Matthew 11:28 Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. 29 Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”*
_________________________________
(Please read in low voice, fast pace.)
*Actual offer applies to Jesus only in a mysterious, spiritual sense. Application of offer is restricted in most actual churches to persons fulfilling additional requirements as determined appropriate by theologians and church leadership. Persons wishing to take advantage of said offer should contact their local Jesus franchise and fulfill specific requirements.
Offer does not pertain to the Lord’s Supper in many places due to additional theological complications in church history.
Definition of “Labor and heavy laden” varies in individual cases and may not include sexual sinners, adulterers, criminals and addicts. Those interested in this offer who continue to experience serious sin problems should see their local franchise to discuss what variations on the offer are available to sinners without a testimony of deliverance.
Definition of “yoke” may or may not include actual discipleship. Offer may vary in your denomination.
Invitation to “learn of me” does not necessarily mean learning from or about Jesus. Representatives of Jesus are available at your franchise to discuss resources and small group options.
Definition of “rest” is determined by available resources at each franchise. If “rest” is not available at a franchise near you, fill out a form and you will be notified when actual “rest” is available.
Claims that Jesus is “gentle” and “lowly in heart” may not apply in all denominations. Some offers remove this clause because of confusion with other offers by liberal, girly-Jesus denominations.
Promise that “you will find rest from your souls” is subject to limitations and conditions posted at each franchise operation.
“The Church” is not responsible for misinterpretations or misapplications of the above offer. Those seeking to take advantage of the offer are subject to varying traditions, expectations, conditions, demands, requirements and schedules of participation.
Literal interpretation of this offer should be done at your own risk. “The Church” is not responsible for individual experience with the offer.
This offer may be canceled at any time by other offers and proclamations of “The Church” in your area.
Offer is dependent on orthodox theology and does not apply to liberals, postmoderns, skeptics and most non-Christians.
[...] Read The Fine Print: A new post at JSS. Posted by: TommyMertonHead @ 9:28 am | Trackback | Permalink [...]
[...] Here’s an example of what I’m doing over there: Read The Fine Print. [...]
Awesome
Michael,
This post right here is exactly why I like you.
Seriously.
Thanks.
Wyman
You like me because you’ve never met me.
Too funny! Too true! And profoundly sad. All at the same time.
Brilliant, Michael.
I grew up in the Catholic church, left it for a non-denominational which turned out just like the Catholic church, then moved on to a pentecostal church which turned out like the non-denominational church – just noisier.
I am staying at home and will read my bible, pray and worship at home. I will practice Christianity within my family and with people outside of the “church”. I think that is where God is.
Cute, but…
I see your point. Your point is about “church” blocking the individual’s access to Jesus or making that individual’s access to Jesus dependent on its particular way.
But what if we take this a few steps further?
God loves me? God wants me to be at peace? God wants me to live with him in eternity?
Then why did he make that end dependent on me knowing about one guy born in 1st century Palestine?
How do I know about him…through a BOOK?
But what if I’ve never seen the Book? (Or…as was the case with most people through the 18th century…what if the books are too expensive and I can’t read anyway?)
Jesus wants to give me comfort?
But what if no one tells me about Jesus – particularly about this Jesus?
Why is my knowing about Jesus and even knowing Jesus dependent on human actors?
That’s not fair! Why is this comfort and reconciliation God wants to offer me dependent on human beings at all, and the chance that I’ll cross paths with the Christian ones?
When you get down to it, the question you need to pose is not just this stuff obviously directed at sacramentally-oriented churches, but at the assumptions of Christianity, period.
It’s called, I think, the scandal of particularity, and it’s at the core of this.
@abigail: “I grew up in the Catholic church, left it for a non-denominational which turned out just like the Catholic church, then moved on to a pentecostal church which turned out like the non-denominational church – just noisier.”
