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Matthew 11:16-19, 25-30 • July 3,  2011

Brothers and sisters in Christ grace and peace to you from God our Father and our Lord and Savior Jesus. Amen.

Today Jesus says, “Come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest.”

Anyone feeling a little weary?

Anyone feeling the weight of a burden or burdens?

Anyone looking for rest?

Molly Sasser-Goel, the director of Outlaw and Atlantic Mountain Ranch in Custer, SD – one of the amazing outdoor ministries of the church – wrote a wonderful reflection on the gospel reading this week. Molly wrote, “Sometimes, it seems like the weight of the world is on our shoulders. We run ourselves and our children from one activity to another. Our parents get older and need help. We worry about job stability in a still-shaky economy. Unrest in the world persists. Children are hungry and people are homeless. Our To Do list gets longer, and we have less time to get everything done. We try to take it all into our own hands and think we can fix it, but we soon discover we cannot. Jesus said, “All things have been handed over to me.” Ultimately, Jesus carries all these worries for us. Our task is easy. We are invited to simply trust Jesus’ promise: “Come to me all you who are weary and carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest…for my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”

Rest in God. Jesus words here are not simply about not working or taking a vacation. Jesus words are saying far more about rest in our daily journey.

Last Sunday I was in Wahpeton to participate and celebrate in the ordination of my good friend, seminary roommate, and brother in Christ Bob Caranicas. This text from Matthew is part of the rite of ordination. It’s offered as the stole is placed upon the one being ordained with these words – “Receive this stole as a sign of your work, and live in obedience to the Lord Jesus, serving his people and remembering his promise: “Come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me; for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”

I’ll never forget when the stole was placed upon me at my own ordination.

It felt like an enormous weight on my shoulders – heavier than anything that had ever been placed there before. A weight though, that on that day, I knew I did not carry alone. Christ is with you and me in our vocation as pastor, or student, or doctor, or mother, or whatever vocation we have been called to live out.

Rest in God.

On Monday evening, my family and I were headed out for dinner. As we were driving to the restaurant, my daughters were talking on the phone with my mother-in-law. My in-laws had a great chocolate lab named Mollie that increasingly become frail as she aged and her health deteriorated. On Monday, they took this beautiful dog to the vet one last time and then buried her at the farm where she loved to play.

My mother-in-law talked to Ilia about the day and how difficult it was and how good their memories of Mollie will be. Ilia listened quietly and then simply said, “Grandma, Mollie isn’t hurting anymore and that’s a good thing.”

That day was a burden for my in-laws. A burden that I believe was lifted a little through the grace of their 10-year old grandchild that believes Jesus is with us and helps us carry burdens like the loss of a beloved pet.

Jesus says, “Come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest.” Rest in God.

Our congregation walked with two individuals and their families this week through death and funeral worship services. It is always an honor to preside as these times of worship and walk with families as they grieve and begin to move forward following the death of loved one. Death can be a time of indescribable burden.

As the community of faith, gathered together as the body of Christ, the burden that our brothers and sisters in Christ face during times of death is lightened as we lift them up in our worship, offer prayer and words of remembrance, and things as simple as a hug or a shoulder to cry on or a meal to share.

Jesus says, “Come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest.” Rest in God.

Garrison Keiller from American Public Radio’s Prairie Home Companion Radio Show, said that he used to think of his faith as a building block that one was supposed to put together with other blocks throughout life. Eventually these blocks would become strong like the brick house that the little pigs built that couldn’t be blown over by the big bad wolf. Garrison no longer believes that faith is like building blocks. He now believes that faith is about surrender. It’s a matter of walking out and leaving that house behind and experiencing the cold and doubt and confusion and times of rain in our lives and through that journey we find hope and gratitude.

This past week I experienced rest in God that renewed my sense hope and gratitude in some pretty unexpected ways – the placement of a stole on a dear friend during his ordination; walking with two families through death as we celebrated and remembered the promise of resurrection that we are given in our baptism; and the quiet voice of a 10-year old girl who taught me, and probably many of us here in worship, something about Jesus’ words in Matthew’s gospel today.

On this weekend in which we celebrate the freedom that we enjoy as a nation and give thanks for that freedom, may you find rest in God.

Jesus says, “Come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest.”

Amen.

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Matthew 28:16-20 • June 19, 2011

Brothers and sisters in Christ grace and peace to you from God our Father and our Lord and Savior Jesus. Amen.

We celebrate two very significant events today – the first is something that I think we all understand, hopefully for better, but I’m not too naive to also understand sometimes for worse – Happy Father’s Day to all fathers and those who are fathers to us in so many beautiful ways. Father’s Day. We understand and know why we celebrate it.

Second – a celebration that most of us probably don’t understand quite as well is the Christian Doctrine of the Holy Trinity. So – let’s start with a bit of a church history lesson. The Holy Trinity is one of the earliest doctrines of the Christian church and I believe is one of the most difficult doctrines for followers of the risen Jesus Christ to wrap our minds and hearts around.

