Rest

Pentecost 4A, 7/6/14

This was preached as the third part of a shared sermon at an ecumenical worship service. Other preachers shared the first two segments of the sermon which are summarized briefly, and the sermon below was intended to wrap together the ideas presented and move us forward into the rest of worship. Immediately after the sermon, we sang Leaning on the Everlasting Arms, and then a confession of sins and assurance of pardon followed. 

Part 1 – Matthew 11:15-19

We tend to be busy, distracted, and dismissive.

We insulate ourselves with criticism.

Jesus says there’s no winning with us!

Part 2 – Matthew 11:20-27

In Jesus, God shows up in a way that has never happened before or since, and yet many do not respond to the call.

This is a call to repentance for us – turning our lives around.

It’s not about what we believe about but who we believe in – follow Jesus and let him change your life!

Part 3 – Matthew 11:28-30

Have you ever gone on a great vacation – seen the sights, enjoyed the food – filled every moment of your time away with great adventures and wonderful memories – and then you return home and you realize that there’s no milk in the fridge, the lawn needs to be mowed (or the sidewalk shoveled), and you have to go back to work in the morning and don’t have any clean underwear to put on?

How many times have we heard, I need a vacation from my vacation!

Sometimes we overthink our leisure time. You know? I was at a friend’s house the other day and I noticed her calendar. She had evening activities written in for her husband and her to do together every night. Mondays were TV, Tuesdays were reading, Wednesdays were video games, and so on. 

Sure, all those things are fun, and sure, it’s good to set time aside for them or you’ll never get around to doing them… but sometimes we all need a break from schedules in general.

What we’re looking for is rest.

Rest isn’t boredom – it isn’t when there’s nothing to do.

Rest isn’t the same as sleeping. We all know that it’s possible to wake up just as tired and overwhelmed as we were before we hit the sack.

Rest isn’t leisure activities or hobbies – it isn’t when we schedule time or spend money to participate in some planned activity.

Those things can all be restful, but that’s not the kind of rest into which Jesus invites us today.

Rest – divine rest, rest for our souls – is when we reorient ourselves to God – when we stay focused on our purpose or calling in life – when we focus on that relationship with Jesus that Pastor Josh was just talking about.

Rest isn’t just a break from the other stuff in our life that can get exhausting – rest is a good in and of itself, it’s a gift, it can be God’s way of speaking to us.

There’s a phenomenal children’s book that I hope all of you have read at some point in your life.

The Giving Tree, by Shel Silverstein.

This story tells of the relationship between a boy and a tree. They are best friends and partners in the adventure of life. As the boy grows up, he has specific needs throughout his life, and at each step along the way, the tree helps him, giving herself away to him sacrificially.

At the end of the story, the two reunite, as a stump and an old man.

And after a long time the boy came back again.

“I am sorry, Boy,” said the tree…

I wish that I could give you something… but I have nothing left. I am just an old stump. I am sorry…”

“I don’t need very much now,” said the boy, “just a quiet place to sit and rest. I am very tired.”

“Well,” said the tree, straightening herself up as much as she could, “well an old stump is good for sitting and resting. Come, Boy, sit down. Sit down and rest.”

And the boy did.

And the tree was happy.

That is rest.

Peace. Fulfillment. Completion. Rest for your souls.

In order to achieve that rest, we turn to the other promise in this Gospel lesson. That other promise is, Jesus lightens our burdens.

“Come to me, all you who are weary and carrying heavy burdens… for my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”

This is good news! When we choose to follow Jesus, we exchange our heavy worldly concerns for the lighter burden of discipleship.

I hope you noticed that Jesus does not say, “follow me and all your cares will disappear.” That’s not how this Christianity thing works. We still experience anger and grief and frustration. We can still lose our jobs and our homes and our loved ones – being Christian doesn’t change the existence of burdens in our lives.

It changes the weight of our burden.

Imagine that you’re carrying something really heavy.

I remember one particular dresser that had been handed down through the generations in my family… I’m sure you can think of something extraordinarily heavy that you’ve had to move at some point in your life.

OK. Now imagine what it would feel like to lift it on your own. Crushing, right?

What if half the weight just got lifted off your shoulders?

There, that’s better. Jesus just came along with his lighter yoke. It’s like placing the super heavy object underwater – all of a sudden, it doesn’t weigh as much!

Lay that burden on Jesus and you’ll find that somehow, you can bear it now. The weight of that dresser – or anger – or grief – is diminished.

But guess what, folks? It gets even better than that.

When we invite Jesus to share the load with us, we don’t just get help from him – we get the support of an entire community.

Imagine if everyone here in worship today were to reach out and help carry that heavy burden you’ve been envisioning. With the assistance of a hundred other sets of hands, your burden will effectively become weightless!

This is the blessing of Christian community. Our church families can share the burdens with us and help to lighten our yokes – the job of a congregation is to do the work of Jesus.

There’s a really popular song on this theme that I’m sure most of the kids – and parents – who are here could sing about releasing your burdens – about letting go.

We don’t need to sing it now – but for any of you who have seen the movie Frozen, the freedom that we see in the character who sings Let It Go is like the freedom that we can find when we give our burdens to Jesus.

Not the lyrics so much – but the liberation, the freedom, the weightlessness.

Have any of you ever done trust falls before?

You know – one person falls back, with complete trust that there will be hands waiting to catch them. It’s a great teambuilding activity. 

There are a couple of different ways you can do trust falls.

One way involves two people. One person stands with feet planted in such a way that they can support significantly more than their own body weight. The other person faces away and tips backwards, without bending at the knees or the waist.

The first person trusts the second with their entire body weight. They don’t actually weigh any less at the end of it – but they realize that they don’t have to be responsible for their entire weight if they just trust someone else to help them.

That’s like what happens when we give our burdens to Jesus.

OK, now for the next way to do trust falls. This one is a little more adventurous.

One person stands up on something – say, the end of a picnic table.

There are lots of people standing below, ready to help out. The people below have to “zipper” their hands – alternating support from one side to the other. When the person standing at a height is ready, she or he falls back – and the community catches.

For just a second, the person falling feels weightless.

Then they come back to earth again, and even though they’re not weightless any more, they know that there are many hands willing to help carry the load.

That’s like what happens when we share our burden with Christ and a community of Christians. This is the promise, the blessing, and the good news of today’s Bible reading.

Jesus brings us rest – in Christ, our burdens become light.

Thanks be to God. Amen.