Take a Rest
June 14, 2015
Mark S.
Bollwinkel
A very
good friend of mine shared a brilliant insight.
Although very spiritual, he is not a Christian. Hearing of the variety of projects, programs
and work in which Bonnie and I are involved he said, “You know what the trouble
with you Christians is, you are always trying to take Jesus off the cross.”
He has been able to see the tendency
in Christians to expend vast amounts of energy to serve the poor, assist their
churches and to volunteer for the countless organizations that help
others. In all the busyness and effort,
how often we become martyrs vainly trying to ‘out martyr’ the greatest martyr
of all.
I am notorious for grabbing the check at a lunch or
dinner out. I love to pay the bill. It must have something to do with ego or
macho or my own need to be a public martyr.
I once attended a missionary conference in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia and at
a certain lunch our table of 6 professional missionaries nearly broke out into
a fist fight over who would get the privilege to pay the bill. It’s nearly
impossible to ‘out martyr’ professional martyrs! [Now if I start getting a flood of calls for
meal appointments from this sermon I’ll know why!]
Maybe you understand what it means to see yourself
as a martyr? At work, at home, in your relationships, with your kids, in your
faith?
It is as if we thought we could save
our Lord from the cross if only we could make the world right. Rather than accepting that it is by his dying
for us that we become right with the world.
Our faith in Christ is not so much a
matter of spitting on our hands and working harder to make ourselves whole, as
it is a growing awareness of, and a humble appreciation for, the One who is
working in us to make us complete. We
are called to participate in the salvation of the world, certainly. But ultimately the world’s salvation is not
all up to us. That is God’s job.
How much time do we allow ourselves to be fed and
energized by others and God? As
important as it is to give, why is it so hard for us to receive? Why do so many of us fall into the trap of
“being all things for all people”?
And Jesus says to us this morning, “Take a rest”.
The apostle Paul had the same struggle in which many
of us find ourselves. Talk about a
martyr!
Paul boasts of his sufferings in order to justify
his status as an apostle:
“Five times I have received…the forty lashes
minus one. Three times I was beaten with
rods. Once I received a stoning. Three times I was shipwrecked. For a night and a day I was adrift at
sea. On frequent journeys, I was in
danger from rivers, danger from bandits, danger from my own people, danger from
Gentiles, danger in the city, danger in the wilderness, danger at sea, danger
from false brothers and sisters. In toil
and hardship through many a sleepless nights, hungry and thirsty, often without
food, cold and naked and…I am under daily pressure because of my anxiety for
all the churches…” (II Corinthians 11:16-33).
Boasting about beatings and imprisonment and
shipwrecks may seem odd to us modern, sophisticated folk. But how many of us subtly boast to our
bosses, our spouses and colleagues abut how many hours we work each week, how
we come into the office on weekends, how we check our voicemail and answer our
emails during vacations?
We get the impression that Paul never rested from
the time of his enlightenment on the Damascus Road until his final days in
Rome. He was constantly preaching,
teaching and starting new churches where ever he went. And at a personal cost
most of us find inconceivable.
Yet this same saint laments, “I do not understand my
own actions. For I do not do what I
want, but I do the very thing I hate.” (Romans 7:15) Paul will admit to a personal physical,
emotional or mental disability plaguing his life which he calls his “thorn in
his flesh” given by God to keep him humble (II Corinthians 12:7). [Scholars have debated what this problem was
for Paul for centuries and have come up with all sorts of ideas ranging from a
limp to a lisp, ugliness to a speech stutter, schizophrenia to
homosexuality.] These words come from
the person responsible for bringing Christianity out of a small Jewish sect in
Jerusalem to the boundaries of the known world of his day!
Even Paul has to remind himself who it is that really
saves the world. He writes:
“…the Lord said to me, “”My
grace is sufficient for you, for power is made perfect in weakness”” So, I will
boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may
dwell in me. Therefore I am content with
weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecution and calamities for the sake of
Christ; for whenever I am weak, then I am strong.” (II Corinthians 12:8-10)
Even the apostle Paul has to admit his
limitations. And it is in his honesty
about who he really is as a person that the apostle Paul comes to accept that
the salvation of the world is not all up to him.
