Shaking Off Sloth | The "S" Word | Trinity Sermons

Hello, and welcome to this week's episode of

Trinity Sermons. Have you ever caught yourself

doom -scrolling? Maybe you feel more informed,

but you also feel more defeated. Or maybe you

always find yourself busy, but when you look

back on the week, you can't actually point to

the real fruit of your labor. We've all been

there. But what you might not realize is that

the Christian tradition actually has a word for

this, and it's sloth. Sloth. Not that cute little

animal in the forest. but the feeling that life

has no purpose and that we can't actually do

anything that matters. In this week's teaching,

Rob unpacks what sloth is, what it looks like

today, and how we can overcome it to find meaning

and real rest. Today's reading is from Ecclesiastes,

Ecclesiastes 1:1–11

chapter 1, verses 1 to 11. The words of the teacher,

son of David, king in Jerusalem. Meaningless,

meaningless, says the teacher. Utterly meaningless.

Everything is meaningless. What do people gain

from all their labors at which they toil under

the sun? Generations come and generations go,

but the earth remains forever. The sun rises

and the sun sets and hurries back to where it

rises. The wind blows to the south and turns

to the north, round and round it goes, ever returning

on its course. All streams flow into the sea,

yet the sea is never full. To the place the streams

come from, there they return again. All things

are wearisome, more than one can say. The eye

never has enough of seeing. nor the ear its fill

of hearing. What has been will be again. What

has been done will be done again. There is nothing

new under the sun. Is there anything of which

one can say, look, this is something new? It

was here already long ago. It was here before

our time. No one remembers the former generations

and even those yet to come. will not be remembered

by those who follow them. This is the word of

the Lord. So here we have a picture of a sloth.

Right? A sloth, their main point in life is to

do as little as possible. And that sounds pretty

sweet, don't you think? Sloths only travel about

38 meters a day. That's about the distance from

the side door most of you came in to the pew

that you're sitting in right now. And the reason

they move so slow is because of their metabolism,

because of their diet. They eat these plants

that almost no other animal will eat. And it

just takes them so long. long to digest it. Like

imagine eating a salad and still feeling full

three weeks later. That's kind of how it works

for sloths. They are so slow as they go through

the branches of the tree. And this is what we

think of when we Don't think of sloth. We are

in week two of our teaching series called The

S Word, where we're looking at the seven deadly

sins. In week one... We looked at pride. That's

the sin that says it's all about me. And then

last week we looked at envy and that's the sin

that says I want what you got. And today we are

looking at our third sin and that is the sin

of sloth. And in order to really get into sloth

and really study it well, I decided to take a

trip to Mexico last week. Our whole family went

down and I sat poolside with my feet up because

I really wanted to get into it for research purposes.

for research purposes. We went away to figure

out what is it like to be lazy? What is this

all about? And so there I sat by the pool reading

articles on sloth. It felt kind of wrong, but

I'm back today to tell you everything that I

have learned about sloth after my research mission.

And here it is. Here it is. I have to say, first

of all, are we serious about this? Is sloth really

a sin? And if it's a sin, is it really a deadly

sin? I mean, come on, binge watching a few reruns

of The Office, taking an extra long bath, dozing

off during my sermon this morning. Don't worry

about it. How bad can it be? I mean, really,

is hitting your snooze bar a few too many times

going to bring Western civilization to its knees?

No, come on. You know that most of the problems

in this world are... not caused by slothful people.

They're caused by overly active people. I mean,

when was the last time you heard of a war being

waged by a slothful army? Never. We actually

need more sloth in our lives, not less. In fact,

imagine this. Imagine if the original sin had

been sloth. I mean, we'd still be living in paradise.

Adam and Eve never would have had the energy

to go and disobey God, but yet here we are. So

my question, my thought is, come on, what is

wrong with a little bit of laziness? And that's

where we run into the problem. Sloth is not laziness,

right? It might look like laziness, but it's

not. You want to take an afternoon nap. That

is not sloth, right? And sloth also is not depression.

