Hello, and welcome to this week's episode of
Trinity Sermons. This week we are continuing
our teaching series, Growing Season, where we
are going back to the farm to learn what the
farm has to teach us about faith. And farmers
don't work alone. They have lots of hired hands,
they have kids, they have fathers, they have
neighbors. Everybody pitches in to make sure
that things go well. And when things aren't going
well, the community supports one another through
that. But what about in our lives? Who is there
for you when things aren't going well? Who cheers
you on when things are going well? That's what
Rob is going to unpack for us in today's sermon.
There was a man all alone. He had neither son
nor brother. There was no end to his toil, yet
his eyes were not content with his wealth. For
whom am I toiling, he asked, and why am I depriving
myself of enjoyment? This, too, is meaningless,
a miserable business. Two are better than one
because they have a good return for their labor.
If either of them falls down, one can help the
other up. But pity anyone who falls and has no
one to help them up. Also, if two lie down together,
they will keep warm. But how can one keep warm
alone? Though one may be overpowered, two can
defend themselves. A cord of three strands is
not quickly broken. The word of the Lord. you
have the picture, the picture we've all seen
so many times. There is the lone farmer standing
out, looking out over his field. The sun is creating
a nice silhouette, and there he is. He's completely
self -sufficient. It's kind of an iconic image.
It's a familiar image, and it's also a complete
myth. It's a myth because the truth is that no
farmer truly farms alone. Every farm depends
on a community of support and friendship. So
if I even think back to the farm I grew up on,
the dairy farm there, our family was very tightly
connected to other dairy farmers in the area.
You know, there was the Bockers over on Link
Road. There was the Wingers on Regional Road
20. Fletchers out on Concession 4. And one of
my best friends lived on a dairy farm on the
Raynham Road. And so this community was there
for each other. They supported each other. They
were friends with each other. And though, yes,
there might have been one family's name on the
mailbox at the end of the laneway, no farmer
really farmed alone. But today, we hear the story
of a farmer who'd tried to do just that. There
was a man all alone. He had neither son nor brother,
and there was no end to his toil. This farmer,
for whatever reason, he has nobody working with
him. He doesn't seem to have any friends. He
doesn't seem to have any neighbors. And he doesn't
even seem to have any family. And that's kind
of interesting because family is so essential.
Family farms, you depend on your brothers and
sisters and cousins and aunts and uncles. You
depend on all those people to come out and make
things work. But for some reason, he doesn't
have that. And we don't really know the reason
behind this man's story. Maybe something had
happened to his family. Maybe he was just a loner.
Or maybe he was afraid to ask for help. We don't
know why he's alone. But I dare say we do know
the temptation. Because we too live in a culture
that really, really admires the self. made person,
right? The person who says, I did it all on my
own. I conquered all of my own problems. I bore
all of my own burdens. That's what culture says
we should be aiming for. But there is a cost
to living that way. What is the cost? It says
right there. The cost is there is no end to his
toil, right? He had no one to step in and take
the next shift. No one to help him out. in a
time of crisis and so that leads this farmer
to eventually say gosh why am i even doing this
for whom am i toiling why am i depriving myself
of enjoyment this too is a meaningless miserable
business i think this is the saddest part of
the whole reading because apparently and presumably
at one point his work gave him great meaning
and gave him great joy but now it's just an endless
chore twice he calls it meaningless throughout
the reading meaningless meaningless he says and
that's sad because actually honest work is not
meaningless honest work is good but if you don't
have relationships then that work loses its meaning.
You know, life is not just about what we can
accomplish. Life is more about who we accomplish
it with. And I got to tell you, farming has got
to be one of the hardest jobs out there. But
having other people to share in that work can
make that difficult, difficult work meaningful
and even provide a sense of enjoyment there.
Now, that is not just true on the farm. It is
also true in the workplace, and it is also true
in our spiritual lives, right? Christianity is
not a solitary life. Though many people... Treat
Christianity much like that farmer did as some
kind of private thing that exists just between
you and God. And so we worship in private. We
pray in private. You know, we struggle in private.
We grieve in private. And we may even this morning
be sitting in a church filled with people, but
we feel very much alone. Very much alone. And
so it could be a farmer in a field. Could be
you in the pew. But community. is essential to
what makes for a meaningful life. So today, that's
what I want to talk about. I want to talk about
why we need each other. And I've given you a
few notes. You can follow along. Just so at the
end of the sermon today, you don't say, it was
meaningless. What did he say? It was completely
meaningless. No, no, that's what the notes are
for. Let's talk about why working together is
so important. And here's the first reason. And
I think it comes back to that old farm saying,
right? Say it with me. Many hands make light
work. Or as the book of Ecclesiastes, He puts
it, two are better than one. Because they have
a good return for their labor. Now that is not
complicated theology, my friends. Two is better
than one. Two is better than one. Two, pretty
much two of anything is better than one. Two
Joe Louis is better. Two donuts is better than
one, right? And hard work becomes lighter when
many people are invited into it. And you've learned
this. We all learn this pretty quick in life.
And you certainly learn it on the farm. Let me
tell you one of the places you learn this most
on a farm. And that's when you're unloading hay.
on a summer day. How many people here, just show
of hands, have ever had the experience of unloading
a hay wagon on a hot summer day? Yeah, more than
you would think. This is the best way to do it,
okay? Two people in the wagon, two people in
the mail. One person in the wagon shakes the
bale loose, tosses it down to a second person
who puts it on the elevator. The elevator is
going to take it up into the hay mail. Up in
the hay mail, the bale falls off and two people,
so they don't pile up on you, take those bales
and stack them back and forth. So you shake.
and you load and then you stack you shake you
load you stack shake load stack there's a rhythm
to it this if you get into that rhythm if you
get really moving you can unload seven eight
wagons of hay in in a single day but if it was
only one person doing it, it would be ridiculously
inefficient. You would have to start by shaking
down a bale and then you would have to like,
what, throw it on the elevator, then run into
the barn, climb up the ladder, go into the mound,
take that bale, stack it, then run back, go back
down the ladder, go back and do it all over again.
You'd be exhausted by the time you got a dozen
bales up in the hay mound. When we work together,
this is the thing, we make possible what would
otherwise be completely overwhelming. Something
kind of like this. Hey, listen, no one person
can carry a barn. But 300 Amish people can. And
each person carrying a little bit of the weight.
Actually, after church, if you guys wouldn't
mind just sticking around. I wouldn't mind if
Trinity was about six feet closer to the road.
And I thought we could all just, you know, get
in there and make short work of it. But that's
what shared labor is all about. We distribute
the weight. We bring our different strengths
to the work. And when we do that, the thing is,
it doesn't just change the speed of the work.
And I speed sped that up, obviously. It changes
our enjoyment. It changes the spirit of the work,
too. I mean, tell you, unloading hay was hot,
dirty, dusty, itchy work. But when you were dealing
with people, yeah, you know, you started talking,
you started joking. You at least had someone
to share the misery with. And so that, I think,
is part of the good return that the author of
Ecclesiastes is talking about. It's not just...
we get work done faster it's that is that we
actually reclaim some of the joy of working together
but but sharing the load isn't just like some
good idea that you know folk wisdom or something
like it's actually a biblical command look at
this like three thousand year old farming command
found in the book of deuteronomy if you see your
fellow israelites donkey or ox fallen on the
road and let's be honest who hasn't right Do
not ignore it. Help the owner get it to its feet.
So you're not allowed to walk past your owner's
problem and say, hey, not my donkey, not my ox,
not my farm, not my problem. No, the command
is no, no, no. You get down there and you put
your own two hands under that and you help. And
that is because. There are some loads that were
just never meant to be carried alone. And a little
time out right here would be helpful because
some of you have come to church this morning
and you're carrying very, very heavy loads. And
you think you need to carry that alone. And one
of the things maybe you're going to learn today
is that you do not need to carry that alone.
In fact, you were never meant to carry that alone.
It's too heavy for you to carry alone. When someone
is carrying too much, what we do is we shoulder
the load with them. And we don't just say, hey,
I'll be praying for you. We say, hey, what can
I carry? The church, therefore, is not just a
bunch of people sitting on their own little spiritual
farms, waving at each other over the fence. No,
we are actually all working in the same field.
You know, the apostle Paul says we are God's.
We are co -workers in God's service. This is
true even right here at Trinity. No one person
could run... camp trinity no one person could
could coordinate our community meal that's coming
up this week as you just heard no no one person
could teach our children no one person can just
lead worship but when everyone takes hold of
it takes a little part of it then the load becomes
lighter and guess what relationships start to
get formed and guess what the work moves forward
so that is the first thing that we learn about
working together many hands make light But secondly,
working together means that we can actually help
each other when we fall. I mean, on a farm, think
about it. What happens when someone gets hurt?
What happens when someone gets sick? You got
to have a contingency plan. You got to have somebody
else who can drive the tractor when you can't.
You've got to have somebody else who can milk
the cows when you're too sick to milk the cows.
And so therefore, shared work is not just about
efficiency, but it's about resilience, right?
Here's how Ecclesiastes puts it. If either of
these, you know, two people were to fall down,
one can help the other up. But pity anyone who
falls down and has no one to help them up. So
whether it's on a farm, whether it's in your
family, or whether it's in a church, People are
going to fall down. We all fall down from time
to time. The real tragedy is not falling down.
