"CHOOSE YOUR BURDEN"

IF YOU: aren't feeling any particular stress in your life at this time...

AND you aren't at odds with any family members, friends, co-workers or associates...

AND you have no health concerns, either for yourself or a loved one...

AND money is not a problem...in fact, you don't owe anyone any money and no one owes you money...

AND your job is great... your love life is perfect.... you feel wonderful... and you believe that state of our world couldn't be better...

AND you've never had a bad hair day...

AND you still have all your hair.... then you don't need to hear this message!

Now for the rest of us.... From the mildly stressful to the incredibly painful, obviously, these days, we are all burdened with something. Consider this editorial:

"The world is too big for us. Too much going on, too many crimes, too much violence and excitement. Try as you will, you get behind in the race, in spite of yourself. It's an incessant strain to keep pace... and still, you lose ground. Science empties its discoveries on you so fast that you stagger beneath them in hopeless bewilderment. The political world is news seen so rapidly you're out of breath trying to keep pace with who's in and who's out. Everything is high pressure. Human nature can't endure much more!"

You could have read that today... However, that was not from today's paper... not from this year or even this century: that editorial appeared in a newspaper called "The Atlantic Journal" on June 16, 1833 -- 169 years ago!!

You see, human life has always been stressful and burdensome. Even in Jesus' time... people were stressed out by all kinds of hardships and expectations on their lives.

Thus, we hear, in today's Scripture reading, a wonderful invitation from Jesus: "Come to me, all you who are weary and find life burdensome, and I will refresh you. Take my yoke upon your shoulders and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble of heart. Your souls will find rest, for my yoke is easy and my burden is light."

Now please notice: this is not an offer to take away all your burdens... it's an invitation to CHOOSE YOUR BURDEN: a heavy burden the world imposes... or the light one that Jesus offers. We're all too familiar with the burdens that life in this world brings... and Jesus' promise of "refreshment" and "rest for our souls" surely sounds good.

But how can we find that rest and refreshment He's promising? Hear again the specific words that were used: Come to me... take my yoke... learn from me...Jesus says. The invitation has stipulations but the instructions are clear. "COME TO ME" Jesus didn't mince words... and he didn't waver when it came to his self-concept and identity: When you're burdened, you need God... and if you need to get to God, come to Jesus. That's the place to find relief.

We're so willing to look for relief from our burdens in other places, by others means. Did you know that, in the first 20 years of an American's life, he or she will see something approaching one million television commercials at the rate of about a thousand a week. This makes the TV commercial the most voluminous information source we have. And these commercials do far more than feature information about a product. They teach some big...but inaccurate...lessons.

The first is that all problems are resolvable. The second is that all problems are resolvable quickly. And the third is that all problems are resolvable quickly through the use of some technology. It may be a drug. It may be a detergent. It may be an automobile or a computer.

The essential message is that the problems that beset people -- whether it is lack of self-confidence or boredom or even money problems -- are entirely solvable if only we will allow ourselves to be ministered to by a technology.

Did you hear that, recently, testing began on a new automatic airplane? The first passengers took their seats and an automatic announcement welcomed them aboard. "Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to our fully automated passenger aircraft. It has no pilot and no crew. Press the button on the panel in front of you, and we'll take off. Press the next button and refreshments will be served. When flight time has elapsed, press another button and the plane will land. Absolutely nothing can go wrong... can go wrong... can go wrong... can go wrong...."

But, you see, Jesus doesn't offer a product or a program or a vacation destination... he simply says "Come to me" and "take my yoke upon your shoulders".

I wonder if Jesus used any visual aids with this teaching. After all, he'd been trained as a carpenter, so without a doubt he knew all about yokes. In Palestine, in Jesus' day, yokes for the oxen used by farmers were made of wood. The ox was brought and measurements were taken. The yoke was then roughed out, and the ox was brought back to have the yoke tried on. The yoke was carefully adjusted, so that it would fit well, and not rub and chafe on the neck of the patient animal. The yoke was tailor-made to fit the ox.

There were two kinds of yokes in Christ's day: a single yoke and a double yoke. Based on the context, I can't help but think Jesus was talking about a double yoke here, one made to harness two animals side by side.

I think this because he encouraged us to learn from him once his yoke is on us, and also he says his yoke is easy and his burden is light. The best form of learning is to work right alongside a good teacher.

I think Jesus was inviting us to step into a double yoke right beside his. I can't imagine he would throw a back-breaking load on our shoulders and set us to plowing while he leaned on the fence and occasionally shouted encouragement.