Again, some of the symptoms might look the same,

but of course depression is an affliction, whereas

sloth is made up of decisions and patterns of

life that we get into, and they're patterns that

we can change once we know what they are. So

what is sloth, guys? What is it? Well, To get

the answer to that question, we have to go way

back to the people who first came up with the

word, the definition in the first place, and

that were those desert monks 1 ,500 years ago.

They were the first ones to pinpoint the spiritual

threat of sloth. Let me explain. Imagine this.

One day you decide you want to become a monk.

And so you say goodbye to your old life and you

move into the monastery. Oh, hi, hi, I'm here.

I'm a new monk. Oh, and it's wonderful. You get

to sit around and pray all day and you get to

read your Bible and you copy out manuscripts

and you get to worship and eat with your brothers

in the monastery. You know, it's great. It's

fantastic. And you love it. And you feel like

God has called you to this work. And so days

go by, weeks go by, and then something starts

to happen. Something starts to happen. And maybe

it always seemed to happen for the monks that

it was right in the middle of the day when the

sun was at its highest and everything was at

its hottest. And you had to go at that time of

the day into your little room, your little cell,

where you sat down and you started to pray. And

you started to pray and pray, and then this little

distraction started to get into your mind. You

looked out the window, and you were like, oh,

look, there's a sparrow. Hi, sparrow. What am

I doing? I've got to get back to praying. So

you get back to your praying, and then you hear

some footsteps coming down the hall, and you're

like, oh, maybe that's Brother Francois, and

he's coming to visit me. Is that you, Brother

Francois? Is that you? Open the door, and there's

actually nobody there. You're like, oh, my mistake.

And so you sit back down, and you're like, OK,

got to get down to this praying. Got to get down

to this praying. And you look down at your watch.

They didn't have watches. But you look down,

and you're like, oh, gosh, it's still three more

hours till lunch. I'm not sure I can make it.

My stomach is. It's already kind of grumbling,

and these distractions, you're finding it so

hard to stay focused. And at first, it's just

minor, but then it starts to be like every time

this is happening. And that's when things start

to get really serious. After this goes on day

after day, under the blazing heat, there you

are, you're in your cell, you're trying to work.

Pretty soon... some thoughts start to creep into

your mind. Thoughts like this. Oh, gosh, it's

so hot. This way of life. You know what? I'm

beginning to think it's all pointless. Why did

I even do this? Why did I leave my life? I had

a good life out there. And now I've come in here

and, oh, my prayers. All these prayers I'm praying,

they don't seem to be accomplishing anything.

I'm not seeing a lot of answers to my prayers.

And you know what? These brothers, my fellow

monks, they are so annoying. I'm finding them

so hard to get along with. I mean, yeah, I go

down and I try to sing and I try to work with

them. We do our chores together, but getting

tired of those chores, getting tired of them.

And then this thought sneaks in. Maybe I should

just leave. Maybe I... Maybe I should leave.

Maybe I should try another monastery. Maybe that

would be better. Or maybe I should just leave

altogether. And then eventually, day after day

after day, this keeps happening, the distractions,

the thoughts, the distractions, the thoughts,

until the final thought comes to you. You know

what? Maybe God isn't even there. Maybe God isn't

even real. Gosh, it's so hot. Maybe God's not

really there. out there now this is what our

monastic brothers and sisters first put their

finger on as the root of sloth read this this

is from this is from a monk every week it seems

to make me listless and inert. Every task, I

can't stay in this little room. He groans. He

says he's made no progress after such a long

time here. He complains and he sighs. This whole

spiritual quest has been in vain. To stay in

this place is useless. You see, what is happening

is that there is this deadly spiritual progression

which is taking place, right? It doesn't start

with an outright rejection of God. No, no, no,

no, no. It's much more subtle than that. It starts

with devotion. I'm a praying monk, devotion.

Then leads to distraction. Oh, squirrel. Oh,

Brother Francois, is that you? No, what time

is it, right? And then after enough distractions,

pretty soon you're not praying anymore. You're

not reading the Bible anymore. You're disengaged

from the work that you're supposed to be doing.

