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S. Pentecost 6.26 Matt. 11:25-30

‘Come to me all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest…’

“But then, after you’ve rested a while and got a second wind, I really need you to get busy in Kingdom labor! There’s a lot to do, and what? You think I’m going to do it all myself? Think again, Buster! All those gentiles aren’t going to convert themselves and I’m busy with a lot of Kingdom Work myself! (you think being God is easy?)—so; after you’ve had your little breather, I need you to get out door to door after those gentiles and compel them to convert and become Xns, by hook or by crook…

“You could start, maybe, by ringing the doorbell of your unchurched neighbor and asking “If you died tonight, would you go to heaven?” She won’t have the right answer! But you will! And you’ll tell ‘em, and they’ll convert, and your pews and coffers will fill up and everybody wins!

“Oh, and speaking of giving them the right answers to the quiz I’ll conduct at the pearly gates: that’s another thing you need to be doing after you’ve had your little rest. You need to read the bible and theology books zealously, master all the information that’s in there (lay-led bible study like BSF being my preferred way, because it’s not like I promised to be heard only through those pastors I personally apostled!) so you can convey it accurately to those people you’re converting.

“Because there’s a lot of information—history mostly, a little science, some psychology and self-help stuff (no comedy or tragedy, thankfully! 😉 that you’ve gotta know if you’re going to make it to heaven and that you need to share with all those who’ve never heard about me…

“What? You think the Holy Spirit is like God or something? Like, what? ‘day unto day and night unto night utters speech, constantly getting the Word out to every creature under heaven’ in mysterious and unaccountable ways that you’ll never figure out? David and Paul don’t really mean all that stuff. Ps. 19, Rom. 10? All metaphorical…

“Speaking of metaphors—which most of the bible literally is 😉 one thing that’s not a metaphor is your behavior. After you’ve rested a bit, you need to work hard to clean up your act. I think of you all as kind of moving billboards, advertising how great it is to be a Xn! So you need to act like Xns, all the time! Start with the 10 commandments and work hard to follow those to the letter because I’m keeping a naughty and nice list—just like Santa—and you really, really don’t want to be on my naughty list!

“But more important than the 10 commandments—which aren’t really difficult to fulfill if you just try harder!—are the ‘counsels of perfection’ that my Pharisee and Roman friends came up with long ago. Monasteries, missions, mendicant begging, mandatory celibacy, and not eating certain foods on Friday, fasting and obeying all the intricate rules the Bishops of Rome and those guys like Calvin came up with are the highest and holiest good works! Also abstaining from alcohol (what? do you think I really turned water into a 180 gallons of wine so the wedding at Cana could rock and roll? Another metaphor!) Also, abstaining from ‘colorful’ language and anything that looks like fun is important! Work on that after your little rest-break…

“Because being a Xn is not easy! Why would you think it’s EASY or that my burden is LIGHT? Because I said so? Seriously; the mission field is out there! After your Sunday morning worship break, you’d better get out there, or you’ll be in for one hell of a time when I come back!”

This is the word of the Lord—Matthew 29:53ff. Look it up!

🙂

I mean that’s what I’ve heard from most “Christian” pulpits, publications, periodicals and pastor conferences over the last 34 years! It was only my teachers in grad school who made me look at what the actual scriptures actually say who showed me another Way—the less traveled by Road that makes all the difference…

If I could pick 5 verses to sum up the Gospel of the New Testament it would be these five we just read in our Gospel today. And yet… almost no one in Christendom takes them at face value, but twists them around as the above imaginary reading does—turning it into the opposite of what Jesus really says!

How did it get so messed up?

Because we don’t believe the secrets of the Kingdom have been hidden from the wise and prudent adults and are revealed only to babies, infants—which is what the Greek νηπιος literally means. Not “little children” but infants, tiny babies in arms who are utterly helpless and powerless! We think the older and more active we get, the better Xns we become. But… NO! It’s only becoming like infants in Jesus’ arms that we are salvageable… 😉

The apostles were seen as “unschooled” men by the Phd wielding Pharisees. But they had been with Jesus and that’s all it takes—been in his arms as babes in Xt which made them powerful in ways the world can never understand…

Jesus MEANS IT: “come to me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest”—everlasting rest from all labors! “Take my yoke upon you (that would be his cross!) and learn of me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. Because my yoke is EASY and my burden is LIGHT.”

Now; there’s some humor here…

His cross feels anything but light! It crushes and kills the hard-working old Adam in each of us—not an entirely benign procedure, from the old Adam’s perspective. But when we stop laboring and working and trying, when we become helpless lambs carried in the Shepherd’s arms, then we’re getting somewhere…

Swept into the 8th day rest of Jesus!

In Baptism you died to your hold try-harder self; a new, chill, do-nothing, know-nothing-but-Jesus self is born. Which changes everything—heart, mind, body, soul! We are New Creations who live entirely off Jesus and his love, his forgiveness and mercy. We’ve become mirrors reflecting Jesus!—like little children dressing up and pretending to be our favorite super-hero, his Spirit makes us into little non-identical repetitions of him…

When it feels like we’ve done nothing and afterwards rested—then Jesus is doing his thing with and in us. When each day is just delighting in the gifts Jesus freely gives, worshiping him like he’s God or Something, in the old apostolic liturgical way as we are delighting in right here and now, we are resting from our labors and basking in the Light of Heaven…

Does it sound too good to be true?—this light and easy yoke, this delightful Heavenly Rest? For sure! It sounds like that to me as well! But, childishly taking the Word at face value, stopping the analytics, just letting art flow over you, the miraculous Mystery happens to you, me, here, now….

And Peace, surpassing all understanding, guards our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.