Jesus’ Invitation
Psalm 145:8-14; Matthew 11:16-19, 25-30
6th Sunday After Pentecost, July 9, 2023
Pastor Ritva H Williams
This week, John and I finished watching the Netflix series “Manifest.” It is billed as a supernatural drama. It features the passengers and crew of a commercial airline who suddenly reappear after being presumed dead for five and half years. They experience “callings” from divine consciousness that they have to solve in order to earn salvation, and avert the apocalypse. The religious ideas in this series are one hot mess — there is little to no gospel there. I also had a conversation with a young person who is confused about religion and the Bible. They have been angered and hurt by persons who claim to be deeply committed Christian, Bible believers but have turned out to be controlling and abusive of the people they claim to love.
This morning’s reading from Psalm 145 provides a wonderful guide to help us sift through all the different ideas about God we encounter in daily life among our neighbors and on social media. Verse 8: “The Lord is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love” paraphrases God’s self-revelation to Moses at Mount Sinai:
The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for the thousandth generation, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin …” (Exodus 34:6).
These words by God reveal God’s core identity, characteristics, and values. They are the foundation on which God builds relationships with us. The biblical writers seeking to make sense of life and faith returned to this verse over and over again. Someone once counted more than 200 versions of this verse in the Hebrew Bible. 200 repetitions suggests that it is really important. What we hear in this morning’s reading is an answer to the question: so what? What difference does it make if God is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love?
God is good to all.
God’s compassion is over all God has made.
All God’s works give thanks to God
God’s faithful bless God’s holy name and make known to all people God’s mighty deeds
God’s reign is everlasting throughout all generations
All God’s words are faithful
All God’s deeds are gracious
God upholds all who are falling and raises up all who are bowed down.
Nine times in eight verses we hear the word “all,” emphasizing that God’s grace, mercy, and love are for all people, especially for all who are falling and all who are bowed down. This is good news that we can hold onto especially when times are hard and the going is tough.
In our gospel lesson Jesus begins by describing the reality of “this generation.” He was speaking to and about folks living in 1st century Galilee, comparing them to children calling out to “the others.” These others might be other children (as our NRSV translation seems to suggest) but “the others” are more likely “they” — the persons who condemn John the Baptist as a demon, and call Jesus a glutton and a drunkard. In the world of Jesus, “they” would be the really religious, politically powerful elites collaborating with the Roman Empire. “They” are the ones who refuse to respond to either the joys or sorrows of “this generation.” Whenever someone like John the Baptist or Jesus calls these really religious politically powerful elites to account “they” respond by trying to discredit their critics with personal character attacks.
I wonder if and how Jesus’ words about “this generation” in first century Galilee might apply to “this generation” in 21st century America.
That demon, John the Baptist called people to repent by confessing their sins and changing their lives in preparation for the coming of God’s reign. That glutton and drunkard, Jesus of Nazareth, proclaimed God’s reign was happening here and now. Jesus publicly affirmed and blessed the poor and the poor in spirit, the grieving, the meek, the hungry and those who hunger for justice, the merciful, the pure in heart, the peacemakers and the persecuted (Matthew 5:1-11; Luke 6:17, 20-23). Jesus offered his own distinctive interpretation and application of ancient scriptures, healed the sick and suffering, and sent his disciples out to do the same.
In these verses Jesus let the disciples past and present know how the powers-that-be are likely to respond. In the face of criticism, Jesus says don’t worry about it: wisdom is vindicated by her deeds. In other words, you can tell a true prophet by their “fruit,” by what they do and what they produce. In other words, use your head and stay the course.
Our gospel lesson closes with my favorite verses. Jesus the Christ, issues a universal invitation that epitomizes God’s grace, mercy, and steadfast love:
Come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens. 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).
All of us experience weariness of body, mind and soul at points in our lives. All of us feel the weight of carrying physical, emotional, psychological, and/or spiritual loads at different times in our lives. Each person’s weariness and burdens are distinctive, some might be dumped on us by others, some might be self-imposed. It doesn’t matter. Jesus invites all who are weary and carrying heavy burdens to come to him — to drop all the heavy stuff — and take up the yoke of Christ and learn.
In the Jewish world of Jesus, "yoke” was a common image for the study and practice of Torah. Jesus invites all of us to sit at Christ’s feet to learn how to know, live and share God’s grace, mercy and love. The way of Christ promises rest — not a short little nap, but true soul deep sabbath rest, the kind that puts a person on the road to recovery and healing.
Jesus says that Christ’s yoke is easy (according to the NRSV translation). But the original Greek word chrestos means good, benevolent, worthy, loving, kind. How could it be anything else when the way of Christ begins by affirming the fundamental dignity of every person. The way of Christ encourages us to know and live into our very best child-of-God selves, and to share the good news by helping others live into their very best child-of-God selves too. This is not always “easy” as we usually think of easy, but it is definitely good, benevolent, worthy, loving and kind. And so much lighter to bear than guilt and shame, anxiety and fear, anger and hate.
I conclude these reflections with a word of hope for all who are weary and heavy laden from Jan Richardson:
Do not despair.
You hold the memory of what is was to be whole.
It lives deep in your bones.
It abides in your heart that has been torn and mended a hundred times.
It persists in your lungs that know the mystery of what it means to be full,
to be empty, to be full again.
I am not asking you to give up your grip on the shards that you clasp so close to you
but to wonder what it would be like for those jagged edges to meet each other
in some new pattern that you have never imagined, that you have never dared to dream.
Amen.