And then you just... Stop serving. You stop caring

until ultimately, that is a total mess up there,

I apologize. It leads to doubt. You begin to

doubt whether God is real at all. Now see, this

isn't just laziness. It's a full -on crisis of

faith. It has led you to disconnect from other

people. and to disbelieve in God. And that is

why they put it on the list of the seven deadly

sins. And they didn't even put it at the end

of the list. It's like, oh, let's throw this

one out at the end. Many lists have sloth right

at the beginning because they see how spiritually

damaging it can be. Now, you and me, we're not

monks, okay? But you've felt this way too, right?

You've had those moments where you said, oh,

why do I do this thing called faith? Is it really

worth? following Jesus. I mean, I hear about

everybody else's prayers being answered. My prayers

never seem to be answered. Why do I even bother

going to church, right? And even when we come

to church, our mind is elsewhere. We've kind

of checked out spiritually and mentally. And

so, you see, we've been thinking about sloth

all wrong, right? Sloth isn't just doing nothing.

It's feeling that nothing you do matters. And

sloth isn't physical laziness. It's spiritual

weariness. You stop praying, you stop worshiping,

you stop serving, and you slowly just drift away

from God. Now, The monks gave us the language

for sloth, but it can happen to anyone. In fact,

the reading from Ecclesiastes this morning, listen,

King Solomon, he had more wealth, power, prestige,

success, and pleasure than anyone. If anyone

in the world should have been able to be excited

about life and thankful to God, it should have

been him. And yet, look, sloth creeps in. It

begins as he laments the weariness of the world.

Oh, generations come, generations go. Sun's up,

sun is down. It's one big loop. You wake up,

it's the same routine. You go to work, it's the

same job. You come home, it's the same struggles.

You go to bed and you do it all over again and

again. Life seems pointless. That's sloth. creeping

in. And then it kills any joy, any delight you

might have in life. Oh, everything is wearisome,

right? In this whole great, big, beautiful world

that God has made, the author can't find anything

that impresses him, nothing that excites him,

nothing worth getting up in the morning for.

God says, I'm making all things new. But Sloth

says, I'm not so sure about that. Kind of looks

the same to me. And then this lie creeps in that

says, nothing matters. Nothing matters. Everything's

meaningless. Your work is meaningless. Your relationships

are useless. Your faith is pointless. Nothing,

nothing matters. Meaningless, meaningless, meaningless.

And then, of course, there's all those distractions.

Please just show me something new. Show me something

different. Maybe if I scroll, something new will

pop up. Maybe if I watch the next episode, it'll

be better than the last. This is a man who has

seen everything and done it all, and yet now

he's just restless. He's cynical. He's spiritually

numb. That's sloth. That's sloth. And it can

happen to anyone. It can happen to him. It can

happen to you. It can happen to me. It can happen

to me even right now when I stand up here in

front of you and I say, this doesn't matter.

This thing we're doing right now where I talk

to you, where we gather, come on, who are we

kidding? This doesn't really matter. You don't

really matter. And I know that I don't really

matter to you, right? That's sloth creeping in,

right? And you know what? On top of it, maybe

God doesn't even really matter either. You know

that sloth is coming in. Or coming out, maybe,

of your heart when you start to hear yourself

say stuff like this, I couldn't care less. I

couldn't care less about my work, about my relationships,

about this church. Or you hear someone say, whatever.

That is like the worst. It's just like shrugging

off life. Sometimes sloth sounds like someone

saying, I just couldn't be bothered. I'm not

going to put in the effort. I'm not going to

put in the work. It's not worth it. You're not

worth it. Or you hear someone say, I don't know.

I don't care. I don't know. It means they're

ignorant. And they don't care to even find out.

It's just complete sloth. When this is coming

out of your mouth, sloth has gotten into your

heart. And you know what? One of the big ways

that sloth shows up in our world today is what

I call the digital drain, right? It's not just

about lying around all day. doing nothing. It's

the mindless scrolling. It's the binge watching.

It's the hours of gaming. It's what, oh, it's

entertainment, culture says. This is entertainment.

