Church of the Holy City

The Little Toil of Love

The Little Toil of Love
Rev. Dr. David J. Fekete
February 10, 2013

2 Kings 5:1-14 Mark 1:40-45 Psalm 30

My sermon title this morning is taken from a poem by Emily Dickenson. It is a poem about humility and love. It is a short and a simple poem, but rich and deep in what it says,
I had no time to hate, because
The grave would hinder me,
And life was not so ample I
Could finish enmity.

Nor had I time to love, but since
Some industry must be,
The little toil of love, I thought,
Was large enough for me.
Emily Dickenson is telling us that if we hate, there will be no end of it–”life was not so ample I/Could finish enmity.” There wasn’t enough time to love, either. But a person has to do something, so she finds that, “The little toil of love, I thought,/Was large enough for me.” And it is that little toil of love that I wish to speak about this morning.
There was as time when I wanted the great things in life. I wanted them for myself. I wanted to be like Beethoven or Bach and do some great work that the world would take notice of. I had a friend a while back, who wanted to dedicate his life to the Peace Corps, and go to Africa to help build wells and feed the starving. I know of those who revere Sister Theresa and her dedication to the suffering. But God doesn’t seem to have called me to any of these deeds of greatness. While we all have our ideas of what we would like to do or be, ultimately God will decide what is best for us–and for the world.
I came to these reflections by pondering the amusing story of Naaman in our Old Testament reading this morning. This is a story of great expectations, too. Namaan is a mighty commander of an army, but has leprosy. He goes to Israel to be cured by the prophet Elisha. Namaan makes a grand display of his appearance at Elisha’s house. He comes with his horses and chariots and stops at Elisha’s door. Elisha doesn’t even meet Naaman face to face; he sends his messenger to Namaan, telling him to bathe in the Jordan seven times and his leprosy will be cured. At this Naaman is enraged. He leaves saying,
I thought surely he would come out to me and stand and call on the name of the Lord his God, wave his hand over the spot and cure me of my leprosy.
Naman wanted a General’s honor and thought that he had been slighted by Elisha. Then he looks upon the Jordan River with contempt compared with the rivers in his own Damascus,
Are not Abana and Pharpar, the rivers of Damascus, better than any of the waters of Israel? Couldn’t I wash in them and be cleansed?
He leaves the home of Elisha in a rage. His pride has been wounded. He expected a grander reception and a grander display of God’s power.
But Naaman’s servants ask him to reconsider, and they make a persuasive argument. They say,
If the prophet had told you to do some great thing, would you not have done it? How much more, then, when he tells you, “Wash and be cleansed!”
Naaman does so and his leprosy is cured. This is a conversion experience for Naaman. He tells Elisha that he now knows there is no other God in the world besides Yahweh and he will worship Him for the rest of his life.
God may be asking us only to do Emily Dickenson’s “little toil of love.” He may not be calling us to some great thing, but only to some small way of showing someone else care and love. Naaman wanted some grand spectacle to show God’s reality. Instead, he was given a small task that demonstrated God’s great care for him when he was healed. God may ask only a similar small task from us. And there may be powerful results in our life from it. I confided to one of our ministers my desire to be another Beethoven, and he told me,
Those are great men. Their lives have transformed the world. For most of us, we do our part by the lives we come in contact with. The little ways we affect the people in our lives. That is how we do our part.
It was Rev. Paul Zacharias who told me that, and I didn’t like it then. I understand those words now. I think he was saying that “the little toil of love . . . was large enough for me.”
I think about a visit I made to the lake home of Andrew Glover last summer. Every now and then I ask him to give me a lesson on jazz theory. That day we were at the piano for a good two hours. Then Andrew said, “Do you want to take a break and go on a bike ride?” He had a spare bike for me and we were off. We pedaled through the forest to the lake and talked to some fishermen. Then we pedaled into town. Now all the while, Andrew was stopping every time he saw an empty bottle or can and collected them in a bag he had on his bike. He even dove into some dumpsters looking for bottles. On one occasion he looked at me and laughed, and said, “I’m not crazy, these bottles really add up.” We got back to the house and did some more music. Then Andrew invited me to stay and have some shake-and-bake chicken. I did and it was delicious.
Now I tell this story to illustrate a point. I found the bike ride and eating shake-and-bake chicken just as meaningful as I did the jazz theory lesson. And I feel that Andrew, himself, did also. This was an exchange of friendship in the middle of an essentially professional relationship. We didn’t have to go on that bike ride, or eat together. But it made for a most pleasant visit. Was that not just what Emily Dickenson was talking about? Was that not a “little toil of love?”
It’s times like this that are just as important for our lives as the great deeds of culture’s giants. We may not be destined for immortality, but we are no less valuable for it. I know of people who have survived near death experiences. Some have even seen the bright light and come back. Some of them ask me what they have been brought back for. I feel that they are thinking of some great thing they have been saved for. Of course I do not know. But it may be that they have more growth to do. And it may be that there are countless lives they are meant to touch with their own special way of showing love.
This, then, calls our attention to the other people in our lives. It calls our attention to the gifts we are graced with each day by a generous God. In our New Testament story we have another healing from leprosy. Jesus tells the man to go to a priest and offer the sacrifice according to the law of Moses. This is to be not only a thank-offering, but a testimony to the priests. It is a formal way of giving thanks to God and a way of telling the priests about Jesus. Jesus does not want the man to tell the populous about his healing, but the man does so anyway. So great is his gratitude that he cannot keep quiet about it. This story reminds me to be thankful for all the grace God has put in my life. How easy it is to want those great things for ourselves and forget what is right in front of us.
In closing, I would like to suggest a kind of prayer. I would suggest that at the end of every day, we look back on the day and count the blessings that have come our way. The good people we see daily. The kind word. A phone call from a friend or family member. The opportunities we have been given to share God’s love with others. For it was Rabbi David Kunin who taught me to thank God for opportunities to do good. Some of you may already be doing something like this. What I’m suggesting is to look for “the little toil of love,” in our lives.