. And that sounds pretty
sweet, don't you think? Sloths only travel about
38 meters a day. That's about the distance from
the side door most of you came in to the pew
that you're sitting in right now. And the reason
they move so slow is because of their metabolism,
because of their diet. They eat these plants
that almost no other animal will eat. And it
just takes them so long. long to digest it. Like
imagine eating a salad and still feeling full
three weeks later. That's kind of how it works
for sloths. They are so slow as they go through
the branches of the tree. And this is what we
think of when we Don't think of sloth. We are
in week two of our teaching series called The
S Word, where we're looking at the seven deadly
sins. In week one... We looked at pride. That's
the sin that says it's all about me. And then
last week we looked at envy and that's the sin
that says I want what you got. And today we are
looking at our third sin and that is the sin
of sloth. And in order to really get into sloth
and really study it well, I decided to take a
trip to Mexico last week. Our whole family went
down and I sat poolside with my feet up because
I really wanted to get into it for research purposes.
for research purposes. We went away to figure
out what is it like to be lazy? What is this
all about? And so there I sat by the pool reading
articles on sloth. It felt kind of wrong, but
I'm back today to tell you everything that I
have learned about sloth after my research mission.
And here it is. Here it is. I have to say, first
of all, are we serious about this? Is sloth really
a sin? And if it's a sin, is it really a deadly
sin? I mean, come on, binge watching a few reruns
of The Office, taking an extra long bath, dozing
off during my sermon this morning. Don't worry
about it. How bad can it be? I mean, really,
is hitting your snooze bar a few too many times
going to bring Western civilization to its knees?
No, come on. You know that most of the problems
in this world are... not caused by slothful people.
They're caused by overly active people. I mean,
when was the last time you heard of a war being
waged by a slothful army? Never. We actually
need more sloth in our lives, not less. In fact,
imagine this. Imagine if the original sin had
been sloth. I mean, we'd still be living in paradise.
Adam and Eve never would have had the energy
to go and disobey God, but yet here we are. So
my question, my thought is, come on, what is
wrong with a little bit of laziness? And that's
where we run into the problem. Sloth is not laziness,
right? It might look like laziness, but it's
not. You want to take an afternoon nap. That
is not sloth, right? And sloth also is not depression.
Again, some of the symptoms might look the same,
but of course depression is an affliction, whereas
sloth is made up of decisions and patterns of
life that we get into, and they're patterns that
we can change once we know what they are. So
what is sloth, guys? What is it? Well, To get
the answer to that question, we have to go way
back to the people who first came up with the
word, the definition in the first place, and
that were those desert monks 1 ,500 years ago.
They were the first ones to pinpoint the spiritual
threat of sloth. Let me explain. Imagine this.
One day you decide you want to become a monk.
And so you say goodbye to your old life and you
move into the monastery. Oh, hi, hi, I'm here.
I'm a new monk. Oh, and it's wonderful. You get
to sit around and pray all day and you get to
read your Bible and you copy out manuscripts
and you get to worship and eat with your brothers
in the monastery. You know, it's great. It's
fantastic. And you love it. And you feel like
God has called you to this work. And so days
go by, weeks go by, and then something starts
to happen. Something starts to happen. And maybe
it always seemed to happen for the monks that
it was right in the middle of the day when the
sun was at its highest and everything was at
its hottest. And you had to go at that time of
the day into your little room, your little cell,
where you sat down and you started to pray. And
you started to pray and pray, and then this little
distraction started to get into your mind. You
looked out the window, and you were like, oh,
look, there's a sparrow. Hi, sparrow. What am
I doing? I've got to get back to praying. So
you get back to your praying, and then you hear
some footsteps coming down the hall, and you're
like, oh, maybe that's Brother Francois, and
he's coming to visit me. Is that you, Brother
Francois? Is that you? Open the door, and there's
actually nobody there. You're like, oh, my mistake.
And so you sit back down, and you're like, OK,
got to get down to this praying. Got to get down
to this praying. And you look down at your watch.
They didn't have watches. But you look down,
and you're like, oh, gosh, it's still three more
hours till lunch. I'm not sure I can make it.
My stomach is. It's already kind of grumbling,
and these distractions, you're finding it so
hard to stay focused. And at first, it's just
minor, but then it starts to be like every time
this is happening. And that's when things start
to get really serious. After this goes on day
after day, under the blazing heat, there you
are, you're in your cell, you're trying to work.
