Rest!

Meditation on Matthew 11:16-19, 25-30

First Presbyterian Church of Smithtown

Pastor Karen Crawford

July 9, 2023

I made a stop at an optician’s office to buy new glasses this week, in between pastoral care visits and serving Home Communion. Still wearing my pink clergy shirt with a white collar, I stopped in to see John in the Shop Rite shopping center in Hauppauge.

Well, my eyeglass prescription had changed, and I had been putting it off and worrying about it. I didn’t want to spend $800, like I did 7 years ago when I bought new glasses in Florida. And I thought, if I paid that much for my glasses that long ago, in Florida, how much are they going to cost me here?

One of our members had recommended John. She told me some of his story—and the good experience she had with him. Beginning in middle school, John learned how to grind lenses from his optician uncle. His parents sent him to help his uncle in his eyeglass shop for a few weeks each summer. John said that he was a terror with his glasses and was always breaking them as a kid. His parents were weary of replacing them!

“Go and learn how to make them yourself,” they said!

So he did.

John had nothing but wonderful things to say about his uncle—and what a testimony to his hands-on teaching and example that John would decide that he, too, would pursue a career as an optician and help people see better by fitting them with glasses.

He didn’t have any coupon offers for me. No buy one, get one half off. He was just kind, honest, and generous. He was funny, too. When I walked up to the counter with my new prescription and asked if he would help me find new glasses, he looked at the paper—and looked at me not wearing any glasses—and said, “You must be wearing contact lenses. Because you’re REALLY near sighted!”

In the end, he didn’t try to sell me any glasses! He said, “You don’t look like a glasses’ kind of girl. You look like a contact lenses’ kind of girl.” (And I didn’t mind being called a girl at all!)

He persuaded me to let him make new lenses for my old frames that he would straighten and tighten. The new lenses cost about half the price I paid for new glasses 7 years ago and would be thinner and lighter than the old ones. He shook his head when I offered to give him a deposit. No one pays until they pick up their glasses and walk out satisfied. He would text me when they were ready.

I didn’t expect that, at all!

As I drove home, I thought about how John learned the technology of making eyeglasses and fitting people for glasses through a formal degree program. But he learned how to be an optician as an apprentice to his uncle, working closely with and watching a man who obviously cared about his clients and his community more than maximizing his profit!

Our passage in Matthew today is about seeing the ways of Christ and our faith with fresh eyes and doing the unexpected as a witness to Christ. This reading is about wisdom—a new kind of wisdom than what passes for wisdom in our culture and wisdom in Jesus’ time and place.

Things haven’t changed THAT much.

Jesus turns everything upside down! People are confused and angered by him! He sounds exasperated by those who are misunderstanding and complaining about what he and his relative, John the Baptist, have been doing and saying about the Kingdom of God and the importance of repentance. He is sharply critical of institutional religion, with those in leadership holding to a form of religiosity, without actually living a life of faith, in loving relationship with God and neighbor.

Jesus says of his critics,

 “For John came neither eating nor drinking, and they say, ‘He has a demon’; the Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, ‘Look, a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!’ Yet wisdom is vindicated by her deeds.”

The example Christ gives of those who are understanding and living out their faith is that of children and infants—the ones without any voice, power, or status. He prays, “I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things (the true wisdom of the world) from the wise and the intelligent and have revealed them to infants; yes, Father, for such was your gracious will.”

On this day when we welcome and baptize Jesse Scanna, Jr. and celebrate his entrance into Christ’s Body and being claimed by Him, isn’t it inspiring to talk about the wisdom of children and infants as a model for us all? This is important to remember—that it isn’t just the family and Church family who have much to teach and nurture in those whom we baptize. The children and infants also have much to teach and nurture in US—if only we have eyes to see and hearts open to learn from them and be changed by them.

In Matthew 18, the disciples are arguing with each other over who is the greatest and Jesus  “called a child, whom he put among them, and said, “Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Whoever becomes humble like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. Whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me.”

When I was with the optician in Hauppauge, being fitting for my new lenses, the optician who learned his care and concern for his clients as a teen from the uncle who served as his mentor, asked me to put on my glasses, while I was wearing my contact lenses. He apologized for any discomfort it would cause me.

As I looked through my contact lenses, combined with my glasses with thick, corrective lenses, I saw the room completely distorted. The world was a mush of colors and unidentifiable shapes. I couldn’t tell which forms were people and which were furniture. Even the light emanating from light fixtures was bent and casting an eerie glow.

A new thought popped into my head. This is how the world looks to some people, who live without faith. Who have NO hope. The world is ugly, distorted. Confusing.

When we know Christ and the compassion of God, we have clarity. We see glimpses of the Kingdom right here. We see blessings and order in the midst of chaos and uncertainty.

I saw the kindness of an optician as a gracious gift from God on a seemingly ordinary day. It’s all in how we see the world and ourselves, our testimonies in Christ. Everything looks different when we see our own personal stories through the lens of the life and self-giving love of Christ, our Savior, humble teacher, and merciful healer.

But those of us who have been churchgoers for a long time may be tempted to take for granted the yoke of Christ or forget that we have to keep on choosing to accept this yoke, each day. That is, if we want to have a peace that surpasses all understanding and a kind of rest that the world will never give.

This is a SOUL rest. A SABBATH rest we can experience any time—and not just on Sunday morning. This is for those who want a different way of life than the world would choose for us. For those who long to stop striving and trying to be perfect, strong, and smart. For those who are always falling short of our own ridiculously high expectations and not living in the fullness of Christ’s redeemed! This invitation from Christ to companion with him for all eternity is a gift for ALL who seek it!

Listen to your Lord, once again, through The Message, Eugene Peterson’s translation:

“Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to me. Get away with me and you’ll recover your life. I’ll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with me and work with me. Watch how I do it.  Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won’t lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with me and you’ll learn to live freely and lightly.”

Let us pray.

Holy One, we ARE tired. We ARE worn out. We are ready for a change. Yes, we will come to you. Yes, we want to get away with you and recover our lives, the lives you have planned for us. Teach us about real rest. Help us to take a real rest. Gather us close to you so that we may watch you as you walk and work and learn to walk and work with you. Give us your joy and peace as we experience the unforced rhythms of grace—something we can’t see or know in this world without knowing you. We promise to trust you as you build up our faith. We trust that you won’t lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on us—that everything will be OK. That you will keep company with us as we keep company with you and be stirred to live freely and lightly. In your Son’s name we pray with thanksgiving. Amen.