Text: Matthew 11:28-30 (The Message)
"Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to me. Get away with me and you'll recover your life. I'll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with me and work with me—watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won't lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with me and you'll learn to live freely and lightly."
Philippians 4: 10-17 (portions)
I'm glad in God, far happier than you would ever guess—I've learned by now to be quite content whatever my circumstances. I'm just as happy with little as with much, with much as with little. I've found the recipe for being happy whether full or hungry, hands full or hands empty. Whatever I have, wherever I am, I can make it through anything in the One who makes me who I am.
You can be sure that God will take care of everything you need, God’s generosity exceeding even yours in the glory that pours from Jesus. Our God and Creator abounds in glory that just pours out into eternity. Yes.
Receive and experience the amazing grace of the Savior, Jesus Christ, deep, deep within yourselves.
God, we are so often a tired people! We know that you want rest and peace for us and yet we fail to find our way into Your blessed Sabbath rest. Lead us this day into Your waiting arms! Amen
I don’t know about your yard, but ours was starting to seriously need a good long rain and it just didn’t seem like we were going to get one any time soon. And then, it happened—rain, a good soaking rain for a good long while on Friday night. I’m telling you, not only were we grateful to hear that rain coming down, but I’m pretty sure I heard the grass sending up multitudes of “thank you, thank you” as the rain came down. So often, our lives are like the parched, dry grass and we wait for God to send the rain. And so, we wait for God’s Holy Spirit to rain down—we know that God’s Spirit comes into our lives just as the rain comes into our world, why then do we get so dry?
Fatigue—probably not a soul sitting here today who hasn’t experienced it in some form or another. There are two kinds of fatigue—physical and spiritual. Physical fatigue happens when you play golf in the heat of the day, or add an extra game of pickleball in at the end of practice. Physical fatigue happens when we finally get out to do yard work and decide to do the whole kit and caboodle at once. Your muscles get tired and they need rest. Usually, we respond appropriately to the demands of our bodies for a little rest.
The other type of fatigue often doesn’t get such good attention. That’s spiritual fatigue. Spiritual fatigue comes from tired emotions. When we get frustrated, or grow weary of other’s expectations, when we get embroiled in conflict, worry, or anger, we are spiritually fatigued.
The good news is that when you are physically tired, all you need to do is get some rest—you take a nap, you “lay low” for a day and you feel better. Spiritual fatigue—not quite so easy. While physical rest is vital to repair your body AND soul, it takes more than rest to be refilled and refueled emotionally and spiritually.
Jesus knows this well: Hear what he is saying to us today: "Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to me. Get away with me and you'll recover your life. I'll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with me and work with me—watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won't lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with me and you'll learn to live freely and lightly."
The old translations record that Jesus says: “take my yoke upon you and learn of me”. That doesn’t quite make sense until we think about what a yoke is used for.
The yoke was used to connect a team of two oxen to a cart. It was the only way to get the work accomplished. If one ox had tried to do it alone, it could have not been done. The rows would be crooked, the ox exhausted. With two oxen, the work is shared and completed perfectly. Jesus is calling us to partner with Him as we go about our life’s work. Jesus says, that if we walk with Him and work with Him instead of trying to do it on our own, He will show us how to take a real rest. There is a line in translation from The Message that is wildly beautiful to me—I don’t think I had read it before: “Learn the unforced rhythms of grace!” --The unforced rhythms of grace—now this is true rest—living in grace, with a rhythm all her own—unable to be forced or molded into what we think she should be. Jesus further assures us, “I won’t lay anything on you that is too heavy or doesn’t fit who you are—stay in my presence and you will learn to live ‘freely and lightly’”.
I want you to ask yourself this question, as I have been asking myself all week—no need for hands, this is a personal, self –assessment. Do you feel as if you are living “freely and lightly”? Do those words apply to your daily life? Have you experienced the “unforced rhythms of grace”? I suspect that most of us have not yet arrived at that place, but what a calling Jesus has given to us!
Like many of you, probably, I have spent some considerable time exploring other faith and spiritual traditions. The one that I truly love the most outside of Christianity is Taoism. Taoism is a spiritual philosophy that says that the Tao is the principle of life and that getting in tune with the Tao is true peace. It’s like singing in a choir or tuning the guitars—out of tune, the sound is not pleasant at all, just a small adjustment and the sound is glorious. Taoism first taught me the concept of what Jesus is calling “the unforced rhythms of grace”. The notion that the principle of life is not to be controlled by us—that it is greater than us—just as we learn that the Holy Spirit blows where it will—not “the Holy Spirit blows where we want it to blow”. Jesus, as Jesus always does, expands our understanding—gives us a path to get to the place where we can experience this true rest promised to us. And so, what does this path look like?
For this we turn to our other scripture—the one from Paul, who tells us how to experience the “amazing grace of the Savior, Jesus Christ, deep, deep within yourselves”. Paul says it like this: “I'm glad in God, far happier than you would ever guess—I've learned by now to be quite content whatever my circumstances. I'm just as happy with little as with much, with much as with little. I've found the recipe for being happy whether full or hungry, hands full or hands empty. Whatever I have, wherever I am, I can make it through anything in the One who makes me who I am. “ I have broken down Paul’s declaration into 3 steps.
First, be glad in God: rejoice in our source of life who gives us all that we need! As we heard in our centering meditation today, “Be still and know that I am God”! The “be still” part—not always so easy, we learn as we grow. Second, learn to be content—stop striving for more, take in what you have in the present—Paul says, full hands or empty, contentment is possible with his special recipe—which just happens to be step 3.
So, third, know that whatever you have, wherever you are, you can make it through anything in the One who makes you who you are. Remember that Jesus tells us that the yoke is with Him—not too heavy or fitting poorly so that it rubs a blister, designed with you in mind as he yokes Himeself to you and you to Him.
Nevertheless, if we fail to come away with Jesus, if we refuse to give ourselves the time with Him that we so badly need, we simply will not find the blessed peace and rest that he promises. Let me say that again, because it is the most important thing I am saying today. If we do not give ourselves the time and space to renew our spiritual hearts and souls, this peace that Jesus promised will elude us for all time. There is no magic wand—no pill—no secret formula—just the willingness to care for our bodies, our hearts, AND our minds.
There are a set of commercials, apparently very popular, about how brilliant we are now because of the internet. I’m here to tell you—search all you want on the world wide web and you will not find as simple an answer as Jesus gives us this day in this passage. And so, today, we are challenged by the words of Jesus and Paul. First, Jesus invites us to come away—to walk in the land aptly described by Paul as contentment without conditions.
Perhaps, the greatest example of this unconditional contentment comes in our experience of nature—Rachel Carson said this in The Sense of Wonder: “There is something definitely healing in these repeated refrains of nature—the assurance that dawn comes after night, and spring after the winter.”
I believe that we are least able to find that healing and peace when we seek to understand it on our terms—when we refuse to let God be God, so to speak— when we cannot give ourselves permission to rest in the arms of God. An so my challenge to you this week is simple—find some short time, every day, to listen to the unforced rhythms of grace—to find contentment wherever you are, hands full, hands empty—hands uplifted to received the simple, unadorned blessing of peace. Amen and amen!
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