Heh. Sounds like me pretty much. In a way, things have gone somewhat full circle for me as I’m now going to an Anglican chuch service where it’s pretty much just like mass at my home parish, except that the songs are a little more “contemporary”. It is nice to go to a church where they don’t make you sing “I’ll Fly Away” for the gazillionth time.
I like this post a lot because it reminds me of flyers for Dell PC’s that I’d get in the mail, where the stipulations and conditions of the various rebates and features touted of their computers were so many that they had the footnotes taking up the bottom third of the page.
Greg, that’s an old question that gets batted around in a few different ways. I dunno if everyone wants to take this post that far off topic or not. Perhaps it would suffice to say there are different Christian answers ranging from
- God does indeed make very liberal allowances for the issues you bring up,
- to God makes allowances, but relatively limited ones,
- to God has made the offer, but mankind rejects it,
- to there is no allowance.
And there is also a ’scandal of particularity’ about a universalism sort of behavior by God. That usually gets wrapped up into talks/debates/arguments on the list above. It’s not an unknown question, nor is it unanswerable.
Would a later post maybe deal with the question directly and everyone can have an on-topic post to discuss how a Jesus-shaped spirituality affects how we view this question? It’s certainly a serious question that is affected by the shape of Jesus.
You nailed it right on the head!
A great one, only the “fine print” is too readable. It needs to be ultra-fine font.
I just sat at Starbucks the other morning and read the entire book of Ecclesiastes. I like that book but it has probably been 3-4 years since I read it in one sitting. I was also reading from a NIV Study Bible, with original languages, cross references and COMMENTARY. The Commentary was the fine print. I chuckled out loud when the commentary kept saying things like, “He really didn’t mean eating and drinking and being merry on a physical level . . . but eating and drinking of Jesus and being Merry (smiling all the time) in Jesus.” or “He didn’t really mean that all his efforts were in vain, he meant that outside of being a Christian all your efforts are in vain but as a Christian, you should put forth great efforts and God will bless you.”
It was funny . . . sadly-funny, just like your post Mike.
[Mod edited]
The other Mike
Tim,
I agree that at times, the blogsphere can and does get pretty intense. At times, I refuse to read certain blogs, because the emphasis is wrong for me.
Other blogs, like both of Michael’s, tend to be more refreshing, because I am able to share both my pain, and the pain of other seekers.
If you have the tangible support that you need, please thank God for that. You don’t know just how blessed you are.
thanks for this, michael.. i actually find it encouraging. any time we strip away our junk and let this guy jesus have his say it always ends up being an uplifting thing.
Thanks David,
My heart is divided with [some posters] because of my own experience.
When my wife converted to the RCC, leaving me without a local church home, I was so angry at God I had a breakthrough/breakdown. 30+ years of assumptions about the pastoral ministry came crashing down. I was carrying around a library of crap in my head about God and the ministry, and only an event like the spiritual division of my marriage could shake me loose from my addicted to ministry worldview.
It was painful and traumatic. Almost no one understood. The people I work for had no sympathy at all. The people I work with had a bit more, but still almost none. Their concern was “Is the religious guy going to keep the religious stuff going?” I was the computer, and they wanted the program to keep running.
But my program had faltered completely, and it was time for deletion/reboot.
So I hear guys like [ ] begging to be appreciated and I hear myself a few months ago, begging for things to work out, asking WHY everything wasn’t great? Why didn’t people see how much I cared? Why wasn’t the wonderful bride of Christ treating me like a beloved minister?
Because I was an idolator and God was taking me off my addiction to the way I thought about the ministry.
To give you the short version, I now feel like a CURSE has been lifted from my physical body as well as my mind and heart. I am in a completely different place with almost NO expectations regarding the ministry. All the demanding crap I inflicted on God and myself is over.
The God Journey guys recently said that religion has three stages:
1) You get a baseball bat and you are told to go beat on God to get him to do what you want.
2) You get a baseball bat and you are told to beat up yourself so God will do what you want.
