Matthew 11:28-30
The first time I offered a sermon at Trinity Presbyterian Church in New York City there was a group of three church members assigned by Session to evaluate it with me afterwards. You see, I was a student from Union Theological Seminary, learning how to preach, and the idea was to give me some immediate feedback so I could get better at it. So after a few refreshments and cookies in the church parlor, we sat down and I wondered what kind of feedback they would give.
I wasn’t nervous, because I felt pretty good about what I had prepared, and as I looked around the congregation during the sermon, people seemed to be giving me their full attention. There was even a man I had never seen before, dressed in an electric red suit, who kept standing up and shouting “amen”. I thought my interpretation of the scripture reading was spot-on, giving the folks in that tiny congregation a message that affirmed their faith, and challenged to think big with the hope of the Gospel. The theological perspective I brought was inspired by my seminary professors, some of the smartest people in the world. So we sat down and I was confident.
But those three people didn’t say a single word about my interpretation of scripture. They didn’t ask a single question about my theology. They didn’t even tell me they were inspired by my message in any way. What they said was that my sermon had no sense of humor. Ouch! I didn’t see that one coming.
So in honor of those wonderful folks from Trinity Presbyterian Church in New York City who kept finding ways to encourage me, to love me, and even to challenge me when I needed it, I thought I would begin this morning’s message by telling a few jokes, to show you how far I’ve come since that first sermon in New York City.
· You've heard about the moron pilot who once made a tricky landing on runway seven, haven't you? It was the shortest runway he'd ever seen. And the widest, too.
· Speaking of “seven”, why is everyone afraid of seven?
Because seven eight nine!
· And speaking of eating, what’s green and sings? Elvis Parsley.
· Speaking of green things, how about the flying suacer that landed in the shopping center parking lot. All the green guys from Pluto came running out the door and each of them found a parking meter and began kissing it. The last green guy finally left the fklying saucer and found one last parking meter. When he began kissing it, the other green guys began laughing at him, "Haha you got the ugly one!"
Well, how am I doing? Is that sense of humor working, or do I need to go back to school again? Back to school? Well, OK, but let me finish this sermon anyway. Maybe it’ll get better by the end? OK, let me try one last joke. But before telling it let me tell you a secret about the Presbyterian Church (USA). Every week national Presbyterian headquarters sends out undercover agents to randomly selected churches around the country, to search for previously undiscovered talent. Someday soon I hope I’ll be discovered by those folks at Presbyterian HQ, and be nominated for General Assembly Moderator, or maybe they’ll offer me the job of the first Presbyterian pope? So you see what’s at stake here, right? Please, just in case one of those undercover folks is ever here in Byron, whenever I tell a joke, please laugh, and make it natural and sincere. If I impress them with my sense of humor, I’ll soon be moving up the chain of command!
Anyway, here’s that last joke: A man walks into a bar and an egg falls on his head. The bartender turns to him and says, "The yolk's on you!". (It says in my notes here “wait until the uproarious peals of laughter subside before continuing”)
Speaking of yolks, “yoke” is a key word in the short scripture reading we have from Matthew this morning. Jesus says, “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.”
Anyone here familiar with yokes? What is a yoke? I have to be careful here, because whenever I talk as if I know anything about livestock or crops or the farming life, all of the farmers in the room start to laugh. And I want you to laugh with me, not at me. So can anyone tell the rest of us what a yoke is?
So I think the picture on the bulletin cover is a good illustration of a yoke. Now, if you were the ox in that picture would it be easy or hard having that yoke across your neck?
But even not knowing much about it, I’ll go out on a limb and suggest that a yoke could be too tight, too painful, too rough, and just plain hard to deal with. So what would make a yoke easy? Well-made, well-fitted, well-handled by the plowman.
When Jesus says “my yoke is easy” he’s not talking about a real yoke, a heavy chunk of lumber laid across your neck like the one on the bulletin cover. He’s talking about the demands, the burdens, the obligations of faithful living. But instead of telling us how hard it will be to be a Christian, how rough, how tough, how tiring it will be, Jesus says “my yoke is easy”.
So here are a few reflections on this surprising text:
1. Jesus doesn’t want to exhaust us with heavy demands; he wants to refresh and renew us.
2. Jesus doesn’t want to beat us into obedience; he aims to surround us with love.
3. Jesus doesn’t try to motivate us by piling on guilt or making threats; instead but he invites us to grow.
4. Jesus doesn’t want to grab us by the collar and drag us along kicking and screaming to a place we don’t want to go. He begins with friendship and encouragement.
5. Jesus isn’t inviting us to engage in futility, or things that don’t matter or won’t succeed, but to join with him in changing the world, and changing ourselves.
The easy yoke is not “anything goes” or that everyone gets a free pass to heaven without having to make an effort. An easy yoke means that our faith is important, it draws the best out of us, it is motivated by a passionate desire to commit to a future in which God’s hopes will be realized.
And, finally, remember that this is Jesus speaking to you and me. It’s worth paying close attention to him. If you are like me, I usually think of faith as something like a journey filled with pitfalls, obstacles and challenges, that will test me every step of the way, a journey that only a very few saints are able to survive without falling. But Jesus says “my yoke is easy and my burden is light”.
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