top of page

[Sermon] The Unforced Rhythms of Grace

Pastor Hector Garfias-Toledo



Pastor Hector reflects on a season of converging change (a parent's move into care, an empty nest, recovery from surgery) that has forced him to unlearn patterns he'd relied on for years. That personal unlearning becomes the lens for Matthew's invitation to "come to me and I will give you rest": not comfort for the exhausted, but a call to release the belief that discipleship means doing more, doing better, or fixing every ailment we see. Preached on the 250th anniversary of American independence, the sermon extends that critique outward, naming the "Santa Claus theology" of earned worth in both personal faith and national life. The alternative Hector offers is grace that flows unforced and free, in word and action, not unlocked by our effort but already given. Rest isn't the reward for the yoke well carried. It's the yoke itself, shared.



Sermon Transcript

From YouTube's automatic captions, lightly edited by AI for readability.


Grace to you and peace from God, Abba, Father, Mother, Creator, our Lord Jesus Christ, who give us rest. And we say, amen.

 

Well, yeah. You haven't seen what I can do with this, because there are new patterns that I need to learn. Just this morning, David said, "Put your feet on the ground." And I said, "David, inside me, I thought I have only one foot on the ground already today."

 

But what I'm thinking is that this month has been for me really a time where things have converged in many different aspects of my life. This is the first year that my father has been living in a care facility, and the number of things that have happened this year really has changed and modified the ways and the patterns that I used to have to communicate with my parents. This month, also, in the past couple of months, our children moved out of the house. So now Jade and I, it's almost like we need to plan to go visit them instead of being with them. And that's a change in life that maybe some of you have experienced too.

 

But also, just now with this happening to me, with this surgery, it has been an interesting time, because this surgery has implications and has shown me some of my limitations that probably I didn't want to accept. At the same time, this year we are celebrating, as we have been talking about for the past few minutes, the 250th celebration of the independence of our country here.

 

And as I was thinking about all these things happening around me right now, I have been thinking that one of the common things is that through this time I have come to push myself to unlearn patterns that I had developed for many years. Does that happen to you? Just this morning, for example, when I had to choose my outfit, I had to change my mindset and think, well, I don't look like I normally look on a Sunday. But just to go through that process, it takes an effort, it takes intentionality, to start seeing things from a different perspective, to learn new ways of seeing and experiencing our life.

 

And to be honest, as you know, and you will agree with me, it is not easy, because those patterns are so deeply engrained, right? And things that we keep trying and trying. And when things change and those patterns need to shift, then we get tired and we get frustrated. Like every morning now, when I need to get up, the first thing is, "oh, I just stand up. Oh, no, I cannot stand up. I need to go to the kitchen." Oh, I need to go back and forth, back and forth, practicing all the parking and turning around in a very narrow space with not much radius of operation with this. So it becomes very difficult. The patterns that I used to have are not working anymore. I need to unlearn the patterns that I already learned for many, many years.

 

And when things are different, right, we struggle. We struggle because it's not the same, because we have expectations of what it should be, but it's not happening. And even when I try hard, as I believe happens to you, I try to do it the new way that I need to do it, and I end up following the same patterns just with a scooter. And then I get frustrated, and then I keep trying to do the same thing, knowing that it's not producing results. And that's the perfect definition that Einstein gave for insanity: you keep doing the same thing, expecting different results. So I go a little bit insane at home, but that's another conversation.

 

So today we think of this passage, and I am wondering if the passage in the gospel that we read today is not so much about Jesus saying, "oh, you are so tired in your life, trying to do all these things, now come to me and I will give you rest." I am wondering if the challenge that Jesus is bringing to this group of adults that cannot get along is to say, "come to me first. Find the real rest, so that you are able to see, that you are able to adjust, that you are willing to be part of the new rhythms of grace that I bring into you."

 

And I say this because in the many years of ministry that I have worked, as an individual and as an ordained leader, I know that I have fallen into this trap: that what makes me better as a disciple in the body of Christ, as a rostered leader in the church, is to do more and do better. And that, my siblings, is tiring. Come to me, walk with me, and learn from me.

 

When I read these words, I remember a question that was raised in one of our Wednesday Bible studies, and then I apply it to this passage: is this passage to comfort the afflicted, or to afflict the comfortable? What do you think?

 

Are you feeling comforted, or are you feeling afflicted right now? Both, probably. And I would say that's what I believe. I believe it's both. It brings comfort to us because it gathers us. Jesus gathers us to be refreshed, not just a spiritual spa, or just a feeling, but as a source of life, strength, and wisdom, an assurance that we are embraced, that we are received unconditionally, and that we receive accompaniment in our journey.

 

But also, I think that this is an affliction, because what if the call that Jesus is extending through his words today is a high call to unlearn, as I said earlier, the patterns of the world, rather than to keep being insane and then run to Jesus when we are tired? And I wouldn't blame anyone, because we live in a social environment where effort equals reward, where power equals might, and maybe violence and imposition, and the value of our lives, we believe, is earned through moral perfection or political correctness.

 

We yearn to be loved, to belong, and to be known. And we hear the words: "Come to me. Gather around word, water, and this meal, and find rest for your souls."

