God meets us in the wilderness places, providing what we need and equipping us for the journey.

Vicar Bristol Reading
The Ninth Sunday after Pentecost, Lectionary 18 A
Texts: Genesis 32:22-31; Matthew 14:13-21

Grace and peace to you all, in the name of the Father, and of the + Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Jesus just wants a little time away.

He’s just received some devastating news about the death of his relative John the Baptist, a man whom Jesus admired greatly. It isn’t necessarily unexpected news: John’s popularity and outspokenness had long irritated the local ruler, Herod, who’d had John imprisoned.

Still, even if John’s death had been a long time coming, this had to have been tough news for Jesus and his disciples – not only because they’d lost an influential teacher of the Gospel, but also because John’s execution served as a reminder. It’s dangerous to be on the wrong side of those in power. It can cost you your life. That’s a lesson Jesus certainly won’t be able to forget.

Although he just wants a little time away to process this news, crowds of people end up following him way out into the wilderness, to “a deserted place,” as the text says. The crowds are hungry to hear Jesus’ healing words, to feel his healing touch. And then, as the day wears on, they’re just plain hungry.

All these people have walked a long way, and now everyone realizes there is no good plan for supper.

No one packed picnics. There are no food trucks. They can’t drop by the nearest falafel joint. Thousands of tired and hungry people gathered way out in the middle of nowhere. How will the mood shift when they realize they’re in for a long night without a meal?

The disciples get nervous and tell Jesus it’s time to send the people away. Let them travel back to their villages and buy their own dinner there. But Jesus feels differently. Sometimes the wilderness is exactly where you’re meant to be. “They don’t need to leave,” he says, “We’ll just feed them here.” “Here? We have nothing here,” the disciples respond, holding up a few loaves of bread and prepared fish. Too meager a meal for even a few, let alone a crowd. That may be so… but not in the hands of Jesus.

Have the disciples already forgotten all those parables that Jesus told about the abundance of life in God?

The kingdom of God is like a tiny seed, Jesus had said, that grows into an untamable shrub. It is like a pinch of yeast that transforms flour into rising dough. It is like a fishing net that is unable to contain the weight of its copious catch. Life in God expands and overflows. In God’s realm, there is enough for everyone!

When Jesus had told the disciples those stories and asked them, “Do you understand what I’m telling you?” they’d said, “Yes, sure, we understand.” So why don’t they know that in the kingdom of God, a few loaves and fishes can become a meal for thousands, with leftovers besides? Why do they see scarcity where God can create plenty?

Perhaps it’s the gnawing hunger in their own bellies. Perhaps it’s the growing anxiety in their own hearts. It can be easy to trust in God’s provision when it’s a story about someone else, when it’s just a metaphor about a farmer or a fisherman. It’s harder to trust in God’s abundance when you’re tired and hungry. It’s harder to trust when you’re far from home and night is falling. It’s harder to trust when you’re coping with news of death and violence and your own future feels uncertain.

Despite the disciples’ fear and doubt, God-in-Christ is right there with them, present with them and providing for them.

Providing for everyone, actually. Jesus makes a way where there seemed to be no way. Somehow, out in that deserted place, with so few provisions, there is healing and food to go around. The text says “all were filled.” Everyone gets what they need.

It’s an encouraging reminder that God can provide even when there seems to be so little, even when the wilderness surrounding you seems so barren.

Actually, today we heard two stories of God’s unexpected provision in the wilderness, because this is also Jacob’s situation in the Genesis reading.

Jacob, too, has traveled a long way and finds himself out in the wilderness as night draws near. He has sent his household caravan ahead of him, so he is empty-handed, without supplies. Jacob is journeying to meet his brother, Esau, the same brother he deceived and stole from, the same brother he’s been avoiding for years. Jacob must have been nervous, wondering how that reunion would go. Facing an uncertain future, Jacob is left alone in the dark, alone with his fear and doubt.

Except, of course, he isn’t really alone; God is there with him in the wilderness.

And, again, God provides. Certainly not in the way Jacob expects, though. God shows up like a force to be reckoned with. Sometimes when God meets you in the wilderness, you will be healed and fed, and sometimes, you will be wrestled to the ground and irreversibly changed – but both can be gifts.

