Speaker: The Rev. Nathan Stomberg

Recently I watched the movie “The Truman Show” for the first time. For those unfamiliar, the “The Truman Show” is a movie from 1998 starring Jim Carrey. Going in, I was surprised to find out it was more of a psychological thriller than comedy. I was also surprised by how stunningly it criticized our present day, some 25 years later.

Let us thank God for keeping us safe in the midst of trouble and let us not forget how He comforted our waste places in the past. Perhaps today you still find yourself navigating the wilderness. Whether now or in the future, when we wander through those desolate places, we must never forsake to answer the question that matters most: “Who do you say that Jesus is?”

Keep justice. Do righteousness. Keep the Sabbath. Keep your hand from evil. We acknowledge our failures in all these things as we worship every Sunday, and once we are made clean, we all receive the same wafer - same size, same shape - and drink the same wine, receiving the same Grace from Christ Jesus. This is the source and summit of our Christian lives.

Think back to all of life’s storms you have endured in the past. How often, in the heat of the moment, when you are being tossed around by the waves, does it seem like there’s no way you will ever make it through? Yet every time, Jesus is there to catch you with his strong arm. So why do we refuse to step out in faith when he calls?

Disquietude is an unusual word, is it not? Certainly not one you hear every day. Disquietude refers to a state of anxiety or uneasiness. Understood this way, today we together pray for eyes of Faith to behold the Transfigured Christ, in light eternal, to transport us from the anxieties and trials of our daily lives, the darkness of our temporal world.

Our present reality makes the Church’s calling all the more urgent - the Church will not survive if she looks no different than the world around her. On the other hand, if the Church is faithful to God’s Word, then her people will persevere to the end.

Our hope - this sure and steadfast anchor - is also a guard against the cynicism and nihilism which now grips our political and cultural landscape. Confidence in the Resurrection cannot be separated from confidence in the Last Judgement, which Jesus teaches in the parable of the weeds.

Here is the key for us today: all of us have been commissioned in the priesthood of believers as planters for the kingdom of God. Not only does that mean the preaching of the Gospel, but it means the seed of our own faith as well - perhaps that more than anything else.

Jesus’ message is simple, but profound: come to me, and I will give you rest. This passage is also familiar to us, as it is cited in the Comfortable Words of our celebration of the Holy Eucharist. But what does Jesus mean by “rest”?