St. Matthew 11:25-30
When I was in Iowa, I talked with a man at a nursing home who was not a member of my parish. He was a World War 2 veteran of the Navy. He was a serviceman on the U.S.S. Indianapolis. The U.S.S. Indianapolis holds a place in history due to the circumstances of her sinking, which led to the greatest single loss of life at sea in the history of the U.S. Navy. On 30 July 1945, shortly after delivering critical parts for the first atomic bomb to be used in combat to the United States air base at Tinian, the ship was torpedoed by the Imperial Japanese Navy submarine, sinking in 12 minutes. Of 1,196 crewmen aboard, approximately 300 went down with the ship. The remaining crew of 880 men faced exposure, dehydration, and shark attacks as they waited for assistance while floating with few lifeboats and almost no food or water. The Navy learned of the sinking when survivors were spotted four days later by the crew of a PV-1 Ventura on routine patrol. This man who I got to know was one of the survivors of that ship. He told me what those next four days were like as he struggled for survival. The men who were with him in the water were facing attacks from sharks. When the sharks started circling, the men would gather in a circle--they would band together--in an effort to fight off the attacks of the sharks. As I listened to his eye-witness accounts of what he faced, I could only imagine the depth of the trouble that the soldiers faced--the concern for life as they watched the sharks pull down another one of their fellow soldiers and brothers in arms. There was very little that they could do to stay alive. Their very lives were in the hands of the creator. The man that I knew lived to tell about it. He lived with the horror of what he faced every day of his life. As we live out our lives each day, we see life in a completely different way than this man did. He was thankful every day for the life God gave him. The routine life that we all seem to live seems to be different--so......routine. We get up in the morning and our tasks are set before us. Oftentimes, our days do not vary much from one day to the next. We get up, get children ready, go to work, or work to get those “honey do lists” accomplished, and work, work, work. We have our cell phones and we text, we communicate, we Facebook, we email, and each day ends seeming to go by very quickly. We listen to the news and what sorts of crazy things are going on in the world, and often conclude that each day is just another day in our lives. When we go through our normal days and we are busy with the routine, we tend to forget what is really important. But, sometimes the world and life throws curve balls and we are forced to stop and reflect. This is when things can become difficult. An illness enters our life or the life of a loved one, and we are forced to look at life differently. Sometimes, something in this world causes a change in one’s life and he is forced to look at the world with a new perspective. During times of trial or hardship we are forced to ask ourselves what this life is really all about or what does God mean to do in our lives. Why does God allow things to happen? It is usually from these sorts of reflections that we then begin to look at ourselves and how we might be seen by God. When we reflect on God and man, we are often left to our own thoughts. This is a dangerous place to be, because we may try to convince ourselves that we are good people and that surely God will think good of us, or we may reflect on our sin and conclude that we are in big trouble. The best thing people can do in life is to look to the Holy Scriptures in order to understand God and man. The arrogant unbelievers falsely conclude that they are good people and will go to heaven because God will think there is something good and virtuous within them. The person who is led to Jesus and trusts in Him will, if they are honest with themselves, conclude that they are weighed down with sins. St. Paul laments this reality of himself in Romans 7. “The good that I want to do I do not do. The evil that I hate, that is what I keep doing.” This is the confession of sin and faith. St. Paul despaired of himself. This is the way of the Christian. The scriptures have Jesus as the focal point and only Jesus can save us from our sins. The gospel appointed for today bears this out for us. The Christian life takes on a unique and very pointed character when the Christian believes and trusts in Jesus as Lord and Savior, because it is when our sins cut us like a knife and we fear our own spiritual death that we become like that man who struggled for his life in the sea off the coast of Japan. That man’s life took on new meaning when the U.S.S. Indianapolis sank in twelve minutes. The horror that he lived with every day from those four days of his life led him to thank God for the life he had. In like manner, the life of a Christian takes on new meaning when we come face to face with our sin that we cannot get rid of and when we see our own mortality. What will God do with you if you live a life of unrepentant sin? Psalm 50 ends by saying: “now consider this you that forget God, lest I tear you in pieces and there be none to deliver. Whoever offers praise glorifies Me; And to him who orders his conduct aright I will show the salvation of God.” There are two sides to God’s judgment and St. Paul is wrestling over this in Romans 7. God punishes sin, but gives grace to the humble. The words of Jesus in St. Matthew 11 mean little to the person who does not examine him or herself and grieve over sin. But, for the person who runs smack into his own mortality and the threat of judgment, there finds the utmost comfort in the precious words of Jesus. When sin is like a crushing weight on the conscience, it is Jesus who speaks His tender words of mercy: “Come to me all you who labor and are burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me; for I am meek and gentle in heart: and you shall find rest for your souls.” The scriptures are the voice of God in a dying world that pulls us out of ourselves and shows us that Christ loves us to the point of taking our burdens and sins and placing them upon His shoulders. Jesus is the content of the Scriptures which says to you “come, your sins are forgiven and I will give your soul rest instead of worry, turmoil and sadness.” Jesus shed His blood on the cross in order that the heavy burden of your sins and the law would be removed from your shoulders. The crushing weight of all that threatens to consume you is exchanged for Christ’s light load that is His holiness that is placed on you. The pain of our sin and the subsequent love of Jesus that pours over you even now brings forth the comfort and joy of Christ’s salvation to sinners. His meek and gentle ways are the very acts of God for your lives as He comes to you, shows you what salvation is really about and shows you a new way of living that is governed by the Holy Spirit. The blood of Christ that pours over us and removing our sins gives us new meaning as we live in His mercy and grace, as it colors everything from here forward. Amen. -- Rev. Chad Kendall Trinity Lutheran Church Lowell, Indiana www.trinitylowell.org http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=243282012833