The real tragedy is when you fall down and you've
got nobody there to help you stand back up again.
And therefore, the work or your life or your
goals all come to a grinding halt. Look with
me quickly. Another ancient book, the book of
Nehemiah. Here's what had happened. A famine
had struck the land. Many families, not all,
but many families were going hungry. And as a
result, they were having to mortgage their houses.
They were having to sell their fields. They were
having to take out like loans in order to pay
their taxes. Okay. And so many of them, you know,
are in this real predicament. These people have
fallen down. Okay. They could not get back up
by themselves. But here's the thing. Instead
of helping each other up, you know, the neighboring
farmers were doing to each other. They were actually
profiting from them. They were lending money
at very high interest. They were taking their
fields. They were taking their homes. In other
words, they were using their neighbor's weaknesses.
To their own advantage. And Nehemiah, who was
the leader at this time, he was just furious.
He said, don't do that. He said, you give back
to them their fields. Give back their vineyards
and their olive groves and their houses. And
you give back that interest. Because when you
see a family going through a crisis, that is
not a business opportunity for you. Right? You
do not look at someone who has fallen down and
say, what can I get out of this? You look at
them and you say, how can I help them? Get out
of this. And the people were like, oh my gosh,
you're so right, of course. And so what they
did is they returned the property and they canceled
those debts so that the people who had fallen
down could get back up. And the message there
is clear. One farmer's problem is every farmer's
problem. We don't kick each other when we're
down. We don't use somebody else's hardship to
enlarge our own farm. Because here's the thing.
Yeah, my neighbor may have had a bad harvest
this year, and he needs help. But next year,
it could be me. I could be the one with the problem.
I could be the one with the bad harvest, and
I could be the one who needs help. So we mitigate
the risks of life by standing together. And again,
remember, I'm not just talking about farming
up here. We're talking about life in general,
right? And life will knock us down. You will
get knocked down. We all get knocked down. There'll
be grief. There'll be illness. We'll all go through
failures in life, right? And sometimes when people
are knocked down, it's obvious. We can see it
as soon as they walk in the room. Other times,
we can't see it. Because we hide it really well.
We keep smiling. People ask us how we're doing.
We say, I'm fine, I'm fine, I'm fine. And so
in order to kind of see that they've really fallen
down, we have to be really carefully paying attention
to the people around us. And in those moments
when we found someone who's fallen down, we don't
just go around offering advice to them. We have
to offer support. Advice stands above someone
and says, let me... tell you what you need to
do. But support comes alongside someone and says,
show me what I can do for you. And that might
mean bringing a meal to someone. It might mean
driving someone to appointments or it might mean
helping to arrange childcare or whatever the
case may be. But just look at the words of Ecclesiastes
right there. Labor, fall, help. keep warm, overpower,
defend, right? These are all action words. These
are all words. These are all things that we do.
When someone falls down, we don't just feel sorry
for them. I'll pray for you. No, we reach down
and we help them up and we do what we can to
help them carry what they can no longer carry
themselves. Because again, the worst thing is
not falling down. We all fall. The worst is when
you fall and you discover there's no one there
to help. And whether it's farming or family or
faith, our worst seasons should never have to
be faced all alone. Okay, so that brings us to
the third benefit I want to share with you today
about working together. Yes, many hands make
light work. And yes, we can help each other when
we fall down. But there's also seasons when we
actually can't fix what's wrong. situations where
we can't solve people's problems. You know, the
crop has already failed. The diagnosis has already
come in. You know, the funeral is already booked,
right? And in those moments, what we need most
is not someone to, like, do work for us. What
we just need is someone to be with us, to be
near us. I don't know if you... You've ever seen
it, but when winter settles over a farm, you
can see what the cows do in the field. They all
kind of just gather together. They instinctively
move together and face inwards to preserve the
heat. There's warmth that comes when we get close.
We all need the warmth of community when life
turns bitter and cold on us. Ecclesiastes says
if two lie down together, they will keep. but
how can one keep warm alone? When I read this,
I picture two shepherds on a cold, cold night
sharing a tent, helping one another endure the
bitterness of the night. That's what community
does. It doesn't always solve the problems. It
doesn't always answer all the questions, but
it helps us endure. It helps us endure what we're
going through. We can't always take away a person's
pain, but we can move closer. We can move closer
and we can say, hey, you don't have to go through
this alone. Isolation increases our exposure.
