Yokes and Burdens

Fourth Sunday after Pentecost – Proper 9 – Year A

July 6, 2014

Matthew 11:16-19, 25-30

[Jesus said:] "But to what will I compare this generation? It is like children sitting in the market-places and calling to one another,
     'We played the flute for you, and you did not dance;
         we wailed, and you did not mourn.'
"For John came neither eating nor drinking, and they say, 'He has a demon'; the Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, 'Look, a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax-collectors and sinners!' Yet wisdom is indicated by her deeds."

At 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; yes, Father, for such was your gracious will. All 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.

"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. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light."

Over the last few weeks I have been able, because of my knee still being in recovery mode, to indulge in one of my little joys and spend a fair amount of time watching the World Cup. I know that soccer is not the American past-time, and there are many people who just don't get it, but for me there are few sports that rival it for pure athleticism and drama. Both of the girls are getting to an age where they will sometimes sit still for a few minutes with me and watch a bit of a game. Inevitably, that brings about questions. Why this? Why that? What happens when...? Why did he just.....? It's been challenging at times for me to remember all the rules of soccer to explain the game play in way that a child's mind can understand.

You would think that soccer is a pretty simple game: unless you are the goalie, you can't touch the ball, you can't kick the other player before you kick the ball, and you score when the ball goes into the net. If only it were truly that simple. When I was in high school I helped out with our high school girls team, and let me tell you trying to remember all the rules when you are running up and down the field as a referee trying to blow the whistle at the right times, trying to figure out if that really was a foul when she went flying through the air, was that a handball? It was tough. I really wasn't a very good referee; I loved to play the game, but having to focus on all the rules just wasn't my cup of tea.

I love games. Whether it's a simple game of 'HORSE' with a basketball, a game of Monopoly, a card game, or even more complicated board games. I love games. I have a closet full of games. One thing I don't like though is when I have to spend hour upon hour learning all the rules of how to play a game. Give me a game with 3 or 4 pages of instructions, I'm okay. I once played a game whose instruction book was over 20 pages. We spent more time in the game referring to the instructions than playing the game. My friends and I played it a few times, but it wasn't long before we were so annoyed with how complicated it was that we moved on to more easily understood options.

Rules can be crazy sometimes. So often it seems as if people take something really simple, and through a bunch of rules they make it really, really complicated. Sometimes, you seriously have to wonder if all the rules and guidelines actually are counter-productive to the process. Now it seems as if everything in life has rules to it. In order to drive a car, you need to know all the rules of the road for the written and driving tests. Don't pass, and no license. But, how many of us would be able to pass it now, after we've been driving for years? Would you be willing to take a test on the spur of the moment with your license at stake?

And then there are all the different electronic devices and pieces of technology that surround us more and more every day. Thirty years ago the joke was if you wanted to set the time on your VCR, you asked your kids to do it. Nowadays, our kids grow up with cellphones and I-pads in their hands, the internet and computers are their natural playground. And the rest of us wonder how to just heat up our coffee in the microwave without blowing something up! I think it's safe to say that all the technology and electronics, all the rules about how to do things, rather than making life easier have ended up making it more difficult at times. It's become a burden to us.

This is the Fourth of July weekend it's natural for us to look back historically and see how the colonists rebelled against the British Empire because of the rules that were being enforced upon them. Now, to the British, I'm sure all those expectations and requirements made perfect sense. But, to the good people of Boston, it was enough to make them throw all their tea into the harbor; it was enough to prompt a fledgling nation to fight for freedom. Life here is, according to our founding documents, about life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. (And, the millions upon millions of pages of laws and legal interpretations do nothing to make things more complicated!)

In recent years there has been a growing cry within the United States to lesson the number of laws and regulations that govern our lives here. The laws that have given us our very freedom, have come to be seen by people as being burdensome and heavy-handed. Whether we feel that way or not, I think we can all agree that it would be nice to be able to fill out our tax forms without having to worry about being audited because we overlooked some obscure statute.