Some of the earliest reflections on the Trinity that we have are from an early church father named Tertullian in the late second century. Tertullian was seeking to understand and identify more fully who God is. The idea of the trinity becomes more clearly spelled out as a doctrine of the Christian church during the Council of Nicea in 325 and the Council of Constantinople in 381. And finally in 1334, Pope John XXII placed it on the Christian liturgical calendar as the Sunday after the Day of Pentecost.

It’s very easy to get stuck thinking about the Doctrine of the Trinity from an academic perspective using only academic concepts. This has consumed theologians for centuries. Let’s try not to do that today, after all Martin Luther even said, “To try to deny the Trinity endangers your salvation, to try to comprehend the Trinity endangers your sanity.”

We began our worship gathering today with a very standard greeting that most of us have heard many times before. It is the same greeting that we hear the Apostle Paul offer at the close of his letter to the church in Corinth, “The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with you all.” This is significant because Christian worship does not begin with a simple “Good Morning” or “Hi – it’s good to see you today.” As Christians united in the body of Christ, with this greeting we give to one another the grace, love, and communion of a triune God.

Pastor Ruban Duran, the Executive Director of New Evangelizing Congregations for the ELCA, gave a wonderful presentation at the Western North Dakota Synod Assembly in Bismarck a few weeks ago. If you have never attended a Synod Assembly, I invite you to go at some point. It is an exciting experience of being church that will open your eyes in amazing ways that you simply can’t experience fully by only staying within the walls of this congregation.

Pastor Ruban is originally from Peru and is one of the most dynamic and exciting people I have ever met. He calls the Holy Trinity – the Three Amigos. He uses the term Three Amigos for the Holy Trinity because he believes that the trinity calls us very deeply into relationship with God. A relationship with God that is not stale or dead. Instead, it’s a relationship with a God who is ever present and ACTIVE in the world, today, right now. Our relationship with God in the Holy Trinity is not a relationship that we have with 2 dead guys and a bird.

The Holy Trinity is also a little like the famous Abbot and Costello skit “Who’s on First?” Walk with me through this conversation.

When you come to church you need to know the key players…you know, the ones who are worthy of our worship, thanksgiving, and praise.

Thanksgiving and praise, huh? Well who are they?

OK, now listen closely. There is one God. One God.

That seems easy enough. What do you call this one God?

This one God is called, “God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit.”

Now wait just a minute. You told me that there is only one God.

That’s right!

So which is it?

So which is what?

Which name do you use for this one God?

The name I gave you.

But you gave me three names.

That’s right.

What’s right?

God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit.

So you have three Gods?

No, one God.

So which is it?

Which is what?

Father, Son, or Holy Spirit?

Yes!

Yes to what?

That’s God’s name.

Which God?

Our one God.

Why did you give three names?

Because they aren’t the same.

But you just told me there is one God. So which is it?

Which is what?

Which name is the name of your God?

I told you, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

But that is three.

Yes. But it’s only one.

I used a wonderful old children’s story about a shark and a whale who are good friends in my Pentecost sermon last week. I think it speaks very well to our reflection on the Holy Trinity today as well. The good friends whale and shark were swimming along one day in the sea enjoying a quiet afternoon when the shark asked the whale, “You are so much older than I, and wiser too. Could you tell me where the ocean is?” The whale smiled gently and said, “The ocean is what you are in now.” The shark couldn’t possibly believe that. “Come on, tell me where the ocean is so I can find it!” The whale repeated, “The ocean is here, now; you are in it.” Still unbelieving, the shark swam away disgusted, still searching for the ocean.

Brothers and sisters in Christ – don’t spend too much time looking for God, God is here, now, all around you in the now of your life, dwelling within you, within me, and within the broken world in which we live and this community of faith that we call Good Shepherd Lutheran Church.

The Doctrine of the Holy Trinity is not something that we discover only in academic theory and study or by believing that our relationship with God is based on God and me being buddies or not being possible for us until we have the entire history of God’s unfolding creation memorized and placed in a neat little God timeline.

The Doctrine of the Holy Trinity places you and me, children of God, in the right now of the world. God with us and for us in the Holy Trinity right now – lifting you and me up when we are broken by anger or hatred or loneliness or death. God with us and for us in the Holy Trinity right now – sending us out to be hands and feet and listening ears to our brothers and sisters in need after rising flood waters have consumed not only their houses, but their homes. God with us and for us in the Holy Trinity right now – bringing restoration and hope to each one of us.

May you be broken enough to help one another, for wholeness comes from healing.

May you disagree enough to hear one another, for unity comes from listening and forgiveness.

May you be lonely enough to hold one another, for touch defeats division and hatred.

In the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit we are claimed as children of God. Let us give thanks and praise for the gift of the Holy Trinity.