— Midweek Meditations:
thoughts, inspiration and encouragement
from ACF community members —
‘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.’
Matthew 11:28-30
“Come, bring your burdens!” was Jesus’ invitation to the people who had gathered around him.
“Come, bring your burdens!” is his invitation today to all people worldwide.
But, which burdens are we bringing today?
Me?
You?
Our world?
Of course, there are my own “little burdens” that come to mind first:
a full email inbox,
windows that urgently need cleaning,
deadlines coming up,
Christmas preparations looming large,
hormone swings (mine and my teenagers’),
volunteering stuff,
and so on.
You know what it’s like, right?
The world at large holds other, far more complex “burdens”:
growing old,
relationship crises,
illness,
racism,
money worries,
global warming,
domestic violence,
cyber attacks
nationalism,
war, …
Into all this, Jesus says: “Come, bring your burdens!”
Lay them down.
Let go.
Trust.
That’s not so easy, right? How is this ‘letting go’ supposed to work?
Well, why not start with prayer as a daily laying down of our burdens:
perhaps wholeheartedly, on our knees or with raised hands;
perhaps by repeating familiar songs or bible verses;
perhaps as a quick, desperate cry when once again a broken cup and splashes of cocoa decorate the kitchen floor;
perhaps as an honest, heartfelt conversation with God on the way to the supermarket;
perhaps through a mindfully lit candle;
perhaps by turning my heart toward others;
…
Prayer, this laying down of burdens, has many faces!
When we read on, our Bible text goes on and challenges us: “Take my yoke upon you,” says Jesus. What a strange expression: “to take up a yoke”! When I read this phrase in the past, it sounded strenuous, unpleasant, and somehow painful. But it all changed, when, for a while, I had this very bible passage hung at eye level on our fridge, held up with a magnet. Again and again my eyes fell on the slip of paper.
Suddenly very different words jumped out:
‘kind’
‘humble’
‘rest for the soul’
‘gentle’
‘light’.
Beautiful, isn’t it? Such a tender and soft invitation, to follow the one who is “kind and humble in heart.”
Beautiful, yes, but also a bit, well, crazy, a bit along the lines of “opposites attract”:
A yoke that is gentle.
A burden that is light.
A bit of an “upside-down world”, right?
And that is actually the point: an “upside-down world”! Sometimes we call this world the “Kingdom of God.” Or, as in a book I read recently: “Holy Anarchy”, an expression that describes well this “upside-down world”: Jesus as a gentle king who rules in humility. Quite the opposite of the brutal Roman occupying power of his day. Jesus stands for a ruling order carried by prayer and listening, not by parliaments, courts and military; a yoke that doesn’t dominate or subjugate. No, instead a “yoke” that symbolises divine and community connection.
In this passage, Jesus invites us: “Learn from me!” This learning is also somehow “upside-down.” It doesn’t consist of intellectual understanding, meticulous explaining and working everything out exactly. It is a learning that tries things out playfully and experiences them first-hand. It is a learning that follows Jesus, the travelling teacher, however imperfectly and stumbling.
And then, somehow (And I don’t know exactly how!) we will, in Jesus’ words,
“find rest for our souls”:
Soul-rest that can be felt again and again in the chaos of everyday life.
Soul-rest that makes the burdens feel lighter.
Soul rest that gives hope even in the great threats of our time.
Soul rest that carries people of prayer through life.
I pray that you (and I) will experience this rest for our souls in the coming days, so that we carry it out into our personal surroundings and our big, complex world.
Amen.
The ACF Midweek Meditations
are written by a diverse group of our church members with the intention to seek God’s fingerprints in our lives. They range from somber to humorous and are inspired by all facets of live and faith. Written by ordinary people from all walks of life, they reflect a wide range of Christian backgrounds and spiritualities.
Each week’s text portrays the individual viewpoint of its author. They might not always resonate with everyone, and are not meant to be understood as representing the Anglican Church Freiburg as a whole. Yet, as a church that is aiming to ‘Build a Community of Grace’ we seek to practice learning from and listening to one another.
We pray that these humble ponderings add a small spark of blessing to your week.
Leave a Reply