Show Notes
Genesis 24:34-38, 42-49, 58-67 | Song of Solomon 2:8-13 | Romans 7:15-25a | Matthew 11:16-19, 25-30
Chapters
- (00:00:00) - Unforced Rhythms of Grace
- (00:07:43) - A message from the desert
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Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] One God, father, son and holy spirit. Amen.
[00:00:23] Jesus, we are here.
[00:00:28] Jesus, we are here.
[00:00:32] Jesus, we are here.
[00:00:37] We are here for you. Jesus, we are here for you.
[00:00:44] The book of nature tells me what I made of. The book of Scripture tells me what I made for.
[00:00:51] And what a place to worship this morning.
[00:00:55] Behind us, the cathedral group, the grand, the Mount Owen. The Tiwana has been standing like that since before there were words that could describe it. No altar call, I think, has ever built a mountain. And no sermon, nor how funny and cool the preacher might sound has ever earned a vision like this, let alone a sunrise that you might have experienced this morning.
[00:01:24] It is just given freely to us all.
[00:01:31] And that is what I want us to chew on today, dear friends, unforced rhythms of grace as we chew on the scripture together.
[00:01:44] As we look at the first reading. Abraham, servant sent into a foreign land with no map and no guarantee of welcome on an impossible errand.
[00:01:55] And I am glad that he doesn't spend a retreat strategizing what to do, what his 12 steps would be, what is his vision, what is his goal, what is his statement.
[00:02:06] No, he goes straight into prayer. Simple. Let the right thing happen and let my eyes recognize it.
[00:02:18] And then Rebecca, a stranger to him, waters 10 camels without being asked. And the whole future of a people is turned on one ordinary act of hospitality to a foreigner. Nobody screened first. And so interesting that the Bible's founding family story begins with a stranger being received.
[00:02:46] And then good old Paul, sounding like all of us. Maybe just me. The 3am mind, I know what's good. I want to do it. I still can't make myself do it again. Not a confession.
[00:03:04] It's just I've been there before, right?
[00:03:08] As soon as I get the brand new Apple watch and my HOKA flights, I will be ready for Jenny Lake as I go up to Hidden Falls because I was supposed to be doing my yoga and my stretching and I promise I'll be exercising. And then all of a sudden, when I'm ready to do it the next day, you know that my knee is suddenly aching.
[00:03:29] You know what? Let me first have a cup of coffee and a croissant and I'll strategize again. I'll get back to it again. I' again, I think that's. That's all of us, maybe who's ever promised themselves especially real rest, right?
[00:03:51] And then found myself maybe sitting at T Street in San Clemente. Let me just squeeze out my phone. It might be that email I just have to check. Even though that 7 footers are rolling in because there's been a king swell in Southern California in the Pacific Ocean or let alone the very Grand Tetons. You know, I'm waiting to get into the park. There's a long line. Let me check my email really quickly.
[00:04:17] And so Paul says wonderfully, because willpower was never built to carry what we keep asking it to carry. He reaches on his end of the rope and asks that wonderful honest question, is there anyone who can actually do something about this?
[00:04:39] Jesus of Nazareth comes in at Matthew's gospel.
[00:04:42] What timing. Jesus being rejected by the very towns where he did his most remarkable work. The religious leaders dressed like me, calling him a glutton and a drunkard for drinking and eating with some dodgy people outside in the neighborhoods. Nobody's pleased with him.
[00:05:03] And it's exactly there, fresh off people's disappointment, that he turns and says, lester, are you tired?
[00:05:16] Are you worn out?
[00:05:19] Come to me, I'll show you. A different rhythm.
[00:05:25] A yoke again. In this world, in this context, historically, a yoke is what teacher wore, which carried the whole way of interpreting the law. Some yokes had 613 commandments deep. A lifetime of never being sure you done enough, you are enough.
[00:05:47] People were exhausted. I wonder, on religion and of itself, do these disciplines do these things? Maybe you'll be enough. Maybe we'll ordain you.
[00:05:59] He offers a yoke carved to fit, I dare say, almost bespoke, the way a good ox yoke was custom shaped so that the weight sat right and it didn't chafe.
[00:06:13] And then I especially give thanks that Jesus, my Lord says, and notice, you know, little ones, not the impressive, not the credentialed, not the reverend doctor.
[00:06:28] And I'm not making fun of anybody's a reverend doctor. I'm a reverend, and that doesn't mean. Never mind, that's a different story. That's a different sermon. You get what I'm saying? The invitation goes out before anyone has earned their place in the line.
[00:06:46] Unforced rhythms of grace, not earned, not rationed. Offered to the tired, offered to the rejected, offered to those who don't fit. Anyone else's yoke, perhaps.
[00:07:08] And so as we stand here, friends, as we begin to prepare to share in this meal and as we were driving up that wonderful winding road to come into Jackson, and as I still appreciate the fireworks yesterday from the base of Snow King Mountain, and oh, a sneak little taste from my son's elk pasta delight as we soak all of that up, as we begin to Prepare for this week.
[00:07:43] I want to share with you, my spiritual heroes, the men and women who walked into the Egyptian desert long before in 345, not fleeing life, but going toward enough silence to finally hear it. They call it hesychia, stillness. Not withdrawing, but to hear your own life without the noise of everyone else's opinion of you.
[00:08:17] How wonderful, right?
[00:08:19] How freeing.
[00:08:21] That's why I keep coming back to Kenny.
[00:08:24] Because one of them, Aberpinman, was once asked what matters most? And his answer was simple. To know your yourself, honestly, without needing anyone watching to approve of what you find.
[00:08:43] And so that whole desert tradition compressed into one line.
[00:08:50] Rest isn't the absence of task, it is the awe. It is the end of performing for an earth audience, even if the audience is in my own head.
[00:09:04] Oh, Oh. Don't mess with scripture today, friends.
[00:09:16] To rest.
[00:09:19] So Jesus himself went to the desert before he ever preached a word.
[00:09:25] To rest.
[00:09:28] And so that his identity could settle first before crowds formed opinions about him.
[00:09:36] And so the desert mothers and fathers just kept walking back to that same well long after he did.
[00:09:44] And so for you, for me, for us, when we leave this wonderful chapel and I'll make our way down to St. John's because I know there's a barbecue, hot dogs at the big tent service, so I'm going to see you in line there. As we do that, as we. As we enjoy this week, as we step into our Monday, please know and maybe trust afresh and actually believe that unforced rhythms of grace is not a technique for. For relaxing better. Even though I have 15 apps that can help me do that. No, it is not more discipline to master a gift offered the same way this mountain range was offered to us this morning.
[00:10:29] It is free.
[00:10:32] Rebecca's kindness was offered to a stranger at a well, freely.
[00:10:36] Before anyone has proven anything, Jesus himself goes into the desert before ever preaching a single word. So how about this? You and I and us, we don't have to finish some invisible checklist to be long. Come to me, says Jesus. Don't earn your way to me.
[00:10:57] And hey, walk lightly down this mountain.
[00:11:03] Not one more thing to be produced.
[00:11:06] Just rest.
[00:11:09] Own it. Honestly, take it seriously.
[00:11:14] Drop your shoulders, take a deep breath, and enjoy the gift of the love of Jesus in this creation. Dear friends, what an invitation for you, for me, for us to truly rest and live in that joy of Jesus.
[00:11:53] Jesus, we are here.
[00:11:57] Jesus, we are here.
[00:12:01] Jesus, we are here. Here, we are here for you.