Pretty soon... some thoughts start to creep into
your mind. Thoughts like this. Oh, gosh, it's
so hot. This way of life. You know what? I'm
beginning to think it's all pointless. Why did
I even do this? Why did I leave my life? I had
a good life out there. And now I've come in here
and, oh, my prayers. All these prayers I'm praying,
they don't seem to be accomplishing anything.
I'm not seeing a lot of answers to my prayers.
And you know what? These brothers, my fellow
monks, they are so annoying. I'm finding them
so hard to get along with. I mean, yeah, I go
down and I try to sing and I try to work with
them. We do our chores together, but getting
tired of those chores, getting tired of them.
And then this thought sneaks in. Maybe I should
just leave. Maybe I... Maybe I should leave.
Maybe I should try another monastery. Maybe that
would be better. Or maybe I should just leave
altogether. And then eventually, day after day
after day, this keeps happening, the distractions,
the thoughts, the distractions, the thoughts,
until the final thought comes to you. You know
what? Maybe God isn't even there. Maybe God isn't
even real. Gosh, it's so hot. Maybe God's not
really there. out there now this is what our
monastic brothers and sisters first put their
finger on as the root of sloth read this this
is from this is from a monk every week it seems
to make me listless and inert. Every task, I
can't stay in this little room. He groans. He
says he's made no progress after such a long
time here. He complains and he sighs. This whole
spiritual quest has been in vain. To stay in
this place is useless. You see, what is happening
is that there is this deadly spiritual progression
which is taking place, right? It doesn't start
with an outright rejection of God. No, no, no,
no, no. It's much more subtle than that. It starts
with devotion. I'm a praying monk, devotion.
Then leads to distraction. Oh, squirrel. Oh,
Brother Francois, is that you? No, what time
is it, right? And then after enough distractions,
pretty soon you're not praying anymore. You're
not reading the Bible anymore. You're disengaged
from the work that you're supposed to be doing.
And then you just... Stop serving. You stop caring
until ultimately, that is a total mess up there,
I apologize. It leads to doubt. You begin to
doubt whether God is real at all. Now see, this
isn't just laziness. It's a full -on crisis of
faith. It has led you to disconnect from other
people. and to disbelieve in God. And that is
why they put it on the list of the seven deadly
sins. And they didn't even put it at the end
of the list. It's like, oh, let's throw this
one out at the end. Many lists have sloth right
at the beginning because they see how spiritually
damaging it can be. Now, you and me, we're not
monks, okay? But you've felt this way too, right?
You've had those moments where you said, oh,
why do I do this thing called faith? Is it really
worth? following Jesus. I mean, I hear about
everybody else's prayers being answered. My prayers
never seem to be answered. Why do I even bother
going to church, right? And even when we come
to church, our mind is elsewhere. We've kind
of checked out spiritually and mentally. And
so, you see, we've been thinking about sloth
all wrong, right? Sloth isn't just doing nothing.
It's feeling that nothing you do matters. And
sloth isn't physical laziness. It's spiritual
weariness. You stop praying, you stop worshiping,
you stop serving, and you slowly just drift away
from God. Now, The monks gave us the language
for sloth, but it can happen to anyone. In fact,
the reading from Ecclesiastes this morning, listen,
King Solomon, he had more wealth, power, prestige,
success, and pleasure than anyone. If anyone
in the world should have been able to be excited
about life and thankful to God, it should have
been him. And yet, look, sloth creeps in. It
begins as he laments the weariness of the world.
Oh, generations come, generations go. Sun's up,
sun is down. It's one big loop. You wake up,
it's the same routine. You go to work, it's the
same job. You come home, it's the same struggles.
You go to bed and you do it all over again and
again. Life seems pointless. That's sloth. creeping
in. And then it kills any joy, any delight you
might have in life. Oh, everything is wearisome,
right? In this whole great, big, beautiful world
that God has made, the author can't find anything
that impresses him, nothing that excites him,
nothing worth getting up in the morning for.
God says, I'm making all things new. But Sloth
says, I'm not so sure about that. Kind of looks
the same to me. And then this lie creeps in that
says, nothing matters. Nothing matters. Everything's
meaningless. Your work is meaningless. Your relationships
are useless. Your faith is pointless. Nothing,
nothing matters. Meaningless, meaningless, meaningless.
And then, of course, there's all those distractions.
Please just show me something new. Show me something
different. Maybe if I scroll, something new will
pop up. Maybe if I watch the next episode, it'll
be better than the last. This is a man who has
seen everything and done it all, and yet now
he's just restless. He's cynical. He's spiritually
numb. That's sloth. That's sloth. And it can
happen to anyone. It can happen to him. It can
happen to you. It can happen to me. It can happen
to me even right now when I stand up here in
front of you and I say, this doesn't matter.
