The other day I went to pick my three-year-old son up from daycare and as I started to put his jacket on him I noticed that it was a little bit heavier than when I had put it on in the morning.
I soon discovered that his pockets were full of these little rocks,
These pebbles that he had been collecting throughout the day and stashing into his pockets.
It got me thinking I wonder how long he had been carrying these rocks.
I wonder how long he had been weighed down by these pebbles in his pockets.
And as you can tell there's a metaphor in there.
There is an illustration of how we can carry things that we were never intended to carry.
Throughout our day we have interactions with people or we have thoughts in our head or feelings that we feel that tend to weigh us down and until we discover those feelings,
Until we reach into our proverbial pockets to pull out the rocks,
To discard them and let them go,
We will continue to be weighed down by things that we were never intended to be weighed down by.
So right now let us together go through and examine an opportunity for us to reach into our pockets and to pull out the things in our life that we need to let go of,
That we need to release.
So join me now by taking a few deep breaths in and out and as we are breathing in and out ground yourself in your surroundings.
Put your feet on the floor.
Straighten up your posture a little bit and may your breath become a reminder that you are in the presence of a God who is gentle and kind and good.
You are in the presence of a God who delights to help us loosen up and let go.
And knowing that we are in the presence of this God we pray,
God would you help us to release our fear,
To release our pain,
To release our uncertainty,
To release our shame,
To release our busyness and hurry,
To release our worry,
To release our defensiveness,
To release to you any feeling that we need to fake something or put on a show,
To release to you any sense that we are unworthy or unloved or not good,
To release to you any interactions that we've had with people that have hurt us or shocked us,
To release to you any grudges or unforgiveness that we're holding,
To release to you any urge for vengeance or the need to prove a point.
God we continue to ask that you would help us release ourselves from inappropriate expectations put on us by other people.
You'd help us release ourselves from insisting on perfection.
You would help us release ourselves from micromanaging situations or taking on too much responsibility.
God help us release ourselves from saying yes when we should be saying no and from saying no when we should be saying yes.
Help us to accept the peace that you offer us in your presence.
Help us to accept the rest that you offer us as we bear our burdens,
As we search our pockets for these pebbles.
And finally God we proclaim that we are going to choose to accept the freedom that you offer us.
To not judge,
To not consume,
To not categorize or label,
To not fill silence with noise.
We want to accept the spaciousness that comes from giving up the things that don't serve us or others.
Giving up the rocks in our jacket.
And so we pray this with gratitude.
Amen.
As we continue in our time of contemplation let us hear from the gospel according to Matthew.
Now when Jesus saw the crowds he went up on a mountainside and sat down.
His disciples came to him and he began to teach them.
He said blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Now if you recall from last week we have begun to reflect and contemplate on these words from Jesus.
These words that shocked the crowds who were listening.
Because Jesus pronounces a list of blessings that is very different than the cultural understanding of blessing.
See the cultural understanding of blessing was that if you had wealth,
If you had privilege,
If you had power and authority then you were the one who was blessed by God.
You were the one who had God's favor.
You were the one who had God's attention.
But here Jesus flips the table so to speak and says no actually the ones who are marginalized,
The ones who are on the fringes of society,
The ones who are often forgotten,
The ones that you think are probably forsaken by God,
No those are the ones who have God's attention.
It becomes no more clear than when Jesus says blessed are the poor in spirit or according to the gospel according to Luke he leaves it as blessed are the poor.
The poor.
Those who are hungry,
Those who are wondering if their next meal will be available to them or not.
The gospel according to Matthew takes a little bit of a different look.
The gospel according to Matthew said blessed are the poor in spirit.
Now what's fascinating about this is that if you break down what Matthew is getting at he is referring to those who have had the opportunity to be embraced by empathy but have actually been rejected.
So the poor in spirit are those who have been crushed by the weight of the economic pressure,
The societal pressure,
The political pressure of their time.
Instead of having a hand reach out to help them their spirit has been crushed over and over and over again.
They are not rich in positivity and optimism but their spirit is poor and weak and frail.
Jesus is saying those people,
Those people,
Those are the ones that God's attention is directed towards.
Let's pause for a moment and reflect on that.
What does that do within you?
Are there certain people that come to mind?
Have you experienced a time where you have been robbed of empathy and compassion?
When you were feeling burned out and burdened and people had the opportunity to uplift you and support and encourage you but instead you received judgment.
These are the people Jesus says God's attention is directed towards.
So take a moment and spend a few minutes in a time of reflection,
In a time of gratitude,
In a time of opening yourself up to how God might be using these words of Jesus to speak to you today.
Blessings on this time.
You you you you thirty two brothers in algebra that I need you to know that you have jarred our hearts and that have sent him down to you whether he wrote,
Transmit or write.
