Sermon070608

Sermon for July 6, 2008

The Eighth Sunday after Pentecost July 5-6, 2008 (Proper 9 – Lect 14)

Grace Lutheran Church, Lancaster, Pa.

Zechariah 9:9-12; Romans 7:15-25a; Matthew 11:16-19, 25-30

“Come to me…I will give you rest… My yoke is easy and my burden is light.”

What sort of word is this now?

After weeks to hearing about the cost of discipleship,

the difficulty of following Jesus, the problems it will cause

we find Jesus suddenly speaking to us in the language of our vacations!

Travel with us, we’ll take care of everything!

Put aside the stress of work, the drudgery of everyday life

and Join Jesus for some much needed rest and refreshment…

Many of us are fortunate to have some time and money to spend

getting some rest in the summertime – kids get a rest from school, of course,

which ironically means that parents probably have a less restful time of it

unless you can get the kids off to camp or on vacation someplace

where they can avoid boredom and stay active without your help hour by hour.

But whether it’s the rest of summertime vacation, or the daily or weekly needs we have for rest

in the form of sleep, or a day off, somehow I don’t think Jesus

is speaking to us today about his kind of rest.

Jesus is not, after all, a travel agent or a cruise director, or a life coach!

He does not call us to a life of sacrifice and serious discipleship,

as we have been hearing in the Gospel of Matthew for the past month or so,

by tempting us with a generous vacation and benefits package!

Just in case you don’t believe me, let’s make a list of the typical burdens we complain about

and compare them with the teachings of Jesus which we have heard recently

as we read through Matthew’s Gospel.

To the burden of work to provide for our daily needs,

especially in the midst of our culture of consumption, Jesus says:

“Do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink or about your body,

what you will wear. Is not life more than food, the body more than clothing?” (Matt 6:25

To the burden of grief and sorrow, Jesus says,

“Let the dead bury their own dead; come, follow me” (Matt. 8:22)

To the burden of putting our families first, Jesus says

"I have not come to bring peace, but a sword.

For I have come to set a man against his father,

and a daughter against her mother…

and one’s foes will be members of one’s own household” (Matt 10:34-5)

To our tendency to practice our religion as just another part of the good life

feeling good about saying our prayers and making our offerings Jesus says:

“Not everyone who says to me ‘Lord, Lord’ will enter the kingdom of heaven,

but only the one who does the will of my Father in heaven.” (Matt 7:21)

and,

“Go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice,’

for I have come to call, not the righteous, but sinners.” (Matt 9:13)

To our tendency to put off the responsibilities of bearing witness and sharing our faith

Jesus says: “Whoever welcomes you, welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me

welcomes the one who sent me.” (Matt 10:40)

Only by ignoring these difficult teachings of Jesus

can we wallow in the burdens of our own making

in fact, these burdens serve the convenient purpose of helping us forget

the much greater burden that those who are aware of it must carry:

the great weariness of life in the shadow of sin and death

and under the judgment of God.

The burdens of life that we wear like badges of honor: our schedules and commitments

our difficulties with traffic jams, the necessity of dealing with people who act like idiots,

help us to blame our burdens on others.

They also help us to ignore that mysterious and burdensome tendency

we share with St Paul, who admits: “I do not understand my own actions…

For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want, is what I do.”

(Rom. 7:15)

Stay with me here: this may help the point along!

I came across a little devotional tidbit recently, which says that

in Chinese calligraphy, the concept of “busyness”

is written by using two characters: the one for ‘heart’

followed by the one for ‘killing.’

That makes sense to us, doesn’t it?

It makes sense because we think we already know what busyness is.

We talk about it all the time. We wear our busyness and our long hours

and our tiredness like badges of honor.

And now the Chinese alphabet has told us what we already know:

our busyness is killing our hearts.

Both literally and metaphorically,

our busyness is attacking and destroying something vital to our lives.

Does that ring truly to you? I mean, it does to me, in a way,

I won’t deny it!

But it’s also hard to harmonize with Jesus’ words.

Jesus doesn’t send out his disciples and say,

“Look, take it easy. This preaching about God is hard work.

Make sure you negotiate and fair and honest wage,

and save something for your retirement.

Insist on plenty of time for yourself.

Drink your eight full glasses of water a day

eat your vegetables, and make sure you get a good night’s sleep.”

Jesus said, “Proclaim the good news, ‘The kingdom of heaven has come near.’

Cure the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, cast out demons.

You received without payment; give without payment.” (Matt 10:8)

Could it be that Jesus wants us to be busy?

