No Experience Necessary

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No Experience Necessary

DATE 6 July 2008

PLACE Peace United Church of Christ, Fall Creek, Wisconsin (9a); North Presbyterian Church, Eau Claire, Wis. (10:30a)

TEXT Matthew 11:16-19, 25-30

It couldn’t have been a better Fourth of July weekend. I imagine it’s a far cry from what signers of the Declaration of Independence would have forseen. And I sometimes wonder how many revelers knew what we were celebrating.

Jay Leno has a bit on The Tonight Show where he hits the street to ask people random questions, usually to their bewilderment and dumbfoundedness. Last year at this time, he asked people what we celebrate on 4^th of July. Of course, person after person is shown giving the wrong answer. Later he asked one woman – who identified herself as an instructor at a college – what was the year of our independence. She said, “1922.” He corrected her to 1776. After that she wouldn’t tell him what college she taught in.

On late-night TV, it’s funny to laugh at ourselves, our foibles, our short memories. I’m not sure if a TV personality stuck a microphone in my face I’d come off sounding very bright, either.

One thing we can say about our friend Jeremiah, the Old Testament prophet, he wasn’t cut out to be a comedian. As we hear his excoriating words against the people of Israel for their – well, I hate to say it, but he said it – for their ignorance and lack of wisdom, we can be quite sure no one was laughing as he turned the spotlight on them.

But even Jesus – who in some ways was a kinder and gentler prophet that his predecessor Jeremiah – calls it as he sees it in today’s Gospel reading and says, quite frankly, “you folks don’t quite get it.”

Actually, what Jesus is saying to the crowds in the Galilean countryside is that it wasn’t their lack of wisdom that was getting them in trouble, but that they were relying on their own wisdom, or the world’s wisdom, exclusively to the point of not seeking God’s wisdom.

When’s the last time you bought a semicomplicated electronic device – a cell phone, a home entertainment system, an electric range, a computer? Did you read the instructions first? Or did you do like my lovely wife does and plug it in and turn it on and start pressing buttons and then when she gets stuck hands me the instruction manual and says “figure this out.”

It’s awfully tempting to rely on our own wisdom pretty much all of the time, in part because we can often get by. Just like we can celebrate the Fourth of July and have no memory or consideration for “the self-evident truths that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”

But Jesus seemed pretty convinced that the crowds he was teaching needed a dose of heavenly wisdom to counter the world wisdom that governed their lives.

You know what really got to him? The attitude of his generation, that no matter what he said or did, they tended to take the opposite view.

That’s why he says to them, you’re like children out in the playground. Someone plays a happy game and you stand around moping. And then when someone gets serious, you laugh them off.

He says, John the Baptist comes to you, proclaiming the Messiah, and you say he’s possessed by a demon. I come to you, Jesus said, and you say I’m a glutton and a drunkard who hangs out with the wrong crowd.

You ever have a conversation with someone in which it seems like they rebut everything you say? If you say one thing, they say the opposite. If you state an opinion, they take up a contrary point of view?

You know what that’s called? Being a devil’s advocate. And if you’ve ever gotten into those kinds of conversations, you know why it’s called being a devil’s advocate. It’s like being in sort of a conversational purgatory, where you want to tear your hair out.

I imagine if Jesus were to speak to the crowds today he’d encounter a good bit of opposition, as well.

Some from devils’ advocates, who would argue against him just for the sake of argument, to see how he’d hold up.

Some out of indifference, who would be quick to dismiss a simple-looking man who hangs out with the bar crowd and chats up the people at the food bank and the homeless shelter and then spends a lot of time out in the woods praying.

And some would oppose Jesus out of arrogance, believing that what Jesus would say to us today would be hopelessly out of touch with the complexities of modern life.

Which is exactly where we enter into this story in today’s Gospel.

Jesus is getting a bit worked up when we encounter him here and then he does what he so often does: he takes time out to pray.

And he says:

“God, thanks that these wise, intelligent, upstanding people don’t get it.”

[It almost sounds a bit sarcastic.]

“Yes, God, your truths are so simple that those who consider themselves wise and clever are overthinking this whole good news thing. But those whose faith is like that of a child, yes, those are the ones who see you, who hear you, who are being changed by you. And I can see, Father, that pleases you.”

Given the arrogant and the humble, Jesus always chooses the humble.

Jesus knew it didn’t take an advanced degree to understand what God’s love was all about. He knew that if you took out an advertisement inviting people to worship God, it would say “no experience necessary.”

What Jesus knew was this: No one knew God like Jesus knew God. Those who drew close to Jesus drew close to God.

And so he made this simple invitation: to the crowds at Capernaum and to us today:

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

Is there a more compelling verse of Scripture than that?

Jesus says, come to me, no experience necessary.

You don’t have to be a person who “knows it all” to learn God’s love. It’s not about “knowing it all” but having faith.

You don’t have to be a person who “does it all” to earn God’s love. It’s not about “doing it all” but sharing our burdens.

He talks about the yoke: A yoke is a heavy wooden harness that fits over the shoulders of an ox or oxen. It is attached to a piece of equipment the oxen are to pull. Often the farmer would pair the most experienced and strongest ox with a younger, weaker one, so that 1) the burden would be shared, and 2) the younger one would learn and grow.

That’s what Jesus is saying when he invites us to bring heavy burdens to him. Jesus frees people from all these burdens. The rest that Jesus promises is love, healing and peace with God, not the end of all labor. A relationship with God changes meaninglessness, wearisome toil into spiritual productivity and purpose.

May God give us grace to hear today’s Good News:

“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.”