Jacob leaves that mysterious encounter with a limp. But he also leaves with a blessing and a new name. Like the crowds who followed Jesus into the wilderness, Jacob gets what he needs. His future is still uncertain, to be sure; he still has to face the consequences of his past and the realities of his future. But he can be confident that God goes with him into the unknown. He can know that, even in the darkest wilderness, God is present and God provides.

I know for many of you, these last few months have felt like a journey into a barren wilderness.

Perhaps you have faced nights when all you are left with is your exhaustion and longing. The news is so scary, the future is so uncertain, and you’re so unprepared. So much has been taken away that it’s hard not to focus on what’s missing, not to be aware of what you don’t have.

Out in that deserted place, the disciples looked at their situation and told Jesus: “We have nothing here.” But of course, they didn’t have nothing. They had five loaves of bread, two fish, and one savior whose love for them could conquer anything– scarcity, fear, even death.

You have that, too.

No matter what has been taken away from you, no matter what you’ve lost, no matter what you’re hungering for, no matter how uncertain a future you face, your savior is present with you, right now, right where you are. There is no wilderness place, literal or spiritual, that is so remote that God won’t meet you there.

And however little it feels like you have to contribute, it is enough for God to work with.

Like Jesus did with the disciples, putting that food in their hands that they might share it with others, God can work miraculous generosity through your hands, your actions. Like God did with Jacob, transforming him and guiding him that he might become an ancestor of the faithful, God can use your life, your story to tell of God’s goodness and mercy.

So, when you’re out there in the wilderness feeling like you have nothing left, feeling like you have no idea what comes next, trust in God’s abundance. Know that even in the wilderness, it is enough for you, enough for everyone, enough forever.

Amen.

These images are Good News of God’s persistent grace in bringing life and healing to all through you and through me.

Pr. Joseph G. Crippen
The Eighth Sunday after Pentecost, Lectionary 17 A
Texts: Matthew 13:31-33, 44-52; Romans 8:26-39; Genesis 29:15-28

Beloved in Christ, grace to you, and peace in the name of the Father, and of the + Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen

Jesus is telling good news here.

That’s the truth in these parables of the reign of heaven. “Jesus went through Galilee,” Matthew says, “proclaiming the Good News of the reign of heaven, saying it has come near.” (4:17, 23)

These images are all Good News. And that means there’s hope.

There’s hope in a tiny seed, Jesus says.

Walking alongside a field, seeing a mustard plant, Jesus says, “That’s what I’m talking about! God’s reign, the reign of heaven, is like that.”

A tiny seed, carrying the whole life and future of the larger plant inside it, doesn’t reveal that potential. But it will germinate and grow and become a shelter for birds, a giver of shade.

Good news, Jesus says. That’s what you are! You might feel insignificant, small, unable to do much for this world’s pain, but you have the glory of God’s love and grace already within you. Living in God’s reign of love, you will grow and thrive and give shade and shelter in ways you can’t imagine, a blessing to others.

Have hope in that, Jesus says.

There’s hope in yeast, Jesus says.

Glimpsing a woman through a doorway who’s making bread, Jesus says, “That’s what I’m talking about! God’s reign, the reign of heaven, is like that.”

Just a few little organisms placed in a big pile of flour start to grow, eat sugars, and a miracle happens: a loaf rises out of that sticky lump, and once baked, it’s a delight to the eyes, the nose, the mouth, the stomach.

Good news, Jesus says. That’s what you are! You might feel insufficient, and the problems of the suffering world immense: what can so few do? But when you join with others and love as Christ in your little space in this suffering world, you change the chemistry of your world. From what seems unsightly and inedible comes nourishment for all, like beautiful bread.

Have hope in that, Jesus says.

There’s also hope if you can learn to see real treasure, Jesus says.

If you found a treasure only you knew about, you’d do all you could to have it be yours. If you spent your life searching for the most beautiful pearl and found it, you’d sell everything to have it.

