7th Sunday after Pentecost Proper 9

28 Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.

29 Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me; for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.

30 For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light."

I really appreciate this text. It tells us to come to Jesus and lay our cares, our burdens, our whole selves on Him. Jesus wants to help us carry the burdens of life. Because we live in an imperfect world, because we are both saint and sinner at the same time, we will have burdens to carry. They may be burdens of illness, burdens of guilt, burdens of sorrow and grief, burdens of despair as one looses a job, whatever, Jesus says come and lay those on me. Jesus knows that we cannot handle all the cares of life by ourselves, so he says come.

We are not to be 'supermen' in our dealing with life. But we are to share those burdens and cares with Jesus. Not where does it say that Jesus expects us to be self reliant, but He says over and over again to come. Come and I will give you rest.


God has not promised skies always blue,
Flower-strewn pathways all our life through;
God has not promised sun without rain,
Joy without sorrow, peace without pain.
But God has promised strength for the day,
Rest for the labor, light for the way;
Grace for the trials, help from above,
Unfailing sympathy, undying love.

Source Unknown.

I love the above poem. For it says exactly what life is. Life is not easy, but God through Christ will be there for us.

5th Sunday after Pentecost Proper 7

Jesus did not answer the age old question: "Why do many innocent people, including little children, suffer and die prematurely? Why does God allow it to happen?" 

His message (about sparrow) was to assure us that God did care, did feel in the Divine heart the pain of every fall and the grief of every death. from SermonNuggets

I did not preach on this subject, but it does pose an interesting question.

We do have innocent suffering all around us. Is it the will of God? I don't think so. Jesus did not say what caused that sparrow to fall, but when it fell, God was concerned.


And the story below, I think, speaks well to the subject.

Dr. William Sloan Coffin of New York's Riverside Church said this in the April 20,1984 Lutheran Standard after the death of his son, Alex."The night after Alex died, I was sitting in the living room of my sister's house outside of Boston, when a middle-aged lady came in, shook her head when she saw me and said, "I just don't understand the will of God."

Instantly, I was up and in hot pursuit, swarming all over her. "I'll say you don't, lady!!" I said. (I knew the anger would do me good, and the instruction to her was long overdue. )

I continued,"Do you think it was the will of God that Alex never fixed that lousy windshield wiper of his, that he was probably driving too fast in such a storm, that he probably had had a couple of 'frosties' too many? Do you think it is God's will that there are no street lights along that stretch of road, and no guard rails separating the road and Boston Harbor?"P>

Dr. Coffin continues in the article, "Nothing so infuriates me as the incapacity of seemingly intelligent people to get it through their heads that God doesn't go around this world with his fingers on triggers, his fist around knives, his hands on steering wheels. God is against all unnatural deaths. And Christ spent an inordinate amount of time delivering people from paralysis, insanity, leprosy and muteness. As Alex's younger brother put it simply, standing at the head of the casket, "You blew it buddy. You blew it."

Dr. Coffin continues:"The one thing that should never be said when someone dies is,"It is the will of God." Never do we know enough to say that. My consolation lies in knowing that it was not the will of God that Alex die; that when the waves closed over the sinking car, God's was the first of all our hearts to break."

In the link below, I have a sermon which I wrote on innocent suffering.

Link

4th Sunday after Pentecost Proper 6

Some personal reflections on the gospel lesson.

The columnist, George Will wrote a column several weeks ago in which he said, we American should be more like a fore fathers in that we should display more courage, stoicism and self-reliance.

In other words, I think he meant that we should just worry about ourselves and show no emotions about our lot in life.

I think he meant we should be more like the Spartans of old. The old Greek city-state of Sparta would take their infirm, their old agers, their wounded in battle who could no longer fight and would take them up on a mountain top, give them a blanket and let them die, out of sight, and our of mind.

I think some people in the government and some conservative commentators would say, "If you cannot take care of yourself, the hell with you!" Be self reliant, be stoic, don't worry about anyone but yourself.

But at the same time, these same people keep saying over and over again that we are a Christian nation. A Christian nation means one that follows the teaching of Jesus. And Jesus taught in our gospel lesson for this week, that we are to be people of compassion.

We are to reach out to those less fortunate in our society with a helping hand.

We aren't to say to those less fortunate, "hell with you" if you cannot make it on your own, if you need a helping hand.

We are to show compassion.

Compassion is simply understanding someone's deepest needs together with a desire to do something about it.

Do we have a desire to do something about someone's deepest needs?