Today’s message was written by my friend Rev. Roger Kunkel, founder of Dial Hope.

In Chicago, a man was about to cross a busy street when a lovely young girl walked up, led by a seeing-eye dog. He realized that she was blind. The lights changed, and the people started crossing. He was about to offer to help her across the street when a big fellow stopped his truck, jumped out, and said, “Lady, can I help you across the street?” 

“Oh, thank you, but no,” she replied. “l have to trust in my seeing-eye dog. If I depend on someone else, the dog won’t guide me.” “How can he tell when the lights change?” the man asked. “l don’t know how he knows,” she answered as the dog began leading her across the crowded thoroughfare, “but he knows. And, he’s never failed me!” 

You know, this is just how it is with us when the lights in our lives are changing and we’ve got to move ahead…we can’t panic. We’ve got to trust our guide – God…and walk by faith. We can’t see the way, but God can. And, he will guide us to safety- He’s never failed! In Proverbs we read: “Trust in the Lord with all your heart…and he shall direct your paths.” (Proverbs 3:5,6)

Let us pray: God of all beginnings, and God of all middles and endings as well, we bow in your presence to confess our dependence on you. Lord, we trust you. Clearly you have made everything beautiful in its time. Everything good that has ever happened to us…we owe to you. For only by your grace through Jesus Christ do we understand life as we do, and value those things that give meaning to our existence. Now grant that when our life is ended, we may hear you say, “Well done, good and faithful servant.” Through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Rev. Richard Fairchild once related a story from his childhood. He had this memory of his father walking into the living room and his younger brother, John, cowering slightly in response. He immediately sensed that John had done something wrong, and from a distance, he then noticed what it was. The younger boy had opened his father’s brand-new hymnal and scribbled all over the first page with a pen.

Staring at their father fearfully, both brothers waited for John’s punishment. Their father picked up his prized hymnal, looked at it carefully, and then sat down without saying a word. Books were precious to him. He was a minister with several academic degrees. For him, books were knowledge – which makes what he did next remarkable. 

Instead of punishing his brother, instead of scolding, or yelling, his father took the pen from the little boy’s hand and then wrote in the book himself. Alongside the scribbles, his father wrote: “John’s work, 1959, age 2. How many times have I looked into your beautiful face and into your warm, alert eyes looking up at me and thanked God for the one who has now scribbled in my new hymnal? You have made the book sacred, as have your brother and sister to so much of my life.”

On reflection, I love the way the father handled that situation. I don’t think I would have handled it so well. But I have to imagine how those boys, as they grew up, would look back on that event, read those words, and remember how much they were loved. I also have to imagine that over the years, whenever the father picked up the hymnal and looked at the scribbling and his own words, he would ever be reminded of what is truly most important to him in life. It was truly the father’s response that made the hymnal holy.

Let us pray: O God, grant that we would have such forethought and grace in our own relationships. May we never lose sight of what is truly important – not things or objects but the people we love. We ask in Jesus’ name. Amen.

Two days ago, we reflected on Jesus’ invitation in Matthew 11:28: “Come to me, all you who are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest.”

But there is more, isn’t there?  

To his invitation, Jesus adds: 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.  For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”

Now you probably remember that a yoke goes around the neck of an ox or horse for plowing. It is a work instrument. It is exactly what we would think tired workers need least! When Jesus refers to his yoke, he was referring to his teachings. And, indeed, sometimes Jesus’ yoke does not feel very light!

This made me think about something one of my friends said to me once. He said, “Joe, God loves you just like you are right now. But… God loves you too much to let you stay that way!” There is ever this invitation to learn, to grow… to deepen… There is ever an invitation to change our hearts and our minds.

I think about my own life, and how following Jesus has pushed me… to open my eyes to the need of the world around me… to soften my heart…to love those nobody else loves, to forgive… to give more than I thought I could… to make amends… 

I think back to the times in my life when I’ve been at a crossroads. I can think of at least a couple of times early on when my life could very easily have gone in a different direction. And I am grateful for this path… for I have found healing to come not only from sitting in Jesus’ presence and accepting his love, but I have found that healing also to come from attempting to walk in his ways. 

We have a magnet on our fridge at home. It is a drawing of a caterpillar and a butterfly, having coffee. The Caterpillar – looking very wormlike – says, “You’ve changed.” And the butterfly says, “We’re supposed to change!”

No. Maybe not always easy… but it is certainly good.

Let us pray: Holy God, we thank you for your unconditional love for each of us. And we thank you also for invitations to grow and change and to transfigure what is hurting or broken with us. Help us ever to take up Jesus’ yoke, walk in his ways, and find rest for our souls. In his name, we pray. Amen.

One of my favorite passages of scripture is from the Gospel of Matthew (11:28-30). At this point in Jesus’ ministry, the crowds have gathered around him, and he turns to them and he says: 

“Come to me, all you who are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest.”

What an invitation! Jesus invites those who are having a hard time of it, those for whom life is difficult, those who have tried and failed, those who have fallen short, and those who are trying to deal with what no human being should have to deal with. 

Come unto me…

I think about those of you caring for a spouse with Alzheimer’s or who have a child battling addiction. I think about those who have had to come to grips with the failure of a business or a marriage. I think about those times when I sat with people after the loss of a child. I have often wondered, how do people do this without faith… 

Last week I asked you why you follow Christ. I also asked my congregation. Here is some of what they wrote:

God called me to be present in the moment in one of my darkest hours… He 
heard my prayers.

Christ has been the only one in my life who loves me unconditionally – 
regardless of how dark my past has been. He knows I’m fragile and made 
from dust and prone to slip and fall, but he still loves me. And I love him 
more than anything else in the world.

God has always been there for me. He helped my brother through sickness. The 
Lord has guided me, my family through good times and bad…

Jesus invites us, “Come to me, all you who are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest.”  

May we ever accept the invitation. 

Let us pray: Compassionate Christ, we turn to you in our moments of darkness and despair, trusting that you are with us in moments of peace as well. We rest in your presence, asking for healing, mercy, and grace. We thank you, Lord for meeting us here and now. Amen.

Erma Bombeck once told a story about a time in church when she noticed a small child who was turning around in her pew – just smiling at everyone. She wrote, “He wasn’t gurgling, spitting, humming, kicking, tearing the hymnals, or rummaging through his mother’s handbag. He was just smiling. Finally, his mother jerked him about, and in a stage whisper that could be heard in a little theater off Broadway, she said, ‘Stop grinning! You’re in a church!’ With that, she gave him a belt on his hind side and as the tears rolled down his cheeks added, ‘That’s better,’ and returned to her prayers. I wanted to hold this child with the tear-stained face close to me and tell him about my God. The happy God. The smiling God, the God who had to have a sense of humor to have created the likes of us.”

It is so true. The God who Jesus invites us to trust is a God of joy, a God of laughter, a God of mercy, and a God of hope. That child’s mother had it all wrong!

In the Gospel of John, Jesus said, “I am coming to you now, but I say these things while I am still in the world, so that they may have the full measure of my joy within them.”

In your own life, I hope that you take great delight in worship. May your faith be a source of strength and joy. May you also delight in God. And, may you never forget that God delights in you!

Let us pray: God of all joy, we remember that Jesus came so that we might have life and have it abundantly. We also remember that one of the fruits of the Spirit is joy. Fill us again with your joy and with abundant life – that these gifts would spill out of our lives touching and changing the world around us. We ask in Jesus’ name. Amen.