Why We Need Each Other | Trinity Sermons

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.