Bp Miller’s Musings: July 4

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

On Sunday, when we heard those words, many might have been thinking about the celebration of our nation’s 250th anniversary—fireworks, parades, picnics, barbecues, and all the other festivities that will take place. In our minds might echo words from the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, or something written by one of the founding fathers.

Thoughts may dwell on the current state of division we experience in our country compared to the myth of a unified Revolution against the British monarch. Some may worry about the economy or a war in the Middle East that is not easily ended. With a contentious election coming in just a few months, apocalyptic warnings of doom should the wrong side win fill the airwaves, press, and social media.

People of faith know to pray in the midst of these events, giving them over into the hands of God. Yet, somehow, the burden of fear and anxiety doesn’t seem to lessen. We still face threats, known and unknown. Evil powers still seem to control our world, and they press in on our lives no matter what we do.

I imagine Jesus addressing a people who were weary of their lives under the brutal rule of the Roman Empire, and they were tired and frustrated by their own leaders who appeased the foreign powers rather than resist them. They prayed for an end to this rule; they gave their tithes and sacrifices as best they could; they strove to keep God’s commandments. Still, God did not respond to their pleas for help. Would nothing ever change?

“We played the flute for you, and you did not dance; we wailed, and you did not mourn.” Children learn cause and effect at a young age. We train them to use “magic words,” “please” and “thank you” to get what they want. “If I clean my room, mom will let me watch television;” Getting straight A’s earns a new bicycle; and so on. So it is no wonder that they expect responses to their flute playing and wailing in the market: that’s just the way it’s supposed to work.

Jesus likens the people to these children, expecting a predictable response from God for their behavior. In doing so, he seems to say that they have lost sight of the reason for God’s instruction, the purpose God has for giving the commandments. They are not some sort of keyboard to control God’s actions but a means to bring them closer to God and to each other. The commandments are not to be a burden, nor should the cares of the world.

By teaching them to live in right relationship with their God and in community, the commandments lighten the weight of trouble because it is shared. In God, the people should find abundant life, not the weariness of endless struggle, for all of life’s joys and challenges are shared. The law is no longer impossible because we are not trying to change God; instead God changes us.