But it's really just constant stimulation and

constant distraction to prevent us from ever

engaging or ever going deeper into things that

really matter in life. The writer of Ecclesiastes

must have had a smartphone, right? The eye never

has enough of seeing, nor the ear its fill of

hearing. Have you ever had that thing where you

go to check your phone for one minute and you

put it down and an hour has gone by, right? We

pick up our phones hundreds of times a day, not

because we need to, but because we're taught

to, because the algorithms drive us to, and because

we don't want to miss out. But what we actually

end up doing is missing out on the really important

things, really important relationships, really

important responsibilities, really important

opportunities to grow in our spiritual life.

And that is the real danger of distraction. Not

just that you waste time, but it's that it drowns

out the voice of God. Sloth will not let you

be still and hear the voice of God because it

fills every quiet moment with noise. It's funny

how we can find hours to binge watch TV shows,

but somehow can't find five minutes to pray.

That's sloth, right? And Jesus says, what good

is that? What good is it to gain the whole world?

What good is eight or 12 hours of screen time

when you forfeit your soul, when you forfeit

your real purpose, when you forfeit real relationships,

when you forfeit your connection to God? So that's

how it shows up. It's the digital drain. But

it also shows up as work. Yes, work. I thought

work was opposite of sloth. No, sloth surprisingly

also shows up by being very busy. We're going

through the tasks. We're grinding through our

to -do list. But really, who cares about it?

We're just doing it. What do people get from

all their toil and all their striving and all

their labor under the sun? Those aren't the words

of someone who's lazy about work. Those are the

words of someone who doesn't think his work matters.

Sloth doesn't say, I don't want to work. Sloth

says, I don't care about my work. It's what William

Willimon called joyless productivity. You get

up, you go to work, you go through the motions,

you do what's expected, but your heart's not

in it. You're working, but you're not engaged.

So ironically, some of the hardest working people

you know struggle with sloth. They burn out doing

everything they think that they have to do, but

they feel nothing. They're empty inside about

it. And it's not just our jobs. It also shows

up at home. It shows up. In our own families,

we're juggling a hundred things. Oh, here's my

career, and here's school, and here's all the

kids' activities, and I've got to go do this,

and I've got to go do that. It looks like we're

really busy. This does not look like sloth, right?

But we're on autopilot. Our schedules are full,

but our souls are empty. We're burning out while

our hearts are rusting out. That's another sign

of sloth. It's this work without meaning. But

a third sign is what I call the restless rest.

When we finally get a day off, you know what?

We still don't actually rest. Have you ever had

like a whole day off and you just did nothing

but binge watch TV, scroll through your phone,

and then at the end of it, you're still tired?

Right? That's because it wasn't rest. Right?

God says, in repentance and rest is your salvation.

Oh, okay. In quietness and trust is your strength.

Okay, God. But sloth says, no, no, no, no, no.

We're not going to do that. We're not going to

have any of that. Instead, here, look at this.

Instead, here, play with that. Be entertained

by this. Here's more noise, more noise, more

noise. So sloth leaves you feeling just as drained

as you were before. You see, God built rest into

creation as a rhythm of life, and he gives us

the Sabbath. The Sabbath is not there for you

to catch up on your errands. It's not there for

you to, like, binge on Netflix. It's to draw

us deeper into God's presence. But sloth's not

going to let you get away with a Sabbath. No,

no, no, no, no. It wants to numb you, not restore

you. If there's one spiritual area, though, that

we have to watch out for, and this is the one

the monks notice the most, it is, spiritually

speaking, sloth is so dangerous. It's so dangerous.

Not because they outright rejected God. They

just shrugged God off spiritually. Just slowly

stopped seeking God. That's why the warning in

the Bible is, Don't drift away. You're not just

gonna run away. You're slowly gonna drift away.

Don't let it happen, but that is how sloth works.

You don't wake up one morning and say, you know

what, I'm not gonna believe in God anymore today,

right? Instead, it's just a slow neglect, and

it happens as slow as a sloth in a tree, and

it can happen to all of us. You know, we just

stop praying for a few days, and then it turns

into a few weeks, and then... It turns into a

few months, and then we can't actually remember

the last time we actually said a real prayer.

