My Burden is Light
The Rev. Mark D. Wilkinson, Rector
St. Aidan's Episcopal Church
Virginia Beach VA 23452
Matthew 14:13-21
July 6, 2014
This passage from Matthew is one that many people are familiar with especially
the last few verses. There are at least three different points to focus on in this
passage and I am going to look at the last section, the famous my yoke is easy
and my burden is light. This will be the focus because at the 10:00 service we are
going to have a baptism and this passage is a good way to look at some
baptismal theology in the concept of being yoked with Jesus. So what does this
mean and what does a life yoked together with Jesus promise for our newest
member? To answer that I need to start with something that happened two
weeks ago.
While on retreat two weeks ago I spent a fair amount of time on this passage
during the day in which I was spending a day in ministry with Jesus. I was given
four scripture passage to meditate on during four different prayer periods. While
this specific passage was not one of them it came up in one of my meditations.
Ignatian prayer has many forms but the one I feel most comfortable is the one
where you place yourself in the story and we are all going to do this later in this
sermon. As I placed myself in the one scripture passage an image from a trip
came to my mind. I was in Constance Germany traveling as a parent with the
Cleveland Youth Wind Symphony. Wendy and I had walked into the large Roman
Catholic cathedral in the center of town. As I looked at the stained glass windows
and statues I was drawn to a niche in the back. In it was this incredible wooden
statue of Jesus seated on a rock or a stump, the crown of thorns on his head. Yet
he seemed to be saying to me, you look burdened, let me help you with that.
This image came back to me because in the middle of my retreat I was becoming
very aware of how burdened I felt both in my personal life with caregiving burnout
and in my role as priest and pastor with what some in the business refer to as
compassion fatigue. Ministry whether ordained or lay can be very hard. I
certainly know the look on some of your faces when I come up with an idea for
something new. That look that says, enough already don’t add anything more,
yet I am aware that God is often putting something new before us.
The problem is that quite often we all carry more than we need to carry. One day
I was hiking with my brother in law Ron. Ron is a geologist and let me tell you
walking with a geologist is dangerous. Oh look at this rock and it goes in the
backpack. Now none of the rocks he was tossing in my backpack by themselves
was very heavy but after a couple hours I had a lot of rocks in my backpack and
it weighed a ton! Ron I said, you’ve got to stop I cant’ take anymore. So we sat
1 down and sorted through the rocks and sure enough there were a bunch that
while interesting were not worth carrying back. By the time we were done the
pack was manageable. We also balanced out the two packs so that each of
carried the same load. We shared the burden. We didn’t add any more rocks with
out at least considering tossing others away.
Jesus in that statue offered to share the burden to help me carry what I needed
to and in fact allowed me to give some of it to him.
This is the challenge of life and of ministry. But the invitation is more than just
dump some of your burden although that can be a very good idea. There is also
the statement that by yoke is easy. Now this is a key piece. First of all Jesus is
saying to his audience in that time that he does not lay heavy burdens on people
like the Pharisees or the Sadducees. They would burden the people with almost
impossible laws and restrictions on how to live. Jesus is saying his burden is
different. The concept of the yoke being easy is something that people of his time
would understand. I mentioned this briefly last week, but listen again.
While at Williamsburg one day there was a pair of oxen yoked together in the
green in front of the Governor’s Palace. Their handler was demonstrating how
well they worked together, completely in sync. He said this took years of practice
but the fact of the matter is that two oxen yoked together produce far more power
than that of just two not yoked. He said it was something like 50% more. This led
me to think during my retreat that the invitation here was that to be yoked to
Jesus is to work with Jesus. Ignatius writes that we are called to work to minister
with Jesus, not for him. I said this last week but this is worth repeating. We are
called to work with Jesus to allow him to share the work. We are not called to do
this alone. Now just as with the oxen this takes practice and we often think it is
easier to do this by ourselves, but remember Jesus never sent anyone out to
minister alone, they always went in pairs.
Now let me throw out one other wrinkle here and think about the statement that
my burden is light. Now the Greek means light as in weight but while at lunch on
Wednesday Peggy Fanney mentioned what if we looked at that statement as his
burden is light as in the light of Christ. What if what Jesus is asking us to carry is
his light out into the world? Now that certainly fits our mission and purpose
statement, which is to ‘Be Christ’s Beacon to all Seeking God”. We all carry that
light within us. When I put the oil of Chrism on the Robert’s forehead he is
marked as Christ’s own forever. He carries that light within him.
We all carry that light within us even when we are not aware of it. Sometimes our
burdens make that light hard to see. Sometimes our burdens make us wonder if
we really are loved by God, but that is exactly the time when God is most loving
and caring of us. That is when Jesus is standing there ready to help us carry the
load. Yet we do not seem to realize that. This presence of Christ is one of the
2 great benefits this young child will learn to know and love as he grows. Helping
him know this is the job of parents, godparents and all of us.
Earlier in the sermon I mentioned that I was going to show you an Ignatian prayer
technique so here we go. I want you to imagine a scene and then invite you into
what Ignatius calls a colloquy, a discussion with someone in the story.
So close your eyes and imagine that your are somewhere with a group of people
and Jesus is there saying those words we have in our gospel. Place yourself in
the story, imagine where are you standing. Is it in a village in a field under a tree
where are you? Be aware if it is day or night, warm or cold. What are you
wearing, what do the people around you look like? What smells come to mind?
Jesus says, “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.
As he finishes, Jesus walks up to you and asks, “Is there burden you can put
down, that you no longer need to carry. Give it to me and I will carry it. Or is there
a burden you must carry, but you need my help.”
What is your answer to Jesus?
Then Jesus says, “Come join me in ministry. Yoked together we can make a
difference.” What does Jesus mean when he says this to you.”
Now thank Jesus for this conversation and say whatever else you need to say.
Return to this lovely morning at St. Aidan’s. This is just a taste and the time is too
short. You might consider talking a walk this afternoon and invite Jesus along
and spend a little more time in conversation. Or find a quiet place and sit down,
maybe with a cup of tea or coffee and continue this conversation. This is prayer,
but a type you may never have tried. With practice you may find this very
effective.
To be yoked with Jesus invites all of us into ongoing and regular conversation
with him. This type of prayer is a conversation which means we listen as much or
more than we speak. How do I listen to God you may ask. Well this technique is
one way to do that. Let the Spirit guide your imagination, you will not be
disappointed.
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