From Burdens to Joy

This is the message given in the United Methodist churches of the Wheatland Parish on Sunday morning, October 25, 2020.  The Bible verses used are Matthew 11:25-30.

            Let me start out by asking you a question:  do you think being a Christian is easy?

            I’m not going to make you stand up and respond, but I think it’s an interesting question.  It really kind of depends on how you look at it, right?  On the one hand, we think about all the responsibilities we have as Christians.  We think about how we need to constantly seek God’s will.  We need to constantly serve God and be faithful to God and show love to God.  We need to show love to others, too, because that’s the best way we can show our love to God.  We think about how we’re supposed to live good and holy lives.  We think about how Jesus told us to “be perfect”, just as our heavenly Father is perfect.

            That’s a lot of responsibility.  And we have not even talked about all the consequences that can come from following Christ.  We have not talked about how we can be mocked, criticized, even ostracized.  We have not talked about how, in some places, we can even be physically attacked for being Christians.  If we look at it that way, being a Christian is not easy at all.  It’s one of the hardest things.we could ever do.

            On the other hand, we can think of all the joy we get from being a Christian.  We think about how Jesus died for our sins, so that we can have salvation and eternal life.  We think about how we can feel God’s Holy Spirit with us in our lives on earth, too.  We think about how God is always there for us, in good times and in bad times and just in ordinary times.  We think about how good it feels to know that God is with us, helping us, leading us, guiding us through life.  We think about how awesome it is to know that, no matter what happens, God will always be with us and will never let us down.  God will be with us every step of the way, no matter where that way may lead.

            The thing is, both of those ways of looking at Christianity have truth in them.  Being a Christian does carry a lot of responsibility.  But at the same time, God does not want us to feel like our faith is a burden on us.  God does not want us to go through life feeling like we’re being dragged down by our faith.  God wants our faith to be something that lifts us up, that keeps us going.  And one of the proofs of that is our Bible reading today.

            Jesus said, “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, 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.”

            How are you feeling about your burdens today?  Again, I’m not going to make you stand up and respond, but I think that’s an interesting question, too.  I think a lot of us are starting to feel like our burdens are getting pretty heavy.  I don’t think we’re feeling like our yokes are easy at all.

            Now, most of us would not say so.  We’ve all got that cultural thing going on where if someone asks how we’re doing, we say, “I’m fine.  Not too bad.  Could be worse.”  Most of us are not going to come out and say anything about our burdens being heavy, even if they are.

            In fact, we sometimes feel like it’s almost unChristian to say anything like that.  We think, well, I should not be complaining.  Lots of people have it worse than me.  Besides, nobody likes a whiner.  And other people have their own problems.  They don’t need to hear me talking about mine.

            It’s like we feel guilty about life being hard sometimes.  It’s like we feel like it would somehow be admitting a weakness or something if we admit that sometimes life gives us more than we can handle.  I mean, you heard that phrase, “God never gives us more than we can handle”, right?  It’s not in the Bible or anything, but a lot of people seem to believe it.  And so, if we admit that we’re having trouble handling something, we feel like we’re letting God down, because, after all, God would not have given it to us if we could not handle it, right?

            It’s okay to admit that life gives you more than you can handle sometimes.  It’s okay to admit that your burdens are getting heavy, and that you’re not sure how much longer you can carry them.  It’s okay to admit that life is dragging you down right now.

            After all, look at all that life is throwing at us.  COVID.  Wildfires.  Hurricanes.  Cancer. Financial problems, some caused by the pandemic and some not.  Riots.  Violent protests.  Some of us are not allowed to hug our parents or grandparents, and some parents and grandparents are not allowed to hug their children or grandchildren.  Sometimes they’re not even allowed to see them.  And I’m sure that’s nowhere near a complete list.  I mean, you’d have to be superhuman to not feel the burden of all that, to not have that stuff drag you down sometimes.  And I don’t know anyone here who’s superhuman.

            But we all know the one who is.  And that’s the one we need to take these burdens to.  When our burdens get too heavy, when we’re not sure how much longer we can carry them, when we fell like life is dragging us down, we need to go to God.  We need to give our burdens to God.  We need to put our complete faith and trust in God.

            God is the one who can carry our burdens when we cannot.  God is the one who can lift us up when life is dragging us down.  God is the one we can always rely on to be there for us.  

            You see, one of the reasons our burdens get so heavy is that we try to carry them ourselves.  We think, I’ve got to solve these problems.  And if I cannot solve them, then I at least need to figure out a way to deal with them.  Now, that’s not to say that we don’t pray about them.  Sometimes we do.  But too often, we pray asking for a specific solution.  We don’t really turn the problem over to God.  Instead, we ask God to solve our problems in a certain way and at a certain time.  We say, God, here’s what needs to be done.  Now do it.  And do it now.  And when God does not do it, or does not do it now, we wonder what’s wrong with God.  And our burden gets even heavier.  We become even more convinced that we have to carry it ourselves, because apparently God is not going to.  And so we make things a lot harder on ourselves than they need to be.

            That’s a kind of arrogance, isn’t it?  To think we should tell God what to do, and wonder what’s wrong with God when He does not do it?  We don’t mean it to be, usually.  We’re well intentioned.  We really think what we’re asking God to do is the right thing.  But still, it amounts to arrogance.  And there’s one more thing Jesus said in this passage, and it’s something we tend to overlook.  Jesus said, “learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.”

            That’s what we need to do:  be gentle and humble in heart.  Know that God has heard our prayers.  Know that God knows the situation.  Know that God will act, in God’s way at God’s time.  Stop letting our arrogance make things harder on ourselves than they need to be.  Stop trusting ourselves, and instead, trust God.

            God does not want us to make things hard on ourselves.  God wants to make things easier.  But the only way we can do that is to really give the burdens of our lives to God.  Not tell God what to do.  Not tell God how to do it.  But just turn it over to God, and trust that God will handle things in the right way at the right time.

            Does that mean we’ll just sit back and do nothing, waiting for God to act?  Maybe--there are times we need to do that.  But a lot of times, giving our burdens to God does not mean that we do nothing.  What it means is that we do the best we can, and then we trust God to take it from there.  We do our best to serve God and stay faithful to God, and then we trust God with the results.  We do our best to show love to God and show love to others, and we trust that God will bless what we do in some way.  It may not be the way we wanted or expected.  It may even be some time before we see how God has blessed what we did.  But we trust that God will bless it, in God’s way and in God’s time.

            That’s what giving our burdens to God really means--doing our best and trusting God.  That’s what makes our burdens lighter.  That’s how we can take the responsibilities of being a Christian--responsibilities that can seem heavy sometimes--and turn them into the joy of being a Christian.  Simply doing our best and trusting God.

            Being a Christian is not always easy.  Jesus talked about the cost of following him, and that cost is real.  But even so, being a Christian should not be a heavy burden that drags us down.  And it does not need to be.  If we turn things over to God, God will make our burdens light.  Then, we can truly feel the joy of following Jesus Christ.