But what if you don’t see the reign of heaven as such a treasure, such a pearl? Try this: In God’s reign, love of God and love of neighbor transform and heal all things. Imagine this world, this city, if all loved God, all loved their neighbor. That’s the treasure of God’s reign, Jesus says, that’s the pearl.

Good news, Jesus says. This way of vulnerable love which I’m calling you to walk is one that will bring joy and life to you and to those around you, transform your world. It is the most precious thing you could know.

Have hope in that, Jesus says.

There’s even hope in a big, wide net, Jesus says.

Watching people pulling in nets on the lake, Jesus says, “That’s what I’m talking about! God’s reign, the reign of heaven, is like that.”

A net pulls in more than fish, though. Driftwood, old boots, even what some would call trash. Only the Netminder gets to decide what’s worth keeping and what isn’t. Now, the added interpretation here says in the end times the good will be kept and the evil thrown on the fire.

But that’s not Jesus’ verdict. At the cross, drawing all things to himself, Jesus said, “every single thing in this net, in this world, in this creation, is mine and loved and redeemed by this.” Nothing will be thrown and burned.

This net opens up the joy of Paul’s strange words today about predestination that sometimes cause anxiety. Look carefully at Paul’s logic. He starts with “those God whom foreknew.” Well, the Triune God created all things, so is there anyone God doesn’t foreknow, any thing?

And all God foreknew, Paul says, God predestined to be conformed to the image of Christ. Since God obviously foreknew the whole creation, then God also predestined all things to be shaped into Christ’s love. And those God predestined, God called, Paul says. Who wants to argue that God doesn’t call everyone, everything? And those whom God called, God justified, and those whom God justified God glorified. Follow the logic: all are foreknown, so all are predestined to conform to Christ, therefore all are called, all are justified, all are glorified. God’s net is as wide and inclusive as the universe.

Good news, Jesus says. You might be an old boot, but God treasures you. Have hope in that, Jesus says.

One thing here might give you concern: time is needed for all these.

The seed doesn’t grow instantly; the bread needs hours to rise. The treasure finder needs time to re-bury, get money, get the title. The merchant spends a lifetime looking for the great pearl. And only when the net gets pulled up on shore is God’s treasure seen for what it is.

Good news is here, and hope is here. But be ready for things to take time. God’s reign – a way of working healing through each of us, through you, incarnate in you as love and grace – is not an instant fix.

Just look at Leah today, discarded, unloved by her husband, seen as a nuisance to be gotten rid of by her father, outshone by her sister. It’s a wretched story for Leah.

But remember this: Leah is the mother of Judah, the ancestor of David. Leah, not Rachel, is the multiple great-grandmother of Israel’s greatest king. And about 1,600 years after she was so shamefully treated, God’s Messiah, the Incarnate One, Jesus himself, is born from Leah’s line, not Rachel’s. Leah is the one in whom God’s glory shines, God’s favor spreads to the world. It just took some time.

Now can you see why Paul says, “Nothing can separate us from God’s love in Christ Jesus?”

Even if it takes centuries, God will accomplish the healing and restoration of all things through this vulnerable love. If these stories tell you anything about God it is that God is persistent and steady and will finally get what God desires. Even if God has to die and rise to get it all started. Even if God has to work with tiny little seeds like you and me, people who struggle to see the treasure when it’s right in front of us, people who want to kick others out of the net.

At the cross, Christ drew all things into God’s embrace in order to send out all things for the healing of the creation. So God’s reign will come, is already near.

Seeds are growing into trees, yeast is creating bread, treasures are found, nets are gathering in all things, and Leah has become Messiah’s grandma.

Have hope in this. This is good news. For you. For all.

In the name of Jesus.  Amen

Patience is suffering, and while we wait for God’s healing of all things, there is suffering, but there is also hope. And in that hope we wait with patience.

Pr. Joseph G. Crippen
The Seventh Sunday after Pentecost, Lectionary 16 A
Texts: Matthew 13:24-30; Romans 8:12-25; Psalm 139:1-12, 23-24

Beloved in Christ, grace to you, and peace in the name of the Father, and of the + Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen

Saying “be patient” can be destructive.