This thing we're doing right now where I talk
to you, where we gather, come on, who are we
kidding? This doesn't really matter. You don't
really matter. And I know that I don't really
matter to you, right? That's sloth creeping in,
right? And you know what? On top of it, maybe
God doesn't even really matter either. You know
that sloth is coming in. Or coming out, maybe,
of your heart when you start to hear yourself
say stuff like this, I couldn't care less. I
couldn't care less about my work, about my relationships,
about this church. Or you hear someone say, whatever.
That is like the worst. It's just like shrugging
off life. Sometimes sloth sounds like someone
saying, I just couldn't be bothered. I'm not
going to put in the effort. I'm not going to
put in the work. It's not worth it. You're not
worth it. Or you hear someone say, I don't know.
I don't care. I don't know. It means they're
ignorant. And they don't care to even find out.
It's just complete sloth. When this is coming
out of your mouth, sloth has gotten into your
heart. And you know what? One of the big ways
that sloth shows up in our world today is what
I call the digital drain, right? It's not just
about lying around all day. doing nothing. It's
the mindless scrolling. It's the binge watching.
It's the hours of gaming. It's what, oh, it's
entertainment, culture says. This is entertainment.
But it's really just constant stimulation and
constant distraction to prevent us from ever
engaging or ever going deeper into things that
really matter in life. The writer of Ecclesiastes
must have had a smartphone, right? The eye never
has enough of seeing, nor the ear its fill of
hearing. Have you ever had that thing where you
go to check your phone for one minute and you
put it down and an hour has gone by, right? We
pick up our phones hundreds of times a day, not
because we need to, but because we're taught
to, because the algorithms drive us to, and because
we don't want to miss out. But what we actually
end up doing is missing out on the really important
things, really important relationships, really
important responsibilities, really important
opportunities to grow in our spiritual life.
And that is the real danger of distraction. Not
just that you waste time, but it's that it drowns
out the voice of God. Sloth will not let you
be still and hear the voice of God because it
fills every quiet moment with noise. It's funny
how we can find hours to binge watch TV shows,
but somehow can't find five minutes to pray.
That's sloth, right? And Jesus says, what good
is that? What good is it to gain the whole world?
What good is eight or 12 hours of screen time
when you forfeit your soul, when you forfeit
your real purpose, when you forfeit real relationships,
when you forfeit your connection to God? So that's
how it shows up. It's the digital drain. But
it also shows up as work. Yes, work. I thought
work was opposite of sloth. No, sloth surprisingly
also shows up by being very busy. We're going
through the tasks. We're grinding through our
to -do list. But really, who cares about it?
We're just doing it. What do people get from
all their toil and all their striving and all
their labor under the sun? Those aren't the words
of someone who's lazy about work. Those are the
words of someone who doesn't think his work matters.
Sloth doesn't say, I don't want to work. Sloth
says, I don't care about my work. It's what William
Willimon called joyless productivity. You get
up, you go to work, you go through the motions,
you do what's expected, but your heart's not
in it. You're working, but you're not engaged.
So ironically, some of the hardest working people
you know struggle with sloth. They burn out doing
everything they think that they have to do, but
they feel nothing. They're empty inside about
it. And it's not just our jobs. It also shows
up at home. It shows up. In our own families,
we're juggling a hundred things. Oh, here's my
career, and here's school, and here's all the
kids' activities, and I've got to go do this,
and I've got to go do that. It looks like we're
really busy. This does not look like sloth, right?
But we're on autopilot. Our schedules are full,
but our souls are empty. We're burning out while
our hearts are rusting out. That's another sign
of sloth. It's this work without meaning. But
a third sign is what I call the restless rest.
When we finally get a day off, you know what?
We still don't actually rest. Have you ever had
like a whole day off and you just did nothing
but binge watch TV, scroll through your phone,
and then at the end of it, you're still tired?
Right? That's because it wasn't rest. Right?
God says, in repentance and rest is your salvation.
Oh, okay. In quietness and trust is your strength.
Okay, God. But sloth says, no, no, no, no, no.
We're not going to do that. We're not going to
have any of that. Instead, here, look at this.
