Is Our Attention To Religion A Burden For Our Spiritual Development?

Good Morning Friends,

 
Maybe we should not value an easy faith in our practice of religion. Probably we are to meet problems in the church with an attitude that difficulties must be addressed, and some are there because we are doing something right not something wrong. Neutrality is not an option here. We must choose whose side we are on, for darkness hates the light. We need to take up the Cross and the Sword. Feed the right dog. Put Christ first and learn from the teacher. Sometimes we need to selectively cut back those things in our lives that restrain us from what God would have us do to improve.  We know that religion is based on the Good Book which is a Sword and as such must be welded with skill and attentiveness to our surroundings. But we need to realize that the Sword is a dangerous weapon in the hands of those that would use it for personal gain. It is not to be strained in its use but must be natural so those using it for God’s glory do so in a way that bring meaning to their personal story and to unique stories of other believers. The problem is that when our story is imposed or forced or legalistic or controlled by someone else’s story it becomes a drain on our emotions and an affliction. So this morning we give a shot at sorting out this challenge to communities of faith as we ask a question about our need for both comfort and conviction. So, Is Our Attention To Religion A Burden For Our Spiritual Development?

Scripture: “Come to me, all you that are weary and are 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.”

Matthew 11:28-30 (NRSV)

 
To whom then will you compare me, or who is my equal? says the Holy One. Lift up your eyes on high and see: Who created these? He who brings out their host and numbers them, calling them all by name; because he is great in strength, mighty in power, not one is missing. Why do you say, O Jacob, and speak, O Israel, “My way is hidden from the Lord, and my right is disregarded by my God”? Have you not known? Have you not heard? The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He does not faint or grow weary; his understanding is unsearchable. He gives power to the faint, and strengthens the powerless. Even youths will faint and be weary, and the young will fall exhausted; but those who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength, they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint.

Isaiah 40:25-31 (NRSV)

As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you; abide in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love. I have said these things to you so that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be complete.

John 15:9-11 (NRSV)

Message: Jesus is serious about us loving one another to ease the burden of life… It is a command not an option we might choose to obey… I am to love you and you are to love me…the best way we know how.  Not long before Jesus was to die on the cross, he shared the words in today’s scripture with his followers. Jesus was getting them ready for his departure, getting them prepared to abide in the Spirit… connected to love as the way to honor the Father. He was preparing them to take the message of the Gospel to the world. We too are to show this manifested love as a witness that we know God… that we know that God is love…. that we can love as He has loved us. We are to know the Jesus of joy so that we can all experience the joy of Jesus. This joy…this love is the distinguishing mark of a child of God. It teaches us that we cannot replace love with spiritual gifts. Faith, preaching, service, nor money can replace love. Nothing replaces obedience to this command.  It is essential for the Church as well … the Body of Believers must be connected in this mature love or the spiritual life is gone. It is essential to learn to love…. essential to obey the command of God to love. Through love the worries of life are lifted. Perfect love caste out all fear. So, do not lose heart if you are living in a worshipping community that struggles with problems and their solutions but sometimes cannot seem to get on top of them. That could be a sign of the life of the church. So, today’s message may seem a little mixed and that is because it is about the fate of churches and how our attitude is related to the outcomes in them. You see, when we arrive at worship, we may well leave our burdens at the door, but when we leave, we often pick them up again. We leave our confession, repentance, joy and happiness in places instead of them being from the inside out. And if that happens that makes us ineffective in the battle for our souls and the cause of Christ in family and community. The yoke may be easy, but the faith is hard work. Friends, you have heard this before, but it is worth saying again, if you find being a Christian is easy work you probably are not one. Our culture seems perfectly designed to lead us into this sort of false faith. Worshipping communities need to change culture and that is hard work. Popular standards of what it means to be considered a Christian, would lead us to believe that the faith is nothing more than a collection of vague and friendly sentiments. And we know that we are apt to believe whatever the world tells us. It is dangerous to believe that a person with the Jesus fish on his/her bumper, the Bible quote in his/her social media profile, and Christmas lights on his/her house in December, must be a Christian. The world is fooled. We can be fooled. But God is not. Honestly our culture may be more hostile to authentic Christianity than we would like to believe.

And So, our problems in our worshipping communities may be more a sign of a healthy faith than we would like to believe. Being superficially Christian in America is attractive but eventually will cost us.  Instead we are to work out your salvation with fear and trembling. Cheap grace is a problem. Communion without confession, Grace without discipleship, Grace without Jesus Christ and the cross is pointless. So, know the church is called to minister to less than perfect people. So, Churches are going to have more and more problems because people come into a relationship of worship with problems. And maybe that is as it should be. Finding an ideal church is pointless. We must learn to live a life shaped by the cross and resurrection of Jesus. And that mean hanging out with social out casts and well as the social crowd. This is hard work. We live in a tense, uptight and fast paced world and may also face a heavy burden of work and faith and family as well. Indeed, we may feel a heavy burden to produce at all costs. The combined affect can be very unpleasant if priorities are out of order. So today we build on that thought as we explore scripture about finding rest in the Lord…rest not found in the church…  rest not found in work or family, but rest found in relationship with Him who experiences the Father. Instead of working to find rest we can work out of the rest we find in Jesus. So, each day we put on the yoke of His friendship…each day we respond to His gentle nudges…each day we grow more mature in the faith and we realize that the real work has already been done… we just need to join Jesus in the joy of His purpose. So, you got stress? Do you have too much to do and too little time? Get your priorities in order and there will be time for everything that is needed. 

Pray that our priorities are in order. Pray that our yoke is connected to Jesus. Pray that we work with Jesus for His purpose and glory. Pray that we give up our way of self, for His yoke and His way. Pray that we would be connected to Jesus…to follow His lead and complement His power, as we learn to cooperate in His work and find rest when His strength is combined with our obedience. Pray that we find rest in a relationship with Jesus.
Pray that our yoke is a place of purposeful labor. Pray that our yoke is a place of learning. Pray that our yoke is a place of patience, humility, trust and love. Pray that our yoke is a place of rejoicing in discipleship. Pray we realize that the Carpenter of Nazareth has so fashioned our yoke of discipline that, when we are connected to Him, we can glide over the pain of disappointments and be lifted over the trials of life in love. Pray we be effective in this so that our evangelism would be rooted in an internal impulse which encourages, motivates, nourishes and gives meaning to our individual and communal lives. Pray we are not only to be part of a His story shared but a unique story of who we each are living the life of the Messiah by Grace in the Word made flesh. Pray we take our burdens to the cross. Pray we realize that we need not continue to carry our burdens because Jesus has paid the price for us. Pray we not worry. Pray we not doubt. Pray we not be prideful. Pray we accept the great invitation to lean on God and work together for blessings both received and given. Pray we realize that the church is called to minister to less than perfect people. Pray we try to continuously improve individually and collectively. Pray we realize that dealing with our problems may be a path to a stronger faith.

Blessings,

John Lawson