I love the promise of Jesus from Matthew 11 paraphrased by Eugene Peterson in the Message:
Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to me. Get away with me and you’ll recover your life. I’ll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with me and work with me—watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won’t lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with me and you’ll learn to live freely and lightly.”
I know Jesus promise in today’s Gospel best in the King James Version: come unto me all ye that are heavy laden and I will give you rest. An alternative to stress! We were in Halifax yesterday as Lis was singing with a choir in Halifax Minster last night. Have you been to Halifax recently? They tell me the town has had roadworks in it for the last two years. You just go round and round trying to get anywhere, when you need to turn one way, you have to turn another.
I told some of you of my getting in the wrong lane driving in Leeds city centre the other week. I got a letter yesterday, apparently I drove on a bus lane so there’s a £70 fine to pay. Life is hard and we need to remember God is bigger than our stuff. We need to remain focused.
This weekend, the United States of America is celebrating the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. Like Paul’s counter cultural writing and Jesus promise of rest when we are worn down, it was saying what is around cannot win. In 1776, the declaration launched a new nation with a document listing the 27 defects of a leader, our King, who was “unfit to be the ruler of a free people” because he had the character of “a Tyrant”. George III’s catalogue of offences included “cutting off our trade with all parts of the world”, discouraging immigration, sending “swarms of officers to harass our people” and “transporting us beyond seas to be tried for pretended offenses”. A Guardian article says “Ring any bells?”
“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” Life, liberty, new possibilities…
There are two Old Testament readings today I’ve not used. first reading from Genesis, Rebekah, who has been chosen to be Isaac’s wife, is asked a simple question: “Will you go with this man?”
And she answers, “I will.” She leaves behind everything she has ever known and steps into a future she cannot yet see.
In the Song of Songs, the beloved hears another invitation: “Arise, my love, my fair one, and come away.” Winter is over. A new season is beginning. Flowers are blooming. The world is coming alive.
Both readings show moments of invitation. Neither is about coercion. Neither is about force. Both are about the freedom to say “Yes.” The freedom to respond to a call. The freedom to trust. The freedom to step into God’s future.
Jesus invites us to rest in him.
So, what do we do? Simple, really. Jesus says, come to him. Take his yoke. Learn from him. And find rest for our souls. From Jesus. And only from Jesus. We can’t buy it. There is no pill that provides it. Rest for our souls can only be found through our faith, through our relationship with Jesus. Because we were created by God to be in a loving relationship with him. And God actually created our souls to be restless until they find their rest in God, as St. Augustine once famously said.
But it is only when we realize that our souls are restless that we finally accept this invitation. So, the first step to find this rest is to realize how weary and burdened we are. If you are not weary, and are doing just fine without Jesus, this invitation probably won’t have much meaning.
It reminds me of a book by Brennan Manning called “The Ragamuffin Gospel.” It is a book, he wrote in the forward, for a specific audience, the same audience Jesus’s invitation is for. The Ragamuffin Gospel, he wrote, is for:
The bedraggled, beat-up, and burnt-out. It is for the sorely burdened who are still shifting the heavy suitcase from one hand to the other. It is for the wobbly and weak-kneed who know they don’t have it altogether. It is for inconsistent, unsteady disciples whose cheese is falling off their cracker. It is for poor, weak, sinful men and women with hereditary faults and limited talents. It is for earthen vessels who shuffle along on feet of clay. It is for the bent and the bruised who feel that their lives are a grave disappointment to God. It is for smart people who know they are stupid and honest disciples who admit they are scallywags.
The Ragamuffin Gospel, he concludes, is for anyone who has grown weary and discouraged along the Way.
And that is exactly who this invitation from Jesus is for today. For all of us who have grown weary. For all of us who are carrying heavy burdens. For all of us who long for true rest for our souls. Come to me, Jesus says, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest.
