July 9, 2023     Text:  Matthew 11:25-30

Dear Friends in Christ,

Remember back to when you were in preschool or kindergarten?  You got to enjoy nap time.  You got to rest from filmstrips and finger painting.  Did we really need to rest from that?  Still, it was nice to close your eyes and just relax.  

It is still a joy to just close the eyes and relax.  To rest.  But what are we resting from?  Physical exertion?  Mental gymnastics?  Stress?  Do you ever rest from your sin?  Do you ever just lay down and think, “Lord, what am I doing?”  

We are going to take a few minute respite to hear the Lord’s Word.  

“DO YOU NEED A REST?”

Both inside and outside the church we view the Christian faith as primarily about doing the right thing or acting the right way.  The truth is Christianity does have a lot of rules.  The Bible has whole books just on how to live or not live.  Because we know these rules, we live with the knowledge that we need to live up to them.  But we know the truth about ourselves – we don’t live up to them.  The Apostle Paul struggled with the same thing in our Epistle for this morning.

We come here Sunday after Sunday concealing our worst.  We would be outcasts, if people really knew the truth about us.  If we start to believe this way, then our Christian life becomes little more than an exercise in hiding our sin so we can keep up the good appearance.  Then we perpetuate the lie that being a good Christian is primarily about being “a good person.”

So, we try harder.  This time we are serious.  We will live the way we should.  Maybe it works for a few seconds, a few minutes but then we fall, and we are right back there needing some rest.  The people of Israel did this over and over again in the Bible. 

In the 1970’s lab rats were used for psychological tests.  In one experiment, the floor of their cage was electrified in different spots.  They would jump to spots with no electric shock.  But then the entire floor was electrified, and they soon learned there was nowhere to go to evade the shock.  So, they settled down to be being shocked.  They learned they were helpless.  Later on escape routes were offered, but the rats had already learned there was no point in trying and failing.  They refused to move.

Like the rat, we find ourselves helpless.  We do things we know we shouldn’t.  We can’t stop the cycle, so we just accept the shock.  Oh, we need rest from our sin.  We are broken.

Into this reality, Jesus speaks, “Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest…For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” (vs. 28 & 30).  The Christian life is not about being a better person, and it never has been.  The Latin phrase simul justus et peccator, means “at the same time just and a sinner.”  We are both.  There is great freedom in recognizing and owning that reality.  We don’t have to pretend anymore.

We are real, honest sinners with a real, true Savior.  The rest we need is given by Jesus Christ.  Pull out your mat, lie down, relax and listen to this.  Christ carries the burden of our shortfall.  Christ is obedient when we are in the vicious cycle of disobedience.  Christ took the sin of everyone and died for it on the cross.  Christ has carried the load.  Wow, this burden is so much lighter.  I can rest easy tonight knowing that Christ is in control.

We come to this sanctuary on a regular basis because the world makes us forget who we are.  We will leave today with Christ words, and we will know His love, but some of us will continue to live as if it all depends on how we act or how hard we try.  That is why the Lord is continually in our ear.  In case you have forgotten…this is who you are; you are beloved.

Stop the pretending.  We have all faked sleep, right?  To our teacher, to our spouse, to our parent who had a job for us to do.  The rest of Jesus is real.  You can’t fake sleep Him.  He is the provider of the rest.  You are beloved because you are a creation of the God of the heavens who has marked you with water and Word in your baptism, and who invites you to come rest from sin by partaking of His body and blood at His Holy Altar.  You are beloved, not because you try harder and might get it right every so often.  You are loved because of what Christ has already done for you.  He has died your death.  You have eternal rest because of His rest in the tomb and then His rising again.

Put your mats away.  It’s time to play “duck, duck, goose.”

Amen.              

July 2, 2023         Text:  Matthew 10:34-42

Dear Friends in Christ,

You and I are walking dichotomies.  There is division within our souls.  Most of us do not like conflict, but we can’t avoid it, especially in today’s culture.  Or the opposite is true, we like a little game of conflict, maybe we want to see how someone is going to act.

By now, most of you know, I do not like conflict because I had enough of it in my growing up years.  At the same time, I am a truth teller, and well…that causes conflict.  Recently, I tried to avoid a conflict situation by walking away.  The person wouldn’t let me go and I told them it was a bad time to talk with me.  In the heat of those moments, we are bound to say something we will regret.  I finally extricated myself before the situation got worse.

Where do you come down?  Are you a peace giver or a sword carrier?  Can you be both?  The Lord tells us in the text that in the right context both can be true at the same time.  But sometimes it involves . . .

“RATTLING THE CAGE”

We celebrated the birth of the Prince of Peace a little over six months ago.  We like peace even false peace, because it is comfortable.  No one likes to go to a house where there is constant tension or a workplace where everyone is walking on eggshells.  So, we ignore the obvious.  Peace is safety.  Change unsettles us.  Why do people stay in abusive relationships?  Because they are familiar and safe in their own way.  If they don’t rattle the cage, then what exists may kill them.

Ever been at a family meal where everyone knows the problem, but no one will talk about it?  It’s brutal, isn’t it?  If you pretend it’s not there, you live in fear.  Things covered are eventually uncovered, but while waiting, they own us.  Fake peace always comes with a cost.  Fake peace even brings death.  If we live just pursuing the appearance of peace, we live a lie.  If friendships are just getting along and not a mature discussion of mutual respect, they are mere shadows of what they could be.  As long as our relationship with God is primarily about concealing our sin from Him, from others, from ourselves, we can’t find peace.

Jesus came not to bring peace, but a sword.  He rattled some cages.  He rattled every cage.  He got people angry and upset.  Jesus also brought shalom.  Shalon is about restored relationships – in our mind, in our relationships with others, and in our relationship with God.  The Lord knows shalom begins by dealing with the broken relationships that divide us from Him and isolate us from one another.  He brings a sword to cut through the false peace and the lies.

Speaking the truth will bring you into conflict with the lies our world embraces.  Try this and see if you don’t rattle some cages:  Say that life is precious and sacred from conception to natural death…Say that human sexuality is a gift from God to be enjoyed in marriage between a man and woman…Proclaim that there are absolute right and wrong ways to go about things…get ready for the blowback.  The world is comfortable in their lies.  For peace to happen, the lies must be challenged and revealed for what they are.

That sword, that type of conflict, brings shalom – true peace.  When we confront ourselves, rattle our own cage, we can confess the things we shouldn’t have done, the things we shouldn’t have said, acting when we shouldn’t have, keeping quiet when we should have spoken up.  How can God love someone as broken as I?  Therein is the greatest lie.  That we have pushed so far away from God’s standards that there is no way there can be peace.  There is truth in that.  We can’t make peace with God.  We fall short if we settle for a false peace.

God loves you and I too much to leave us with a false peace.  Instead, God makes real peace with us.  He sent his Son into this world of conflict and broken relationships not just to bring a sword and cut through the false peace, but to establish real shalom with us.  Jesus rattled the cages of the status quo.  He did what no one expected Him to do.

Christ Jesus fell on the sword.  He took the nails, the spear, the death of the cross.  He took it upon Himself so that we might have real shalom…everlasting peace with our Creator… God the Father.  

This shalom provider now calls us by name in Baptism, week after week he feeds us with his body and blood broken and poured out for us.  We do not have to be good enough or worthy enough or able to make peace with God, because God has already made peace with us.

With the Holy Spirit’s help, you can be both peace giver and sword carrier.  It is ok to rattle some cages and confront the lies.  When we lovingly deal with the things we are brushing aside and hiding from, everyone involved is set free.  We exchange a false peace for the true shalom that Christ gives.

Amen.