Can we?
I am a compulsive overeater. I’ve struggled with obesity since I was in
Kindergarten. Most chuckle as Oprah
publicly loses and gains the same fifty pounds over and over again, but I weep
with her as I have done it myself a dozen times. I cannot resist a refrigerator. Once in seminary, Bonnie needed me to return
some library books, so she put them in the fridge with a note, knowing that it
is to the ice box I go first whenever I come home.
I can be a compulsive over-worker. Many of us know the siren song of the piles
on the desk, of the mail and email waiting to be answered, of the project that
wakes you up a night and is easier to finish than to get back to sleep. Don’t look to most preachers for
enlightenment on the subject. Making
ourselves indispensable feeds the craving to be needed.
There are many reasons for compulsive behaviors and
one of them is the narcotic affect it has on the pain and doubts and low
self-esteem in our lives. It is a way to
run and hide.
What do you do that you know isn’t good for you but
you can’t seem to stop? Smoking? Drinking too much alcohol? Too much TV?
If we have a compulsive behavior, we will understand Paul better. Because religion can become one as well.
We can attend churches that require worship
attendance on Wednesday, Saturday and twice on Sundays. We can find ourselves on three committees,
two fellowship groups and volunteering for various ecumenical organizations. We can read every new book out by every
preacher and religious expert. We can
buy tapes of the scripture or religious instruction to play in our cars. We can send the kids to church school, camp
and catechism. We can get busy for the
Lord!!!
When religion becomes a compulsive behavior it loses
its power.
Part of Paul’s greatness is that he can see himself
honestly. He is all too aware of the
conflict in the self between what we know and what we do. Paul shares our cry that this self-alienation
is a condition, not an occasional act.
We can’t save the world with our religious activities, no matter how
sincere, even Paul the apostle knows that.
We can’t even save ourselves from our own compulsions.
Who then will rescue us?
In our scripture lesson this morning from Matthew,
the disciples are having a rough time of it.
There is controversy and bitterness between them and the followers of
John the Baptist. They have traveled to
many villages where folks refused to listen to their message and be
healed. They are facing failure and
discouragement about their efforts when Jesus says, “Come to me and I will give
you rest.”
What a welcome invitation to those of us who are
sick and tired of trying to be all things for all people. What a liberating word to those of us who
obey all the rules, knock ourselves out trying to do good things, trying to
earn God’s favor.
“Come to me and I will give you rest”.
We don’t have to do anything to receive God’s
love. We don’t have to be in church four
times a week. Maybe we can come to
church not because we’re supposed to but just to be peaceful for a while. Of all places, the church should be a place
where we can be honest about our needs and our limitations and not be judged by
them but loved as children of God.
We don’t have to fill the spiritual airways with our
prayerful requests. Maybe we can be
silent and listen to what God has to say every now and then.
We don’t have to be on every committee in the church
or help in every project. Why not let
the church minister to you sometimes?
Our faith will not grow only by our effort to read
and study and find the right teacher.
Our faith will also grow when we stop…and rest. When we simply open ourselves to be sustained
and surround by God’s love.
You see, it is God who transforms us and the
world. We don’t have to do
anything. It is a gift. All we have to do is receive it. Yield to it.
Jesus says, “Come,
all of you with heavy burdens and take a rest”!
If you find yourself giving more than you are
receiving, be honest about who you really are and listen to Jesus’ words.
I have struggled to learn throughout my ministry
that the world is not all on my shoulders after all. People I love will die or will be healed no
matter how good of a minister I am.
People I love will divorce or marry in spite of my “expert”
counseling. Poverty, war and racism seem
to go on in spite of my preaching about it.
Good Lord, I can’t even stay out of an ice box, let
alone save my own soul! Thanks be to God
that the world’s salvation is not all up to us, we are only called to do our
part. Even we can afford to take a rest
now and then.
Amen.
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