Lighten Up!: Sermon Matthew 11:25-30

Dear God, take our minds and think through them; take our hands and feet and work through them; take our lips and speak through them, take our hearts and set them on fire for you. Amen
Are you stretched too thin? Do you have too many irons in the fire? Is your candle burning at both ends? Americans are a stressed out, frazzled, frizzled, wigged out, and burned out society. We are a society of workaholics. We work from sun up until way past sundown. Maybe it was our Puritan ancestors who gave us this overworking mentality. Some of us don’t feel productive until we are juggling 20 things at once. Our hard working ways have served us well in the past century. It helped our nation out of a Great Depression and win World War II, but with the 1950s new technology was supposed to give us a life of ease and comfort. If you watch cartoons from those days you will find an imaginative world filled with time and work saving gadgets and gizmos. Dinner would be prepared with a push of a button. Cars would drive themselves and computers would be the wave of the future. Time magazine noted that back in the 60’s, expert testimony was given to a Senate sub-committee on time management. They predicted that advances in technology would radically change how many hours a week people worked. They forecasted that the average American would be working 22 hours a week within 20 years. “The great challenge,” the experts said, “would be figuring out what to do with all the excess time.” Over 40 years later, after major advances in technology – how many of us are wondering what to do with all the excess time on our hands?
Technology was supposed to make our lives easier and simpler, but they have only made them more complex and busier. Because of cell phones, PDAs, laptops, and Blackberries (not the kind you made jam out of) people can’t escape from work even when they are at home and the sad thing is that a lot of us like it. We want to be connected 24/7/365. We have the mentality that busyness is a good thing, it means that we are pulling our weight and we are a productive member of society. Rest and relaxation is considered weakness and laziness. If you sit around a do nothing then you are worthless. We are a nation without Sabbath, without rest. We work, work, work until the day we die. Even those of you who are retired have told me that you work more now than you did when you where in the workforce.
Although this workaholic attitude has its benefits, mostly for the big wigs in the corporate office it leads to a lot of serious problems. These include heart disease, stroke, poor eating habits, headaches, body aches and other personal health problems. It also causes broken relationships with spouses and children. Do you remember the song Cats in the Cradle? The song is about a father working and working with no time for his son and at the end when the father finally had time he realized that his son had become just like him with no time for anything but work. This song is a reality for a lot of people. People work so hard to take care of their families only to lose the family they were trying to support in the first place. We weigh ourselves down with a heavy burden and sometimes it is heavy enough to break us. If you find yourself in that kind of position this morning, Jesus has an invitation for you. “‘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.’”
The yoke of today is different than the one in first century Judea. In those days the yoke was an oppressive interpretation of the law. The religious leaders place the law in every aspect of the people’s lives and it was so complex and difficult to adhere to that almost no one could possibly follow it. The leaders themselves did not follow it; they did not practice what they preached. The people became so burdened by the laws of their religion that worshiping God became a requirement instead of a joy. Jesus invited the people to take of the oppressive teachings of the religious leaders and to take on his yoke which is much lighter and easier. It is a yoke of love and peace. It is a teaching that leads to new life and improvement not just of self, but also of community. Jesus’ focus was on the love and grace of God not to a strict adherence to the law. Jesus believed in the spirit of the law which was to love God and neighbor. Just as he invited the people then to a better life so he invites us as well. Come and leave your burdens here and take on my yoke which is easier.
We must understand that this is not a removal of burdens. We do not drop our burdens and go home empty handed because Jesus knows that in time we will pick up a whole new set of burdens and end up right where we started. Instead Jesus calls for a burdens exchange, drop what you have and take on my yoke which is easier and lighter. Drop your load of worry, overwork, selfishness, greed, anger, and despair and take on the light load of peace, hope, and love. Following Jesus is not a piece of cake there are requirements and there must be changes made. However, the load that Jesus asks us to carry leads to much better things, a life of love, family, community, selflessness, and rest. Jesus is inviting us to come and exchange our heavy load for one that is far easier and yet leads to greater rewards in this life and in the next.
What does this exchange look like? What kind of trades must we make? For one we trade a like of workaholicism for Sabbath. If there is one of the Ten Commandments that we break constantly it is number 4, remember the Sabbath and keep it holy. This is not just another day it is a day set aside specifically for rest and remembrance. God knew that we would have to work in order to survive and God knew that we would, if left to our own devices, work out selves to death, literally. So God rested on the 7th day not because he had to but as an example to the rest of us. It is a day to recuperate and to remember all the good things that God has done for us. It is a day to honor God from whom all blessings flow. It is a day to stop and smell the roses and to appreciate the beauty and majesty of God’s creation. In the movie Ferris Bueller’s Day Off a young man in high school decides to play hooky from school and at the beginning and the end of the movie he says. “Life goes by pretty fast. If you don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.” Jesus invites us to take some time away from ourselves and focused on God and God’s amazing creation. Jesus invites us to rest from our hectic schedules and to take a Sabbath.
Jesus also invites us to exchange our guilt for forgiveness. Guilt is a burdensome weight on our lives and on our spirits and it is a burden that too many people carry. Too many of us have done things in the past or are doing something right now that they are ashamed of and they wear that guilt like a stone around their necks. You can almost see the weight around their necks their heads are down, their walk is labored. If you have that weight of guilt around your neck this morning come and exchange it for forgiveness. Let go of your guilt and experience the freedom of forgiveness. Ask for it and you will receive it and if God forgives you to the point that your sins are erased as if they never existed then why can’t you forgive yourself. God has forgiven you and so you must forgive yourself. There is also a flip side to that coin, as we are forgiven so we must forgive others. We must help others to free themselves of the burden of guilt by offering forgiveness even before it is asked. We must forgive others as we are forgiven that is part of the deal.
Jesus also invites us to trade anger, vengeance, and hatred for peace and love. I will be the first to admit that I have a hot temper sometimes and sometimes it gets the best of me, but it is something that I am working on. I find that if I take the time to count to 10 or 20 or 100 then I can calm down enough to make rational decisions and statements and avoid doing or saying something that I will have to apologize for. I think that one way to accomplish this is to give others the benefit of the doubt. We have to realize that the guy who cut us off probably didn’t do it on purpose, he or she might not have seen us. Bishop Wills talked about a dinner that he had with a fellow clergy person in Memphis. He said that the waitress was rude, hateful, and slow. All in all it was the worst service he had in a restaurant. As they got up to leave the person Bishop Wills was eating with left a $20 tip. Bishop Wills said that he was crazy, how could he leave such a generous tip for such poor and rude service. The guy told me, it is people like that who need the most help. She might have had a lot on her mind, she might have a sick child at home, or a stack of bills that need to be paid. You never know what is going on behind the scenes. The world would be a better place if we could just learn to give each other the benefit of the doubt and the benefit of love and grace.
“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.” That is the invitation that we have from Jesus this morning. Exchange your burdens and your yoke for one that is lighter and easier and for one that reaps a truly bountiful reward. The invitation is made will you answer it?
Let us pray…
Grant, O Lord,
that what has been said with our lips we may believe in our hearts,
and that what we believe in our hearts we may practice in our lives;
through Jesus Christ our Lord by the power of the Holy Spirit. Amen.