Oh, we want to read the Bible, but we never really

get around to it. Sloth doesn't shout, hey, stop

praying, or hey, don't read your Bible. He just

says, hey, look at this instead, or get busy

with this. And besides, your prayers don't make

any difference anyway. None of it matters. And

then we neglect church, right? We say, oh, well,

I don't feel like going today. It's no big deal.

And I don't want to go next week either. No big

deal. But before you know it, you've drifted.

Not because you stopped believing. It's just

because you've stopped showing up. I'll go next

week. I'll go next month. Sloth. wants to isolate

you from community because it knows that now

it can really get you and your faith will really

be running on fumes. And then sloth makes you

want to neglect others. So we stop serving. We

stop giving. We stop participating. The Bible

says that love demands that we care for one another.

But sloth says, that sounds like a lot of work.

You know what? Serving is inconvenient, and volunteering,

too much effort. And besides, I know somebody

else will do it anyways. So you see, this church

thing, this spiritual life, we just withdraw

from it. The church is this gift. And we're tempted

to ignore it. In withdrawing from spiritual community,

we withdraw from encouragement. We withdraw from

the truth. We withdraw from the habits that keep

us spiritually alive. And then sloth can get

its claws into us all the more. It doesn't look

like an outright rebellion. None of this does,

right? It's just the slow drift from things that

keep us alive. So do you see why it's so deadly?

Do you see where it's working in your own life?

And now do you see why we have to fight it? Let's

talk about that now. In the time we've got left,

how do we fight back against sloth? What do we

do about it? Well, I'm going to share four ideas.

There's probably 400 ideas, but here's four that

I came up with. First, sloth tries to convince

you there's nothing new going on in the world.

There's nothing important for you to look at.

None of this matters. It's all boring. It's all

same old, same old, same old. Nothing good. But

that's a lie, right? It's a lie. Sloth says,

hey, don't look over here. This is just the way

things always will be, the way things always

were. But Jesus says, no, no, no. I'm making

all things new. God is always doing a new thing.

Jesus is always doing a beautiful thing in the

world. The question is not, is God doing anything?

The question is, are our eyes open to see it?

We need to learn to see the newness that is cropping

up and jumping up right in front of our own eyes,

but sloth doesn't want us to see it. So one way

to shake off sloth and one way to wake up your

weary soul is simply to open your eyes to the

beauty and newness of this world. Sloth wants

to numb you. Beauty revives you. So listen to

some really good music. Go ahead. Look at some

amazing art. Go spend time with friends or family.

Enjoy a wonderful home -cooked meal together.

Just go on a walk in nature. Go for a long walk.

Do not take your phone with you, right? And then

you will begin to see things. You'll begin to

notice things. Your soul will begin to stir again.

Each morning, why don't we pray something like

this? God, show me something new today. Lord,

help me to see what you are doing today, right?

Tomorrow morning. Don't think of it as another

Monday morning. Here we go again. That's what

sloth wants you to think, right? Instead, ask

yourself, God, what new thing are you going to

do today? Because if your eyes are open, you're

going to start to see the newness of life. That

is the first strategy. Let's open our eyes to

the newness around us. The second way to shake

off sloth is there's no other way to put it,

but we have just got to figure out how to do

the hard work of loving people. Love is hard

work. You know that. If you're married, you know

that. If you have kids, you know that. If you're

in friendships, you know that. If you're in church,

you know love is hard work. In your life group,

love is hard work. It requires effort. If you've

ever had a friendship fade away, it probably

wasn't because you had a big fight and a big

blow up. It's probably because you just stopped

working at it and you stopped showing up. Sloth

says it's not worth showing up. They're not worth

showing up. But Jesus says, no, love. always

is worth it. Love always requires hard work.

Jesus didn't just talk about love from a distance.

He got into it, right? He leaned into it. He

lived it. He walked it. Jesus, if you ever want

to know what the exact opposite of sloth is,

take a look at Jesus. He did not come to be served,

but to serve and to give his life for others.

