"Your Right to Rest"
David C. Myers
September 2, 2007
Communion
Matthew 11:28 - 30
Hebrews 4:4, 9 - 11
Mark 1:29 - 39
Text: "Come to Me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.". . . Matthew 11:28
My wife Debbie, the preacher's critic, who knows of, but does not understand, my penchant for liking to sleep in the morning, said to me upon learning that I was going to be preaching on rest - "Oh, you're preaching on what you do best!"
It's always nice to know where your support is.
But, in truth, regardless of my seeming sloth prior to the civilized hours of the p.m., rest is not something I do very well. Even when I take a day off, unless I am out of town, work seems to haunt me. It's not so much that I am burdened by you folks; but, well, I'll occasionally stop by the office, or if at home, work on the sermon, or I'll do something for either of the Annual Conferences I'm affiliated with - New England and Baltimore-Washington.
But, . . . I'm better than I used to be. You see, to live as a disciple, not only are we to be faithful and work hard, but we also have a right to rest; . . . even more than that, we are called to rest. As Jesus said in Matthew's lesson, "Come to Me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest."
In the Judeo-Christian tradition, rest is important.
This morning, I'd like to spend a few minutes about what I call the three "R's" of rest - relief, release, and reconciliation.
Relief. "Come to Me, all who labor, . . . and I will give you rest." I don't think that it would come as a surprise to any of you for me to say something about the inordinate amount of pressure in the world we live to achieve and excel. Suffice it to say that this pressure drives us to an incredible amount of labor. It is an easy thing with which to identify, especially as we begin to contemplate a vacation. We spend weeks looking forward to it, we have it and it goes by before we know it, and then . . . we are right back in the "grind." Because of this, for some people it is most laborious even to take a vacation. There is almost a badge of honor in saying, "I haven't taken a vacation in years." Somehow, we can easily miss the fact that recreational vacations are for re-creation.
I once heard a story about a boy who had trouble with grammar, and in particular always said, "I have went." After many polite and gentle corrective efforts his teacher decided that drastic and "good-old-fashioned" action needed to be taken. So she had the boy stay after school and write on the blackboard 200 times, "I have gone." The poor lad labored away for what seemed, to his 10-year-old mind, an eternity. When he finally finished, lo and behold, the teacher was nowhere to be found. So the boy left a note; "I have finished and I have went home."
The point is even if we have taken our vacations, we have went on working the remainder of the year. . . . The rest Jesus offers to those who labor is more than the once-a-year rest, and, it is more renewing and energizing than the annual interlude we take.
Jesus offers the relief of rest to those who labor. In Mark's Gospel Lesson we find that Jesus slipped off by himself so that after a whirlwind of activity He could rest and pray. Indeed, God labored six days in creating the world, but the seventh was for rest. Most of us don't have much trouble with the work part of the creation story. Hard work is part of the Protestant ethic and the pressure to work hard to excel comes up in aces in our part of the world. No, work is not our problem, it's the Sabbath rest that gives us trouble.
The traditional Jewish Sabbath laws are a time to appreciate, to give thanks, to give praise and to worship the God Who creates all things. It acknowledges a day of rest and renewal. Its purpose is to give us relief from our work.
2. Release. If rest gives us relief from our labors, than those who are heavy laden are given release. Hard labor is one thing, but being heavy laden is a psychological condition that oppresses and robs people of their freedom. It is a condition that may originate externally, but then changes so that the restrictions and bonds are internalized and our psyches become chained and we no longer are free.
"Come to Me," says the voice of Jesus. And to those who respond to the invitation are given release. "I have come to proclaim release to the captives and set at liberty those oppressed," are the words of Jesus.
Robert Raines, in his book, Living the Questions, relates the story of how he found release when he was in a therapy retreat. He writes:
"In the sparring conversation a sore spot was touched in me. An ache started moving. I knew I was going to cry. I hadn't cried for years, maybe decades. I resisted; my neck muscles distended until my chin hit the table and the tears of 40 years poured out. The heaving hurts of all my life shook loose the tight identities of person and profession. The frail structures of my inner and outer being were overwhelmed. I went out into the night alone, groping among my multiple selves.
(Raines weaves the story of Jacob wrestling with the angel of God by quoting from Genesis 32):
"And Jacob was left alone; and a man wrestled with him until the breaking of the day." . . . "When the man saw that he did not prevail against Jacob, he touched the hollow of [Jacob's] thigh and Jacob's thigh was put out of joint as he wrestled with him. Then he said, "I will not let you go, unless you bless me." And he said to him, "What is your name?" And he said, "Jacob." Then the man said, "Your name shall no longer be called Jacob, but Israel, for you have striven with God and with people and have prevailed." . . . And there he blessed him.
. . . (Raines continues,) ". . . As a child I learned to deny my demons in the dark, repress my negative feelings, hold in my tears, muffle my passion, and cover my anger. [It was] surface harmony at the cost of emotional honesty. . . . [In reality I would be] letting the demon go without [getting] a blessing. Since [that therapy group], I have been learning that the way to drain my demons of their destructivity is to wrestle them to a blessing, to refuse to let them go until they yield me their creative energy.
And again quoting from Genesis, Raines writes: "So Jacob called the name of the place Peniel, saying, 'For I have seen God face to face, and yet my life is preserved.' The sun rose upon him as he passed . . . limping."
By wrestling with God, Jacob was given release from the demons that oppressed, bound, and restricted him. . . . And with his release, he was given a blessing, and limped out in the sunlight. Jesus said, "Come to Me, . . . all who are heavy laden, and I will give you rest." Release from our restrictive burdens is the second "R" of rest - an integral part of the Sabbath rest.
3.) The third "R" of rest is reconciliation. Jesus came to earth to reconcile us to the wholeness for which we are created. To this end He calls all of us who labor to come to Him and experience the relief of rest. "Come to Me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest." What really is happening when we respond to that invitation is that we enter into the Sabbath rest which unites us with God as the Kingdom of God breaks into our lives. We become reconciled with God. The Sabbath rest renews us to examine who we are and what we do in our relationships and in our labors to see if we are aligned with God's Will.
Then we are able to do as God did after laboring at the creation for six days - we are able to look around at all that is created and say, "that's good!", and then rest and enjoy it. This is the Sabbath rest - reconciled with God, able to say our labors were part of our partnership with God in the ongoing creation and say, "look at my labor done through the gifts God gave me - that's good, that's God's!"
The Sabbath rest releases us from that which restricts and binds us, allows us to be reconciled with God, and its rest renews us. The Sabbath rest prepares us to carry on, unafraid - for we know that the labor we do is part of God's creation. The Sabbath rest is so calming, so freeing, that we know that Christ's yoke is easy and His burden light. Reconciled with God, released from our heavy burdens, and rested to resume our partnership in God's great creation.
As Harry Emerson Fosdick, the great preacher of about 100 years ago at New York City's Riverside Church said, "[those] who cannot rest, cannot work; . . ." But to those who respond to Jesus' invitation know that his yoke is easy and his burden is light.
God, through the Sacrament of Communion, gives us another opportunity for a Sabbath. Through the forgiveness we receive and the grace and peace we share we become reconciled as a community and at one with God. We are freed to truly rest, and then to truly serve.
You are invited to join in the Communion feast of reconciliation to one another and to God.