You know, if you're at a bus stop or in a farmer's
field or whatever, just standing alone, man,
every wind just feels colder. And going through
life, every burden feels heavier when we're carrying
it alone. And that's true emotionally. It's true
spiritually. You can feel isolated even if you're
in a crowd. I mean, that's the thing. It's not
just like you get with a group of people and
then you won't feel isolated anymore because
you can attend church every single Sunday and
still feel like no one actually knows what's
going on in your life. In fact, I would say one
of the saddest things I ever see here at Trinity,
and it doesn't happen very often, thanks be to
God, but if after the service is that coffee
hour, right? And everybody goes over to coffee
hour and we all huddle up. in our own little
warm groups to kind of have a chit chat. And
there's a visitor standing there in the middle
of coffee hour holding a cup of coffee and no
one has approached them. The coffee is hot, but
that experience is cold. Something changes though
when one or two people walk over. Something changes
when a circle opens up and they say, hey, come
on in. That's how warmth. begins in community.
It doesn't happen through a program, but it happens
when someone notices and someone makes room for
the other. The reading talks about how two people
can keep warm together, but it also talks about
how two people can stay safe together. Though
one may be overpowered, two can defend themselves.
A cord of three strands is not quickly broken.
There's another old saying, right? There is safety
in numbers. One person, one person can be easily
overpowered. But two people standing back to
back can see things that one person alone cannot
see. A third person is even better. A fourth
would be even better. A fifth, a sixth, a seventh.
When we're isolated. The evil one whispers things
to us and says like, hey, no one cares. No one
understands. You're all alone. But Christian
community can interrupt those lies. And strength
grows as we huddle together. So again, sometimes
the most powerful thing we can do for someone
is not to try to answer their... questions or
solve their problems, but just to be a presence,
just to pull our chair a little closer to them
and bring the warmth. The crisis may not go away,
but it's more bearable when someone is beside
you. So just here's a quick little self -check
for us all. Do you have a group of people like
that? Do you have a huddle? of folks you can
get together with who know what's going on in
your life, who can support you in a time of crisis.
This is why we are always pounding the drum.
about life groups here at Trinity Streetsville,
right? Just these smaller circles of people who
stand beside one another and pray for each other
and care for each other in difficult times. If
you'd like to explore joining a life group this
fall, fill out that connect card that's in your
pews or go visit the welcome desk after the service
and find out more about life groups. Because
you might not need that support right now and
you might not need that support every week, but...
When the temperature drops, you don't have to
face it alone. One more thing I want to say about
our need for community. And that is this, that
no human community is perfect. Family will disappoint
you. Friends will let you down. And the church,
as you all know, gets it wrong time and time.
Again, even the disciples failed Jesus when it
came to community. Jesus wanted them to be with
him on the night before he was going to die,
and they still fell asleep on him. Even the strongest
human community, therefore, reaches the limits
of its strength. You may have great friends,
but there's burdens that they cannot bear. You
may have some faithful people in your life, but
even the most faithful person grows tired eventually,
and that's why we need something even stronger
to support us. Let me take you back to that one
little cryptic line that our reading ended with.
A cord of three strands is not quickly broken.
For centuries, when Christians have read that
line, they have thought, about Jesus Christ as
that third strand. You know, Jesus, the one in
the midst of our life, Jesus, the one in the
midst of our family, Jesus, the one in the midst
of our church who was offering his strength and
holding us together when every other strand broke,
he would hold strong. Jesus knew all about. Being
alone. Jesus knew all about falling down on the
cross. Jesus knew the bitterness of abandonment
and the coldness of death. But when he rose from
the dead, Jesus didn't abandon the people who
had abandoned him. No, he went immediately and
he regathered them together and he restored them
and he brought together his followers and formed
a new family, a family that he called the church.
And that is what Jesus is still doing. He is
gathering. people, people of different ages,
people who've had different experiences, people
who are going through different things, people
of different ethnicities and backgrounds. And
by his Holy Spirit and by his own strength, he
is weaving together a family. We don't hold this
church together. No way. Jesus Christ is the
one who holds the church together. He's the one
who can hold you together as well, right? And
Christ holds us when no one else He is the strand
that does not break. Our strength will fail,
right? Human community will disappoint us. But
Christ never abandons us. He holds us. And that
means that we can keep holding one another. So
what have we learned? It's not meaningless. It's
not meaningless at all. We learned that no farmer
farms alone. And that we need hands to share
the labor. We need hands to reach down when someone
falls. We need hands to keep us warm in a cold
night. And beneath all of those hands, we need
the hands and arms of Jesus himself to bear us
up. For some of you here today, the key takeaway
from this sermon may be, hey, just don't wait
until the load you're carrying crushes you before
you ask for help. For others of us, the key takeaway
may be, hey, pay attention to those who have
fallen down around you. Notice the person who
is standing alone. Make room in your circle.
Reach out to the one who has fallen. Stay close
to that person who's going through a dark, cold
night. May Christ be at the center of your life.
May Christ be at the center of this community.
And may Christ weave us into a strong cord of
many strands. Thanks be to God. Amen.