Matthew 11:16-19, 25-30
“But to what will I compare this generation? It is like children sitting in the marketplaces and calling to one another, ‘We played the flute for you and you did not dance; we wailed, and you did not mourn.’
“For John came, neither eating nor drinking, and they say, ‘He has a demon’; the Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, ‘Look a glutton and a drunkard; a friend of tax collectors and sinners!’ Yet, wisdom is vindicated by her deeds.”
At that time, Jesus said, “I thank you Father, Lord of heaven and earth because you have hidden these things from the wise and the intelligent and have revealed them to infants; yes, Father, for such was your gracious will. All things have been handed over to me by my Father; and no one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son, and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.
“Come to me all you who are weary and carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me; for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”
I can hardly hear these words from Jesus on this Fourth of July weekend and not think of Emma Lazarus’ sonnet – “The New Colossus” – that sits on the pedestal of our Statue of Liberty – where she says, partly,
“Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”
And remember what Jesus said, “Come to me all you who are weary and carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me; for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”
I hope worship tonight feels like a bit of a home-coming for all of us. I know it’s not exactly how we would like it to be. And I know this is a one-shot deal for the time being. But it is good for us to be here. It is good for us to be together again. I’ve heard from a few of you who have had occasion to be at Cross of Grace and in the building here and there for odd jobs and small things say that “it just feels good” to be in the Church. And I’m glad for that. Sacred spaces are supposed to feel that way. Cross of Grace is supposed to feel that way, for those of us who call it ‘home.’
And I’m with Emma Lazarus, frankly, who described our nation with that warm, wide, welcome way back when – that we would and could and should be “home” for whoever needs a safe place to land, especially if they need a safe place to land in this world.
And I want the Church in the world – and I want our congregation at Cross of Grace – to represent and to be that kind of safe place to land – for those of us who already call it home, of course, but for anyone and everyone who is weary, and heavily burdened, in need of rest for their soul, as Jesus puts it. We, as a Church, as children of God, as believers in the “Good news of great joy for all people,” are called to be that kind of warm, wide welcome for anyone and everyone who needs it, beyond political lines and national boundaries and ethnic identities: for the tired, the poor, the huddled masses yearning to breathe free, the wretched refuse of every teeming shore; the homeless, the tempest-tossed, and so on.
And so I wonder what it means to “find rest for your soul,” as Jesus says. Thank goodness this kind of rest is so much more than the many vacations and trips and travels that many of us have cancelled and been forced to miss out on this summer, thanks to the virus that has kept us quarantined. God knows we need that kind of rest and Sabbath, for sure. But because it’s Jesus talking – because Jesus is the one extending the invitation – I’m convinced this “rest for your soul,” is even better than a beach, a boat ride, a baseball game, or a trip to your favorite amusement park.
Now, back up with me a minute to the rest of tonight’s Gospel. We’ve got to do a little Bible study here, because all of these verses don’t seem to go together so well, at first.
What’s Jesus talking about with the children in the market place and with John not eating and drinking and with the Son of Man eating and drinking? What about the Father knowing the Son and the Son knowing the Father? And what about hiding things from the wise and the intelligent and revealing them to infants? Like I said, it’s a bunch of stuff that doesn’t make much sense to me, at first.
But check it out…
Jesus compares the people of his generation to little children, playing games in the marketplace. They didn’t like John the Baptist because he wouldn’t eat and drink like the rest of them. They didn’t like Jesus because he did. So, the people in Jesus’ day, played around with notions of what God was, with who the Messiah might be, with what salvation was supposed to look like, and who it was supposed to be for.
In other words, people were fickle. They were fair-weather fans. They had a limited vision of what God could do. They had low expectations of who God could be. They had a shallow concept of what salvation and freedom and love were supposed to look like. And they tried to dictate that for themselves and against each other.
And, sadly, not enough has changed. That’s still the case a lot of the time.
Ordained leaders in God’s Church are scaring people off and keeping people out by referring to Children of God as “maggots and parasites.” (Google “priest,” “maggots” and “parasites” and you’ll find what I’m talking about, if you haven’t already heard.)
We live in a world where Christian people debate and deny the value of God’s children because they were created to be gay or lesbian or transgender; or because they were created “Red or Yellow, Black or White,” no matter how many times they sung that song in Sunday School.
We live in a world where too many in our own country confuse political party and religious affiliation, too much of the time.
And Jesus understood all of this. Jesus understood that there would be competition for God’s time and influence in our lives. And he understood that we wouldn’t always choose God – or God’s ways as faithfully as we’d like. Jesus understood that there would be forces to pull people in all kinds of different directions. And he understood that we wouldn’t always end up facing heavenward. Jesus knew what it fickle followers looked like, he knew what it was to be tempted by fair weather, and to be enticed by bandwagons. And Jesus knew our allegiance to God’s word and will for us could blow in and out like the wind.
Most of all, Jesus understood how tiring and weary and burdensome life like this could be for people; and that when his followers and disciples get it wrong, we can make it even worse for the rest of God’s children to feel and to be safe and at peace in this world. And so he offers us something different.
“Come to me all you who are weary and carrying heavy burdens.” “Take my yoke upon you and learn from me.” “My yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”
These are words of quiet confidence that speak louder – if we’ll let them – than all of the competing, contradictory voices out there in the world.
Tonight, Jesus is offering a cosmic sort of rest for the weary, for the broken, for the fearful, for the lonely, hungry, sick, lost and oppressed. And my prayer is always that that’s what we’re trying to offer here at Cross of Grace – for us and for anyone who dares to join us: a place that longs for and prays about and works toward justice, with humility; a place that feeds and fills people; a place that welcomes and comforts and calls people into community; a place that lifts people up and that holds people together, even when we have to do that separately.
Our call as God’s Church in the world is to be a still, solid, steady, consistent home for each other and for the world around us. Our call is to be the other option to the temptation, to be a safe haven in the midst of fair and foul weather, and to be a vessel for salvation that is stronger and more reliable than any bandwagon.
So welcome home tonight. It’s good to be with you again, in this way. I look forward to being able to do this more often, when it’s safe. But rest assured that God’s grace and mercy and hope and peace are enough to hold us, in the meantime.
Amen
