Finding the Chair

Pentecost 8

Albertville

7-6-08

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Matthew 11:29-30

Almost immediately, when I saw the bulletin for today’s service, I found myself drawn into this picture of a chair on the edge of a beautiful meadow in bloom. I could imagine myself sitting in that chair; my fingers gently draped over the front of its arms; eyes looking outward; scanning the horizon of color before me; lungs breathing deeply the fresh country air; tension and pressure rolling off, away, and into the grass at my feet. It’s just that kind of chair. It invites you to sit in it and promises sweet release from stressful days.

Unfortunately, that chair, according to the fine print, is in Hokkaido Japan. So I don’t think I’ll ever get a chance to sit in it. But that’s not the only chair of it’s kind. Each person seems to find such a chair for himself wherever he lives. Where’s yours? What’s it look like? Where do you go when you are looking for rest and release? Is it the easy chair in front of the television set? The overstuffed arm-chair with a reading lamp? Is it the one on your deck or patio? Or maybe it’s a lawn chair at the end of your dock up at the cabin. Where do you go to let go? Where do you go for rest?

Whatever the chair and whatever the setting, I’m sure that it has been a blessing to you. But perhaps you have noticed that the chair doesn’t always give what it seems to promise. Perhaps you’ve noticed that tension does not always drain away and that problems are not always solved by your sitting in it. For once you get out of the chair and get back to whatever it is you do, the tension and pressure seems to regroup. Sometimes, the stuff of your life can get so overwhelming that no chair anywhere can help you...not even that chair in Hokkaido Japan!

That’s because of how we are made. If we simply consisted of bodies and minds....the chair might be enough. The chair is quite capable of resting the body and clearing the mind. But we are something more than that. We are more than just a body and a mind; we are Body, mind, and Spirit. The burdens that we bear are often spiritual in nature. And no chair, anywhere on earth can help with those!

What are spiritual burdens? Personal guilt would be an example. You’ve said some things perhaps....things that you cannot take back. Or maybe you’ve done something and are still doing something that you know is wrong and even though nobody else knows about it, it’s been eating at you and you is embittering your life. Was it you who strained your marriage; you who failed your children, you who, in a moment of weakness did something stupid? Well now the guilt has settled in hasn’t it? And as you sit in your favorite chair, you can find no rest...because of your guilt. Guilt is a spiritual burden that the chair cannot relieve you of.

But Jesus can and does. For it is to the cross that he has taken our guilt. “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest....you will find rest for your souls.” Rest for your souls in Jesus! That’s what you’re looking for! That’s what you want? That’s is what you have in him. You’ve tried the other chairs now try Jesus. Say to him “Jesus, this is what I have done, this is what I have said....it’s eating me up inside! Please take my guilt away!” And he will. This is why he came. He came to bear our guilt away. He came to cleanse our souls so that they would not be so troubled. King David, who knew a thing or two about guilt wrote in Psalm 51 “Wash me and I will be whiter than snow.” That’s what the forgiveness of Jesus is like. On a cosmic level and in the councils of God you are not guilty by virtue of the fact that Jesus became a human being specifically for the purpose of bearing your human guilt. You are not guilty by virtue of your faith in him. God does not count your sins against you. So don’t you think that you should not count your sins against you? In Jesus God gives you permission to forget what you have done and to let go of your guilt.

Another example of a spiritual burden would be despair. It can happen to any of us at any time in our lives. Despair is when you realize that you don’t have what it takes to make it in a particular situation. We’ve always thought that we could push our way through and find our way out of any contingency and we succumb to all manner of despair when we begin to perceive that there might not be any hope for us. An unemployed person might find himself in despair when he can’t seem to find a job even though he has all the skill and dedication that is necessary. A person suffering with a progressive disease might despair when she realizes that nothing can be done to restore her health. When we are in despair, we learn how we are fragile and delicate and helpless against forces that are greater than us.

When the Lord called us harassed and helpless sheep in need of a shepherd, he wasn’t kidding. It’s the truth! We will all, one day feel that way, if not already. We will despair of our strength and our smarts and of anything we might have. And we will realize that the only solid ground that remains for us is Christ Jesus, the rock of our salvation. He has opened up eternity for us. He has told us that all that is will be ours. He has promised to support our lives forever....and that includes right now....no matter how you might feel...realize that your life is secure forever in Christ Jesus....realize that no matter what happens to you... your life is secure in Christ Jesus! And when you do realize that. When you do confess that this is not all there is and that you are one of God’s eternal people you will have rest for your soul.

Do you see? There is more to you than body and mind.

Fall into your favorite chairs to rest your body...and perhaps take your mind off of things. But for your body, mind, and soul, you must fall into the arms of Jesus. The front cover of the bulletin says as much. It has that cool chair in the presence of beautiful flowers in the valley. But look up, and there written across the distant mountains in the mist are the words of Jesus which say “I will give you rest”.

Wouldn’t it be nice if God would write stuff across the sky to tell you this kind of stuff? Wouldn’t it? If he would just spell it out like that, it would be so much easier to figure out what to do. But what are you talking about? You already know this! He has written it across your heart with his holy Spirit again and again. It’s inside of you. You know that Jesus gives you rest. So why don’t you come to