In the mouths of those in power “be patient” is a way to maintain the status quo, to keep quiet those who are powerless or oppressed. “Be patient” has been used for centuries to thwart progress, end reformation, divert attention from what harms or oppresses or destroys.

So be careful with Paul today, who tells his Roman Christians we wait with patience for God’s healing of the whole creation. If we urge “be patient while you wait for God to bring wholeness and life to this bitterly divided and dying world,” we could actually perpetuate the evil.

But within the word “patience” itself is the clarity we need to be faithful.

In the languages of the West, patience has an important heart.

As far back as we can see, through the Greek and Latin and Germanic and Romantic languages as they evolved into the English language we share, whatever word is used for patience is created from the root word for suffering.

To be patient, our language says, is to suffer. We see this in another usage: the person suffering in the hospital is called the “patient.” You can’t understand “patience” without remembering that for thousands of years, people whose language we now speak in our own way, didn’t understand patience apart from suffering.

So when Paul says “if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience,” he means – in his own Greek and in our modern English and all the languages in between – he means we suffer as we wait. “Being patient” doesn’t mean accepting the status quo or quashing reform or blindly pretending that just waiting will fix things. “Being patient” means we will suffer while we wait, while we work, while we hope.

This shines a different light on Jesus’ parable today.

Jesus says that good seed has been planted, but an enemy has sown evil seed. And we’re going to have to live with both good and evil side by side until the harvest is sorted.

That can give hope. We’re the ones in the parable saying, “Didn’t you make a good world, plant good seed?” and are reassured by God, “yes, I made this world good, but an enemy has brought wickedness and evil into it, so don’t be surprised or dismayed. I’ll take care of this.”

But it’s discouraging, too. We understand the urgency in today’s parable, the desire to root out all the evil right now. We don’t like to suffer. Or to see others suffer. And God’s plan of letting good and evil live together without always intervening will lead to much suffering. Has led to it. Just listen to the news, or walk seven blocks south or one block north of Mount Olive.

And the whole creation knows this, Paul says, suffers this.

Paul doesn’t limit salvation to humanity, or a percentage of humanity. For Paul, God’s healing is a comprehensive healing of all things – all people, all creatures, nature itself.

So the whole creation groans for God’s healing. The parable says we’re not imagining the evil spread throughout God’s good creation. Paul says we’re not alone in seeing this, either. All people, animals, rocks, trees, stars, waters, groan. All are patiently waiting, that is, waiting with suffering.

And what sign will tell the creation God’s healing has begun?

Paul says the creation is waiting for the revealing of the children of God. Those who are revealed as filled with God’s Spirit.

Now, consider the psalmist’s prayer today: “Look well whether there be any wickedness in me, O God, and lead me in the way that is everlasting,” and look again at the parable, keeping Paul’s words in mind. Jesus might not mean simplistically that the “weeds” are evil people and the “wheat” are righteous people. The psalmist and Paul suggest that each of us has God’s good seed growing in us, alongside evil seed that the enemy planted.

It is God’s weeding out of the evil in each of our hearts that will reveal us as children of God. And as more and more are revealed, the world will begin to heal. Our country, our city, can begin to heal.

Right now. Because we don’t have to wait for the end of time for the harvest.

We know all sorts of plants bloom and flower and bear fruit at different times in the year, not just fall. Surely Jesus means that of your heart. While things are growing in you, you might not be able to distinguish good from evil, so you should be careful about what you try to root out. But whenever something bears fruit – when you see what happens when what is growing in you comes to maturity – then you’ll know.

If it’s harming anyone or anything, it’s a weed, and now that fruit is obvious, you can ask God to remove it from your heart and burn it away. If it’s blessing and grace, you can praise God for that harvest in your life.

But patiently waiting for this is, as those before us have said, suffering. Suffering as we feel the pain of \ God burning our weeds. Suffering in the world as evil remains alongside good for a time. The path of being revealed as a child of God for the healing of the world is a path that always includes suffering for and with each other and the creation.

But our God is also a patient God. A suffering God.

It cost Jesus his life to be God-with-us and to call us to be children of God, good wheat bearing seeds, in a world where evil and good thrive side-by-side. And next week Paul will tell us the Holy Spirit speaks on our behalf with “sighs too deep for words,” groaning, suffering, on behalf of God’s children and God’s creation.

