2020-07-05 Sue Diggory

Trinity 4 – Matthew 11 verses 16 – 19 and 25 – end

I wonder how you are feeling as we enter this next stage of post-lockdown easing, now that we can have our haircut; note to self here, go for a pint and as soon as it becomes practical return to the church for worship, even if it will not be back to the familiar but forward to the temporary forms of service that will be needed as we follow all the ever changing guidelines that both the Government and the Church of England have put in place.

For many of us the easing of lockdown has not come with the easing of concerns and a sense of ‘independence day’; many of us still feel unsure, fearful and anxious; should we go out more, should we wear a mask and/or gloves, should we stay local or cheer ourselves up with a trip out with a limited number of family or friends. Then of course there is the other side of the lockdown-easing coin which brings happiness and joy as we can meet up with our families and friends in a much for relaxed and ‘normal’ way. Where ever you are on the scale between fearful and happy, I suspect like me it varies from day to day and from situation to situation, some days there seems to be a grey cloud weighing us down, yet on others it is blue sky and sunshine all the way.

One of my all-time favourite films is The Mission. The theme music, Gabriel’s Oboe is a wonderfully haunting yet soothing piece of music, and a young Jeremy Irons was of course something of a draw. One of central characters is Mendoza, a reformed slave-trader who comes to faith in Christ and joins the local Jesuit community. As part of his journey to faith we see him struggling up the mountain side near the Iguacu Falls hauling a net containing rocks and other heavy items that symbolise the burdens that are weighing him down. He struggles on and finally as the ropes are cut for him, he is set free from this physical burden, a symbol of the life-burdens that are weighing him down.

In our Gospel reading today we read these words from the lips of Jesus which are unique to Matthew’s Gospel ‘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.’ Here we have a promise, the promise of rest for the weary among us who are burdened and the promise of an easy yoke and a burden that is light, a burden that will not pull us down.

The people who heard these words would have been very used to seeing yoked oxen working and the fields and pulling carts along the road. The yoke was a simple wooden bar that linked the two beasts together so that they could equally share the burden that they were pulling or carrying. They needed to be of similar size and similar strength to make this work well, and it was usual for an older beast to be coupled with a younger one to train him and ‘show him the ropes.’

We of course bear a very inadequate resemblance to Jesus, as Paul reminds us in our rather difficult reading from his letter to the Romans that we are often those who do not do what I want, but do the very thing I hate.’ That is why we need to willingly take on the yoke of Christ, not because it is an easy option that leads to a restful and burden free life, but rather because it is the way that will enable us to share in the life that has Christ at its’ centre. Here Jesus is offering to share our load, to be in the midst of every aspect of our lives with us. In being yoked with him we can go his way, to learn from him how to overturn expectations and know true rest, rest that comes through God’s enabling grace at work in our lives. There is no way that we are equal to Christ, we can never like the Oxen make a pair with him that made up of two similar beings, but, and as I often say there is always a but, because Jesus is willing to be alongside each one of us every step of the way in a way that makes it possible for us to be yoked with him and for him to lead us along his path and in his way, knowing that as we do we will be able to find rest in him.

Today as we continue to journey forward towards the next phase of post-lockdown reality, we have as always to make choices and then to live with the consequences of the choices that we have made. As we begin to look back and reflect on the last 100 days plus I suspect that along with the things we have missed, and for each of us that will be a different list, there will be the things that we have been able to delight in; aircraft free skies, reading for an hour without feeling guilty, listening to birdsong, and again the list will vary for each one of us.

Perhaps today is a good time as we now move towards a newly eased way of living, both in our daily life and in our worshipping life as churches are now able to begin to open once again to listen afresh to the words of Jesus and to be willing to bring him both our burdens and our joys as we yoke ourselves to him knowing the whatever we carry into our ‘new normal’ he will be sharing the load with us.

Sue Diggory

2020-07-04

Michael Court