Notes from a Sojourn
July 5, 2020
A Sermon for the Fifth Sunday after Pentecost
(Matthew 11:16-20, 25-30)
"Come unto me all that labour and are heavy laden, and I will refresh you."
These words are familiar to many followers of Jesus. For some Anglicans, the words I just repeated may provide a reminder of the Book of Common Prayer's "comfortable words", a series of biblical quotations which follow directly after the confession and absolution in the service of Holy Communion.
I love Matthew's imagery here. It invites us to approach Christ and be fitted with an easy yoke and a light burden.
I suppose I always imagined this imagery to be associated with work animals: oxen, donkeys, maybe horses? When I think of these beasts of burden, I imagine Jesus as a kind master, fitting the animals with comfortable yokes and going light on the weight-load. I have always been fond of animals, so the idea of a compassionate handler of work animals appeals to me.
Here is an interpretive principle that might help with reading the Gospels: When Jesus offers an invitation, it is always directed toward us -- you and me, the readers.
Although I have carried some heavy loads in my time (figuratively and literally), I can only think of one type of yoke I have ever worn.
Growing up, I was blessed with many opportunities to enjoy canoeing. Short paddles, day trips, camping trips, safety courses, I enjoyed it all. But if you spend much time around a canoe, there will likely come a time when the boat will need to leave the water and be carried. It is a feature of the canoe that it is an extremely portable vessel. But they can be heavy...
Most of the canoes I portaged as a young person were aluminum. They were monsters! They weighed somewhere between eighty and ninety pounds, but they always felt heavier to me. We used to try to carry the canoes upside-down, over our heads, with someone at each thwart (the cross bars that provide stability across the open part of the boat) even with a group of people working together, the pressure of the metal bar across the back of the neck and the shoulders was uncomfortable to say the least.
Five years ago, my family got our first canoe. It is certainly not a light-weight canoe, but to me it has a very attractive feature. Unlike the canoes of my youth this one has a yoke!
The boat is balanced at the centre thwart which is actually a shaped yoke for one person to carry the canoe alone with relative ease. This ancient piece of technology was truly a game-changer for me.
Two summers ago, I helped lead a canoe trip for the summer camp I grew up attending. It was a multi-day trip but it involved one very long day of travel by canoe. There was one portage and, of course, we carried those same old aluminum canoes. Even though I was one of the strongest and most experienced members of the group, I really struggled with those canoes. But we took several trips, worked together, and eventually carried the canoes and all of our gear to the next body of water. But the portage alone felt like a whole day's work. And I was really missing that yoke.
The portage itself is actually very important to the history of Eastern Ontario. It connects Red Horse Lake to Charleston Lake and there is archeological evidence that people have been carrying canoes along the trail between those two lakes for over two thousand years. I like to think that as Jesus was preaching in Galilee, people were carrying canoes along that trail.
This brings us back to Jesus' invitation: "Take my yoke upon you and learn from me [...] my yoke is easy, and my burden is light."
I believe this invitation is for us. You and me, now, and two thousand years ago, in Galilee and in Ontario, figuratively and literally, voluntarily and otherwise: we all carry burdens. That should not be expected to change any time soon.
Following Jesus does not entirely remove the weight from our shoulders. If anything, we may take on new burdens. But when we learn from Christ, we bear those burdens differently. We share the burden together. The yoke of Christ helps us to carry the weight of this life with gentleness, humility, and opportunity for rest.
This life does indeed bring burdens. Sometimes we carry them with difficulty. As we reflect on the comfortable words of Christ this week, let us pray for all who carry too much, for those of us whose load is too heavy, for those of us who need to learn to share the work, and for all who are getting ready to respond to Jesus' invitation to carry the burdens of this life in a new way: with gentleness, humility, and rest in Christ Jesus our Saviour. Amen.
Patrick+