3) You get a baseball bat and you are told to beat up other people till they do what you want.
Dead on target.
On the other hand, I believe a lot of [ ]’s emotions are genuine, and I don’t want to read my journey into his. I want him to be encouraged, but as David has said, the encouragement here is “AA” style, not Hollywood style. This is rehab, but public relations.
peace
MSpencer
I think I’m getting more of your core message in this post. When the Church organizes and amplifies Christs work – like in Soup Kitchens let’s say – it’s a good thing, but when it acts as a barrier – it’s a failure. Fair enough, but not so easy to determine.
Doesn’t the yoke which Christ expects us to pick up imply a modest effort? Like the effort to get Baptized and to remain in Him? And couldn’t it reasonably be argued that a Church would help here, in both organizing effort and in maintaining the basics? Obviously what is truly required and how it should be handled is what each denomination struggles with and answers in it’s own way.
So – where to go/what to do? A churchless solitary life of prayer and contemplation may work for some, but I can’t see how it would apply to an ordained minister with over 30 years experience. Obviously your talents are intended for a community of believers.
So you are (and really we all are) forced to decide which conditions are reasonably part of the “yoke” and which are artificial barriers. Have you articulated a way around this I’m missing?
Aggie:
The yoke is discipleship, and yes there is effort. But the effort never puts us right with the one who makes the offer of rest. He “GIVES” rest. He offers the yoke, the learning, and so on.
I live and teach in a community. Some of my gifts are valued here. But my honesty is, frankly, not considered an asset, to be polite.
The community I serve is the community of thousands of readers and listeners to IM and JSS.
I would love nothing more than to have a real life community that would allow my wife to be RC and me to be evangelical (and honest.)
If such a community exists and needs me, then the Lord can guide us together.
peace
MS
[...] reading at jesusshaped.wordpress.com I came across the following comment from a “Pastor Tim”, please read it, take it to [...]
Nice.
I feel [ ]’s pain. I’ve worked under and with a number of different pastors over the years, and know how hard it is to live under the constant pressure of external expectations.
To be fair, however, I think [ ] may have missed the point and very heart of this post. Too often, those of us who seek to minister to others can become our own harshest critics. Without a place to vent or let your own hair down, you can become trapped in a rarified world of burdensome, legalistic expectations. In some churches, these expectations have been institutionalized to the point where the grace, freedom, and peace offered by our Lord are obscured altogether.
The point then is not to take pot-shots at pastors. Rather, it’s to remind us all that the bridegroom is a self-sacrificing, loving, empowering, forgiving, challenging, yet non-abusive husband. When our expressions of church fail to model that, we all suffer for it…
“He “GIVES” rest. He offers the yoke, the learning, and so on.”
Got it – I honestly get caught up in a effort to please God (probably more vanity than anything) rather than simply recognize His grace and my worthless. It helps to be reminded.
I guess I didn’t really appreciate how much your wife’s choice directly effects your work. I know you’ve mentioned it before, I just have no real understanding of how your denomination functions or how hard it is to find a good position.
As for honesty it is most appreciated here – on the web where it’s refreshing , but still at a safe distance. Too much honesty, or more accurately too much frank expression of your honestly held belief is a quick route to the exit in most work places.
It must be doubly hard in a Church where those beliefs are bound up in Christ and therefore you would naturally and rightly believe it necessary to bring them up. By comparison I can be honest about most work matters or withhold my opinion in what I do because for the most part withholding my view has no comparable moral weight.
I don’t have a good answer for you (as is obvious) – other than the familiar prayer and patience.
Michael Spencer,
I agree with you that Tim’s concern was aimed at the wrong target. I have had in the recent past had to apologize to people that I had unloaded on, only because they were the last in a long string of people saying similar things. I think the same thing happened here.
I wanted to write this note because although I have picked up on Tim’s comment at Eclectic Christian and commented further in support of what he had to say, I do not feel that his concerns are a true reflection of your site.
