When Work is Rest
by Millie Snyder
Sermon – July 3, 2011
Psalm 8, Matthew 11:25-30
Good morning – welcome to those who are worshiping in the Celebrate service this morning.
I have never been an athlete – not soccer, not swimming, not golf, not tennis. I work out because I know I’m supposed to and because I feel better, but I don’t train to compete and I’m not trying to win anything.
However, I had a fleeting moment of athletic reward when I won a blue ribbon once at Brunson Elementary School, in the school field day. I went on to the county wide field day to compete against kids from all of the elementary schools in Forsyth County. My blue ribbon was in the three-legged race. My partner was Beth Minter, a petite girl about my size, a competitive gymnast.
Tied together, arms around one another, Beth and I had it figured out. We had the rhythm. I never won any ribbons for running fast, but when Beth and I were tied together we sped past everybody else (until we got to the county competition where we looked slow compared to girls from some other schools). We won, not because either of us were particularly fast, but because we had figured out how to work together and we had found the right rhythm of moving in sync instead of pulling against one another. In a sense, Beth Minter and I were yoked together and it enabled us to do something we would never have been able to do alone.
Today’s reading from the gospel of Matthew includes frequently quoted words from Jesus. Let us listen now for God’s word to us from Matthew, chapter eleven, verses twenty-five through thirty:
Matthew 11:25-30
Jesus Thanks His Father
25At that time Jesus said, ‘I thank* you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and the intelligent and have revealed them to infants; 26yes, Father, for such was your gracious will.* 27All things have been handed over to me by my Father; and no one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.
28‘Come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. 29Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me; for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.’
Come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. (sigh) What good news! We all have those times, when we are weary and we feel like the weight of the world is on our shoulders. Some of us are so caught in that state that it feels we’ve been there forever. Sometimes it’s a day here and there, sometimes it’s a particular situation or relationship or struggle. Sometimes it’s an all-consuming state of being and we don’t want to get out of bed in the morning and we have no energy for anything and we have a chemical imbalance that needs attention and help from a professional.
We carry heavy burdens. We feel a tremendous sense of responsibility.
We worry about money – are we making enough? Do we have enough? Will we have enough for the kids to go to college? Will we have enough when we retire? Will we have enough to pay for our healthcare? How do we make decisions about giving our money away? How much should we give away? How should we invest our money – stocks, bonds? How much risk can we live with? Money can be a heavy burden.
We worry about our families – are we parenting well? Are we loving our children with guidance, but with enough freedom that they learn responsibility? When do we let them face the consequences of their own choices and when do we protect them? Will they grow up to be happy? Will they become addicted to alcohol? Will they try drugs? Will they succeed in school?
Are we caring for our parents well? What if they need full-time care? How will we talk with our parents about things that seems so difficult? When is it dangerous for him to keep driving? When is it dangerous for her to stay alone?
What about our marriage? Is he faithful? Is she honest? Will he leave me? Will she accuse me of something I haven’t done?
Family life can be a heavy burden.
We worry about our health. What if that bump is malignant? What if the doctor isn’t telling me everything? What if I waited too long before I went in and had the test? What if I become a burden for my family? How will I die? Will I be in pain? Will I suffer?
Health can be a heavy burden.
We worry about our faith. Am I good enough? Have I done enough? Am I doing what God wants me to do? Will I be forgiven for that guilt that I carry around and haven’t told anyone about? What if I believe the wrong things?
Faith itself can be a heavy burden. In Jesus’ day, keeping God’s law was seen as a heavy burden. Religious leaders and officials talked about the need for people to carry the yoke of the Torah, the yoke of God’s commandments. Carry those around, feel that weighty responsibility, take it seriously and get it right. Try to please God by getting everything just right and not making any mistakes. That is a heavy burden that will make you weary if you carry it.
Jesus said “Come to me, all you that are weary and carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest.” What good news! And then he says “Take my yoke upon you and learn from me…For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”
A yoke is a farm tool, a wooden bar or frame that harnesses two farm animal together, going around their necks and across their shoulders, so they can pull something. Often the animals are oxen and they are pulling a plow across a field or they are pulling a load in a cart or a wagon.
Do you hear the paradox? Come to me if you are tired, and put on this harness so you can do this work. Very strange. We are more likely to say, “Come all you who are weary and heavy laden, and we will give you a mattress or a hammock or a sofa on which to nap. We will give you a long vacation. We will give you a day at a spa. We will give you a round of golf or a game of bridge. We will pour you a beverage and let you sit in a rocking chair on a porch. “
That’s not what Jesus said ! Jesus said “Take my yoke?!!” What? Deal with weariness by yoking with Jesus? Handle the heavy loads by putting on a harness? Find rest by working?
This is one of the counterintuitive truths of the spiritual life. When we are weary, and when we are feeling the weight of the heavy burdens in our lives, Jesus calls us to do the opposite from what we might naturally choose to do. Instead of propping our feet up, Jesus calls us to get moving. Instead of turning in, Jesus sends us out. Instead of stopping, Jesus says ‘go.’ Instead of focusing on ourselves and what we want and what we think we need, Jesus turns our eyes outward toward someone else. Instead of sitting and reading and studying about faith, Jesus calls us to get up and do something. Jesus calls us to live faith, not just have faith or believe faith. Embody it, enact it, do it.
If you have ever experienced it you know it is true:
It’s when you use vacation time to go on a mission trip and you come home physically exhausted but knowing it was the best week of your life.
It’s when you’ve had a long week at work, and you are a Deacon who is supposed to visit church members in the hospital on Saturday, and you would rather go to the pool or to the golf course, but you go to the hospital, and when you leave you have a joy in your spirit you never expected on a Saturday afternoon at the hospital.
It’s when you spend the first part of the morning at Billingsville Elementary as a reader at Freedom School. On the drive, you were thinking of all of the errands you need to do once this is finished. When you leave, you are humming the Hallelujah Chorus and you are wondering when you can come back.
It’s when you get up on a cold Sunday morning in January and you consider sitting at the kitchen table with a cup of coffee and the newspaper, but instead you get dressed and come to church to teach seventh grade Sunday School. And someone asks a question and a discussion snowballs and before you know it, the time is gone and it was worth it.
It’s a paradox of faithfulness – that when we are tired and weary and burdened, we are invited to put on a yoke with Jesus and to work alongside him. We are invited to do his work, with him, his way, at his pace, with his rhythm.
The yoke of Jesus doesn’t remove all of the other burdens we carry, but it gives each of them a different perspective, a different priority. The yoke of Jesus means we are free from trying to get it right with God by doing following every law and never making mistakes.
To be yoked with Jesus is to be beside him, to live all of life in relationship with him, to take each step in step with him. To be yoked with Jesus is to live your faith in ministry – loving your neighbors, inside this church or outside in our community or half-way around the world.
This morning, If you are weary, if you are carrying a heavy burden, if it feels like the weight of the world is on your shoulders, hear the invitation from Jesus: “Come to me…and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you…and you will find rest for your souls.”
Thanks be to God for that gracious invitation. May we find rest in our work, as we work alongside Jesus, doing his work, his way, with his rhythm. Amen.
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