Roll Up Your Sleeves

Jeremiah 1:11-19

¹⁷ But you, dress yourself for work; arise, and say to them everything that I command you.

¹⁷ “But you, dress for action; stand up and tell them everything I order you to say. (CJB)

The Hebrew says: “belt up your waist,” which is traditionally translated as “gird up your loins.” The phrase refers to tucking up the skirt of a robe until the hem is up around the knees. The long robe would be gathered up in front and pulled between the legs to the back, separated into two tails, brought back to the front of the waist, tied, and belted to hold it in place. It turned the skirt of the robe into something like a baggy pair of shorts.

What’s the point of this bit of trivia? It’s necessary to explain why I want to translate the phrase "gird up your loins" as, “Roll up your sleeves.”  We don’t wear long robes anymore, so when we want to show that we are going to get down to work, we “roll up our sleeves.” I’m saying that’s what this passage from Jeremiah is all about— Getting down to work.

Just yesterday I heard a sermon about how demanding and tough it is for a person to be a prophet; about how hard it is to say the tough things; to be the knot at the end of the balloon, the pointer-outer of 400 lb gorillas in the room.

Then, right afterward, I went to an administrative meeting at my church. Fun.

I kept thinking about being a prophet. I’ve often thought that if I were to have a role in church, it would probably be that one. The one that makes people feel like stoning you. The one that makes people feel like you are harsh, unfair, and possibly callous and uncaring.

I was accused of being unfair in this meeting because I was trying to warn people about the dangers of using marketing language in an attempt to “sell our product.” On the other hand, I did acknowledge that there is really no choice but to use that kind of language, because that is the kind of world that we live in. (I don’t think my accuser heard that part.)

I thought deeply about this afterward, and I realized something important. The person who accused me of being unfair went on to challenge me about what alternatives there were, and I realized that he must have missed my point. He thought that I was saying that we should not use that sort of language, when I was really saying that we needed to be able to see it as a necessary evil, one that we were careful about.

I was saying that we need to see that the necessity of using such language in our modern world means that we need to understand that we live in a screwed-up world; a “sinful” world; a ‘catch-22” world. There is no way to live in this world without doing things that are not very good, and might even be downright evil. We are stuck here, and there is no such thing as a clear choice between good and evil.

No, the only choices we can ever make are between a greater evil and a lesser evil—but nevertheless, we need to make those evil choices with open eyes.

What I was trying to communicate was that we need to be mindful of the risk of staining the Good News by using language that sounds as if we are trying to market it as a commodity. We need to acknowledge that by using that kind of language, we may attract people who only want to get something out of the church for themselves, rather than inspiring people to give of themselves without thought of return.

I think my fellow committee member acknowledged on a deep level that it was indeed appalling for us to use the language of the marketplace in our attempt to bring people to the Way of Christ, but it possibly did not occur to him to lean into the reality that we can’t live in this world without sharing in its sinfulness. Perhaps he didn’t connect phrases like “Take up your cross and follow me” with the idea that we, like Christ, must “become sin” in order to follow the Way.

It occurred to me that this is how we forgive others; this is how we learn how not to condemn others for doing wrong; this is how we learn compassion.

If we stop trying to rationalize and justify the wrong that we do; if we openly confess that we are stuck in this nasty mess right along with everyone else, then we become free to keep on pursuing the good; free to follow Christ and never wander outside the boundaries of God’s Realm.

If we see plainly that the only way to realize the Good News is to completely accept the fact that we live in this “sinful” world, and then we go on to acknowledge our own part in its evil— without a trace of denial or defensiveness— then we will have a clear vision. 

We will see just exactly how

To give hope to this wicked world—

By how we keep right on

Following the Way,

No matter what.

By how we stand up,

Roll up our sleeves,

And get our hands dirty.

By how we put our backs into our work,

Even though sometimes we do it with broken tools;

Even though sometimes we do it with broken hearts;

Even though sometimes our faces burn with shame;

We’ll show that hope

By how we face up to our fears;

By how we carry each other’s loads;

By how we live,

How we laugh,

How we love.