I think the only reason Jesus' burden feels light is because it's a burden that's been individually fit for each of us to be able to bear... and because Jesus is right beside us bearing a lot of the weight. And watching how gracefully he shoulders that burden, we learn how to bear it more effectively ourselves. Come to me....take my yoke upon your shoulders and LEARN FROM ME.

Jesus didn't offer all of his teaching and preaching... his life and his sacrifice... so that we would have a collection of sweet sounding words to put on bumper stickers and refrigerator magnets.

He wants us to LEARN from him... and live what we learn. Sometimes we have such a problem with that.

You may remember a news story from the summer of 1996. The caption under the picture in the papers said: "Keshia Thomas, 18, of Ann Arbor, Michigan, shields a man from a crowd of anti-Klan demonstrators who were beating him with sticks after he was spotted wearing a Confederate flag on his jacket during a Ku Klux Klan rally..."

The photo showed this young black woman's body thrown over this frightened white man, as she tried to stop her fellow ANTI-HATE PROTESTORS FROM BEATING HIM!

Isn't that ironic? Keshia was obviously a hero... a perfect illustration of Christ's love and compassion, even for a potential enemy. But it's not Keshia that stuck in my mind and gnawed at my heart when I heard the story. It's the other protestors. They were there to protest the hateful acts of the Klan and then responded by attacking and beating a man... whom they didn't even know for sure was in the Klan... they just assumed.

No matter what their philosophical stance, when faced with a real challenge to their "anti-hate" beliefs, they proved they knew nothing about love. I would hate to feel the burden that those people must have carried home with them that day. Jesus invites us to LEARN the lessons he teaches... not so that we can quote him fluently and impress each other with our piety but so that, when real life throws real challenges in our faces, we can respond in ways that will lesson our loads... not add to them.

That IS the point of this invitation Jesus gives us, you know. There is a payoff for us in accepting what Jesus offers. "Come to me...take my yoke...and learn from me... AND I WILL REFRESH YOU...YOUR SOULS WILL FIND REST FOR MY YOKE IS EASY AND MY BURDEN IS LIGHT."

First Promise: REFRESHMENT...AND REST FOR YOUR SOULS: From a worldly point of view, this passage is absolutely ridiculous. The very idea that yoking myself to some gentle and humble teacher who died on a cross is going to help anything -- well, that's beyond my reasoning. And yet, look what's promised to those who have faith in this method. "You will find rest for your souls." The Greek word for "soul" here is psyche. If you bring your stress and weariness to Jesus, he promises to calm your psyche. He doesn't say that your problems will be instantly solved. He doesn't promise to relieve your busy schedule. He doesn't once say he'll take your pain and trouble away. But he guarantees that your state of mind -- your psyche -- can be healed and restored. While the world promises to relieve our stress by piling labor-saving devices and strategies on us -- things that only compound our predicament -- Jesus takes another way.

He doesn't promise to alter our outward world or to rearrange our circumstances; he promises to transform our inner person and give us genuine peace in the midst of a chaotic, threatening world. That's the first promise.

Second Promise: AN EASIER, LIGHTER BURDEN: Now how can the yoke of Jesus be considered light? After all, he gave us some pretty tough teachings... his expectations of our behavior are pretty high. Well, try this:

-- If you think Christ-like living is a heavy weight to bear, try living with acts of evil and hatred on your conscience. Which is the heavier burden?

-- If you think forgiveness and love are hard to give, try walking around with unresolved anger and bitterness boiling in your belly. That's real pain.

-- If you think Christ's call for generous giving is too demanding, try keeping a firm grasp on every dollar and every possession you've got. That's true tension.

-- If any one of us thinks that Christ's directive to refrain from judging others has some exceptions and allowances for our opinions, imagine Jesus appearing here right now to judge each of us....

I don't know about you, but for me, that would be genuine stress!! Once you resolve to take on the yoke with Jesus, compared to all the burdens you've been carrying, I think you'll see just how light it is.

"Come to me, all you who are weary and find life burdensome, and I will refresh you. Take my yoke upon your shoulders and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble of heart. Your souls will find rest, for my yoke is easy and my burden light." Jesus doesn't promise a life without burdens... but he does say that we have the option to choose our burden! Are you tired? Over-worked... over-whelmed... under-paid... misunderstood or just plain fed-up? Then I simply ask you to consider this invitation we've heard this morning... and choose your burden.

[prayer] Amen.

Amen and God Bless.

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