Instead, here, play with that. Be entertained
by this. Here's more noise, more noise, more
noise. So sloth leaves you feeling just as drained
as you were before. You see, God built rest into
creation as a rhythm of life, and he gives us
the Sabbath. The Sabbath is not there for you
to catch up on your errands. It's not there for
you to, like, binge on Netflix. It's to draw
us deeper into God's presence. But sloth's not
going to let you get away with a Sabbath. No,
no, no, no, no. It wants to numb you, not restore
you. If there's one spiritual area, though, that
we have to watch out for, and this is the one
the monks notice the most, it is, spiritually
speaking, sloth is so dangerous. It's so dangerous.
Not because they outright rejected God. They
just shrugged God off spiritually. Just slowly
stopped seeking God. That's why the warning in
the Bible is, Don't drift away. You're not just
gonna run away. You're slowly gonna drift away.
Don't let it happen, but that is how sloth works.
You don't wake up one morning and say, you know
what, I'm not gonna believe in God anymore today,
right? Instead, it's just a slow neglect, and
it happens as slow as a sloth in a tree, and
it can happen to all of us. You know, we just
stop praying for a few days, and then it turns
into a few weeks, and then... It turns into a
few months, and then we can't actually remember
the last time we actually said a real prayer.
Oh, we want to read the Bible, but we never really
get around to it. Sloth doesn't shout, hey, stop
praying, or hey, don't read your Bible. He just
says, hey, look at this instead, or get busy
with this. And besides, your prayers don't make
any difference anyway. None of it matters. And
then we neglect church, right? We say, oh, well,
I don't feel like going today. It's no big deal.
And I don't want to go next week either. No big
deal. But before you know it, you've drifted.
Not because you stopped believing. It's just
because you've stopped showing up. I'll go next
week. I'll go next month. Sloth. wants to isolate
you from community because it knows that now
it can really get you and your faith will really
be running on fumes. And then sloth makes you
want to neglect others. So we stop serving. We
stop giving. We stop participating. The Bible
says that love demands that we care for one another.
But sloth says, that sounds like a lot of work.
You know what? Serving is inconvenient, and volunteering,
too much effort. And besides, I know somebody
else will do it anyways. So you see, this church
thing, this spiritual life, we just withdraw
from it. The church is this gift. And we're tempted
to ignore it. In withdrawing from spiritual community,
we withdraw from encouragement. We withdraw from
the truth. We withdraw from the habits that keep
us spiritually alive. And then sloth can get
its claws into us all the more. It doesn't look
like an outright rebellion. None of this does,
right? It's just the slow drift from things that
keep us alive. So do you see why it's so deadly?
Do you see where it's working in your own life?
And now do you see why we have to fight it? Let's
talk about that now. In the time we've got left,
how do we fight back against sloth? What do we
do about it? Well, I'm going to share four ideas.
There's probably 400 ideas, but here's four that
I came up with. First, sloth tries to convince
you there's nothing new going on in the world.
There's nothing important for you to look at.
None of this matters. It's all boring. It's all
same old, same old, same old. Nothing good. But
that's a lie, right? It's a lie. Sloth says,
hey, don't look over here. This is just the way
things always will be, the way things always
were. But Jesus says, no, no, no. I'm making
all things new. God is always doing a new thing.
Jesus is always doing a beautiful thing in the
world. The question is not, is God doing anything?
The question is, are our eyes open to see it?
We need to learn to see the newness that is cropping
up and jumping up right in front of our own eyes,
but sloth doesn't want us to see it. So one way
to shake off sloth and one way to wake up your
weary soul is simply to open your eyes to the
beauty and newness of this world. Sloth wants
to numb you. Beauty revives you. So listen to
some really good music. Go ahead. Look at some
amazing art. Go spend time with friends or family.
Enjoy a wonderful home -cooked meal together.
Just go on a walk in nature. Go for a long walk.
Do not take your phone with you, right? And then
you will begin to see things. You'll begin to
notice things. Your soul will begin to stir again.
Each morning, why don't we pray something like
this? God, show me something new today. Lord,
help me to see what you are doing today, right?
Tomorrow morning. Don't think of it as another
Monday morning. Here we go again. That's what
sloth wants you to think, right? Instead, ask
yourself, God, what new thing are you going to
do today? Because if your eyes are open, you're
going to start to see the newness of life. That
is the first strategy. Let's open our eyes to
the newness around us. The second way to shake
off sloth is there's no other way to put it,
but we have just got to figure out how to do
the hard work of loving people. Love is hard
work. You know that. If you're married, you know
that. If you have kids, you know that. If you're
in friendships, you know that. If you're in church,
you know love is hard work. In your life group,
love is hard work. It requires effort. If you've
ever had a friendship fade away, it probably
wasn't because you had a big fight and a big
blow up. It's probably because you just stopped
working at it and you stopped showing up. Sloth
says it's not worth showing up. They're not worth
showing up. But Jesus says, no, love. always
is worth it. Love always requires hard work.
