School is in full swing and with it comes the dreaded busyness of the year. Children are now back in the swing of mimicking the adult life, eight hours of work, then come home and work more, then find time to fit in extra curriculars, and also maintain some level of family and social life. For the parents, you do the same thing with even less time. For grandparents, you try and take care of your kids and grandkids, assuring them that they are not going insane and they can accomplish the tasks set before them. If I could sum this part of year up in a word it would be: chaos. Now, I know what you are thinking. Pastor is going to tell me go to church, and how important it is, and why I should be doing it. Yes. I am. But give me a few moments of your precious time to explain why and maybe convince you to move church things out of the “to do” column into the “get to” column.
Chaos is a breeding ground for sin. When you are overworked, stressed, and busy, sin has ample opportunities to take hold and make life worse so that you become even more overworked, stressed, and busy. Our temperaments are terrible, our minds are rushed, our emotions are out of our control and this leads to us sinning against our God and hurting others. Sometimes in the chaos, others sin against us. Just as we are prone to much sin when we are drowning, others are prone to it as well. As sins begin to pile up, the weight we feel starts to crush us and lock us into a cycle of sins upon sins. You may suffer in silence, but I know you suffer. You know you suffer. You know others suffer. The question becomes what do we do about it? Who will save us from these unspoken, often ignored wounds? Where do we go?
Church. We go to church.
Our Lord Jesus says in Matthew 11:28, “Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” We go to where Christ says to go. We go to Him. There in His holy house, He offers us His Word and His Sacraments for our rest and benefit. He says to us, “Come, hear that you are forgiven, hear that your neighbor is forgiven, taste and see that this forgiveness is for you in My body and My blood. Come, be strengthened by your brothers and sisters in the congregation. Come, learn from Me and take My yoke upon you, see I am gentle and lowly in heart. My yoke is easy, and My burden is light.” In the Divine Service we witness holy things. Those holy things are given to you for your benefit so that the chaos of the world does not drown you. Again, listen to the words of our Lord from Mark 2:27, “And he said to them, ‘The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath.’” We go to church not because of some pharisaical law to do so, but because the Lord has promised His rest and His gifts there. So if you find yourself overwhelmed, if your children are overwhelmed, come and see Jesus. His yoke is easy, His burden light, His gifts free.