SETTING THE CONTEXT

Last week Janis and Patti shared the stories of how God has called or prodded them into ministry. Before the passage we are about to read, Jesus called his 12 disciples to follow him into ministry and then he sent them out to preach and to heal. He was very clear with them about the difficulties that they would face. In fact, he warned them about the coming persecutions. It was in this context that he offered these words.

Read Matthew 11:28-30

THE SERMON

Last week we considered God’s call to ministry. God has given each of us different gifts and talents, different personalities and passions that equip us to help accomplish God’s purposes if we choose to help. We have been created with different callings in mind. I firmly believe that God has a purpose for each one of us and even if that purpose changes over time and I think it can and does change over time, each of us can contribute to God’s work all our lives. Sometimes though I think we hear God’s call and we think we’re not good enough or worthy enough to answer. Harold Kushner wrote a book with the title How Good Do We Have To Be?^[i] I think many of us have some unwritten answer to that question in our heads that we think we need to meet before we can say “Here I am” to God. Even when we overcome that initial barrier I know that I continue to wrestle with being “good enough” especially when I am feeling weak and hurting or tired and stressed. Doing God’s work in the world when we are whole and strong is one thing, but to carry on God’s work when we are sick or discouraged, when we are afraid or weary is another.

Jesus knew what his disciples would face. He knew they would face rejection even as he was facing rejection. He knew they would get frustrated even as he was frustrated. Just before the passage we read in Matthew, Jesus rails against the unrepentant cities around Galilee. The actor who portrayed Jesus in the Visual Bible movie Matthew helped me understand these Scriptures in a profound way. He said he realized when Jesus was saying these harsh words “it was the rage one experiences watching someone he loves walk out the door. It was a rage born of a broken heart.”^[ii] Here was Jesus offering all these people life, people he loved, and they were rejecting it. Jesus knew that his disciples would also experience frustration and a sense of helplessness at times and so he told them, “Come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens and I will give you rest.” Those words are so soothing, aren’t they? He continues, “Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me; for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”

I want to spend a little time thinking about yokes. Not being a farm girl, the first thing that comes to mind when I hear the word “yoke” is egg yolk, but that’s not what Jesus is talking about. He is referring to a harness used on farm animals. Commonly a yoke was a wooden instrument that tied two oxen together and made them a team.  Bible scholar Douglas Hare has given this image great power for me when he shared, Jesus in essence is saying, “Become my yoke mate, and learn how to pull the load by working beside me and watching how I do it. The heavy labor will seem lighter when you allow me to help you with it.”^[iii] I have to tell you I started to cry when I read these words for I was very weary when I read them.

It is so easy to break the yoke, to try to do it all on our own especially when we are strong and successful and healthy. I think it is second nature in our society to be independent, to be self-reliant, to not need to lean on anybody, but that is not the way of Jesus and that is not the path that will sustain us when the path gets hard or when we are weak or when we just get tired and weary. I don’t think we’re supposed to do it on our own and eventually at some point on the path of our lives we will find we can’t do it on our own. Maybe just maybe that weariness is a blessing in disguise for it reminds us to connect back with our yoke-mate. It reminds us to return to the one who helps us to shoulder the load.

It is a rather remarkable thing isn’t it that Jesus doesn’t expect his disciples to be supermen or superwomen? He doesn’t expect them to never get weary or discouraged. God showed me this in another way one day. I was at a Clergywomen’s retreat and I had been praying over the course of the retreat about a place of brokenness in my life. I prayed for healing and I also questioned God in a not particularly nice way. You see you don’t always have to pray nicely to God at least that’s what the psalms have shown me. I prayed to God, “how can you possibly use me to serve you as broken as I am? I can I be any kind of a witness for you?” In the final worship service of the retreat, we were asked to pass a tall candle from person to person as we made a short comment and then lit a small candle on the altar table.  We all fumbled with the tall candle because it was broken in the center.  One woman stood and said she felt as broken as the candle.  Then I heard this thought very clearly in my head “Even a broken candle still gives light.”  And I saw even a broken candle can light many other candles.

It’s a miracle, isn’t it? God has used broken candles throughout history to bring God’s light into the world. Moses was a fugitive murder who stuttered and stammered when speaking in front of others and God chose him to be the greatest spokesperson in Hebrew history. Peter was the proverbial “bull in the china shop” impulsive, passionate. He was courageous and daring the first one to plow his way into a situation. But he also had great failures. He denied Christ and yet God chose him for the rock on which Christ would build the church. Thomas who had to be convinced to believe (some might accuse him of lacking faith) was one of Jesus’ twelve chosen disciples. Paul had some chronic illness that he called “a thorn in his flesh” (2 Corinthians 12:7) and he was God’s greatest evangelist to the Gentile world. Even our Savior was a crucified Messiah. And there are many many others. God’s power is not impeded by our weakness because we are never alone. We are yoked to Jesus.

Paul’s beautiful prayer in Ephesians is that the faithful, that we may have the spirit of wisdom and revelation that we might come to know God. With the eyes of our hearts focused and clear we may experience the hope God offers. We may experience the richness of the inheritance God offers us when we live as God calls us to live. We may experience the power that God brings to make it all possible. And my prayer is that we might not only receive this hope, life and power, but that we might offer it to others. And when we get weary, when we are broken and hurting, let us lean on our yoke-mate, Jesus Christ for he will renew our hope. He will help us claim our inheritance even in the face of adversity. He will help us trust in the power of God the same power that raised him from the dead. “Come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me; for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.” Amen. 

Sermon delived by Rev. Nancy Cushman on May 28, 2006.