Could it be that it’s not really our busyness that’s killing us,

but our false ideas of what we are supposed to be busy with?

What kind of rest does Jesus offer us in his word today?

In fact, no rest at all, but his “yoke and his burden.”

Ask any mule or ox what symbol they think the Chinese use for the concept of “rest”

I guarantee you that they won’t guess it’s the character for “yoke!”

In the world we are used to living in,

WE define busyness by our own ideas and ideals,

THEN we decide that such busyness is killing us,

prompting our urgent prayers asking Jesus for a rest.

But the bible throws us into a different world,

a world in which Jesus gives us much to be busy with,

but a busyness, apparently, that is a much easier yoke to bear

than yoking ourselves to this world’s expectations;

a much lighter burden than the burden of running from God’s holy heart

and trying to create our own lives and our own values.

I wish our exchange daughter from Hong Kong – Yvonne – was still with us

so I could check this out with her, but since she’s gone I’ll just have to

take an educated guess.

That guess is that if we studied a little Chinese,

we would find that the meaning of ‘busyness’

has a lot to do with the meaning of ‘heart.’

In other words, I’m guessing that in Chinese as well as English

the heart is not just a part of the body

that gets worn out when we are physically “busy,” but that

the “heart” is used to talk about our sense of meaning and purpose in life,

the place in us that holds our emotions, our hopes and dreams, our love and spirit.

If so, then the Chinese idea that “busyness” is “heart killing”

certainly reinforces the point that Jesus is making to us today.

If our hearts are yoked to Jesus,

if we allow ourselves to take up the burdens that God asks us to carry,

Jesus promises us a rest from the busyness that kills heart,

by creating, as the Psalmist wrote, “a new heart within us”

a heart that beats with faith and trust in his purpose for us

and his presence with us.

Can you understand your busyness to be connected somehow to

your love for God and your love for your neighbors?

If so, perhaps you already know what Jesus means about this yoke being easier

and this burden light.

Can you understand you busyness to be connected somehow to your calling in the world:

are you busy using the gifts God gave you, doing what you feel God

has called you to do with your life?

If so, your heart is probably not suffering too much from it.

But if we have bought into the rat race,

and into this weird economy in which so many people work so hard

so that people don’t have to work so hard,

then why is it a surprise that many of us are wondering why our heart is not in it?

Jesus’ teaching calls into question so much of what we do and why we do it,

I can’t possibly get into it here, but maybe it helps

to notice that so much of what Jesus says, sounds rather Amish!

Of course, the Amish would say, that’s putting it the wrong way around

we are who we are because we believe this is how Jesus teaches us to live.

The Amish, as I have come to understand their life and culture

by reading about them a bit this year,

decided long ago not to “keep up” with the modern world,

because they could see the increasing disconnection between what people

do with their lives and their stuff and their abilities to spend time yoked to Christ,

living out their love of God in worship and prayer

and their love of neighbor in communities of deep commitment to one another,

bearing each others burdens in ways we can hardly fathom anymore.

Do the Amish work hard? Most of us have no idea how hard it is to work on an English farm, much less an Amish one! J The fact that they keep at it; that they have flourished

precisely in this country that gives them the freedom to leave it behind,

is a gift that makes me wonder:

what do they know that I don’t know?

There’s no easy answer to this problem, no tidy little sermon illustration

that will settle once and for all what it means

that in calling us to difficult sacrificial discipleship, Jesus is offering us

an easier yoke and a lighter burden

than the yoke we so often let the world throw upon us

and the burdens we take up so that we can keep up.

Of course, I know the Amish have their problems too.

But do keep this paradox in mind,

at least until we hear the next word of Jesus together.

And wonder, with me, what it has done to our hearts

that we have stopped doing so much work with our bodies?

Of course we know the physical part of the answer: it’s not healthy!

But what about the spiritual part of the answer?

What have we gained spiritually by what we have chosen to be so busy with,

that the Amish have not? How are we more at peace

with one another, and the world around us?

Can we admit the ways we use our busyness to hide from God,

and to avoid cultivating the humble and holy hearts he gives us.

What is it that God is calling you to do, that you are choosing not to do?

What is the busyness that has more to do with hiding from God

than giving your life to God?

I don’t claim to know the whole answer,

but I am sure there is Holy Wisdom in pondering that question,

because Jesus said so.

Amen.

