July 6, 2008, Eighth Sunday after Pentecost, All Souls' Episcopal Church

The Yoke that Frees
Matthew 11: 25-30

 On a cold, rainy February day, Abraham Lincoln’s friends gathered at the railroad station in Springfield, Illinois to send the newly elected President to Washington. They came out of great affection for the tall humble man. They listened with rapt attention as he gave as came to be known as his farewell address. I will quote only a small portion:

 “My friends, No one not in my situation, can appreciate my feelings of sadness at this parting. To this place and the kindness of these people, I owe everything. Here I have lived a quarter of a century, and have passed from a young man to an old man. Here my children have been born, and one is buried. I now leave, not knowing when or whether ever I may return, with a task before me greater than that which rested on George Washington. Without the assistance of that Divine Being, who ever attended him, I cannot succeed. With that assistance, I cannot fail. Trusting in Him who can go with me, and remain with you, and be everywhere for good…………let us confidently hope that all will yet be well. To His care commending you, as I hope in your prayers you will commend me, I bid you an affectionate farewell.”

 On this Independence Day Weekend It seems fitting to quote one of our greatest presidents. Lincoln was such a dedicated man of faith. It was apparent that he had assumed the Yoke of Christ as described in our Gospel for his life. He confessed openly about his concerns about the burdens of the presidency, and that he could not succeed unless God’s hand rested upon him. Therefore, trusting in God, he confidently hoped that all would be well.

 Abraham Lincoln surely understood those words from our Gospel of our Lord. “Come to me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls, for my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”

 Lincoln, if you will remember, had great personal burden. His health was not what it should have been. And he had family problems. Indeed, even as he started to leave home for the train station to go to Washington, his wife launched into a screaming hysterical tantrum. He had to leave her behind with whatever problems she faced.

 An even greater burden awaited him as president.  The nation was in a great struggle over the issue of slavery.  The whole country was divided.  Emotions became heated and minds began to fill with hatred.  A civil war loomed on the horizon. Lincoln assumed the Yoke of Christ to enable him to handle and shoulder his burdens.

 Yokes are symbolic for labor. In our passage, Christ talks of His followers with their yokes shouldering the burdens and labors for Him in their daily lives

 Then, with Lincoln, and of course now in our lives, there was and is a world churning with  troubles. Violence was and is a daily affair. Nations and individuals quested for power and control over others. Roadside bombs were centuries in the future, but sickness, blindness and other disabilities in those days left many without hope and often brought an early death. It was and is  the same agonizing world that we see every day. But our Lord desired and still desires to redeem this world that He created.

“Take my yoke upon you”, He says to us, “Learn from me, be attached to me, be yoked to me, and in doing so, “you will find rest for your soul.”

 When you carefully consider these words, they seem in a way paradoxical.

How can a yoke, a symbol of labor, bring about rest? But somehow, when we decide to be yoked with Christ,  we begin to find an inner rest and peace that each of us needs  But how can the yoke be easy and the burden light? The sense of the word “easy” is perhaps a poor translation of the original Greek word “crestos” which means “well-fitting”. You see, the wooden bar fit the ox so that there was no chaffing….no irritation from the fit. A well-fitting yoke enabled the ox to pull 4 to 5 times his weight with no problem. Now…..what our Lord is saying is that whatever burden you and I are asked to bear in this world are “tailor made” for our individual shoulders if we are yoked…connected… to Him. How do we know this? God does not impose more tasks than we can bear……….(pause)……… Lincoln knew this as you heard the confidence in his farewell address.

 Christ said that the harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few. Being yoked with Christ enables us to join in God’s business and discover the real purpose of our lives and to be laborers in the harvest. Being yoked with Christ, He lifts our burdens and gives us the Call and the power to lift heavy burdens of others. To be yoked to Christ is to know that we are in the Will of God and that we will find the perfect peace each of us sorely needs.

 And today, a week after last Sunday’s glorious celebration of the 4th, and after Fr. Bright’s stirring sermon on our history and our freedom, may I add that being yoked with Christ is to know and remember that……. Christ has given us this freedom.

 Jesus provides a certain unique freedom; actually the only true, bedrock freedom that is possible to have. Recall these words from the Gospel of John: “If the Son makes you free, you will be free indeed.” God created us so that the spirit of man grows in freedom; it withers in chains, and it withers in bondage to sin.

 President Franklin D. Roosevelt, during the beginning period of the Second World War, as nations joined together to fight for freedom, broadcast that Americans had “nothing to fear, but fear itself.” With Christ, we are yoked with a companion who keeps saying to us, “ Do not fear those that kill the body, but cannot kill the soul.” That is clear enough, isn’t it? Quite obviously, If Christ faced death and conquered it, will not those who are yoked with Him do the same?

And one final point: If we study the lives of those who have been imprisoned for worthy causes such as religious or political freedom, we will realize that the greatest freedom that a person can possess is the freedom of their soul.  For example, think of St. Paul and Silas in prison in Phillipi. They prayed and sang hymns in their cell. Imagine that! Those saints even had freedom for their souls behind bars.

 A man named William Paulsell must have known that sort of freedom when he penned these words:

 I am free in that no man, no human institution, no government, no church, no corporation, no judge, no executioner, ever has final authority over me. Men may mistreat me, oppress me, imprison me or kill me, but they cannot destroy me. God alone has final sovereignty over me. Surrounded by the strong and impregnable love of God, I am free from all men. No one but God controls my destiny and my status in the universe”

 William Paulsell, Abraham Lincoln and countless, countless others throughout the ages wore the yoke of Christ and found freedom. Some unknown author who also knew the freedom that the yoke of Christ brings said it in an another way

:“Free to laugh, free to cry
Free to sing, free to sigh
Free to walk where I live
Free to live where I walk
So may it be for us all!
Free to trust, free to doubt
Free to whisper, free to shout
Free to ask, free to try
Free to live, free to die
God’s Son has made us free.”

As we celebrate our country’s freedom…………….may you and I seek to be continually yoked to Christ as laborers in His harvest in everything that we do, and, with thankful hearts, in that capacity, strive to maintain the freedom God had given us.

General Douglas MacArthur once said:
“No man is entitled to the blessings of freedom unless he is vigilant to its preservation”

“-In the Name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Ghost”