Over the past year your blogging has been a tremendous encouragement to me, and I appreciate the fact that you have many good things to say about Christians from many traditions. One thing that you have consistently communicated is to have us focus on what Jesus wants us to be regardless of our church background, and that we shouldn’t let the negatives of church get in the way of that. This post was very much saying the same thing, albeit in a slightly more caustic sort of way.
[...] Check out these strong reflections from Micheal Spencer. [...]
Michael, your experience with your wife strikes a chord in my life. When I started getting interested in patristics, I also was drawn to Orthodoxy, which bothered my wife, since she views her RC upbringing quite negatively and equates the two. One day I wandered over to an Antiochian parish and had coffee with the parish priest. One thing he was very clear about was that he had no intention of driving a wedge between my wife and me, that I entered into Christian marriage in the sight of God long before I ever visited his parish, and that if there ever came any talk of conversion, it would have to be as a family.
I later met one of his parishioners, a convert woman who tried to explain to me that my marriage did not really exist because it was not in the Orthodox Church, and that it was my responsibility to manipulate and cajole my wife into following my spiritual lead, and if she would not, I should leave her.
The former experience left me with an attitude that said “Patience. Who knows what might happen in the future?” The latter experience did a good job of extinguishing my interest in the big O altogether.
Michael,
You left out phase four above. After you get tired of beating others with a baseball bat, do you find yourself at the pitcher’s mound serving up the baseballs? I got tired of swinging the bat for the most part and haven’t decided quite what to do with it. I still pick it up from time to time, but it isn’t as much fun anymore.
Jeff
Brian:
Our local RCC priest/nuns (both were involved) really didn’t know what to do with all this. To their credit they eventually got to the point of saying “Don’t do anything until Michael is OK and your marriage will survive.” But before we got to that point, things careened around to every imaginable response, some of them pastorally unacceptable by any standard.
I’d love to say what I think about going after Christians in other traditions at the expense of the spiritual unity in their marriage. High view of marriage. Higher view of the church :-/
It’s all turned out as well as this sort of thing can, but I’ve certainly learned what the phrase Mother Church means. Or Mother in Law now :-)
MS
“Do you think that I have come to give peace on earth? No, I tell you, but rather division. For from now on in one house there will be five divided, three against two and two against three. They will be divided, father against son and son against father, mother against daughter and daughter against mother, mother-in-law against her daughter-in-law and daughter-in-law against mother-in-law.”
Jesus tells us that there are more important matters than familial unity. I try to hold to the commandment to honor my father and my mother. Recently, my father told me that if I really followed Jesus, I would respect my father and leave the Catholic Church and return to being a Baptist. I could not honor such a request. Does that mean that I broke the Commandment? I have a high view of filial loyalty, but I have a higher view of the Bride of Christ.
I am curious as to what exactly you mean by “going after Christians in other traditions”.
I can kind of relate Michael. Before I met my wife, a previous girlfriend became a nun.
She was asked by friends if I had scared her off men completely. Looking skyward, she sweetly responded “After going out with Mike, I figured there was only one way I could do better!” I am hopeful that Denise feels the same way about you (with of course the exception of becoming a nun.)
Not totally relevant, but true nonetheless. :)
Sam:
Well my brother for whom Christ died, as a result of the recent change in our home, we have what amounts to a spiritual separation for no reason that I can comprehend.
And while it’s a good question, I don’t think we really want to go down this road.
OK…I have removed the original comment by the pastor who was discouraged. I have also removed or edited all subsequent discussion. As we moved along, things started to take a turn that I don’t like to see in a comment thread. Way too personal.
We don’t know each other here. It’s a blog. No one is plying psychiatrist. No one here is your counselor. No one here has your answers. Find your answers where you are in your real life.
I’ll say it again: If you’re having that level of emotionalism over blogs, it’s time to talk to someone.
