PEOPLE'S CHURCH OF DOVER

Isaiah 25:1-10; Matthew 11:28-30                                                  The Resting Tree

Sermon June 29, 2008:  People's United Church of Christ, Dover, DE:  The Rev. Dan Griggs

 

            It seems to me that if we want our church to be a blessing to ourselves, to others and to our community, we need to cultivate a sense of God's blessings to us.  You know, we spend a lot of time thinking about what God wants of us, and what the Holy Spirit is doing with us, and what Christ expects in us; so let's spend some time with the question:  What does God want for us?  What does God want for you personally? 

 

            Somebody sent me an email last year with a sermon idea from The Upper Room devotional magazine—a piece titled "The Resting Tree."  You may remember it—it's about five years old.[1]  It's about what our ancestors out on the farm used to do for a break during the heat of the day.  When they cleared their land for farming they often left a tree in the middle of the field.  They called it a "resting tree."  During plowing time, when the sun grew hot and time for the noon meal came, they would unhitch the team and drive them over into the shade of the "resting tree."  One of the women in the family would bring a plate of food out, and they would take a break from the hot, dusty work of the day.  A gentle breeze blowing through the leafy branches would cool them off, and the sight of the good work they had done that morning would give them a sense of satisfaction.  Now if people provide a "resting tree" for ourselves, wouldn't God provide us some way to unhitch, to let the morning's work be lifted from our shoulders, to have a refreshing moment—not at the "end," but right now, in the middle of our years?  Maybe God himself is our "resting tree."  Isn't that what Christ is saying in the Gospel Lesson:  "Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest."  And might not this promise of a blessing give us a hint about what God really wants for us personally? 

 

            What does the Bible actually say about what God wants for you?  Here's a verse from the First Letter to Timothy that is basic:[2]

 

 

 

And this from the Second Letter of Peter:[3]

 

 

First Peter says that God:[4]

 

… called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.

 

So the first thing God wants for you personally is your redemption and enlightenment, which brings to you right in this present life a deepened quality of eternity.  But when you say it that way it sounds so cold, so objective.  Where's the "resting tree" that brings such pleasure in the heat of the day? 

            Jesus said in several different ways that God wants you to live without worry or fear.[5]

 

 

The psalmist already knew, five hundred years before Jesus, that God wants good things for you.  Speaking of God's action he wrote:[6]

 

You open your hand,

satisfying the desire of every living thing.

Jesus said:[7]

 

Is there anyone among you who, if your child asks for

bread, will give them a stone?  Or if the child asks for

a fish, will give them a snake?  If you then… know how to

give good gifts to your children, how much more will your

Father in heaven give good things to those who ask him!

And he said:[8]

 

… whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you

have received it, and it will be yours.

 

In fact, God is already ahead of you in this asking and giving thing.  We read in the Letter to the Ephesians:[9]

… to him [be glory] who by the power at work within

us is able to accomplish abundantly far more than all

we can ask or imagine….

 

The Gospel of John places these words on Jesus' lips:[10]

 

I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.

 

Now you and I grew up in a culture where "abundance" has always meant a lot of stuff; but what Jesus meant was a life that's broad and deep and joyful and free—as Paul wrote to the Galatians:[11]

 

… you were called to freedom, brothers and sisters;

only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for

self-indulgence, but through love be servants to each other. 

 

            Now I've just quoted a lot of verses from the Bible.  I don't usually do that, but I wanted you to see that I'm not just making this up:  it's at the heart of the Christian faith.  What does God want for you personally?  redemption, freedom from worry, prayers answered, needs met, a life that is free and abundant in the depths of your living. 

 

            Now that's all good, and it really does recall for us that image of the "resting tree" at noon.  But there's more.  Abundance is one thing, but I still need something.  I need for my life to have meaning.  I need a purpose for my existence.  I need to know that I'm worth the space I take up on this planet.  In our first Scripture Lesson today Isaiah uses the image of a great banquet in Jerusalem to talk about meaning in your life:

On this mountain the Lord of hosts will make for all peoples

   a feast of rich food, a feast of well-aged wines   …

And he will destroy … the shroud that is cast over all peoples …

   he will swallow up death forever.

 

How many deaths have you died in your life?  What kinds of death have you met with already?  There's the death of a career, the death of friendship, the death of innocence—all pointing to the meaning of your life.  But you've got a friend.  In fact, what God wants for you is also what God wants from you:  friendship.

            Isn't that what the ending of the story of Noah and the Flood is talking about when God promises never to destroy the world with water again?  God says:[12]

 

"I will remember my covenant that is between me and

you and every living creature of all flesh…."

 

God remembers that he wants us as his friends, and that in the depths of our own souls we crave friendship with our Origin and Destiny.  So in the prologue of the Gospel of John it says:[13]

 

… to all who received [Jesus], who believed in his name,

he gave power to become children of God . . . .

 

Paul told the Corinthians:[14]

 

God is faithful; by him you were called into the

fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.

 

"Covenant," "children," "fellowship."  The Gospel of John has Jesus say:[15]

 

"He calls his own sheep by name and leads them forth."

And he said:[16]

"I do not call you servants any longer…; but I have

called you friends, because I have made known to

you everything that I have heard from my Father."

 

What does God want for you personally?  God's intention is to give your life meaning, and that meaning flows from your friendship with God, a friendship that you never lose.  You have died many deaths in your lifetime, and lost many friends; but your friendship with God goes all the way down, forever.  That's why we humans were put here on earth—that plus our original assignment, as it states it in Genesis 2:15:

… the Lord God … put [the man] in the garden of

Eden to till it and keep it.

 

That is, to use the resources of this earth creatively to live, and while we are doing that to protect the earth (something we modern people need to be paying more attention to). 

            Meaning!  Friendship with God, creativity with the earth's resources, and caring for creation.  There's another word for this:  love. 

 

These are the things that God wants for you personally and for humankind together:  to be fully human in the best sense of the word, to be open to the depths of love for God and neighbor, to bless others, and to bless the earth.  There is in all these things a kind of moral and spiritual shade tree, a "resting tree" at noon-time, surrounded by the plowing we've done, knowing that there's more yet to do; but sustained by the God who desires to bless us and befriend us. 

Has life been getting you down lately?  Are you feeling overwhelmed with all the heat living creates?  Have you lost someone?  Do you need a good friend?  Do you need some meaning to give life to the things you do?  The good news is that God is your "resting tree":[17]

 

 

AMEN