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Matthew 11:28-30 (The Message)
Even without the attribution at the bottom of this quotation, many who have attended church in the past 20 years will be familiar with Eugene Peterson's free translation of Jesus' famous invitation, more traditionally rendered as:
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.’Matthew 11:28-30 (NRSVA)
Both sum up the compassion that I believe lies at the heart of Jesus' good news, and at its best the church should be the continuing incarnation of these words. The current President of the Methodist Church in Ireland has taken these verses as the theme for his year in office, and is, month by month, exploring the various spiritual disciplines, or what Wesley referred to as "means of grace" that will help us, in Peterson's words "Learn the unforced rhythms of grace."
However, we have to be honest that the institutional Church, and we as individual Christians, have not been good at incarnating these words or learning these rhythms. Which is why, perhaps Peterson's description of people "burned out on religion" resonates so much. That burn-out can come about for various reasons...
Within the context of Matthew's Gospel most Christians, rightly see Jesus as contrasting his invitation with the form of Jewish religious faith offered by the Pharisees and Sadducees and others at that time. Matthew is probably emphasising this contrast, particularly with Pharisaism, throughout his Gospel because of the battle for the way that Judaism (of which the embryonic church was a part) would express itself in the wake of the destruction of the Temple.
What we don't often recognise is that there is as profound a struggle going on at present for the future of the Church in the wake of the collapse of Christendom, with many offering not co much a conservative as a reactionary, rules-based reading of Christianity that, I would argue, is more in keeping with Pharisaism than Christianity. Some are dressed in traditional garb and claim, in one form or other, to be the embodiment of the apostolic succession. Others are dressed in more contemporary garb, with all manner of technological enhancements, and yet, ironically claim to be getting back to the New Testament Church (which as I often point out was so dysfunctional that it required Paul and others to write the letters that make up the And lots of people are getting caught in the crossfire of that struggle. Some are walking wounded. Others are finished with faith.
But we also often miss that this invitation also comes the chapter after Matthew records Jesus sending out the Twelve on mission... and I do wonder whether it is aimed at the Twelve as much as anyone else, and that some of the weariness and burn-out that he is offering relief from is as a result of the unresponsiveness that Jesus atypically condemns earlier chapter 11. And again, how many who were fervent evangelicals and even evangelists in earlier years today have either given up on faith altogether, have retreated into the "spiritual/but not religious" sphere, or have found a corner of a cathedral where they can meet with God anonymously without committing to the messy business of engaging with other Christians?
For all of them, and a wounded, weary world, which, in general runs a million miles from what the church is currently offering them, we need more incarnate expressions of Jesus' invitation above. Places of sanctuary where people can come and encounter Christ in the here and now without being fitted immediately for some ill-fitting yoke. I am seeing some expressions of this across the religious landscape in Northern Ireland, but not enough. Perhaps because those of us in leadership roles are still servicing the model of Church that was a feature of Christendom. Congregations that delivered "services" (indeed that is what we still call our meetings for worship) that were beneficial to wider society. The crumbling edifice of that form of Church can no longer sustain that demand... Seeking to do so is creating more weary, worn-out, burned-out, burdened people... and as such it profoundly anti-Christian.
So, if there are to be more of these places of sanctuary, incarnating Christ's invitation to the walking wounded we first need to stop some of the things that are burdensome... Open up spaces in diaries, hearts and minds... Respond to Christ's invitation for ourselves, before then exploring how we might incarnate his words of invitation for others...
Selah
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