But remember, this suffering patience – God’s and our own – is labor pains, not death pains, Paul says. In spite of what we see in our world, and in our own hearts, God’s suffering Goodness and Grace and Love, willing to face and break death on behalf of all things, is now bearing Life for this world.

That’s our hope in the midst of the world’s and our groaning. The Triune God is already giving birth to a new creation, and as you are revealed more and more as God’s child, you are born along with that new creation, for the healing of all.

In the name of Jesus.  Amen

God’s vision for our world is like an abundant garden in which there is plenty for all. We become part of that vision by reflecting God’s generous love in our own lives.

Vicar Bristol Reading
The Sixth Sunday after Pentecost, Lectionary 15, year A
Texts: Romans 8:1-11; Matthew 13:1-9, 18-23

Dear friends in Christ, grace to you, and peace, in the name of the Father, and of the + Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

In today’s Gospel reading, Jesus tells this story about four different kinds of soil. There’s the soil of the road that’s been packed down and is too hard for seeds to take root in. There’s rocky soil that only allows for feeble, shallow growth. There’s thorny soil that’s too crowded with competing weeds. And then there’s good soil, in which the seeds can take root and be nourished and grow.
And hearing this story, naturally we want our hearts to be all good soil, all of the time, right? We want our spirits to be fertile ground in which God’s word can flourish, filling our lives with the bountiful fruits of the spirit: love, joy, peace, patience, gentleness.

But, maybe if you’re like me, you’ve noticed that some days lately, the soil of your heart does feel a little packed down, trampled by the constant bad news day after day, wearied by the isolation of quarantine. Maybe, some days, the soil of your heart feels a little looser, and a seed or two starts sprouting, but they don’t get very far because the rocks of grief and anger and dread limit how deep the roots of those little shoots can go. Or maybe some of your heart soil has been invaded by the prickly weeds of distraction that start crowding in and pulling your heart away from the truth of God’s voice.

Have you had any of those experiences? Have you wanted to be like the Psalmist who says to God: “I incline my heart to perform your statues forever, to the end”? (Psalm 119:112, NRSV) But then you realize that forever is a tall order. Eventually, your heart wanders in other directions, and looks less and less like that good soil of obedience to God’s word.

There’s a temptation to judge yourself, to imagine that if you just tried harder, you’d be all good soil all of the time. You just need to tend to your plot a little better. Maybe you can add a little fertilizer of extra prayer, or do some serious weeding of confession, or if things are looking really ugly, maybe you need to rent one of those giant tillers to dig everything up and just start over. It’s easy to think it’s your fault if the soil of your heart isn’t all healthy and fertile.

But the truth is: that kind of self-condemnation has no place in the Christian life. There is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. That’s what Paul writes in Romans. The Spirit of God dwells in you, giving you life! You’ve been set free by God’s grace! So Jesus isn’t telling this story about the seeds and the soil because he wants to highlight your failure, because he wants to condemn you for finding some rocks or thorns in the plot of your heart.

Listen to what Jesus says: God who is love has sown these seeds. The great gardener is doing this work in you. This isn’t an exacting farmer, carefully choosing the best soil, the most deserving soil, in which to plant these precious seeds. This sower is extravagantly, ridiculously generous. There are plenty of seeds, so many that they can just be thrown anywhere and everywhere. It’s like that joke about Oprah giving away prizes to everyone in her audience: “You get a car, and you get a car, and you get a car!” That’s how this farmer treats all kinds of soil: “You get seeds, and you get seeds and you get seeds!” You don’t have to earn the gift of God’s word. God’s word is given for you, and for you, and for you.

If that sounds like an inept, maybe even wasteful, farmer, that’s because this farmer isn’t concerned with efficiency. This farmer is willing to plant the seed of God’s word in any and all kinds of soil. No matter what the soil of your spirit looks at this particular moment, there is always the possibility of growth. And it doesn’t take much! The tiniest seed with the tiniest roots can grow into a plant that bears fruit. And then, it multiples exponentially, thirty-, sixty-, hundred-fold increase! It’s not just the farmer that’s extravagant, so is the growth! The yield is lavish! Plants that grow into more plants that grow into more plants – and all these yield fruit that creates more seeds.

