Carried by Grace

Me: Orientation

Before I entered ministry, I served as the Executive Director of a nonprofit called Hearts and Hands.

We helped older adults remain independent by coordinating volunteers who provided rides to medical appointments, grocery shopping, and other supports.

One of the hardest decisions we ever had to make was limiting transportation rides to four appointments per month.

We didn’t do it because we wanted to help fewer people.

We did it because we wanted to help more people.

By setting a limit, we could ensure that more older adults had access to transportation...

...and that our volunteers wouldn’t burn out.

...but there was a problem...

Some of the people who depended on dialysis treatments...

...or frequent medical appointments...

...were understandably hurt and frustrated.

...and I remember carrying the weight of that decision for a very long time...

...because I wanted everyone to feel cared for...

...everyone to feel seen...

...and everyone to be happy...

Eventually… I learned a lesson that Jesus apparently already knew....

...sometimes faithfulness and universal approval are not the same thing.

We: Identification

Sooner or later, all of us discover that there are expectations we cannot satisfy.

Perhaps you’ve experienced this too.

Maybe you have cared for a spouse, a parent, or a child...

...and discovered that there are simply not enough hours in the day to do everything you wish you could do...

During my years at Hearts and Hands, I watched adult children become caregivers for the very parents who had once cared for them...

...carrying the impossible burden of believing that if they just did enough...

...loved enough...

...or sacrificed enough...

...they could somehow hold everything together.

Maybe you’ve tried to hold together competing expectations at work...

...in your family...

...or even here at church...

...or perhaps, you’ve simply grown weary from carrying the unspoken belief that if you just worked a little harder...

...tried a little longer...

...or gave a little more of yourself, everyone would be okay.

Friends, the truth is, many of us carry burdens we were never meant to carry alone...

...and sometimes burdens we were never meant to carry at all.

...and perhaps that’s why Jesus’ words in today’s Gospel feel so familiar.

God: Illumination

Let’s dive into Matthew…

Before Jesus ever says, “Come to me, all you who are weary and carrying heavy loads,”

St. Matthew records Jesus' story about disappointment when he says...

“We played the flute for you, and you didn’t dance.

We sang a funeral song, and you didn’t mourn.”

Then Jesus points to two very different ministries...

John the Baptist came fasting, abstaining, and living an austere, disciplined life.

...and people said, “He has a demon.”

Then Jesus came, eating and drinking, attending weddings and dinner parties, sitting at a table with tax collectors and sinners....

...and people said, “Look at him! A glutton and a drunk.”

In other words, John could not satisfy the expectations placed upon him...

...and neither could Jesus.

...because Jesus understood something that many of us spend our lives trying to avoid...

...faithfulness and approval are not the same thing.

The world has expectations for how God’s people should behave...

...don’t disrupt systems too much...

...don’t challenge injustice too directly...

...don’t care too broadly...

...don’t love too boldly...

John refused those expectations.

Jesus refused them, too.

...and perhaps some of our deepest exhaustion...

...comes from trying to satisfy demands...

...that were never rooted in God’s vision of abundant life in the first place.

...this, my friends, is why Jesus turns, almost in the same breath, and offers one of the most beloved invitations in all of Scripture...

“Come to me, all you who are struggling and carrying heavy loads, and I will give you rest.”

Now let us fine-tune our ears, friends, because Jesus..

Does not say, “Come to me, and you will never have another responsibility.”

He does not say, “Come to me, and discipleship will become easy.”

What he says is…

“Put on my yoke, and learn from me.”

A yoke was not an escape from responsibility. It was a way of life.

It was a teacher’s understanding of how one should live faithfully in the world.

Jesus is not inviting us to stop carrying burdens altogether.

He is inviting us to stop carrying the wrong burdens.

The theologian and activist Tricia Hersey, founder of The Nap Ministry...

...writes from the experiences of Black communities whose bodies and labor have been exploited throughout American history.

