Henrietta United Church of Christ

Scripture: Matthew 11:28-30 (RSV)

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; for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.

Sermon:

“Come to me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” Well, I’ve got bad news for those of us who are still looking forward to a little vacation time this summer. Jesus wasn’t against work, and he’s not even offering an early retirement plan. We were designed for work. When I was visiting our oldest members in nursing homes this week, two out of three told me that the hardest thing about being in a nursing home is not having anything that makes them feel useful or productive. Even though they had worked their whole lives and were well into in their 90's, something in them longed to work.

The kind of labor Jesus is talking about is the toil and striving and stress of trying to meet expectations and carry burdensome responsibilities that oppress our soul rather than express our soul. Biblical scholars agree that he was talking to people who were laboring under the endless religious laws that prescribed all the things you could or couldn’t do on the Sabbath, what you could eat and not eat and how you could or couldn’t prepare it, what you should wear and not wear, when you should pray and what you should say, who you should associate with and not associate with, etc., etc.

In our postmodern, laid-back, anything goes culture, most of us don’t toil under oppressive religious expectations. But in our laid-back, anything goes culture, most of us are feeling more and more stressed and harried. Stress comes from carrying responsibilities or trying to meet heavy expectations we have little control over. So I think that Jesus’ invitation is at least as relevant to us today as it was 2000 years ago.

So let’s think together about the responsibilities, obligations and expectations we labor under to be a good parent or family member, successful in our career, a reliable friend, a good citizen, a good church member, a responsible homeowner, a faithful steward of creation, etc. I’m going to reduce my stress by having you help me with this part of the sermon. What are the obligations and expectations and burdens of responsibility that can contribute to our stress level? (Solicit responses.)

Jesus tells us that if we come to him with burdens like these, he will give us rest for our souls. That sounds good, but how does that work? It works through following his invitation to take his yoke upon ourselves. If you look at an old wooden ox yoke, you might think that looks like a burden in and of itself. But for an ox, the yoke is no burden at all. A yoke is what links that ox to all the power of another ox, shoulder to shoulder, so they can pull the load of a wagon or plow together.

What would it be like with Jesus standing right next to us, shoulder to shoulder, as we look at our stresses and burdens? We might show him our job description that has taken on extra duties with all the layoffs, the things on our calendar that we have to go to or take the kids to, the to do list or “honey do” list that keeps getting longer, the e-mails we haven’t gotten to, the facebook page we haven’t updated for weeks, the stacks of newspapers, magazines and books we want to read, the Netflix video and recorded TV shows we haven’t watched, etc., etc.

We have shown Jesus the outer dimension of our burdens. Now he wants to show us the inner dimension of our stress. Our responsibilities create stress when they hook hidden fears or anxieties in us. For example, if we’re exhausting ourselves by spending most of our “free time” chauffeuring our kids around from one activity to another, what anxiety or insecurity might be operating there? Maybe we feel inadequate as a parent to provide our kids with an enriching environment at home; or we’re afraid they’ll think we don’t love them; or we fear that if they don’t have lots of stimulation and opportunities, they’ll fall behind other kids; or we’re afraid they’ll feel like we’re letting them down if we don’t drive them everywhere they want to go.

When we get stressed out, we feel like we’re a victim of the needs and expectations of the outside world. But the deeper truth is that we’re a victim of our own fears of not being good enough, of not belonging, or of not getting what we need. Those fears are the real burdens we’re carrying. What would Jesus tell us if we brought those fears to him? He might remind us that our task in life isn’t to get everything finished that others or we ourselves expect of us, but to offer our gifts, grow in love, and deepen in wisdom as we go along.

And he might remind us that he knows something about having lots of things to accomplish with pretty high expectations placed on him. I mean, imagine God telling you that your job is to be the savior of the world. God wants you to create a way for humanity to be saved from its own sin and self destruction. You have no budget and no advisors, PR people or spin doctors; no e-mail, blogs or Twitter, or even newspapers. Your staff will be volunteer disciples recruited from the masses of ordinary uneducated people. You’ll probably have about three years to accomplish your mission, because if you’re successful at shaking up the status quo, they’ll soon be plotting to torture you to death. Good luck, Son!

So maybe Jesus knows a little bit about carrying heavy burdens and handling stress. “Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me,” he says,“for I am gentle and lowly in heart.” So let’s see what we can learn from him about carrying the burden of very heavy responsibility.

Jesus began his work by working on himself–for forty days out in the wilderness. He faced his human temptations to use his power for his own benefit, like turning stones into bread. ...and to make himself the center of attention, like throwing himself from the temple and being miraculously saved. ...and to gain political power over worldly kingdoms. Jesus released all those temptations to use his life and powers to gain anything for himself. He was totally committed to give his whole self to God’s purpose. Therefore, he had nothing to lose and nothing to fear. He was willing to offer even his life to God’s purpose.

As he undertook his ministry, we see him continuously making the main thing the main thing. He stayed focused on God’s purpose, without getting sidetracked by what other people wanted or expected him to do. He said our life’s purpose can be found in the two great commandments – to love God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength and our neighbor as our self.

And we notice that Jesus didn’t neglect the part about loving himself. He took time to take care of himself along the way by taking frequent alone times to pray and recharge. Interestingly, the Messiah didn’t have a messiah complex. He didn’t rush around trying to rescue and help and save everybody he possibly could. He made sure he received continuously from God, and he simply shared what God gave him to share as he was confronted with each situation.

And as you read the stories of how he worked, you see that he never took responsibility for outcomes or for other people’s responses; he only took responsibility for his own actions. Mother Teresa knew this secret when she said, “I never pray for success, just faithfulness.” This allowed him to be fully present with each person he was with and each situation he was in, to offer what he had, and then move onto the next without looking back or worrying about what would happen.

“Come to me, all who are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me.” Or as Eugene Peterson translates this passage 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."

The wonder and miracle of it is, the more surrendered we are to God’s purpose, the more we discover our own highest purpose. And the more we open to God’s nature, the more our own deepest nature opens to us. In that grace-filled place of being yoked to Christ, there is no lack, no deficiency, no burden, no strain, no fear. Power flows out of surrender. Doing flows out of being. Work flows out of ease.

Finding that place and learning to live there is the journey of a lifetime. But with every new engagement on our calendar or item on our to-do list, Jesus invites us to draw shoulder to shoulder with him, and ask ourselves how our anxiety or insecurity or need to prove our self is getting hooked. He challenges us to keep the main thing the main thing. He reminds us to focus our energy on our actions, not on the outcomes. And he encourages us to take good care of ourselves as we go along. As we do these things, our lives will take on a serenity, a freedom, a flow, and a joy that will truly bless the world.