According to Jesus, that’s what life is like when God is in charge: a wild and overflowing garden. There’s no miserly calculation of who deserves the resources of God’s grace. It isn’t about harsh condemnation of those who are undeserving or inadequate. In telling this story, Jesus describes a God who is recklessly generous, and whose dream for our life together is one in which there is not judgment but generosity, not competition but compassion. There is plenty and richness for all: all people, all creatures, all creation.

In this time we face of economic and social crisis, when so many people are out of work, when food lines are long and health care bills are high, and we are given the message again and again that other people getting enough will mean less for us, when we are told that there isn’t enough health care, or stimulus money, or jobs to go around… in this context, we need to remember that God’s vision for our world is radically different than that zero-sum outlook. God’s vision is the abundant overflowing garden. God’s vision is seeds for all kinds of soil, over and over again. God’s vision is a bountiful harvest.

You are a part of that vision. Whatever state your spirit is on a given day. Whether you’re feeling dry, or rocky, or weedy, or covered in compost and full of nutrients, you are a part of that vision. God, the tender gardener, isn’t waiting to condemn you but to transform you, to bring about radical new growth in you. We say at Mount Olive that we are “always in the presence of God,” so don’t doubt that this magnanimous God is, right now, cultivating that transformation in you, even on the days when it doesn’t feel that way. And boy there are days lately when it doesn’t feel that way. Yet, we are – always – in the presence of God.

We also say at Mount Olive that we are “always being the presence of God.” That’s your part in this vision, too. God’s word has come to you as gift. God’s word has grown in you as blessing. What will you do with that yield? How will your life reflect God’s boundless grace? Don’t be afraid to go out and sow love with the same reckless abandon that you’ve seen in God. There are plenty of seeds, more than enough. And in sowing more, we make more. Or, rather, God makes more, and for that, we rejoice!

Amen.

When you commit to the Gospel, you commit to take up the cross and follow the way of Jesus. That way can be uncomfortable and costly, and yet, it is the way of life.

Vicar Bristol Reading
The Fifth Sunday after Pentecost, Lectionary 14 A
Text: Romans 7:15-25a; Matthew 11:16-19, 25-30

Beloved in Christ, grace to you, and peace, in the name of the Father, and of the + Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Let’s set the scene for this Gospel text. Jesus had recently sent his disciples out as missionaries to bring the Gospel to new communities. Some places had been receptive to their message, but some places had just run them out of town. John the Baptist, who was in prison, heard rumors about the stir that Jesus and his disciples were causing. John sent concerned messages to Jesus, who responded by saying: “Blessed is anyone who takes no offense at me” (Matthew 11:6). It seems clear that some people were indeed taking offense at Jesus and his teachings.

That’s where our Gospel reading today picks up today. Jesus is frustrated! He’s frustrated that some people refused to listen to John the Baptist, refused to listen to Jesus, and refused to listen to his disciples.

Instead of receiving the message, people were criticizing the messengers, saying: John the Baptist was too strict; Jesus is too wild! If Jesus had known the story of Goldilocks and the three bears, he might have compared these people to Goldilocks grumbling that ‘this porridge is too hot; this porridge is too cold!’ Instead of really hearing the Gospel teaching just as it is, they were waiting until it felt just right. They were waiting for it to be comfortable on their terms.

The lectionary actually cuts out Jesus’ harshest words of condemnation. The Gospel writer says, “Jesus began to reproach the cities in which his deeds of power had been done, because they did not repent.” Jesus names some of those cities by name: “Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida!” (Matthew 11:20-21). Jesus concludes: It would have been better if they’d just brought the Good News to someone else.

No wonder some people were offended! This is not a warm-and-fuzzy Jesus. This is a turning-over-tables Jesus. Can you imagine being called out like that? Can you imagine Jesus saying: “Woe to you, Minneapolis! Woe to you, St. Paul! Other people took the Gospel seriously and repented. Why didn’t you?”

