Godly Rest
Sermon 5 July, The Fifth Sunday After Trinity
Theme: Godly Rest
Readings: Zechariah 9. 9-12; Romans 7. 15-25a; Matthew 11. 16-19, 25-30
INTRODUCTION
Reading the Bible is not easy. It is a little akin to walking into the British library in London and seeing all those books on the shelves and thinking, it all looks good, but where to begin!
That is why during this coming year, we will be reading the Bible through one central biblical idea: the idea of the coming of the Kingdom of God. We can approach the library, which is the Bible, through this one idea because both the Old and the New Testaments can be organized around it. It is also for this reason that during our year of renewal, we have taken the motto for it as: Purpose and Path: Your Kingdom Come.
TODAY’S READINGS
Most people will resonate with the second reading from Paul’s Letter to the Romans. Human actions are frequently embedded within a force-field of conflicting drives. These drives propel us to either act according to deliberate intentions or compulsive forces. “For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate,” says St Paul.
This inner struggle is one which the Jews had originally hoped to resolve through following the law. If only we can follow the law all will be fine. Yet, both the law and indeed the philosophical approaches to ethics of the ancient philosophers found that there seems to be an inner contradiction within us, habits of sin, weakness of will, which prevent us from doing what we truly desire to do.
Each of this week’s readings speak to this inner force-field; a force-field that is both inner and outer, and which indicates that there is a need for fundamental healing if we are to be liberated from this state of affairs.
THE ARRIVAL OF THE KING
In the first reading, from the prophet Zechariah, messianic predictions announce the arrival of a King in overtly apocalyptic language. Pointing towards the future, following the Babylonian exile, Zechariah announces that the conqueror of these forces, both those within in our hearts and without in the world, will be the one who shall “arrive on a colt, the foal of a donkey.”
The coming of this messianic kingly figure will put an end to the forces which lead to destruction. Such a regal figure will overcome the invaders of our freedom, and the hopes of Israel will be realized. Israel, and indeed all the nations, will finally become one people in freedom, a holy nation, living peacefully and undivided under the rule of God.
This is the announcement of the Kingdom of God that will be inaugurated and finally arrive with the saviour, and it will make sense of the long waiting of the people of Israel for their true redemption. It is the “Day of the Lord” the scriptures had foretold, and this will dawn with the advent of the Messiah, Jesus, who inaugurates, in his life and ministry, the Kingdom of God.
For Paul, exterior forces of division, war and violence are actually manifestations of spiritual conflicts. A topic that he addresses in some depth in Romans because these forces were actual social divisions for him. They threatened to break apart the intimate connections between the fledgling church and the House of Israel during his ministry. Throughout his ministry, he strove to make sure that the new Israel, the church of Jews and gentiles, would always understand that it has a common origin in the faith of Abraham.
THE ARRIVAL OF THE PEACE OF GODLY REST
The long-awaited messianic King, Jesus, is given the title of “the Son of Man” in Matthew’s Gospel. He is the one who will victoriously enter Jerusalem on a colt some five centuries later than the Old Testament predictions of Zechariah. This Messiah will take away the heavy burdens that these inner and outer tensions provoke so that we can finally come to a Godly rest, and the world may find its true peace.
St Augustine will famously depict this Godly rest of true peace by reflecting on his experience of this inner spiritual turmoil in his Confessions, with the beautiful words that “Our hearts are restless until they rest in You.”
The “rest” spoken of by Augustine, and the Gospel, is the “rest” that comes from our conversion by Jesus, the true King of our hearts and the world. He overcomes the forces of evil and the destructive drives within us and in the world to bring us the peace of God’s Kingdom.
Consequently, we are not left alone by God to follow the untutored instincts and desires which lead us into the inner confusions of a divided heart; the actions that take us away from the Lord, in Paul’s terms. Rather, we are invited by the Lord to follow his still small voice within us, which leads to the peace of new life.
This invitation to follow him is referred to in the Gospel as “the yoke that is easy and the burden that is light.” It is this servant king, Jesus, the Son of Man, who brings peace to our divided hearts and troubled world so that all may come to a Godly rest.
EXPLORING THE KINGOM OF GOD
So, as we explore the theme of this year of renewal: the Kingdom of God, we shall discover layer upon layer of meaning embedded within it. Today, our readings have introduced us to one of these sub-themes, which is central to the Kingdom of God; namely, peace.
The God who inaugurates the Kingdom of God in Jesus is the God of peace. This is the God who seeks to share the infinite depths of peace which exist within the Godhead with us. A peace which is crafted in the love that is the Trinity. A love so overwhelming that it overflows to create, redeem and sanctify, so that all of the creation may share in the Godly rest of its creator.
