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This Makes No Sense!

Grace and peace to you from God our Creator, our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit, who abides in which of us. Amen

I hope you all had a fun and safe Fourth of July. So, did you go to, or host a BBQ? Did you go buy some fireworks and set them off? If you did, hopefully you were careful as to where you shot them off. I love fireworks! In the city of De Soto where I live it is legal to shoot off fireworks, so we buy fireworks of our own then up until the city’s fireworks show starts, us and about half the citizens in De Soto shoot off our own fireworks. Then right before the city show starts, everyone at my house goes to our yard and our upper porch and watches the big fireworks display over the river. What a blast!

I can honestly say that the Fourth is one of my favorite holidays. It’s always relaxing, enjoyable, and it is just fun to be with family and friends. So this past week I got to wondering about how we celebrate this holiday that celebrates our nation’s independence and I wondered how they celebrated this great day back in the day. So I took a look at the history books and discovered some interesting facts. On July 4, 1776, the Second Continental Congress met in Philadelphia and debated whether to adopt the Declaration of Independence. The delegates came from the 13 states, but aside from that we do not know much else. The actual debate was closed to the public and no one wrote down what was said. All we know for sure is that the delegates voted to approve the declaration and only John Hancock, the president of Congress, signed it. No one else signed that day. Bells did ring throughout Philadelphia that day, but no other celebration took place.

A small band of men, who were not highly thought of back in Europe, using today’s language these men might even have been called terrorists, declared their freedom and with no knowledge of what was to come, began what is now the most powerful country in the world. Had the author of the Declaration of Independence, Thomas Jefferson, made such a statement back then, the world powers would have laughed and said impossible. Today, we often take our freedom and our power for granted, but I guarantee you many who came before us did not. To make a claim that the United States would become such a superpower 238 years ago would have seemed impossible, and in fact, it probably would have made no sense.

Today, for those of us who follow Jesus and attempt to proclaim his message, much of what we say and do, still doesn’t make sense and often seems impossible. Think about it, Jesus said that if we really want peace, then our response to violence must be peace. This makes no sense to this world, and, so, many are convinced that that more guns will bring peace. Heck, just a few weeks ago on Father’s Day, a church in Joplin, Missouri raffled off two automatic rifles. All you had to do to be entered into the raffle was come to church on Father’s Day. What were they thinking in Joplin? Did they forget that Jesus does not condone violence, no matter what? Jesus is the one who instructed us to love unconditionally. He is the one who, when his own life was threatened, said to his disciples, "Put your sword back into its place; for all who take the sword will perish by the sword” (Matthew 26:52). Today I would argue he would say, lay down your guns for all who take up such arms will die by such arms.

Now you might be thinking that what I just said makes no sense because of something Jesus said a couple of weeks ago when we heard him say, “Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth; I have not come to bring peace, but a sword. For I have come to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law; and one's foes will be members of one's own household” (Matthew 10:34-36). It sound to me like Jesus isn’t speaking about bringing peace, but violence. It sounds to me like Jesus is saying, pick up the sword, or the gun, and go be violent in the name of Jesus. But, as I said, much of what Jesus says does not make sense to us and seems down right impossible.

So which is it, peace, or violence. Well, it is both, but not like we think. You see, for those who follow Jesus, and for those of us who actually choose to live as Jesus called us to live, what we discover is that we simply cannot sit back when we see injustices in this world. We cannot sit back and do nothing when we see children going hungry in our schools. We cannot sit back and be quiet when we see legal systems that prevent certain groups from fully participating in society, so we fight for freedom, for civil rights, and equal rights. But, the sword we Christians are called to use is God’s word, not guns and knives. The word of God is the sword Jesus will return with according to John in the Book of Revelation (Revelation 2:16). God’s word, or sword, is a sword that cuts both ways. It can cut down, or judge, the unrighteous, but it can also, set free and build up the righteous. As followers of Jesus, though, we are not called to use God’s word to judge. Remember what Jesus himself said, “When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit on the throne of his glory. 32All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats, 33and he will put the sheep at his right hand and the goats at the left” (Matthew 25:31-33). Jesus is the only one who gets to judge, you and I are called, as impossible as it sounds, to build up, to offer freedom and to bring about peace.

To follow Jesus and share his Father’s word means we will most likely bring about chaos and at times we will bring about violence, because the world will not understand. I know it makes no sense to us, but it is the truth. This call for you and I to seek justice and live by God’s word is a huge burden, but it is the burden that our Father gave to Jesus and it is the burden that Jesus lays before us. Jesus knows the heavy load he has given us and so, today we hear is invitation, "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." (11:28). Is this invitation supposed to be helpful? It makes no sense, does it?

A yoke, in Jesus day, as well as today, is a means of harnessing animal's hard work, especially in places where people don't have access to modern equipment. To yoke ourselves to Jesus means we will be doing the heavy lifting and the hard work. For the ancient followers of Yahweh, the yoke also served a symbol of obedience to God. Now not much has changed over the millennia, and we humans still resist yokes and laws, for we cannot see that such things can give freedom.

But, for a people who just celebrated our 238th year of freedom this weekend, we should understand that in yoking ourselves to laws and systems that seek justice, not only are we free, but so can others become free. Today, Jesus invites us to think of God's law and wisdom as a means to surrender, to give way, and to accept something that makes no sense. His words challenge us today, to see that by yoking ourselves to God and God’s ways, we will find rest. By yoking ourselves to God and God’s ways, we will find peace and freedom. Oh, it won’t be easy, but by yoking ourselves to Christ, we will learn much, this heavy burden will be lighter and we will discover a strength we never knew we had and we will know what it means to be truly free. Amen.

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