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The following is a sermon preached by Alice M. Cook A little girl once said “I’m stressed out. I just can’t take it anymore.” She obviously was repeating what she heard her parents say. We are anxious and stressed about many things: finances, health, and security – Maybe we’re not a free people? In Matthew’s gospel we find Jesus a bit weary. He has experienced rejection. He is explaining to the multitude about the role of John the Baptist. The issues concerning Jesus’ ministry are escalating. There are different factions who are all demanding that Jesus take on their agendas. In the midst of it all Jesus says these familiar words to the people: “Come to me all who labor and are heavy laden and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” Many times in every life when, at wits end, we feel heavy laden. When we get to a point where we know our needs are huge and our strength small. Then we call for help, and need rest. The word “God” shapes our lips or echoes inside our minds. You’ve been to the doctor. He or she mutters something about a shadow on your x-ray. Better not wait, he says and schedules surgery for the next day. You leave the office in a strange daze. Inside yourself, you are crying out, “God help me!” Or someone you love is going to die. You don’t know how to talk about it, even to one another. You’re all tight inside, and afraid of what the future will hold. You imagine yourself walking around in an empty house. “Help me!” You cry. Despite our degrees, our position, our backgrounds, all of us feel small at times. Our lives are shapes by problems. We’re human and there are human tragedies that come to us all. Like the people in the crowd that day, we hear the words “Come to me, all of you who labor…” Christ is speaking to us. He was also speaking to those in the crowd that day who were heavy laden not just with the things that happen, but also with illness, death, and circumstances that we have no control of. Jesus was speaking to persons who were overburdened with the law. They were weary with the burdens that the scribes had put upon them. Matthew gives examples of the weight of the law. Jews who had grown up in the legal tradition, particularly from the second century on, would not admit the justice of this criticism. For them the law was a delight and a protection against evil. But at this time the rules of priestly purity are being extended to lay people, and the law was burdensome. Burdened by the law – by all the rules and regulations that they had to follow. There’s a young woman, mother of two small girls – a very devout person of faith. She is organized, which is a good thing. She has a schedule of all the meals breakfast, lunch and dinner for the next two weeks. She has a schedule for play times, and educational plans for her children. She has a schedule for their rewards, their discipline. She has everything in order—yet she looks burdened. Her life is scheduled to the minute. There is no deviation—nothing can occur out of the ordinary – that is not on the schedule – Following the law. Two years ago when Christmas fell on a Sunday a church cancelled their services that day. Why? Because the sound technician, the lighting people, the various personnel who took care of the setting could not be there that day. When interviewed by the local paper, one of the members said “We just can’t have worship on that Sunday because all of the items on our checklist cannot be fulfilled. If we can’t meet the rules we have set for us, we must cancel.” – Following the law. Burdened by the law….Perhaps these words that Jesus spoke long ago resonate in our world too. Come to me all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. How does Christ give us rest? TAKE MY YOKE UPON YOU AND LEARN OF ME. A yoke is a wooden frame used to harness horses or oxen. The two animals would be bound together. They share the load equally as the fields are plowed. Jesus is offering the yoke of faith. A partnership with God. A way of living where we don’t have to take all the load upon ourselves. Instead of relying on our rulebooks and workloads Christ is saying put away your way of doing things and let me be part of your schedule, your lists. LET ME BE PART OF YOUR LIFE. We get so tightened up and serious at times. Life becomes very complicated. Even our faith becomes difficult. A theologian who wrote volumes on the nature of God was asked once to sum it all up— “Jesus loves me this I know for the Bible tells me so.” The people to whom Jesus spoke were already wearing a yoke – the yoke of the law. Jesus proposes an exchange of yokes. There is a legend that the birds at first had no wings – and that they rebelled when wings were given because the wings seemed to be a burden; but when they accepted, the burden lifted them to the sky. The weight of Christ’s yoke is wings to the soul, the outcome is refreshment. It is such peace as Dante craved. He knocked at the gates of the monastery and was asked by the friar who opened the door, “What do you wish?” Dante answered in one word, “PEACE.” Christ sets the monastery within: it is his own presence. (Interpreter’s Dictionary of the Bible) The yoke is easy because it is lined with love. One of the ways in which we experience the yoke of Christ is in the participation of communion which we share in today. In preparation of communion we confess our sins – a freeing act. We accept the forgiveness in Christ. We acknowledge the Spirit. |