PENTECOST 6
Oh boy. I love cranky Jesus. He is so annoyed in today’s gospel. He’s had it with these people who act like spoiled children. He is essentially saying, “What do you want from me? You’re never satisfied! Apparently, you want me to dance when you play the flute. You want me to wail on command.
You saw John living like an ascetic hermit, neither eating nor drinking and you decided he had a demon. So, I came along eating and drinking like a normal person. I went to weddings and parties. I hung out with sinners. And what did you say? You called me a glutton and a drunkard!”
David Lose says: “Maybe we should call it the Goldilocks syndrome: never being quite satisfied. John (and the God John represents) is just too severe, while Jesus (and the God he represents) is just too accepting. We’d like our religious leader to be just right, which pretty much means just like us.
But here’s the thing: if God were just like us, who would save us?”
Jesus quotes Ecclesiastes 3: ‘Yet wisdom is vindicated by her deeds.’ That’s like saying ‘the proof is in the pudding’ – Jesus is reminding them that he’s going around performing deeds like healing and raising people from the dead. Maybe they should judge him by seeing the wisdom in what he does.
Now, I think Jesus sounds kind of snide with this next remark, when he prays to his father and points out that these smart alecks can’t understand him, but tiny infants get him. He then makes it clear that he is really tight with God: “No one knows the Son except the Father; and no one knows the Father except the Son.”
But then, then, his tone changes. Jesus remembers how much he loves us and he puts his crankiness aside when he utters some of the most beautiful words in the Bible: “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.”
On this fourth of July weekend, these gentle words from Jesus bring to mind the famous poem from Emma Lazarus inscribed on the Statue of Liberty on Ellis Island: “Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free.” In 1886 when that statue was installed, our country was a place of refuge for tired and poor people from all over the world.
Eventually more than 12 million immigrants would pass through Ellis Island. These beautiful words represent the best spirit of our nation, a call of welcome to all. But times have changed, haven’t they? Frankly, I’m surprised that the current administration hasn’t sand blasted those words off the statue.
As is true of many Americans, I come from a family of immigrants. My Norwegian great grandparents emigrated to Bemidji, Minnesota where my grandmother Julia was born so she had birthright citizenship. My Mexican grandmother was born in New Mexico before it was a state. These strong, hardworking people joined their neighbors from all over the world to improve our country.
Our country seems to be singing a different song now, arbitrarily removing immigrants and throwing them in camps. There are currently 63,000 people interned in ICE detention camps. Is this how citizens of Germany felt as they saw internment camps sprouting up in their neighborhoods?
It is so easy to be overwhelmed by all that is happening. I have friends who are fighting health problems like elevated blood pressure, anxiety and serious depression just from reading the news.
I’ve dealt with depression all my life, so I’ve had to learn how to fend it off after all these years. Want to know my secret? “Come to me, all you that are weary and carrying heavy burdens. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”
Now Jesus doesn’t say that he’ll promise victory or wealth or national greatness. He does not promise that our side will win. He promises rest. God is the one who bears our burdens. God is the one who shows up in our need. God is the one who comes along side of us.
Jesus is standing right next to each of us, asking us to share the weight of our burdens with him. I take it literally: I envision a big wooden yoke put on oxen in a field but instead of a pair of oxen, it’s Jesus and I sharing the load. Jesus lets me rest when I share my worries with him.
Because I know that I can’t fix anything, because I trust that God is in charge, my burden is light. I have found my faith to be increasingly crucial to maintaining my peace of mind. I’m so grateful to have you all here at St. Marks. I’m so grateful to sing hymns and receive communion and just step out of my secular life for a couple of hours every week. I am so grateful to find peace in God’s presence here.
Jesus is gentle and humble in heart. Aren’t we lucky that no matter who our temporal leaders are, we have a true spiritual leader who is gentle and humble in heart. Wow, there couldn’t be a bigger contrast in management styles between our current president and our Lord!
So, today unload your burdens onto the strong shoulders of Jesus. Share your worries and concerns and let them go with trust that God is in charge, and you will find rest for your soul.
Please pray with me: Our nation was founded with beautiful ideals 250 years ago. Help us to rebuild a society where burdens are lighter, where the weary find rest, where the vulnerable are protected, where strangers are welcomed, where power is exercised with humility and where love of neighbor is more than a slogan. God help us to become the kind of people and the kind of nation that more closely reflects the gentle and humble heart of Christ.
Amen