6th Sunday after Pentecost 2026

Sermon: 6th Sunday after Pentecost 2026

Texts: Romans 7:15-25; Matthew 11:16-19, 25-30

Grace, Peace, and Mercy from Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.

There is a fun poem from the English poet George Herbert titled The Pulley, which connects to Jesus’ words about the rest He gives to the weary and the heavy burdened. The poem references God’s creation of humanity and the different gifts that He bestows on it. But there is only one gift that God keeps for Himself and does not give to human beings, and that was the gift of rest. He gives us every blessing within ourselves, within our grasp, except the rest that we so evidently yearn for at an existential level. The poem says:

When God at first made man,

Having a glass of blessings standing by,

“Let us,” said he, “pour on him all we can.

Let the world’s riches, which dispersèd lie,

Contract into a span.”

So strength first made a way;

Then beauty flowed, then wisdom, honour, pleasure.

When almost all was out, God made a stay,

Perceiving that, alone of all his treasure,

Rest in the bottom lay.

“For if I should,” said he,

“Bestow this jewel also on my creature,

He would adore my gifts instead of me,

And rest in Nature, not the God of Nature;

So both should losers be.

“Yet let him keep the rest,

But keep them with repining restlessness;

Let him be rich and weary, that at least,

If goodness lead him not, yet weariness

May toss him to my breast.”

There are a lot of great images to describe our existence in the texts we read today. In Paul’s Letter to the Romans you have his famous argument regarding that inner

struggle of the self, how the self cannot rest in victory over the power of sin by itself, for the body enslaved to sin or the powers of this world does the opposite of the good that God desires in humanity. And we also hear of those who are carrying heavy burdens, piled on top of them by the different powers in the world including the religious. It leads to how Herbert expressed in the last lines of his poem, after all our restless striving, we are ultimately led back unto the breast of God, where like sleepy children, we can finally lay down our heads and truly rest, this place of loving care which is found through Jesus Christ.

But before we realize this, human beings are restless creatures aren’t we? We are always fighting a battle with something, we are constantly in vigilance about the next thing that will occupy us, the next thing that can potentially fulfill the need to finally lay down everything and rest, for something to finally fulfill our souls with the truth. Like in Herbert’s poem, we have many blessings at our disposal, we have strength, beauty, honor, wisdom, pleasure, and much more. Yet having all these gifts in our existence does not give us rest. Often we might frame this as a questioning cry. Why, after all these efforts, am I not content? Why after getting this or that position, or that job, or that spouse, or that brand new car or beautiful clothing, or that house, or that wealth, why at the end, do they not give rest? Rather sometimes they could even increase anxiety or restlessness?

Hebert gives us a rather playful and lovely perspective. If any of these things would give us rest, then our whole existence would gravitate around those things, we would cling to them, even though they are things that like us, are passing away and have their limits. If our rest was centered around merely the things of this limited life, we

would then miss out on the bigger more transcendent picture, therefore God’s own complaint in the poem: “they would rest in Nature, not the God of nature, so both should losers be”! God does not want us to be deceived, and to treat the things of this world as gods, and to devote ourselves to them as if they were our gods, for indeed these things cannot fill God’s place. Even more, by getting closer to God, these things acquire their proper place in our lives, we can love them for what they are rather what we idealize or deify them to be. God’s place can only be God’s, because God does not desire to be far off, He does not want to be a loser either, He wants to bless us and be with us! He desires our presence, He wishes that we know that our hearts are made for more than what we cling them to. He wants us to see that our hearts are made for Himself, for us to know God, and to rest in Him. Our lives are glorious and worthy because they are all loved and yearnful for God. This longing is for the true rest that is only found in God is the sign within us that we are meant for deeper waters. God being our true rest assures us that we would never remain paralyzed at the draw and glow of things and objects, but rather our lives become oriented towards the liberating way of God, our true destiny and rest. This is the reason the poem is titled the Pulley, for even though we might grow weary from searching for where to lay our heads, if goodness, (which we often shirk aside) does not lead us, our tiredness from the worldly journey ends by pulling us back at the expectant embrace of God that loved us into existence. There we are going through the school of hard knocks, and God has us at the end, we always return to the place we were always meant to be close to.

So from all your weary and burdensome ways, from all your straying away, God calls you back. He calls you back hopeful waiting after we have tired out all our schemes for finding what He already is so yearning to give to us. It’s the reason Paul ends that segment we read today with a word of praise! Thanks be to God through our Lord Jesus Christ, that all these heavy ways cannot enslave us no longer, no longer are our hearts set on the things that lead to death, but rather we are led to rest in the life of our lives, in the One that gives us breath and being, in the one that loves us and is of gentle and humble heart. If you ask why during the liturgy we hear so many thank yous, it’s because we celebrate the victory of freedom from the powers that keep us restless, we have been delivered by the One that inevitably has made us all blessed winners, for we are all pulled together into the love that created us.

How great it is to deliver this message, that even with all the demands of Christ’s teachings, at the core of this Way of Christ is true rest for our souls. We don’t need to make the rest happen. How often have I heard how our society has co-opted even the concept of rest for the sake of more work and burdens. God gives us the rest of knowing that we are where we are eternally meant to be, tossed to the breast of God. This rest is given to you, it is yours, it is not earned or merited, your heart is simply made to rest and be at peace in the One who loves you. So if you’re carrying anything today, remind yourselves and make space in yourselves to rest in God. Our society is prone to deny us the rest we need. Aren’t we always being sent to and fro by the different demands of this world, so much so that we end up being burnt out by them? As the German Korean philosopher Byung Chul Han accurately observed, we live in a burnout society, where even rest is primed for more productivity and work, there is no

place where we get to truly lay our heads and rest. Even more so, we are not even encouraged to rest, we are encouraged only to work more and more. The goal of burnout society is to consume you to bring in more profit to the oligarchs of this world. But the goal of Jesus Christ is to give you a lighter yoke, for His demands are not more work. His commandments are not to burnout. The Goal of Christ is to give you rest. That is as revolutionary today as it was back in the 1st century. Beloved, you are made to rest, to rest in God, in relationship and intimacy with the fount of love and mercy. You are not meant for long hours doing busy work. You are meant to rest in love. And to rest in love will lead us to works rooted in love, and whose finality continues to be the rest that God gives.

So let us learn from Him, let us take our weariness and leave it aside at the breast of our God, so there we might acquire that greatest treasure, rest and refreshment for our souls. Let us then pray: