Jesus says: Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to me. Get away with me and you'll recover your life. I'll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with me and work with me—watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won't lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with me and you'll learn to live freely and lightly."
Verses 28 – 30 of the gospel reading from the Message Bible
It really is worthwhile to read differing versions of the bible – to glean new understandings and to challenge words or phrases that have become humdrum or predictable.
When we hear the familiar words ‘Come to me all that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest...for my yoke is easy and my burden is light - what kind of picture does that invoke for you? It may be that the passage is so well known that you draw from it comfort and relief rather than challenge and a call to action? Are words like yoke and burden so evocative of being harnessed and driven that you just gloss over them as a bit uncomfortable? I know I have done that at times.
Today I want to invite us into the space of revisiting these words and to circle that space with the invitation of Christ “I invite you to learn the unforced rhythms of grace”. Its a thought provoking and intriguing phrase which deserves much more that the time given today.
First of all what is our understanding of resting in Christ – how does that fit into learning the unforced rhythms of grace? We have the story of an eighty year old woman who convinced her daughter that she wanted to celebrate her 80th birthday by climbing to the top of the Statue of Liberty – heart condition and all. There were 342 steps to the top and it took 6 hours and resting every 3 or 4 step. You do the maths on the number of rests but she was determined and she got there. The rhythm of Christian life is made so much more sustainable if we can learn to take regular times of resting along the way. Not only does it keep us up to the journey but it allows us to follow directions and visions that others might think impossible. The renewal and refreshment is not a time out but a reflection on where we have come from and a nourishing for the journey still to come. When we come together in worship as the community of Christ as we do today we come to be renewed and replenished, experiencing the grace of God in Christ anew and together. When this balance of action and rest gets out of kilter then our choices and our directions become limited and ill informed. Paul was talking about this when he laments the ability to both know what is right and do it without God’s rhythm of grace in our lives. That resting time is our chance, in community with God and each other, to follow the Spirit and make choices about where our journeys should go, in spite of the utmost difficulties, no matter the 342 steps to the top.
And how do we understand taking on the yoke of Christ – the word to me always has meant confinement, hard yakker, head down and burdened and I have had to find a way to get past that understanding. How can a yoke be an unforced rhythm of grace I ask.
It is interesting to hear how the term was used in Jesus time. It was common, according to Rob Bell, for the ancient rabbis to understand their role as that of interpreting the biblical writings and God for the people. Many had different interpretations of course and therefore developed different rules of behaviour – and these were called the Rabbis’ yoke. When you chose to follow a particular Rabbi, you believed their set of rules to be the closest to what God intended through the scriptures and you took up that particular yoke. And then you acted them out – in the Jewish context it was always about action. Furthermore each Rabbi would learn their understandings at the feet of another – that is where their authority to teach came from.
And so when Jesus talked about his yoke he was offering a new interpretation of how to live the way God intended, offering a new set of rules. But there were differences.
His authority came from God, through and was authorised not by other rabbis but by John the Baptist, his baptism and the direct blessings of God. It was a radical step to take – this call by Jesus that there was a completely new way to interpret the teachings of God? One could say that this lack of a traditional mentoring rabbi was one of the chief causes of conflict between Jesus and the priests – how dare he say his authority came directly from God.
And he stated that his way that was easy and light – in comparison to the heavy load he saw the priests putting on the people in God’s name. Make no mistake – this is not light and easy in the sense of handing everything over to God and walking away but rather that we are walking lightly and easily because we have entered into the rhythm of life that is the grace of God and are walking it alongside Christ. The difficulties and the challenges of life are a part of that rhythm and that is where we can rest in God and be renewed in our journeys.
The other thing that made this yoke different too was that it was a shared burden – one that Christ has shouldered with us. In fully embracing the human yoke Christ had lifted a burden from our shoulders and in responding to this amazing love we gladly take on the yoke of bringing that love and care to this world in whatever way we can. A new interpretation of God and the scriptures, a new yoke.
So can we turn away from the concept of the yoke as a restraining implement and instead see it as the acceptance of the teaching that Jesus offers us, inviting us into a life lived as God intended. There is a last thought that I would like to share here – one more thing we might ponder from the ways of the Rabbis .
By choosing to accept Jesus yoke we are choosing to live in according to the rules of that life – to live and be as God wants us to be. And by accepting that yoke we are in turn being given the authority to ourselves ponder and debate and pray about how we can best live the life God calls us to. That puts a whole new angle for me on the idea of accepting a yoke. Jesus expected his followers to be constantly engaged in the endless process of growing in knowledge and teaching others what it meant to actually live the Scriptures and to know God through Jesus Christ. Rabbis each one of us.
There is a real rhythm to that as we think of the church over the centuries, as we bring to mind all the people that have encouraged our faith journeys, as we embrace our traditions and open ourselves to new understandings, as we in turn share our thoughts and understandings with those we are in community with here today and elsewhere.
So learning the unforced rhythm of grace – today I have suggested its about the balance of renewing rest that informs our actions and empowers our understanding, about the constant learning and questioning of how we today live the Gospel truth, and about a willingness to choose to put all of our living in the completeness of the love and grace of Jesus Christ.
And so we have an invitation from the rabbi who dared to different, who offered a yoke of teaching unlike any that had gone before and a place of rest that challenges our limitations.
Jesus says walk with me and work with me—watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace and you will learn to live freely and lightly. What do you say?
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