And you know, then he has the goal to say to

us, I want you to go and I want you to love others

in the same way that I loved you. Sloth says,

no, no, no, pull back from others. Jesus says,

no, love others the way I love them. Lean right

into it. And on the cross, man, oh man, did Jesus

do the hard work of love. Listen to this. Love

that is real. is love that labors. Christ labored

unto death. The final victory over sloth was

won on the wood of the cross where love endured

even when it was difficult and even when it hurt.

Guys, if Jesus did the work of love for us all

the way to the cross, how can we justify stopping

loving the people around us? Love takes work.

Love shows up. Love invests. So this week, where

is sloth keeping you from loving well? And what

do you need to do this week? No, who do you need

to show up for this week? Thirdly. A third way

of shaking off sloth is just to learn again how

to rest in the right way. Sloth says, hey, in

order to relax, you ready to relax? You need

Netflix. You need a smartphone. You're going

to need YouTube. Here's social media. Now you're

ready to relax. No, no, no. That's not rest.

Real rest restores the soul. Jesus says, come

to me, all you who are weary. And I'll give you

rest. Jesus even says, I will restore your soul.

Come away with me, Jesus says, to a quiet place

and let's get some real rest. Can you this week

find a way to reclaim real rest? Find a way to

reclaim some real Sabbath. Remember, Sabbath

is not just about ceasing work. It's about entering

into God's renewal. So forget setting aside a

whole day. Can you find one hour of real Sabbath

this week? No work, no screens, no noise, just

you resting in God. Remember, Jesus offers us

this as a gift. Let Jesus give you real rest,

okay? And then... So we've got this. We're going

to see the newness. We're going to keep our eyes

open. We're going to do the hard work of love.

We're going to rest in the right way. And finally,

here's what we have to do. Here's what the monks

taught us. You got to pray anyway, right? When

your faith feels dry, when your spiritual life

feels empty, when your prayers just seem to be

echoing off the walls of your little chamber,

When worship and coming to church starts to feel

routine, it's then that sloth is whispering to

you, hey, why bother? Why bother? It doesn't

matter. But Jesus says, pray. Keep praying. Do

not give up. I mean, think about exercise. I

don't know about you, but I don't really like

to exercise. But after I've exercised, I'm so

glad I did. And prayer is like that. And so pray

anyway, even when you don't feel like it, because

that's how your faith grows. That's how you slough

off sloth in the long run. And don't just pray

anyway. Let's also worship anyway. Sometimes,

I know, sometimes coming to church feels empty.

The worship feels... I don't know. It's not connecting

with me. The worship song isn't my favorite.

The sermon is going on too long. Sloth says,

see, I told you. You should have skipped. See,

I told you. This must not go next week or the

week after that. Sloth says worship is an option.

And many people who once attended church regularly

have drifted. Not because of a crisis of belief,

but because it just became easier not to go.

Sloth doesn't rage against the church. It simply

shrugs at it. But here's the hard part. The more

we stay away, the easier it becomes to keep staying

away. Sloth grows in the absence of worship.

It's like this spiritual spiral. The more we

stay away, the more it gets its claws into us.

It's not just a bad habit. It's a spiral. So

the solution, keep praying. Pray anyway. Gather

anyway. Worship anyway. Sing anyway. Take communion

anyway. Keep showing up. So, let's just wrap

it all up. What do we do when sloth shows up

and creeps in? When our passion fades, our prayers

feel dry, and our hearts start to drift, we show

up anyway. We choose faith over feeling. We choose

devotion Over distraction. We choose presence

over passivity. Because Jesus did not check out

on us. He showed up all the way to the cross.

And now he wants us to follow him. So this week,

see the newness. Do the hard work of love. Rest

rightly and pray anyway. And trust that when

you keep showing up, God is going to show up

too. Thanks be to God. Amen. Thank you for listening

to this week's episode of Trinity Sermons. This

sermon was recorded at Trinity Church Streetsville

on March 23, 2025.