When I was a pediatric hospital chaplain, I spent many hours each day witnessing the exhaustion of families who had children in the hospital. You could see it in the way their bodies drooped under the mental, emotional, and physical distress of watching their child struggle, while also running the costs through their heads. Because we were a level 1 trauma center, and the largest children’s hospital in the eastern half of Iowa, I worked with families from all over the state and the often the surrounding states too. Many of whom were trying to find a balance between staying with their child in the hospital, navigating the challenges of taking time off work, caring for their other children who were still at home, and wrestling with all the additional bills that come with being away from home for days or weeks at a time. I witnessed families who got to celebrate their NICU baby going home, but also the other end, as they received diagnoses and surgery plans that would scare any adult. Because of all those factors, my chaplaincy internship was arguably one of the most emotionally challenging times of my own life, but also one for which I am deeply grateful for the ways I was allowed to accompany these families for even a few moments.
I share the reality of my time there, not to make us all sad, but because it is those moments which pop into my head every time I hear today’s Gospel reading; “Come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest” (Matthew 11: 28). As someone who has lived with my own chronic illness challenges throughout most of my life, I have always found this verse incredibly comforting. It’s not that it takes away the pain and the exhaustion that any of us are feeling, but it is reminder of the promise we hear in the Psalm today too, that God “upholds all those who fall and lifts up those who are bowed down” (Psalm 145: 14). It recalls God’s love for us, and, at least for me, allows me to finally feel like I can release the breath I had been holding through every tense moment. The breath that I didn’t even know I was holding until someone reminded me to breathe. Just one of the ways that the Spirit intercedes on our behalf through our sighs that cannot ever be put into words.
I also have watched several clips from yesterday’s celebrations, including Brandi Carlile’s performance of “America the Beautiful.” What I love about the way that she both sings and talks about this song is that you can hear its prayerful nature and tone; it isn’t just a celebration of how amazing we are, but it is filled with hope for who we can become. What was especially poignant in this clip was the focus on the Statue of Liberty, this recognition of way that we are beautiful because of our diversity. As we remember how many people risked everything to make their way here, often in weariness and desperation, holding on to little but some clothes and a prayer. And, so much of that reminds me of our Scripture readings today too.
Today’s readings tell us a lot about who God is and who God is for us; namely that God intends to lift up those who have been bowed down because of the burdens they face in daily living, those who have been cast aside by the dominant group because they didn’t fit the mold or are not deemed worthy of care and value, and those who toil all day long only to feel like they are still buried by debt or poverty. When we pray the Lord’s Prayer, it isn’t just some nice words we say to make ourselves feel better, but it is a radical prayer in which we ask God to keep working for these things in the here and now, so that the reality of God’s kindom exists in our present reality too, not just in heaven. It is a recognition of the way that, through Jesus of Nazareth, God comes in humility to break the machine of violence, conflict, and hatred. Jesus comes to tear down the system and rebuild it, not just do what has always been done or was to be expected. And, I can’t help but hear the echoes in the words on the Statue of Liberty, from Emma Lazarus’s poem, “The New Colossus,” “Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free…” This becomes so much more than just words, but reads like both a prayer for who we can become and a promise of who God is for us, waiting to enfold us in care through our hardest moments. A glimpse of what can happen if we all work toward this vision of God’s kindom together.
Jesus comes, then, speaking to the challenges that exist when changing the world more toward justice and peace. He talks about how people are never satisfied, as they critique both John the Baptist and Jesus. He compares those who are lobbing the accusations to children, you know the ones, those who practically throw a tantrum when they don’t get what they want when they want it. And, in what feels like a major insult, Jesus thanks God for the fact that the kindom reality is revealed to infants, while being hidden from the so-called wise and intelligent (Matthew 11: 25). He does not mean here those who are acting like children, who are too distracted by their tantrums to see what God is up to; those who are in positions of authority and are the so-called wise and powerful ones, but those who have been treated like children and infantilized because people have decided that they are not smart enough or powerful enough to be considered “real” adults. Their input was never valued, simply their usefulness to others.
We get this imagery a lot in Scripture, when Jesus talks about including the little children in his ministry. Sometimes it is a metaphor, but it also is another example of the way that Jesus’ radical hospitality draws in all those who would have otherwise been excluded because of their age or ability. I think we get a little bit of both here, as Jesus is yet again showing how God flips the order of society on its head in the process of moving the world closer to God’s vision. Here, Jesus is not only insulting those in power who just cannot seem to get or do not want to accept what he is doing, but he is also noting that age and worldly intelligence are not the factors that are most needed for discipleship. Our IQ score or the power that we have over society doesn’t matter when it comes to our faithfulness. Rather, our love of God and love of neighbor is the most important quality of our discipleship, recognizing that this is going to be expressed in a wide spectrum of ways.
But, there is also something about childhood that is being recalled through these words today too; the idea that we are created to care for one another and to be cared for ourselves. We often need the reminder that, as adults, we do not have to carry the weight of the entire world on our shoulders, that we have a community around us who lift us in prayer and hold us in love, flowing from the love that we have already received from God. These words from Jesus to those who are weary and carrying heavy burdens is a reminder, too, that rest is a critical piece of our faithfulness, it isn’t just relegated as an afterthought when we feel we have done enough to deserve it. Rest is in fact a way of loving something that God created in love and called good; ourselves and our own bodies. Rest is a way of honoring God, as is creating spaces where others are safe to rest too.
When we think about what this all means for us in our discipleship, Jesus’ words today do not remove us from the act of ministry, but instead sets our roles within the context of our challenges from the world and the promises we receive from God. They are promises which help us to keep going, even on the days when life is complicated, messy, or painful because we trust that we have a God who enfolds and upholds all who are weary and downtrodden. I know I say it a lot, that God doesn’t make all of our problems go away, but God does still provide rest and care along the way. This is going to come from so many different people, in varying ways, but the more we lean into our communal nature, the more we can witness how this is true in our own lives. As we extend care to others and receive care in return when we open ourselves up to the way that God and each other are at work all around us. This, dear church, is what makes us beautiful.
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Sunday June 28th, 2026 Worship