Sermon: Matthew 11: 25-30 (Proper 9A)

 3 July 2005

The Rev. Robert C. Lamborn, Rector

^NRSV Matthew 11:25 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; ²⁶ yes, Father, for such was your gracious will. ²⁷ 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. ²⁸ "Come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. ²⁹ 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. ³⁰ For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light."

                “Come unto me, all ye that travail and are heavy laden, and I will refresh you,” is familiar to longtime Episcopalians, as part of what are called the Comfortable Words that follow the confession of sin and absolution in Prayer Books earlier than the current one, and are an optional part of Rite I.  Indeed these words are comforting and comfortable: who doesn’t feel weary and overburdened?  Who doesn’t want rest, rest for the soul?  And while these words are familiar to many of us, it may not be as comfortable to realize that they are “back to school” words.  I know we just got out of school, but Jesus is speaking the way teachers of wisdom would call students to study with them.  In a completely free-market educational system teachers would have to gather their own classes so as to earn a living from tuition.  One way to accomplish this would be by standing in a public place and announcing why it was a such a good idea to study with you.  “Stressed out?  Burned out?  Come to me . . .             My yoke is easy and my burden is light!  You’ll find rest for your souls.”

                I think it’s important to dig a little into what is meant by rest, because like so many things in modern life the idea of rest has been distorted by our consumer society, which wants to turn everything into a commodity.  True rest is something we can learn a lot about from our Jewish brothers and sisters.  By the way, did you realize that Elmo, the Sesame Street character, is Jewish?  I was asking Jewish friends how they handled some of the Sabbath stipulations, like no television, with their daughter a little older than Caroline, and who like Caroline just loves Elmo.  “We explain that we don’t turn on the television,” they told me, “because on Saturdays Elmo has Sabbath with his family.”  As I said, we can learn a lot from Jews about true rest, but first we’ll need to get beyond some Christian attitudes that look on Sabbath-keeping as stifling or burdensome, as opposed to as a means of protecting a precious gift.  Consumer culture has tended to make rest over into leisure, and then making leisure into a commodity that can be bought and sold.  For good leisure, we need the right equipment, the right clothes, the right memberships, but for true rest we need none of these.  Jewish Sabbath-keeping, by refraining not just from work, but from activities that cause others to work gives us an example of true rest in a “leisure”-saturated market.

                 But a deep and true rest is different from just being passive.  I have to admit that when Amy and Caroline go out of town, sometimes I spend a day or two as a slug, a couch potato -- reveling in the relative freedom of just meeting my work obligations, but not having the obligations of a parent and a husband.  Being a slug feels great . . . for a little while--at most a day, usually less, and then I realize that I don’t feel better, but worse, and get back to purposeful activity beyond just at church.  Indeed in prisons, one means of punishment is to keep the inmate from his or her regular work.  I think this helps make sense of Jesus’ call to take his yoke and learn from him.  On the surface, it’s absurd–Are you stressed out and exhausted?  Come to me, hit the books and get to work!  Take my yoke upon you, for it is easy!  Yeah, right!  But a yoke is not just a way of harnessing draught animals, but was an image of observing Torah, of following God’s instruction.  An easy yoke would be one that is carefully shaped to fit the animal so as not to be painful or inefficient.  An easy yoke is like a good ergonomic backpack; it makes carrying the load much less difficult.  A yoke is also a shared piece of equipment, for two oxen, for example.  Learning from Jesus is not a solitary enterprise, but one very much in community, where our brothers and sisters just by their presence contribute to our learning, and vice versa.

                But on the day before America celebrates its independence taking on a yoke may not be on our minds as much as throwing off a yoke.  Freedom is on the minds of many of us, not only because of Independence Day, but also because of the upcoming change in the Supreme Court, which has such a crucial role in defining freedom for citizens and non-citizens alike.  Freedom in a secular sense is often defined as an absence of external restraint, so that individuals can choose what they want as long as it does not harm others.  “Nobody’s going to tell me what to do!”  This is a great gift, especially compared to some other societies.  Freedom in Christ, though, is not the mere absence of restraint but is the freedom to become who God created us to be.  Freedom in Christ is completely compatible with the idea of the easy yoke and light burden, because it is freedom for a purpose--for our own growth and for the spread of the Kingdom of God.  And so Jesus talks not about throwing off the yoke but about learning and working.  When it comes to keeping Sabbath, study is not prevented but encouraged.  In our overscheduled, overstressed society, making room for God to work is a form of taking on a yoke, but Jesus promises that this kind of yoke will ultimately give us rest -- the true and deep rest for our souls -- giving us the peace and the energy to walk the path of growing into the priceless gifts God created us to be.