Good Morning Friends,
Maybe we should value both an easy faith in our practice of religion and one that suffers too. Probably we are to meet problems in the church and our personal life 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. There is tension in life’s beginnings and endings. But not for God so much as us. So, we must be yoked properly to someone who understands the challenge. We need to take up the Cross and the Sword and the Light of Christ to journey on the right path. And yes, we must feed the right emotions. God knows we can make mistakes, so put Christ first and learn from the teacher. Jesus, the teacher, understands the will of God and what it means to be human. We like Jesus are to learn how to selectively cut back those things in our lives that restrain us from what God would have us do to improve and to add those things that help us to develop. This makes things simpler and better. We know that religion is based on the Good Book but like a sword it needs to be wielded with skill and attentiveness. One has to know the basics. 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 brings meaning to their personal story and to the 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. So, this morning we give a shot at sorting out this challenge to communities of faith on our emotions and an affliction. as we ask a question about our need for both comfort and conviction. We look at some Gospel readings and one from Isaiah we sang in Church a few years ago. And in part because of the opportunity of a new pastor, I want to understand how the dance is to move forward as a community of believers. So, I ask God, Can Our Personal Spiritual Growth And Community And Church Work Become Unified?
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. But we are to love ourselves too. Not long before Jesus was to die on the cross, he shared the words in today’s scripture with his followers. They are for extroverts and introverts alike. 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 prompted by the love God has shown us. And when we do our spiritual life and church life, and community life all get a little bit better. We are to know the Jesus of joy so that we all experience the joy of Jesus and are better for it. 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, and money cannot 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, and our experience of community and church falls short for it is not complete without this joy of Jesus in us. 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 casts out all fear enabling our faith to shine forth. 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 learning to love. 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 being a Christian 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 initially believe. Being superficially Christian is attractive but eventually will cost us. Instead, we are to work out our salvation with the commitment of a relationship that will never end. Cheap grace is a problem. Communion without confession, Grace without discipleship, Grace without Jesus Christ and the cross is pointless. So, know that 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 means hanging out with social outcasts as well as the in 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 personal burden to produce at all costs. The combined effect 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 Jesus who experiences the Father and us too through the Holy Spirit. Instead of working to find rest we can work out of the rest we find in Jesus. We need to think differently about this and realize that working harder may not produce better results until we get our priorities straight. So, each day we are to put on the yoke of His friendship…each day we respond to His gentle nudges…each day we grow more mature in the love of Christ, 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 stressed? 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. If you do your part, God will do the rest. As Isaiah points out in a poem prayer, God is capable now and forever. God does not grow weary and has understanding that is beyond our ability to have. And yet if we keep these qualities of God before our minds and are patient, we are able to march on with hope beyond our hurts to peace and love of a better reality than the one we imagine now.
Pray that our priorities are in order, but we do not overthink what God has already figured out for us. 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 comforted in a life of 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 do not worry. Pray we do not doubt. Pray we are not 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 realizing that God not ourselves perfects our faith. Pray we realize that dealing with our problems may be a path to a stronger faith…the faith of Christ.
Blessings,
John Lawson
Daily Devotionals 