Sunday, September 20, 2020

Finding Your Rest in Jesus - Isaiah 55:6-9

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.

I like listening to audio books while I drive. Helps pass the time. Last week, I was listening to a mystery. A man had been killed and the case was drawing a lot of interest because the victim was a suspect in another criminal case. Between the two events, many people’s lives were impacted, directly and indirectly, by the whole sad narrative. The local newspaperman was interviewing the county sheriff asking about details. Even the reporter seemed melancholy and pensive by the whole sordid affair and, as the interview ended, he asked, “Does it ever seem to you that the world is getting tired? [1]

Does it ever seem to you that the world is getting tired? I’ve thought about that question all week. Given all that has happened, is happening, and continues to happen all around us – and by “us” I mean all of creation, not just Mission Valley – I imagine that the world is growing weary.

Covid-19 continues to be in the headlines, both because of what it has done and because of the concerns of what it could do. We are in the high peak of hurricane season and the Atlantic Basin is doing its best to teach you all the Greek alphabet. While the upper Gulf Coast from Louisiana to the Florida panhandle struggles with record flooding and power outages from their own hurricanes, an unwanted Beta is scheduled to knock on our door in the next day or two. The West Coast is battling wildfires that turn the midnight sky into a smokey, eerie orange. Violence continues in major cities across not only the United States but the world. Accusations of sexism, favoritism, racism are levied against people – some rightfully, some wrongly, and some sheerly out of spite and vitriol. Innocent people, in the wrong place at the wrong time, have their names, reputations, vocations and even their bodies ruined by hate-filled actions of others who forget that all lives matter. And, that’s all by the end of the 6am news.

In the meantime, for all of us with children and spouses in school, we’ve wrestled with in person or virtual learning and we’ve learned what synchronous and asynchronous means. We see the anxiety and stress in their eyes and voices every day as they leave for class and the frustration as they come home with ever more work to do. We go to our own jobs and struggle with declining revenues and shrinking markets. Meanwhile, our bodies are continuing to age. The knees hurt more and the back doesn’t straighten out as quickly and the eyes can’t see quite as well to thread that needle or to read the spec sheet. The doctor tells us our blood pressure is up and our triglycerides are down and we need to exercise more, but not how to find the time to take care of ourselves, let along everyone else who needs a piece of our time. We go to bed exhausted and wake up not fully rested and turn on the 5am news and it all starts again. Coffee just doesn’t quite fight away the tired that remains in our body, in our mind, and in our heart.

Tired. That’s a good word, isn’t it? We’re tired, our families are tired, and yes – even the world seems tired. And, as God’s people, we know the answer to our fatigue: we seek rest in the Word of God in the Holy Scriptures. This morning, Isaiah invites us to seek the Lord, to search for Him, to pray to Him who is our refuge and strength, a very present help in time of trouble, and to call upon Him while He is near. And we do. We lift up our weary eyes to the hills, from whence cometh our help (Ps. 121), but even the hills seem to be groaning under the strain of it all (Romans 8:22). Our cries, uttered in faith, echo the Psalmist, “How long, O Lord, how long” (Ps. 13)? Maybe we even find the words of Job echoing in our own prayers, “I cry to you for help and you do not answer me; I stand, and you only look at me. You have turned cruel to me” (Job 30:20-21). It seems there is only silence amidst fires, flood, famine…fatigue.

But Isaiah would not allow us to merely offer up a grocery-list of laments and complaints. He is not content to leave us grounded in the foolish notion that we should, somehow and someway, be exempt from such sufferings this side of heaven because of our goodness, our “innocence,” our self-righteousness, our Christianity. Isaiah will not let us stand on our own terms. Rather, Isaiah rightly places us before Almighty God. He is God; we are His people, the sheep of His hands.

“For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.” God uses the tiresome, wearisome things of this world to draw us back to Him. In these things that take place around us, that we see on the screen or in the paper, that we hear of from friends and family, God is at work, even in these moments that seem so out of His control, to lead us to repentance.

When one hears the word, it's often met with resistance – especially over and against things out of our control. Repent is neither a popular nor easy word. It implies guilt – that there is something to repent of. Our culture much prefers self-defense of innocence or, at least, it's not my fault – it’s someone else’s. How do and why should I repent for the riots in Minneapolis, or sexual harassment in Hollywood, or for fires burning in Oregon?  The entire Christian life is one of repentance, the recognition and acknowledgment that we are sinners living in a fallen world. We repent for that which we have done and that which we have left undone in our lives. We repent of misrepresenting ourselves as co-equal with God, as if He owes us a reply. We repent of breaking our relationship with God in our sinfulness. We repent of our demands for answers. We repent of our expectations that all is fair. Repentance humbles, not defends. It is reflective on God’s voice, not defiantly raising ours. It is admission that we need help, not a spotlight.  So, our Lord through Isaiah calls us to return to the Lord. Our cries join that of creation, creation calling to Creator, and we seek the Lord: “Lord, have mercy.”

Repentance has two aspects. The first is sorrow for our sins. That’s the plea for mercy, that we do not receive what we deserve. The second is faith that trusts that God is inclined to show mercy to us because of Christ. I suspect we forget that part, that repentance includes faith.  The entire life of the Christian is one of repentance, remember – sorrow for our sins, yes, but more than that, it’s the faith that trusts Jesus died to rescue and redeem this fallen world and all of us who are in it.

Faith seeks the Lord where He has promised to be: at the cross. At the cross, Christ carried the unrighteousness and wickedness of the world into Himself. He was separated from His Father so that we would never be isolated from God’s grace. Jesus suffered hell on earth so that our sufferings would be only temporary and not last into eternity. Jesus died as a condemned sinner, not only for you and me, but even to redeem creation. The heavens marked His guilty-as-hell death by cloaking the mid-day sun with darkness and with the ground shaking in fear that the God of Creation died, the earth swallowing His body into the burial chamber for a three-day rest.  

On the third day, Christ arose, living, breathing, triumphant. His resurrection declares that sin, death and the devil have been conquered, and that the fallen world and our own fallen selves have been rescued and redeemed by Him.

So, when you are world-weary and sin-worn, turn to the One who knows full-well about being world-weary, sin-worn, and He knows the need for rest. But He not only knows the struggle, He gives the victory. In His resurrection, He invites us to “Come to me who are weary and heavy laden and I will give you rest” (Matt 11:28). Seek Him where He has promised to be: here, in His house; in Water and Word, in Bread and Wine. He is present in the fellowship of the saints who speak Christ’s own words of comfort and blessing, and when a brother or sister helps you, in the name of Jesus, when you are weak and struggling.

“Does it seem like the world is getting tired?” This side of heaven, we will continue to struggle and we will have those days when we feel oh, so tired and not sure that we want to know what tomorrow will bring. Those days make us yearn for the promised day of resurrection when our rest shall be perfect and the fatiguing factors of this lifetime are forgotten. Until then, do what is in front of you and do it to the best of your ability. Repent of your sins and in faith that you are already forgiven in Christ. And then rest – rest your body, your mind, your soul – in Christ Jesus who died and was buried for you, knowing that His three-day rest in the tomb sanctifies your rest. And, then, when you awake, make the sign of the cross as a reminder that Christ is near and with you. Go about your day, renewed in Christ Jesus.

Amen.

 



[1] Johnson, Craig. The Cold Dish. I was listening to an audiobook, so I don’t have a page citation.

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