You can see why the lectionary left those lines out. It’s uncomfortable to listen to the Jesus we find confusing or offensive! Sometimes we just want to skip ahead to the Jesus we find relatable or reassuring. Sometimes we, too, want the Gospel message to feel just right. We don’t want to sit in the discomfort of realizing that, even though we don’t live in Chorazin or Bethsaida, a word of conviction might come for us. We might be reminded that we have not been listening to God. That the same God who offers us reassurance, also calls us to repentance. The same God who offers us comfort, calls us to transformation. Sometimes change is uncomfortable, so we’re tempted to just avoid it.

It’s important to realize, though, that Jesus isn’t just angry when he cries woe on certain cities. He’s sad. We don’t use the word “woe” very often, but the Greek word here is used throughout the New Testament. It’s a cry of frustration and dismay. It expresses sorrow that the inevitable consequences of an action will not be good. My seminary professor liked to translate this word as ‘alas!’ “Alas for you, Chorazin! Alas for you, Bethsaida!”

Jesus isn’t cursing these cities; he’s grieving. Jesus is distraught that they didn’t accept his teachings, that they didn’t change their hearts when they heard the message of the Gospel. He wants them to listen. He wants them to hear. He wants them to change. Jesus is bringing good news, even if it’s hard news. Discipleship might be challenging but it’s worth it. Jesus wants good for these communities who are rejecting him.

But Jesus doesn’t give up on even the most recalcitrant of people. That’s just not Jesus’ way.

He knows that his message can be hard to hear, That it can sound backwards. Jesus is teaching the way of sacrificial love that will lead him to death on a cross. That way will looks like weakness to those who have been considered powerful; like foolishness to those who have been considered wise. Jesus’ teachings resonated instead with those on the margins, those who suffered, those who were poor in wealth or poor in spirit; those who truly were truly hungry and thirsty for righteousness.

So Jesus offers the invitation again: “Come to me, you who are weary and carrying heavy burdens.” The strong and powerful, the intelligent and successful, they might have missed it. But if you’re tired and weighed down, this good news is for you. If you’re lost and afraid, this good news is for you. If you’re struggling and hurting, this good news is for you. If you’ve been labeled an outsider, this good news is for you. If you feel like you’ve failed, this good news is for you.

And what good news it is! Jesus says, “Take my yoke upon you, and I will give you rest.” Taking on the yoke of Christ, following the teachings of Jesus, brings rest for the soul. Who among us is not longing for that right now? Those who come to Christ are be received not with condemnation, but with gentleness.

No wonder Jesus is grieved that so many have rejected such a gift! Alas, alas, for them! This promise of Jesus, this gift of soul rest, is for those who follow Jesus’ teaching, who take up his cross. You can’t wait for the Gospel message to feel just right. You can’t think, “I’m strong enough to do this on my own, without God.”

But you can come just as you are, with all the mistakes, shortcomings, and burdens you bring with you, and you can put those things down at the feet of Christ. You can put down the despair that has been weighing on you.

Then you can pick up the yoke of Jesus’ teachings. You can love your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength, and love your neighbor as yourself. And that sounds hard! That is hard.

But you don’t carry that weight alone – no one carries a yoke alone. You are yoked to Christ, who bears it with you, You are yoked to one another, the community of believers, You are yoked to the great cloud of faithful witnesses who have come before you. You are never alone, you are never left behind, not even when you stumble.

As the apostle Paul says in Romans, even when you can’t live up to being the person you strive to be, when you end up doing the things you don’t want to do, and you can’t do the good you do want to do – even then, Christ is your rescue! Even then, you stand in God’s grace. Even then, you are filled with God’s holy spirit. God’s mercies are made new again and again, forever.

It turns out that the yoke that seemed so burdensome is light. It turns out that the love of neighbor that seemed so demanding is rewarding. It turns out that the journey of discipleship that seemed arduous is filled with joy. It turns out that the cross that brought death is the way to life.

You are invited to that life, you who are weary and weighed-down. You are invited that rest, the kind of soul-rest that revives you for the rest of the journey. You are invited to follow the way of Christ. It will change you and it will cost you, and it will also save you over and over again.

Amen.