 

Through the years, through the centuries, of history worldwide, and in our country, and maybe in our families, our societies, communities, we have embraced this Santa Claus theology, which drives us to perform and then to be rewarded. And that is exhausting, and that is discouraging, because none of us will ever be able to live up to those expectations.

 

And that's why the disciples are fighting in the passage. That's why they cannot see, and that's why they're not happy with John the Baptist, and they are not happy with Jesus either. That's why, in this season of Pentecost, my siblings in Christ, you and I are reflecting on Jesus' ministry, that calls us, that teaches us, that shows us, and that sends us to practice what Jesus has taught us: to practice the unforced rhythms of grace, and not to try to work ourselves into God's heart through our actions or our perfections.

 

Now, in the past few days, I have been, now that I have more time for obvious reasons, listening and reading articles related to the celebration of this weekend. I have been listening and reading from both sides of the spectrum, both extremes of the spectrum, because I believe there's a responsible call that you and I have as disciples of Christ, to be able to see the whole picture, and to let the Holy Spirit lead us, to give us the wisdom to understand and to take what is good, and to point out what is not good for the people of God.

 

But this weekend, and all these things I have been listening to and reading, made me think of this celebration of independence, and to look at it from a prophetic point of view. And I believe that this is just a small part of a bigger context that is more complex. I'm oversimplifying things here today, probably, but I invite you to follow me just for a few minutes and reflect together, because some of these things were already mentioned in the confession that we brought up today, that together we said. 250 years, 200 years of independence: this nation was born as a rebellion against an empire, envisioning a society in which grace and God-given dignity should flow naturally for all people. But unfortunately, we embraced the bootstrap myth: stand up by your own bootstraps. And the Santa Claus theology: you need to be perfect, and you need to be the light on top of the hill, so that you control and you tell everybody what they should do, because we are the best.

 

Our story, my siblings in Christ, shows us the two sides of our humanity and the paradoxes of daily life. It tells us about the strengths and the dreams, the accomplishments, the failures, the mistakes, the weaknesses, and the limitations of us as a people. But also it tells us about a nation that was born of a rebellion against an empire, that has become the empire it despised, believing it is our responsibility to take control of the world's matters and to be the saviors of the world, every person, as a nation and individually. We have fallen into these patterns year after year, century after century. And today we can say that 90 percent of the history of this country, we have been involved in war and conflict. Ninety percent of the history of this nation. And I believe that we have gotten to a point, as a nation, that is tired and burned out. And when we are burned out and tired, we cannot handle complexity. And when we cannot handle complexity, like when I need to go back and forth, back and forth, just to turn around in the kitchen, I look for a scapegoat, or an enemy. Who didn't put the stuff where it should be, so I don't need to make a whole 360, 180 degree turn in the kitchen with this scooter?

 

We look for scapegoats and enemies, and the vicious cycle of violence and war and conflict continues. We confuse honor with control, as an individual or as a people, and the idea that to be a good disciple, a good citizen, means to be more, or better, or to solve every ailment. And these behaviors and patterns just reinforce, again, this restless life of ours.

 

So that's why I think that Jesus' words are a direct, intentional affliction to the myth that has been engrained in us through these years. His grace is meant to flow naturally through our lives, in word and in action, first, unforced, and free, every day of our lives, all the time. Maybe Jesus is telling us: stop trying to force your way into my heart, and realize that you are already standing in it, surrounded by it, sustained by it. And my heart is grace: unconditional, life-giving, resting.

 

So what does this gospel tell us today? Why have you and I, and everyone altogether, chosen to be tired and burned-out people, who resist the unlearning of the patterns that have led us to unrest, tiredness, burnout, worry, and conflict, and violence? What would it be? How could it be different if we embrace the invitation of Jesus: come to me, walk with me, and learn from me. Let the unforced rhythms of grace transform you and give you the life that you desperately and frantically desire.

 

That's why Zechariah the prophet talks about the king that comes on a donkey, this story that we know for Palm Sunday. And the conclusion of his invitation to embrace this king of peace is that it doesn't rely on the work that we do, but on God's covenant with God's people. It is relational. It is an intimate, intentional, relational invitation of God to be part of what God is already doing. The power isn't that you and I are strong enough, that we can stand by ourselves. The power is that when we are yoked to him, his strength flows through us, through our weakness. As St. Paul will say, "for when I am weak, I am strong."

 

The unforced rhythms are not our natural beat. We need to be intentional about it, and open, and remember that the rhythms are the rhythms of his Spirit in us. It is his grace flowing, not merely the unlocking of our own potential, our own self-realization of how strong and how good we are. The invitation is not to bear the yoke alone, or to go alone. It is to get into the yoke with him. Walking with him means releasing the anxiety of the result, so that we can walk the journey with the people beside us, being able to see that you and I are the recipients of that grace, and that grace is flowing through each one of us. And when grace flows unforced, we stop controlling and we start accompanying, and we find the life that we desperately are craving today.

 

Witnesses to the Savior are those who go and feed the hungry, those who go and bind the wounds. And that is simply what grace naturally does when it meets pain. God's grace is more vast than the sum of our failures, and is stronger than the grip of all our sin, our rebellion, our failure, our resistance. And that, my siblings in Christ, is the good news of freedom and rest. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace, keep company with me, and you will learn to live freely and lightly.

 

And for that we say, amen.

bottom of page