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Sermon - Eighteenth Sunday after Pentecost (B) - 4th October 2009
St Alban's Anglican Church Epping
Readings: Leviticus 19:1-2, 17-18; Psalm 111; Galatians 6:14-18; Matthew 11:25-30
There is nothing like a good rest. After a hard day’s work a good rest is well deserved. When we come to the end of a busy week, we can sometimes enjoy a restful weekend where we can recharge the batteries so long as we haven’t so booked the weekend that there is no time to do it. Work and rest seem to be the two sides of the one coin. They should balance each other. Too much work without rest leads to inefficiency and health problems. Too much rest without work leads to a fairly meaningless sort of existence. Its always interesting to watch a person who retires. You notice how quickly they fill up their life with all sorts of new work to do. I think they are trying to restore this work/rest balance in their lives. And how many retired people do you know who complain because they are too busy. They wonder how they ever found the time to go to work. They find it hard to get the rest they need.
But rest is also an important theme in the Bible. Jesus raises it in our gospel reading today. He says, “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.” Again we have that association with work and rest. And here Jesus says that he will bestow rest on those who need it. But we might think it an odd thing for Jesus to say. Why doe she raise the subject of rest? How does rest fit into Jesus overall plans? What has rest got to do with what Jesus is planning to do? As we look through the Bible the theme of rest comes up again and again. The first time we find it is in Genesis chapter two. The first chapter tells of God creating the heavens and the earth and once he had completed that task he looked at all of his creation and declared it to be very good. And in the context of that incredible achievement we are told that God rested on the seventh day. And then God set the seventh day apart as a way of celebrating the achievements of God in creation. So the rest is to remind us of what God has done. It was during his rest that God meditated upon what he had done and the rest celebrated this event.
Today is the Feast of St Francis who is the patron saint of the environment. St Francis taught the importance of our duty towards God’s creation and God’s Sabbath rest is intended to provide us with the opportunity to do that very thing. The Sabbath rest is a celebration of the creation. And yet it becomes much more than that. The Israelites had become the slaves of the Egyptians. They had laboured under difficult conditions. God sent Moses to rescue them from this slavery. Under his leadership they were to leave Egypt and to take possession of the land of Canaan where they would enjoy their rest. So rest here is more than a rescue from their servitude in Egypt. Now, rest also means a place of blessing. The Israelites were to be transferred from a place of suffering in Egypt to a place of blessing in Canaan. So if the Jews asked how would they know they were being blessed by God, the answer was that they had been given rest in this new place. This doesn’t mean that they ceased working. Rather, they now worked in a rich land that gave them an abundant harvest. They could enjoy the fruits of their labour and a safe place to rest. So in this way they followed the example of God who rested from his labour, so they too would be blessed in their rest.
When Israel was sent into exile in Babylon, the promise came to them that God had not forgotten them. Rather, God would bless Israel again. How would he do that? He would restore them to their land and give to them again a place of rest, a place of blessing.
So when we come to the New Testament, Jesus takes up the same theme of blessing. Jesus promises the gift of abundant life. Jesus promises the forgiveness of sins. Jesus is declaring a restoration and a vindication of the people of God. And another way to express this same idea is the use of the word “rest”. “Come to me all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.” or further on Jesus offers rest for your souls. This is not in the sense of doing nothing. Jesus means he will bless those who come to him for spiritual blessing. Those who hunger after Jesus will find the blessing they are seeking.
“Rest” is also a major thee in the letter to the Hebrews. Though he doesn’t use the word, he speaks of it symbolically in terms of a coming home. In particular, he is concerned that no one should miss out on this great blessing from God, for he says, “You have come to Mount Zion, to the heavenly Jerusalem, the city of the living God. You have come to thousands upon thousands of angels in joyful assembly, to the church of the first born, whose names are written in heaven. You have come to God, the judge of all men, to the spirit of righteous men made perfect, to Jesus the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel.” In other words, in Jesus, you have come home. This is where you will find your rest.
This idea is found repeatedly in the New Testament. In John 14 Jesus tells his disciples “Do not be afraid, in my father’s house are many rooms. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go to prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me.” this is what Jesus means when he says, “I will give you rest.” It’s the picture of the pilgrim on a long journey, travelling through foreign lands and eventually coming home. The same idea is picked up in the parable of the prodigal son who travels to a forting country and squanders his wealth. Reduced to poverty he returns home repentant, hopeful of work as a servant. But he is welcomed home by his father with a kiss, a gold ring and a fattened calf. In so many ways Jesus drives the point home of what his mission is and what he is offering us. It is the gift of rest now, but it is also a hope for the future.
So the writer to the Hebrews reminds us, “There remains then a Sabbath rest for the people of God, for anyone who enters God’s rest also rests from his own work, just as God did from him. Let us, therefore, make every effort to enter that rest, so that no one will fall by following their example of disobedience.” We have a great hope and so there is a need for us to press on in faith. The great concern the writer has is that we will lose hope, that we will give up, that we will fall away, and not enter this rest. His mind goes back to the Israelites following Moses to the promised land. Yet on the way they grumbled and they lacked faith in God. They came to the very boarder of the promised land but they would not enter it. They failed to believe that God would give them the land. So they spent forty years in the wilderness until that generation perished and their children inherited the promise and entered the land.
So the writer does not want us to repeat the errors of the past. We too are on a pilgrimage. We too have a wonderful promise, a great hope. The story of Israel becomes our story, the hope of Israel becomes our hope. The inheritance of Israel, now becomes our inheritance through Christ. And so we gather today as God’s people to encourage one another to press on toward the goal. We pray for one another that God will strengthen us, and empower us, so that, in spite of the difficulties we face along the way, we will not lose heart, so that in the end, we will enter that rest that God has prepared for us.