	Grace Lutheran Church *Worshipping with the Saints -- Seeing Christ in others* Lancaster, Pennsylvania
(717) 397 2748 Welcome Our Mission For Every Day Map / Directions Thought to Ponder Staff Worship WorshipThoughts Services Worship Music Lesson 8/24/08 Sermons Sermon 7/20/08 Lessons 7/20/08 Sermon 7/13/08 Lessons 7/13/08 Sermon 7/06/08 Lessons 7/06/08 Sermon 6/29/08 ComplineInfo Calendar Grace News August 20, 2008 August 13, 2008 August 05, 2008 Concerts Ministries Christian Education Music Childcare Youth Housing Ministry Parish Nurses Advice Seniors Slovakia Tanzania Links Our/Church Members Say History Windows of Grace Library	Sermon for July 6, 2008 The Eighth Sunday after Pentecost July 5-6, 2008 (Proper 9 – Lect 14) Grace Lutheran Church, Lancaster, Pa. Zechariah 9:9-12; Romans 7:15-25a; Matthew 11:16-19, 25-30 “Come to me…I will give you rest… My yoke is easy and my burden is light.” What sort of word is this now? After weeks to hearing about the cost of discipleship, the difficulty of following Jesus, the problems it will cause we find Jesus suddenly speaking to us in the language of our vacations! Travel with us, we’ll take care of everything! Put aside the stress of work, the drudgery of everyday life and Join Jesus for some much needed rest and refreshment… Many of us are fortunate to have some time and money to spend getting some rest in the summertime – kids get a rest from school, of course, which ironically means that parents probably have a less restful time of it unless you can get the kids off to camp or on vacation someplace where they can avoid boredom and stay active without your help hour by hour. But whether it’s the rest of summertime vacation, or the daily or weekly needs we have for rest in the form of sleep, or a day off, somehow I don’t think Jesus is speaking to us today about his kind of rest. Jesus is not, after all, a travel agent or a cruise director, or a life coach! He does not call us to a life of sacrifice and serious discipleship, as we have been hearing in the Gospel of Matthew for the past month or so, by tempting us with a generous vacation and benefits package! Just in case you don’t believe me, let’s make a list of the typical burdens we complain about and compare them with the teachings of Jesus which we have heard recently as we read through Matthew’s Gospel. To the burden of work to provide for our daily needs, especially in the midst of our culture of consumption, Jesus says: “Do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, the body more than clothing?” (Matt 6:25 To the burden of grief and sorrow, Jesus says, “Let the dead bury their own dead; come, follow me” (Matt. 8:22) To the burden of putting our families first, Jesus says "I have not come to bring peace, but a sword. For I have come to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother… and one’s foes will be members of one’s own household” (Matt 10:34-5) To our tendency to practice our religion as just another part of the good life feeling good about saying our prayers and making our offerings Jesus says: “Not everyone who says to me ‘Lord, Lord’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father in heaven.” (Matt 7:21) and, “Go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice,’ for I have come to call, not the righteous, but sinners.” (Matt 9:13) To our tendency to put off the responsibilities of bearing witness and sharing our faith Jesus says: “Whoever welcomes you, welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me welcomes the one who sent me.” (Matt 10:40) Only by ignoring these difficult teachings of Jesus can we wallow in the burdens of our own making in fact, these burdens serve the convenient purpose of helping us forget the much greater burden that those who are aware of it must carry: the great weariness of life in the shadow of sin and death and under the judgment of God. The burdens of life that we wear like badges of honor: our schedules and commitments our difficulties with traffic jams, the necessity of dealing with people who act like idiots, help us to blame our burdens on others. They also help us to ignore that mysterious and burdensome tendency we share with St Paul, who admits: “I do not understand my own actions… For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want, is what I do.” (Rom. 7:15) Stay with me here: this may help the point along! I came across a little devotional tidbit recently, which says that in Chinese calligraphy, the concept of “busyness” is written by using two characters: the one for ‘heart’ followed by the one for ‘killing.’ That makes sense to us, doesn’t it? It makes sense because we think we already know what busyness is. We talk about it all the time. We wear our busyness and our long hours and our tiredness like badges of honor. And now the Chinese alphabet has told us what we already know: our busyness is killing our hearts. Both literally and metaphorically, our busyness is attacking and destroying something vital to our lives. Does that ring truly to you? I mean, it does to me, in a way, I won’t deny it! But it’s also hard to harmonize with Jesus’ words. Jesus doesn’t send out his disciples and say, “Look, take it easy. This preaching about God is hard work. Make sure you negotiate and fair and honest wage, and save something for your retirement. Insist on plenty of time for yourself. Drink your eight full glasses of water a day eat your vegetables, and make sure you get a good night’s sleep.” Jesus said, “Proclaim the good news, ‘The kingdom of heaven has come near.’ Cure the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, cast out demons. You received without payment; give without payment.” (Matt 10:8) Could it be that Jesus wants us to be busy? Could it be that it’s not really our busyness that’s killing us, but our false ideas of what we are supposed to be busy with? What kind of rest does Jesus offer us in his word today? In fact, no rest at all, but his “yoke and his burden.” Ask any mule or ox what symbol they think the Chinese use for the concept of “rest” I guarantee you that they won’t guess it’s the character for “yoke!” In the world we are used to living in, WE define busyness by our own ideas and ideals, THEN we decide that such busyness is killing us, prompting our urgent prayers asking Jesus for a rest. But the bible throws us into a different world, a world in which Jesus gives us much to be busy with, but a busyness, apparently, that is a much easier yoke to bear than yoking ourselves to this world’s expectations; a much lighter burden than the burden of running from God’s holy heart and trying to create our own lives and our own values. I wish our exchange daughter from Hong Kong – Yvonne – was still with us so I could check this out with her, but since she’s gone I’ll just have to take an educated guess. That guess is that if we studied a little Chinese, we would find that the meaning of ‘busyness’ has a lot to do with the meaning of ‘heart.’ In other words, I’m guessing that in Chinese as well as English the heart is not just a part of the body that gets worn out when we are physically “busy,” but that the “heart” is used to talk about our sense of meaning and purpose in life, the place in us that holds our emotions, our hopes and dreams, our love and spirit. If so, then the Chinese idea that “busyness” is “heart killing” certainly reinforces the point that Jesus is making to us today. If our hearts are yoked to Jesus, if we allow ourselves to take up the burdens that God asks us to carry, Jesus promises us a rest from the busyness that kills heart, by creating, as the Psalmist wrote, “a new heart within us” a heart that beats with faith and trust in his purpose for us and his presence with us. Can you understand your busyness to be connected somehow to your love for God and your love for your neighbors? If so, perhaps you already know what Jesus means about this yoke being easier and this burden light. Can you understand you busyness to be connected somehow to your calling in the world: are you busy using the gifts God gave you, doing what you feel God has called you to do with your life? If so, your heart is probably not suffering too much from it. But if we have bought into the rat race, and into this weird economy in which so many people work so hard so that people don’t have to work so hard, then why is it a surprise that many of us are wondering why our heart is not in it? Jesus’ teaching calls into question so much of what we do and why we do it, I can’t possibly get into it here, but maybe it helps to notice that so much of what Jesus says, sounds rather Amish! Of course, the Amish would say, that’s putting it the wrong way around we are who we are because we believe this is how Jesus teaches us to live. The Amish, as I have come to understand their life and culture by reading about them a bit this year, decided long ago not to “keep up” with the modern world, because they could see the increasing disconnection between what people do with their lives and their stuff and their abilities to spend time yoked to Christ, living out their love of God in worship and prayer and their love of neighbor in communities of deep commitment to one another, bearing each others burdens in ways we can hardly fathom anymore. Do the Amish work hard? Most of us have no idea how hard it is to work on an English farm, much less an Amish one! J The fact that they keep at it; that they have flourished precisely in this country that gives them the freedom to leave it behind, is a gift that makes me wonder: what do they know that I don’t know? There’s no easy answer to this problem, no tidy little sermon illustration that will settle once and for all what it means that in calling us to difficult sacrificial discipleship, Jesus is offering us an easier yoke and a lighter burden than the yoke we so often let the world throw upon us and the burdens we take up so that we can keep up. Of course, I know the Amish have their problems too. But do keep this paradox in mind, at least until we hear the next word of Jesus together. And wonder, with me, what it has done to our hearts that we have stopped doing so much work with our bodies? Of course we know the physical part of the answer: it’s not healthy! But what about the spiritual part of the answer? What have we gained spiritually by what we have chosen to be so busy with, that the Amish have not? How are we more at peace with one another, and the world around us? Can we admit the ways we use our busyness to hide from God, and to avoid cultivating the humble and holy hearts he gives us. What is it that God is calling you to do, that you are choosing not to do? What is the busyness that has more to do with hiding from God than giving your life to God? I don’t claim to know the whole answer, but I am sure there is Holy Wisdom in pondering that question, because Jesus said so. Amen.
Grace Lutheran Church -- 517 North Queen Street, Lancaster, PA 17603 -- (717) 397 2748