Jesus didn't just talk about love from a distance.
He got into it, right? He leaned into it. He
lived it. He walked it. Jesus, if you ever want
to know what the exact opposite of sloth is,
take a look at Jesus. He did not come to be served,
but to serve and to give his life for others.
And you know, then he has the goal to say to
us, I want you to go and I want you to love others
in the same way that I loved you. Sloth says,
no, no, no, pull back from others. Jesus says,
no, love others the way I love them. Lean right
into it. And on the cross, man, oh man, did Jesus
do the hard work of love. Listen to this. Love
that is real. is love that labors. Christ labored
unto death. The final victory over sloth was
won on the wood of the cross where love endured
even when it was difficult and even when it hurt.
Guys, if Jesus did the work of love for us all
the way to the cross, how can we justify stopping
loving the people around us? Love takes work.
Love shows up. Love invests. So this week, where
is sloth keeping you from loving well? And what
do you need to do this week? No, who do you need
to show up for this week? Thirdly. A third way
of shaking off sloth is just to learn again how
to rest in the right way. Sloth says, hey, in
order to relax, you ready to relax? You need
Netflix. You need a smartphone. You're going
to need YouTube. Here's social media. Now you're
ready to relax. No, no, no. That's not rest.
Real rest restores the soul. Jesus says, come
to me, all you who are weary. And I'll give you
rest. Jesus even says, I will restore your soul.
Come away with me, Jesus says, to a quiet place
and let's get some real rest. Can you this week
find a way to reclaim real rest? Find a way to
reclaim some real Sabbath. Remember, Sabbath
is not just about ceasing work. It's about entering
into God's renewal. So forget setting aside a
whole day. Can you find one hour of real Sabbath
this week? No work, no screens, no noise, just
you resting in God. Remember, Jesus offers us
this as a gift. Let Jesus give you real rest,
okay? And then... So we've got this. We're going
to see the newness. We're going to keep our eyes
open. We're going to do the hard work of love.
We're going to rest in the right way. And finally,
here's what we have to do. Here's what the monks
taught us. You got to pray anyway, right? When
your faith feels dry, when your spiritual life
feels empty, when your prayers just seem to be
echoing off the walls of your little chamber,
When worship and coming to church starts to feel
routine, it's then that sloth is whispering to
you, hey, why bother? Why bother? It doesn't
matter. But Jesus says, pray. Keep praying. Do
not give up. I mean, think about exercise. I
don't know about you, but I don't really like
to exercise. But after I've exercised, I'm so
glad I did. And prayer is like that. And so pray
anyway, even when you don't feel like it, because
that's how your faith grows. That's how you slough
off sloth in the long run. And don't just pray
anyway. Let's also worship anyway. Sometimes,
I know, sometimes coming to church feels empty.
The worship feels... I don't know. It's not connecting
with me. The worship song isn't my favorite.
The sermon is going on too long. Sloth says,
see, I told you. You should have skipped. See,
I told you. This must not go next week or the
week after that. Sloth says worship is an option.
And many people who once attended church regularly
have drifted. Not because of a crisis of belief,
but because it just became easier not to go.
Sloth doesn't rage against the church. It simply
shrugs at it. But here's the hard part. The more
we stay away, the easier it becomes to keep staying
away. Sloth grows in the absence of worship.
It's like this spiritual spiral. The more we
stay away, the more it gets its claws into us.
It's not just a bad habit. It's a spiral. So
the solution, keep praying. Pray anyway. Gather
anyway. Worship anyway. Sing anyway. Take communion
anyway. Keep showing up. So, let's just wrap
it all up. What do we do when sloth shows up
and creeps in? When our passion fades, our prayers
feel dry, and our hearts start to drift, we show
up anyway. We choose faith over feeling. We choose
devotion Over distraction. We choose presence
over passivity. Because Jesus did not check out
on us. He showed up all the way to the cross.
And now he wants us to follow him. So this week,
see the newness. Do the hard work of love. Rest
rightly and pray anyway. And trust that when
you keep showing up, God is going to show up
too. Thanks be to God. Amen. Thank you for listening
to this week's episode of Trinity Sermons. This
sermon was recorded at Trinity Church Streetsville
on March 23, 2025.