I do, and it’s a good idea. Nothing to be ashamed of. Emotions don’t come out of nowhere.
Sorry for all the drama.
Michael,
All this from “Come to me all who labor …….” ??? :-) As a long-time reader of & rare responder to iMonk, let me say that I have been on a journey stikingly similar to yours. I am a PK that shared a lengthy worship-leader ministry with my wife as well as being highly involved in key ministries over the years and even licenced through one local franchise … er …. church along the way. My wife converted to EO (OCA) and has been quite content to drop her quest for ultimate truth & let the Church be ultimately responsible. Although I have loved the change from the “CCM, sermon, alter call” formula to a real and meaningful liturgy centered around the Lord’s table, I don’t have the desire to make the jump to EO. Although this divergence does not affect my livelyhood, as with you, it has presented a host of challenges. So far, none of these have threatened the bonds of our marriage, and I don’t believe it will, but it has changed everything. I attend the EO parish with my wife and visit a local PCA when I need an infusion of westernism, but pretty much feel like an orphan. It doesn’t bother me much to stay home on Sunday (can’t believe I said that) and I find myself way more cynical of late. The one thing that has not changed is my love for Christ & faith in His presence with us. He will have to sort it out for me. As with my many other Q’s, I’ll probably be waiting a while for the answer. But I’m OK with that. I guess the “yoke” is on us.
Sorry if I wandered off the path too far.
From the above comments alone, it appears that Jesus’s yoke is not easy, and His burden is not light.
Very clever! Too true!
You are a blogesphere treasure. Keep up the good work.
Appearances can be deceiving, Charley.
[...] Read the fine print [...]
Brilliant
Charley,
I think the point of the post, which is rather reinforced by the comments, is that most of these things are not part of Jesus’ yoke at all. A lot of these issues stem from what I call modern-day Pharisees–probably well-intentioned leaders who add on to what the Bible actually says is important. Over time, some of these additions become tradition. What Michael is trying to do with this post, it seems, is to separate the wheat from the chaff, so to speak.
Dang, I just about wet myself…. thanks!
Debi,
My comment was directed towards the personal hardships discussed in the comments that result when a spouse’s beliefs change. When a person chooses not to convert with his or her spouse, the person does so because they feel the spouse’s new denomination is not where Jesus wants them to be. Thus, the non-converting spouse makes the tough decision for Jesus’s sake, and at that moment (and several moments thereafter), Christ’s yoke can feel quite heavy (even if in reality it’s not, which is a deeper issue).
Other than that bit of clarification, I agree with you 100%. Although, we might differ on what is made up tradition, and what is authentic tradition.
someone once said,
“there are no shortcuts to any place worth going to.”
Charley,
I’m guessing that we would agree more than most on which traditions are authentic and which are not. I hope I didn’t imply that ALL tradition is man-made, because that’s far from where I am. Pax…
[...] Rest for the weary and heavy laden? July 21, 2008 — ruach Here is a tongue in cheek teaser on a post made by Michael Spencer at Internet Monk in which he makes fun of how we often “limitR… [...]
This is great, Michael. So (unfortunately) true. Love the humor you infuse into the complete hypocracy and irony of most instutional/franchise churches today. So much more freedom to walk with the Spirit free from such religious constraints that only hinder our relationship with Father.
Keep up the great Blogs. I subscribed to it as a feed.
P.S. If you have MySpace, feel free to request a “Friend Add”.
~Amy
http://www.myspace.com/amyinsurprise
I’m a Facebook guy.
[...] Found this while scanning through blogs. In particular on Kyle’s. [...]
[...] 2. Do you Trust the Abbreviated Jesus? Michael Spencer, aka the Internet Monk, is guaranteed to get under you skin and into your heart. In this post, he powerfully slams the puny “Jesus” we claim to serve and represent. Ouch, and Amen! Want more? Look here and here. [...]