But how does this happen? What happens when we come to Jesus? Well, he says, we take his yoke upon us. A yoke that is easy. A burden that is light. Paradoxically, we find rest for our souls by taking up his yoke. How is this possible? First, let’s remember what a yoke is, in this case. And it is not the yellow part of an egg! A yoke, by definition, is: “a wooden cross piece that is fastened over the necks of two animals and attached to the plow or cart that they are to pull.” This wooden cross piece helps the two animals to pull together.
Take my yoke upon you, Jesus says. When we come to Jesus, and learn from him, we become yoked with him. He pulls with us. Jesus doesn’t take away whatever we are pulling, but we no longer have to pull it alone. Jesus pulls our burden with us. And he goes on to say that his yoke is easy. Which, in this case, really means “well-fitting.” His yoke is well-fitting.
I like how the biblical scholar William Barclay explains what Jesus means by this:
“In Palestine,” he writes, “ox-yokes were made of wood; the ox was brought, and the measurements were taken. The yoke was then roughed out, and the ox was brought back to have the yoke tried on. The yoke was carefully adjusted, so that it would fit well, and not gall the neck of the patient beast. The yoke was tailor-made to fit the ox.”
So, think about that: the yoke that Jesus offers is tailor-made for us. Which means that it is not then a burden for us to live as Christ wants us to live. He doesn’t want it to be a burden. And he wants to be yoked with us. What a gift!
The person of faith says there is a different thing to write and share… one bishop in America has written this:
The renewal of the Church and our nation will not come through declarations alone.
It will come through disciples who remain in Christ’s love and bear the good fruit of holiness in families, parishes, communities and in their daily lives.
As we approach this great anniversary of our nation, we may be tempted towards nostalgia for the past or anxiety about the future. Today we choose something better: trust. Today we place the Church in the United States, and this nation we love, into the Sacred Heart of Jesus. Not because we have everything figured out, but because we know the One whose love endures forever. In his Heart, we find gratitude for the past, strength for the present, and hope for the future.
I was reminded it was the thirtieth anniversary of the IRA bomb exploding on a Saturday morning in Manchester City Centre the other week. I was living in Manchester 30 years ago and 15 June was the day after my second year in college ended. Friends were travelling home that morning crossing the city and some of us were going into the city but I think I overslept. I remember hearing the bang and saying it sounded like a bomb. We lived about three miles away.
We made sure all of our friends were safe and that evening some of us went into the city - it was an eery experience. Absolute devastation but a miracle no one at all was killed. The bomb, which was the biggest device detonated in Great Britain since World War Two, exploded outside the Arndale Centre in the city centre.
While no-one died in the blast, more than 200 were hurt with many suffering life-changing injuries. An estimated 80,000 people were evacuated from the area.
The city rose again after a time with rebuilding. And the churches were at the heart of offering comfort and another narrative in the midst of fear.
Let me end by quoting a huge theologian.
Karl Barth once called joy a “continually defiant ‘Nevertheless’. I would suggest that this is the kind of joy which Paul is talking about because it isn’t based on circumstances.
He was in a dire situation and he was writing to a church which was experiencing persecution. This joy and peace can be our reality
It requires a conscious effort on our part to remember who we are. In the face of all our problems and worries – ‘Nevertheless’ we are God’s children, loved by God, bought with a price by Jesus on the cross. Our hope is not just for the here and now, but for eternity. We have the promise of God that he is always with us, even in our darkest hours.
William Barclay tells of a legend about Jesus that may or may not be true, but is worth hearing:
“There is a legend,” he writes, “that [when Jesus was a carpenter], he made the best ox-yokes in all Galilee, and that from all over the country people came to him to buy his yokes. And, as the legend does, the carpenter Jesus had a sign over his shop that read, “My yoke fits well.”
His yoke fits well. His burden is light. And when we take up this yoke, tailor-made for us, we begin to find rest for our souls.
Then we will rejoice and be glad. We will know our blessings and we will be a confident people again.
Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to me. Get away with me and you’ll recover your life. I’ll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with me and work with me—watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won’t lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with me and you’ll learn to live freely and lightly.”