She argues that our culture has taught us to see ourselves as machines...

...rather than beloved human beings created in God’s image.

As she puts it, “our worth is not connected to how much we produce.”

While Jesus and Hersey speak from different historical contexts, I wonder if they share a profound theological insight...

We are not machines.

Our productivity does not define us.

We are not defined by our ability to satisfy everyone around us.

Our successes or our failures do not even define us.

We are defined by the God who created us, loves us, and calls us beloved.

Hersey writes that “we are not resting to be productive; we are resting simply because it is our divine right to do so.”

As disciples, we are called to seek justice, to love mercy, to bear one another’s burdens...

...and to participate in God’s work of new creation.

But the burden of proving our worth...

...of satisfying every expectation...

...of saving everyone and everything around us...

...that burden was never ours to carry.

That burden already belongs to Christ.

You: Application

So perhaps… the question Jesus places before us today is not...

“Are you carrying enough?”

Rather, we’re invited to ask...

“Are you carrying the right things?”

For some of us, releasing the wrong burden may mean…

…letting go of the belief that we alone can hold everything together.

As I mentioned earlier, during my years at Hearts and Hands, I often witnessed the painful role reversal that can happen when adult children become caregivers for the very parents who once cared for them.

…and one of the most important lessons we tried to teach caregivers was this…

            You cannot carry this burden alone.

You need respite.

You need support.

You need community

You need to rest.

…and perhaps that is precisely what Jesus is inviting us to discover.

It’s not that we stop loving, serving, or caring…

…but that we stop believing that God ever intended us to carry these burdens by ourselves.

Because asking for help is not failure…

            …rest is not failure…

            …sharing the burden is not failure…

Friends, rest, and sharing… is wisdom.

            …it is love…

            …and perhaps it is also discipleship…

I suggest it’s a lesson that applies to churches as well.

This morning, Tom will share some of the goals and hopes emerging from our action planning process.

One of the things I appreciate most about this work is that it recognizes a spiritual truth we discussed today…

            The future of the church cannot depend upon a handful of exhausted people carrying everyone else.

Discipleship was never meant to be burnout.

The body of Christ was never designed so that a few people do everything while everyone else watches…

Rather, discipleship is the shared work of God’s people, each carrying the portion of ministry that Christ has entrusted to them.

We: Inspiration

Friends, perhaps this is the good news Jesus has been trying to tell us all along.

The burden of proving that you are enough...

...was never yours to carry.

The burden of holding your family together by your own strength...

...was never yours to carry.

The burden of saving the church...

...was never yours to carry.

The burden of saving the world...

...was never yours to carry.

All of these burdens already belong to Christ.

...and because Christ already carries these burdens...

...we are finally free to live as God’s beloved people.

Free not to abandon our responsibilities...

...but to embrace them with joy rather than fear.

Free not to stop caring...

...but to care without believing that everything depends upon us.

Free not to stop working for justice...

...but to pursue God’s new creation, trusting that the future ultimately rests in God’s hands.

...and perhaps that is why, as United Methodists, we come to this table again and again...

Not because we have finally gotten our lives together...

...or because we have finished the work....

We come because we are hungry for grace.

We come because we are weary.

We come because...

...in this holy mystery...

Christ meets us exactly where we are...

...and gives us the nourishment we need for the journey ahead.

Holy Communion sustains us in the lifelong work of discipleship...

...and shapes us ever more fully into the image of Christ.

...and then, nourished by grace rather than driven by exhaustion...

...we rise...

We rise to bear one another’s burdens...

We rise to seek justice...

We rise to build communities of compassion...

We rise to participate in God’s work of new creation....

...and perhaps, in this season of our shared life together, we can say it simply…

We rise to love boldly....

Because God’s grace was never meant to exhaust us, but to sustain us.

...and so Christ still says...

“Come to me, all you who are struggling hard and carrying heavy loads, and I will give you rest.”

In the name of our Creator, Redeemer, and Sustainer. Amen.