Getting fitted for a new yoke

JenBen sent me this link to a sermon by Rev. Lillian Roberts at Rideau Park United Church in Ottawa. It's a very interesting read, and must have been interesting to listen to. A couple of favourite quotes:

The invitation to come to Jesus is offered to all – for all of us at one time or another find ourselves as those who are tired and weary, in misery, physical or emotional pain, financial or spiritual poverty. We all come to those days when we feel overextended and think that we carry the world on our shoulders – and we carry it alone. We want someone to show us a different way of walking through life, but we are not always prepared to drop the load we carry.

The invitation to find in Christ our rest and our life, is an invitation to leave behind the ill-fitting yokes we already bear, so that we may put on the yoke of discipleship and service. It is about letting go of our grief, our ambition, our attachment to things and to worry about the future, our sense of responsibility or obligation that eats away at the joy of life, whatever places that tight weight on our shoulders and makes us hard and tense.

I am not suggesting that we can simply walk away from all these things. They too are a part of the rhythm of life. But we need to set them down long enough to be fitted with a different kind of yoke that will make them easier to bear, and we will learn a different way of carrying the load so that it will not weigh us down.

Christ invites us to take upon ourselves the yoke of discipleship and love which is placed upon our shoulders not as a tool of slavery and toil, but as an implement of service and joy, for the yoke of Christ is the yoke of love. This is what Jesus will teach us and show us as we learn to walk with him. In his friendship and love, we will find that yoke is easier to wear and the load is lighter to carry. In his love, we begin to move from the anxiety and fear that we will collapse under the weight we carry, to a place of trust and rest where we find moments of peace, because the love of Christ makes a difference.

Amen!