Does the idea of leisure ever make you feel uneasy? It might, because most of us were raised with the notion that hard work is practically synonymous with Christianity. Some of us have even been nurtured on Bible verses such as this one: “Whatever your task, put yourselves into it, as done for the Lord and not for your masters ....”2 Or this one: “Anyone unwilling to work should not eat.”3
And in America, we have taken verses like that to heart. Being a workaholic is considered almost a religious virtue and even a form of patriotism.
But all of that misses another point the Bible puts before us. Ecclesiastes reminds us that there is a time to weep and a time to laugh, a time to gather and a time to throw away. There is a time to work and a time to play. The passage concludes, “moreover, it is God’s gift that all should eat and drink and take pleasure in all their toil,”4 which is a way of saying that work and play are not always separate things. It affirms that enjoyment in the things we do is God’s intention. If there’s one thing that is immediately obvious from the Ecclesiastes passage, with its sing-song contrasting statements, it is that healthy life requires a balance.
Today’s gospel reading makes a similar point in a different way. Jesus says “Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow ....” His subject is God’s providence and our priorities, not leisure, but in making his point, he calls his hearers to step back from the purely obligatory matters of life and ponder God’s care for birds of the air and flowers of the field as a way to move beyond the worry that marks so much of life. He advises against being preoccupied with the utilitarian side of life. Seek God’s righteousness first and then take pleasure in the day that is at hand.
Life in balance
Several years ago, author John Updike wrote about the game of golf, saying that there is “a goodness in the ex
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