I Will Give You Rest
Sermon preached by Fr. Antony Hughes on Sunday, August 31, 2025
When I looked at the Gospel for this Sunday I was reminded of Mt 11:28-29 "Come to me all of you who are weary and heavy laden. Take my yoke upon you and learn of me for I am meek and lowly of heart and you shall find rest for your souls." Is this not what the Lord wanted for the Rich Man?
Jesus invited him to remove the last obstacle to his own internal peace. Get rid of the burden of your wealth, relieve the poor of theirs, and come follow me. Think of how God instructed the Israelites in Exodus 16 to gather only enough manna for each day's needs. If they gathered more it became inedible. Remember the line in the Lord's Prayer that says, "Give us this day our daily bread." There is no faith in consumerism, only greed and excess.
How many pairs of shoes do we really need?
Jesus speaks of this again in the parable of the foolish Rich Man. He was so wealthy that is so wealthy he decided to build more barns (Luke 12:16-24) to house it all. He asks, "What shall I do with all this?" I'll build another barn to house it and then I will live happily ever after." But death was waiting for him that very night. Death, you know, is our constant companion. As Helen Keller once wrote, "Security in life is mostly a superstition. It does not exist in nature. Life is either a daring adventure, or nothing." So Jesus makes far more sense than the myth of the American dream.
Jesus offers a solution. Instead of foolishly nurturing attachment to this passing world he invites us, "Come to Me and I will give you rest. In the good times and in the bad times, I will walk with you. We will navigate the Valley of the Shadow together and watch as the shadow we walk through is revealed as a luminous cloud, pulsing with Divine Fire like the burning bush in Exodus 3 and shadowy Mt Sinai in Exodus 19. Only the One who has destroyed the power of death can save us. It is he who says, "Come to Me."
Now, let's get practical. Coming to him, receiving the peace he promised, must become for us a daily practice and not a once-a-week on Sunday thing. Christ is unbound by time and space. He is with us always. But we are not always consciously with him. Mary of Bethany, Lazarus and Martha's sister (Luke 10:38-42), is the image of the conscious and deliberate spiritual life. Her soul had awakened to the meaning of his presence. She sat and listened undeterred by the chaos erupting around her. She let go of everything and opened the door at which he had been knocking.
Here we see the commandment to "be still and know that I am God" (Psalm 46:10) revealed in living color. She became another Peter who walked on the water. Only unlike him she never wavered. At that moment she was one-minded. See James 1:8, where he tells us that "A double-minded man is unstable in all his ways." We must strive to become single-minded, searching for his kingdom everywhere and in everything.
And for those of us who struggle to figure everything out which is another great burden, let me offer this quote from the wise German poet Rilke, "Can you sit still long enough for the water to settle and the right answer to rise on its own?" The still, small voice of God whispers in the depths of our hearts. We must be quiet so that we can hear it.
And this is the key. Each practice stillness. Sit down, drop your shoulders, relax your body, let go, and, in silence and awe, awaken to the presence of Jesus standing before you. Wherever you are, he is there, waiting, knocking, wooing, and inviting us to drop everything and notice him. In us, around us, everywhere the wind of the Spirit is blowing. We have only to lift your sails and catch the wind. Unfurl our wings and let the wind carry us wherever it wishes to go. Our only necessary contribution is to "Come and see."
"Come to me all of you who labor and are heavy-laden and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn of me, for I am meek and lowly of heart and you will find rest for your souls."
Who among us is not longing for this one necessary thing?