Today's Gospel: A Call to All.

Based on Matthew 11: 25-30, NRSV.

In case no one has noticed, I love it when Jesus speaks to us on a level playing field. Jesus is the perfect revelation of God's love to everyone in today's Gospel. It gives us those warm feelings almost like a warm cup of soup on a cold day. The Word of God is not just for all those who have spent hours in Bible interpretation and theology, but it is for everyone. No one is presumed to be above anyone, for who really is greater than God?

One matter that Christians need to both struggle and come to an important place with is that when we speak of the Word of God, we are not speaking specifically about the Bible. Hell, fire and brimstone preachers are always telling people to live in accordance with God's word, which they mean to be the Bible. And to some degree that point is valid. The Scriptures have come to us through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, by way of women and men who have handed down to us the oral tradition found in Scripture, through human experience and reason. However, while the Bible is inspired by God, it is not God. There is over 15,000 years of ancient Jewish, Hebrew, Hellenistic, Aramaic, Greek and Roman culture, history and politics that makes up the Bible. There are many traditions that were practiced by ancient Israel while wondering in the desert before entering the promised land, that we no longer observe today. Therefore, it also should not be held over anyone else's head if we have moved past many other interpretations from Scripture and have come to the conclusion that they don't really speak to us in the way they once did. Again, the Bible is inspired by God, but it is not God.

In his book: "In the Eye of the Storm: Swept to the Center by God" Bishop Gene Robinson writes: "And although I believe in the holy scriptures of the Old and New Testaments are the Word of God, that doesn't mean they are literally "words" of God, virtually dictated by God through human media. And let's not forget who the real "Word" of God is Jesus himself. "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God," begins the Gospel of John. Christians believe that it isn't the Bible but the Jesus "event"--his life, death, and resurrection--that offers the perfect revelation of God. The Bible is the best and most trustworthy witness to that event, but it neither replaces Jesus as the Word nor takes precedence over Christ's continued action in the world through the Holy Spirit. To elevate the words of Scripture to a place of higher than the revealed Word of God in Jesus Christ is an act of idolatry." (Page 22).

In today's Gospel, Jesus, the Word of God tells us that all who are weary and carry heavy burdens are to come to him so that he may give us rest. In today's time with our American economy still down and so many people unemployed wondering how they will keep their homes and provide for their families; Jesus offers a place to go and someone to talk to and confide in. As many of us continue to work with our legislators for health care reform or call for equality for all people including LGBT individuals, Jesus calls us to come to him and find in him a place of rest.

Our God who has created us in the image and likeness of the Holy Trinity, knows the deepest places of our hearts and lives. God does not always help us to understand why life has to be so unfair at times. God also does not always answer our prayers in quite the way we might like. This can be hard on our faith especially when in need of work, or after the death of a loved one. Jesus understands and knows that. Sometimes we speak up for the poor and the destitute, but we still loose. That can be so heart breaking and difficult for us. Jesus knows and understands that human life is complicated and often not so perfect. In God's perfect revelation in Jesus, who is God's Word, God identifies with the human race, even if God doesn't fix everything. But as we read in the Psalm yesterday: "God heals the brokenhearted, and binds up all their wounds." (Psalm 147: 3). For God knows everything about us. "For it was you who formed my inward parts; you knit me together in my mother's womb. I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works, and I know very well." (Psalm 139: 13, 14).

Even when we are down and sorrowful, full of pain and grief. God is closest to us and God comes when we are most in need. I can say this with quite a bit of certainty. I have had so many times in my life, when life just stinks. Everything that I may have wanted or tried to do, just collapses in my face. And I pick up and keep on going, until I just can't take it anymore. And when that happens to me, I just find a place with no phone, no computer, sometimes not even my partner whom I love and cherish with all my heart, and I just close out the world, and I cry and I tell God: "What the hell are you doing?" Sometimes all of us need to do that. Sometimes we need to come to God, totally vulnerable, with all our anger, sadness and even our hate that has been building up inside and just give it all to God and trust that God can heal our broken hearts. It is in those moments of sadness and darkness that we discover the words of Psalm 139: verses 11 and 12 are all too true. "If I say, "Surely the darkness shall cover me, and the light around me become night." even the darkness is not dark to you; the night is as bright as day, for darkness is as light to you."

We cannot receive rest from our weary and labors if we do not come to Jesus and trust in him, and believe in him and hope in him. God desires to be so close to all of us. God has not placed boundaries upon the doors of God's heart. In fact, in Jesus God revealed how open God's heart is to all human beings. It is human beings who often close their hearts to God. And God knows what those reasons are. God knows that sometimes it is tough to believe in God. Even when our faith is not perfect, and all our words are not in order, that is when God can draw ever closer to us, and invite us to draw ever closer to God. God is God. God is not a magician. God can still do miracles, but most important is not the extra ordinary times in which God interacts with us, it is the ordinary events of life where God can be found.

One of the biggest mistakes in Christian Spirituality, is the idea that God's grace will have truly done something when my prayers are answered, or when I finally buy that house, or get that job. God's grace is not in the next moment, and God's will is not necessarily when the post officer arrives with a package. God's grace and will is in the here and now. God is actively loving us right here, right now. It is in the here and now that we need to bring our burdens and heavy hearts and trust God in prayer, even when things do not exactly go in the right order.

What is going on in our lives in which we need to respond to Jesus' invitation to come to him with our weary and burdened hearts? How can we be people who respond to God's call to accept this Gospel as our invitation to come to God? It is okay if we are not perfect. It is alright if we don't fit the expectations that others place upon us in our relationship with God, because it is God's relationship to each of us that is most important. God invites us to come to God: "Just as I am." It is also quite okay if we ask God to show us how to approach God and relate to God, because of bad examples and experiences we have had in our past. It is those places that God wants to reach out to us, and heal us and bring us into relationship with God so that the Holy Spirit can heal us and bring us to a place of wholeness and peace within ourselves. It is also our place to decide exactly how it is we approach God. Whether through Scripture, prayers, walking, writing, even talking to God as we look at a lamp or a sacred image. Those things are not "graven images", they are reminders to us, the God can be close to us, if we will only draw closer to God.

Today, Jesus invites us to draw closer to Him and His Father, our God. God is the one who has come to us as God's perfect revelation of God. There is no need for anyone to feel excluded from the benefits of God's unconditional love and mercy through Jesus.

This meditation today, I offer in the Name of God who is + Creator, Servant and Life-Giver. Amen.