If I were asked to put Christianity into a Tweet I’d quote Matthew
11.28:
‘Come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy
burdens, and I will give you rest.’
It’s
less than 140 characters and it gives the whole Gospel in one sentence.
Come
to the Lord Jesus Christ who came tonight to be God present with us.
Offload
on him, on his broad shoulders, and welcome what the world yearns for – inner peace.
Christianity
shows itself in all who’ve got that peace - for there’s nothing more
infectious!
As
we come to the crib tonight/this morning Jesus wants no less for us than to lay
down our burdens and come to him for rest so we can infect the world around us
with his peace.
He’s
here – Jesus is always here in St Giles in this Sacrament – he’s here and he’s
waiting!
‘Two
African women boarded a train. Each one carried an enormous basket of goods on
her head. On being seated one woman laid her basket on the floor. The other
woman continued to carry it on her head for the entire journey. The train
journey ended. One woman, refreshed and rested, gladly lifted her burden and
peacefully resumed her journey. The other woman, tired and disgruntled, wearily
plodded along’ (Bible Alive notes 2 Dec
2012).
I
wonder as you sit in your pew which woman you are tonight/this morning?
Are
you sitting with the world on your head?
Put
it down in Church! Lay it before the altar! Take it to the Crib!
This
isn’t magic. Trusting Jesus is a practicality we have to work at hour by hour.
‘Come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy
burdens’
The endless whirring of your mind can be stilled as you see his
mind thinking beside you.
The physical aches and pains of life will feel different when
you admit him to tend for them.
Friendship with him makes it easier to befriend those who’ve
unfriended you, and I’m not just talking Facebook unfriending.
Coming to Jesus refreshes our hearts and makes them like his.
One lady on the train kept the burden on her head. We resolve to
do the same when we trap ourselves in fear, resentment, anger or anxiety.
We’re living in what’s been called a ‘culture of contempt’ in
which contempt and unforgiveness are at a premium. The Church isn’t immune as
the women bishops and same sex blessing divides show.
A parish magazine had this amusing advertisement: “Churchyard
maintenance is becoming increasingly difficult and it will be appreciated if
parishioners will cut the grass around their own graves”.
There’s a laugh but one illustrating a very serious point. We
all need a fair sized cemetery to bury the faults of our friends.
We need to bring our faults and theirs to Jesus because if we fail
to forgive our neighbour we end up locking ourselves in the prison of our own unforgiveness.
‘Come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy
burdens, and I will give you rest.’
Is there a heavy burden of unforgiveness pressing you down
tonight/this morning. As you kneel at the altar for Christmas Communion lay it
down.
‘I will give you rest’ the Lord promises.
‘Glory to God in the highest and peace to his people on earth’.
Christianity is no one line tweet or sound bite but a peaceful
disposition.
'Acquire
that spirit of peace’ wrote St Seraphim ‘and a thousand souls around you shall
be saved'.
We
acquire it by coming to Jesus, trusting he’s here, and opening our hearts to
him day by day, hour by hour.
That
pain in your heart – he knows all about it! That useless anxiety – he laments!
That whirring mind that won’t settle into commitment – he sees, sympathises with
and regrets!
Seek
his healing presence tonight/this morning in the eucharist and he will satisfy
the deepest hunger of your heart.
‘Come to me’, he says, ‘all you that are weary and are carrying
heavy burdens, and I will give you rest.’
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