Genesis 24.34-38,42-49, 58-67, Matthew 11.16-19, 25-30
The Fifth Sunday after Trinity, 9 July 2023, Austwick, Keasden
'Come to me, all you who are weary and carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest.'
Such gracious words tell us that ours is not a God who makes hard demands on people - contrary to what we may have been told; ours is a God who wants to free us from our burdens.
Neither is our God one who controls us by keeping us busy - though the Church can tend to do that; our God wants to give us rest.
Nor is ours a God who imposes on us - no, our God is gentle and humble in heart. His yoke is easy; his burden is light.
So if we are carrying heavy burdens, we must understand that those burdens are coming from somewhere else; God invites us to come to him to find rest.
The burdens we carry, they’re often to do with our relationships with others. Take, for instance, the story of Abraham's head servant, his chief of staff, looking for a bride for Isaac. He was feeling the pressure to ensure that Isaac married someone from among his father's people, not someone from the land where they were living at that time. Burdened by Abraham's obsession, this servant was anxious lest he let his employer down.
Then there’s Psalm 45, a song for a royal wedding, where the Psalmist sings to the princess, 'Forget your own people and your father’s house. The king ... is your master; therefore do him honour.' [2] Imagine what expectations that put on this bride: feel her burden of being pulled in two opposing directions at once: one way towards her beloved family, and the other way towards her beloved husband. Maybe you’ve sometimes felt torn like that.
We are always listening to what others say about us: how we respond to them is what shapes and forms us into the people we are. And when others' expectations of us tear us in different directions or are impossible to fulfil, that’s a heavy load to carry. And, if we’re honest, then we must admit that sometimes we are the ones who burden others with our expectations of them.
I don’t think people have changed that much since New Testament times. Jesus said that his generation were never satisfied. They berated the ascetic John the Baptist for neither eating nor drinking, but when they saw how Jesus enjoyed eating and drinking, they called him a glutton and a drunkard.
It’s rather like the way certain people criticise the Archbishop of Canterbury for being a weak leader, but then, when he speaks out clearly on a moral issue in the House of Lords, the same people shoot him down for being ‘too political’. [3]
Each of us feel the pressure imposed on us by outside forces: social media, the Sunday supplements, what our friends and neighbours are doing and saying. It can be depressing, feeling that you don’t measure up.
Archbishop Justin has spoken openly about his experience of suffering depression, saying that “One of the symptoms of it is self-hatred, self-contempt, real, vicious sense of dislike of oneself. And that seems very odd,” he says, “when it combines with also a deep sense that I’m loved by God. And in my life that expressed itself almost as a safety net.” [4]
Maybe the greatest burdens we carry are those we impose on ourselves. Whether it’s the young worrying about their image, their body shape, their looks, or the old worrying about their legacy.
But we can always turn off the notifications, we can always bin the advertorials, we can be circumspect about comparing what others have achieved to our own, quite unique, life story.
If we trust God, we can carry our anxieties to him in prayer, our knees buckling under the weight of them; as we bend the knee before him he will take the load away.
Many people are carrying burdens imposed on them by outside forces: financial burdens for instance. These are not easily fixed, and the pressures they impose are intense. Prayer can help to change these circumstances, if we persist; in prayer we may find our way towards answering the practical questions which life throws at us. And praying with others can inspire and guide us to work together to change our material circumstances, and those of others who are in need or distress. [5] More immediately, prayer can help us cope with the pressure.
Jesus says, ‘Come to me, all you who are weary and carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest.’
Come to me. Forget for a while what others think of you; and take time to remember what God thinks of you. Know yourself to be loved by him, so much that that love will so fill your heart that it will flow out in blessing into all your other relationships too.
Stephen Barton writes that "Spirituality.... has to do with the sense of the divine presence and living in the light of that presence. There are two basic aspects, therefore: knowing and being known by God, on the one hand; and responding, with the whole of life, on the other.... Spirituality has to do with life under God…” [6]
Come to me... take my yoke.... learn from me... Jesus says.
Whenever we give ourselves to prayer then we meet God in Jesus, just where we are. Let us practice unburdening ourselves to him there.
And, thus unburdened, may we ask the humble, gentle, teacher to help us to be less of a burden to others, and to help and encourage others to find rest for themselves in God.
Notes
[1] A rewrite of Come to me all you weary and burdened, preached in Devon, 2011.
[2] Psalm 45.
[3] A.N. Wilson, It’s time to kick the pulpit out of politics. Times, 26 May 2013.
[4] Jacob Philips, Archbishop of Canterbury opens up about depression. Independent, 7 April 2023.
[5] See e.g., Deirdre Brower Latz with Carmel Murphy Elliott and Sarah Purcell, Church on the Margins [PDF]. Church Action on Poverty, February 2023.
[6] Stephen Barton, The Spirituality of the Gospels. Quoted in Henry Morgan and Hugh Valentine, Feral Spirituality: A Definition.
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