A standard wet morning, quite gusty. Walking out between wet trees, with bracken and grass and heather visible further away, and the mist covering the hills; I felt as if I were on holiday, except that there was a warm house and semi-comfy chair to come back to.
In the Lectionary for next Sunday, Jesus promises his hearers, “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). What are these burdens? For Paul, a lot of it was about his inner divided self, not being able to live as he wanted to live. He mentions ‘the law’, for the personal is also social – ‘the law’ his people received from God.
What of Jesus’ hearers? What was wearying them, what were their burdens? ‘The law’ may also have been their burden, for Pharisaical interpretations of the law made it very hard to keep, especially for those without the money to fulfil some of its requirements. In any case, if you’re poor you do what you have to to stay alive, and you can’t be fussy about how. Poverty itself must have been a burden, people labouring to pay off debts, Was poverty their fault? Or was it a sign of something deeper that was wrong with their world? In Luke’s version of the Beatitudes, Jesus says, “Blessed are you who are poor…” (6:20). (Although elsewhere his attitude to poverty is not so clear).
People now have many needs, carry many burdens, not least poverty of course. Many of these burdens are imposed by dysfunctional society. I cannot tell how Jesus and his community might relieve all these burdens, but stage one is to respond to an invitation, “Come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest.“
We pray for a peaceful next Saturday,
when pubs will start to open again.
We pray for the police –
-may they have the strength and tact
to sort out any trouble that may arise.
We pray for all who fear this day,
that they may have peace.