Jesus says, "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. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light." I'm not sure, but how often do you think of your faith as being easy, the burden being light? Sure, without question there are times when it's easy. The whole: thou shalt not kill is pretty easy. But, umm, honoring your parents, not coveting the new lawnmower your neighbor just bought. Those are a little tougher. And then there are all the other things that our culture seems to have decided go along with our faith – but, not everyone agrees.

For some, drinking alcohol is a sin. For some, a tithe is required at church. For some, divorce isn't an issue. For some, contraception goes against their faith and morals. For some, the clothes you wear are determined by your church. I don't think we've moved very far beyond the many rules and expectations that fill Leviticus and Deuteronomy. All of us have created our own rules for our lives and our faith. And, then we often look around and see who is living up to our standards. We're like the children on the playground Jesus talks about who expect everyone to dance when they play happy music, and wail in grief when they played funeral music. If they don't dance when we want, or don't wail when we think is appropriate, we get mad and often judge them accordingly.

“On one side we see people who are more conservative than we are and we think that they are being too strict. And we may wonder whether they have some kind of mental illness. On the other side we see people who are more progressive and we think they are being too lax. And we may condemn them for having loose morals.” “On the surface of things, it can seem that we’re incredibly ambiguous about spiritual matters, first condemning those who are too conservative, then condemning those who are too liberal. But in reality, we’re like children who can’t make up their minds what they want, because what they really want is just to dictate your actions. When we make religion a matter of following rigid rules, we essentially make ourselves the measure of all things spiritual. That’s an incredible burden to bear. It’s bad enough when we define religion by rigid rules; but when we make ourselves the measure of godliness, that’s a heavy burden indeed.”¹

Jesus calls out to us, asks us, to take his yoke, and that the yoke is not a burden, that it is light. Now, a yoke is an instrument placed upon the neck and shoulders of an animal to allow the animal to be used and guided. It can't be too light, or the animal won't recognize it's there. It can't be too heavy either, or the animal will be burdened by the weight of the yoke and unable to work. A light yet strong yoke is desired. Now, a yoke isn't just used for guiding an animal, it also makes it possible for the animal to do its task. Without a proper yoke, the oxen could not pull the cart, could not plow the field. A yoke not only serves as a controlling guide, but it's also a tool to allow a task to be completed.

Jesus, in our text, points out that the very people he was talking to had created their own standards of what was right and wrong, John the Baptist didn't fit their image, and neither did Jesus. One was too rigid, one was too loose. The people were all about their own expectations, they had become ruled by the rules that guided their faith. Rather than faith being a source of life for them, life was being defined by the rules they followed.

Jesus, though, doesn't want this for his disciples. He doesn't want us to be obsessed and controlled with worrying about what is right or wrong, about deciphering laws and expectations regarding the way we live – what we can drink, whether we can smoke, how we understand the role of marriage and family. That would be a heavy burden to bare, constantly having to check with the latest interpretation of what is and what is not allowed. Jesus declares his burden is light, his yoke is light.

His yoke is love. Love is to be our guiding force, love is to be the thing that enables us to do what we are called to do. We are called to love others as we ourselves would like to be loved. We are called to serve others in their need, as we ourselves would desire to be served if we were in need. It's not a long list of rules. It's not about a liberal or a conservative understanding of the Bible or theology. It's about love. It's about allowing the one who took the weight of the cross upon his back in love to empower us to take love out into the world in his name. It's not about worrying whether we measure up to another person's standards, or if they measure up to ours. It's about letting go of that burden, and allowing the burden that Jesus carried to the cross free us to love. It's about worrying less about how we actually love, and allowing ourselves to just love. In that is freedom, in that is release, in that is life. Amen.

1http://thewakingdreamer.blogspot.com/2011/07/lay-down-your-burden-mt.html