Hope for the Weary

Our theme for 2021 is “Redeeming the time.”

September 19 is national Back to Church Sunday.

This month, there are churches all over the country that are making an intentional effort to invite their communities to join them for worship.

People are wrapping up their summer vacations and heading back to work.

Kids are back to school … in person!

Coming off a year when many churches have not been able to worship in person the way they would like to, an invitation to get back to church is such a powerful opportunity.

You may know people, as do I, that have not been back to church since COVID started.

Experts estimate that 20 percent of them aren’t going back.

Maybe they weren’t really into church that much?

Or maybe they really didn’t like their church and COVID gave them an excuse to stay home?

Maybe they got used to having church at home and like being able to stay in their PJ’s and have church without the people?

What would it take to get people back to church? - maybe just an invitation?

But it’s more than just an invitation, it’s about connection.

The church is made up of its people.

It is not about a building; it is about a collection of individuals who have trusted Jesus with their lives and choose to support one another in the journey.

When we come together like this, we find hope.

It’s not just the message of hope, but the communal experience of hope when we walk in relationship and encourage each other.

We find a hope that empowers us to overcome anything life can throw at us.

So welcome to church today. You are a part of something bigger than yourself, and you are here for a reason.

I would argue that the greatest need we have in our lives, after the year we have experienced, is a sense that there is hope in the world.

Some of us have experienced great loss this year, and it has been troubling.

This year has caused some of us to doubt our faith and the things we used to hold tightly.

Some of us feel broken because of the pain in our country and in our world.

Can we all just agree that we are in need of hope?

There is a story about a man attending a little league baseball game. The little children were all on the field or in the dugout, playing their hearts out. It was only the first inning, and the score was already 16 – 0. One team was losing in a landslide. The man walked up to the dugout of the losing team and asked one little boy if he was discouraged by the score. Had he lost hope? The little boy looked at him, a little puzzled, and said, “Why would I be discouraged? We haven’t even gotten up to bat yet. There is always hope!”

That is one way to look at the challenges that we face in life.

The Church throughout history has had the audacity to have hope in the face of trouble.

It stems from the victory of the resurrected Jesus Christ.

When things looked the darkest for Jesus, as he hung on the cross, he knew it was far from over.

The tomb would not be the end, he would defeat death and come back to life.

And the Bible tells us how the story ends.

We’re still waiting for our heavy hitter to step to the plate!

With this as the Church’s backdrop, there is always reason for hope.

In the Gospels, Jesus was always offering hope to those around him. Whether it was a crippling disease, an oppressive government, a physical or spiritual hunger, or an evil attack, Jesus would meet people right where they were.

As followers of Jesus, we know that if Jesus is here, then hope is here.

Life is hard!

There are times when we are in need of a reminder that there is hope.

Life’s circumstances have a way of leaving us hopeless.

I would argue that there is nothing in life that can steal our hope more than when we find ourselves weary, tired, or worn out.

I would imagine that there are many in the room/online today who know exactly what this feels like.

Waiting for a diagnosis, paying off bills, saving a marriage, enduring Covid-19, and trying to grow spiritually.

It is times like this when we feel like we cannot keep going and all we want to do is give up.

It’s like the famous NFL coach Vince Lombardi once said, “Fatigue makes cowards of us all.”

Jesus knows that people tend to shoulder heavy burdens and for this to cause them to lose hope.

Jesus spoke to his followers about John the Baptist’s faithfulness in the midst of prison and the questions he was asking about Jesus’ identity.

Remember that John was losing hope about whether or not Jesus was indeed the Messiah, and if his work had been in vain.

In light of this, Jesus speaks these words.

Matthew 11:28–30 ESV

28 Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. 29 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. 30 For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”

Jesus is doing a couple of things here in this passage.

Life is heavy.

First, he is acknowledging that life is heavy.

We live life without margin. We are hard on ourselves.

We work hard to keep up with others around us and we get weary.

Jesus is normalizing this for us.

We should not feel bad when we feel crushed by burdens.

We should not feel like a failure.

When we do, we often shy away from going to God for help, and we avoid being vulnerable with others as well.

But Jesus tells us that if we are weary, we should come to Him.

It is an invitation.

Second, Jesus offers us a solution.

Exchange your burden for His.

He tells us to exchange our yoke for another.

A yoke is a wooden harness that a farmer would attach to livestock to plow a field or to pull a cart.

The yoke would help keep the livestock safe as they worked and would help the animal submit to the farmer.

There were some people in Jesus’ audience who were submitting to a way of life that was law-based and was hard to live up to.

It was religious and legalistic.

It was performance-based and driven by the need to succeed.

The yoke he was offering was one of grace, mercy, compassion, and love.

One yoke causes people to become weary.

The other causes people to find peace.

He invites us to remove whatever yokes we have had around our necks and to place his yoke upon us, because it is easy, it is light, and it will give us rest.

Taste the sweetness of the Lord

Tomorrow evening begins Rosh Hashana, the Jewish New Year and the Feast of Trumpets.

It is a time to awaken and to be renewed.

It is celebrated with apples and honey and wishing each other “sweetness.”

It’s simply an acknowledgement that yes, life is hard, but God is good!

Psalm 34:8 ESV

8 Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good! Blessed is the man who takes refuge in him!

Is your yoke crushing or lifegiving?

Jesus offers hope for the weary by reminding us that our value is not found in how well we hold it together when things get tough or how we compare to the people around us.

Our value comes from the love that he has for us and the grace he gives.

Your value is based on identity, not performance.

Growing up on the farm we would spend our summers making hay. Unloading hay into the barn was a big job with hundreds of bales that needed to go onto an elevator and then stacked in the haymow. It usually involved other kids from around the neighborhood.

We would get quite competitive about how fast we could get the bales onto the elevator or how fast we could stack them. This was a job where you get paid for the work, not by the hour. So there was incentive to work hard at it.

I remember one neighbor kid remarking one day that he felt like I didn’t have to work as hard as he did to prove himself. I was getting an allowance, It didn’t matter how fast I worked, I was getting paid the same. I wasn’t worried about being invited to work on the farm; I live there.

I’m not one of the hired hands; I’m a son.

If you find yourself weary today, whether because of circumstances you cannot control or situations that you are responsible for, I want to offer you hope today.

God loves you because of who you are, not for what you do.

You are His child and nothing can change that as long as you know it and remember that.

I want to offer you hope for a better tomorrow, hope for true purpose, hope for a clean slate, and hope for peace and rest. It is found in Jesus.

Because when he is here, hope is here.

Jesus is there with you.

What is interesting about Jesus’ illustration about a yoke is that a wooden yoke would not be typically worn by a single ox, it would have been in tandem with a second ox.

They would work together to pull and plow.

Have you ever thought about it that when Jesus tells you to take up His yoke, it means that He is in it with you!?

God is not asking you do do anything that He is not right there giving you the power and the ability to do.

God doesn’t give us an assignment and then leave us to do it on our own.

He is right there with us, helping us and teaching us every step of the way.

The reason that Back To Church Sunday is such an important event each year is that we find hope when we recognize that we don’t have to do life alone.

The rest that we find in Christ is best experienced alongside others.

The church carries one another’s burdens.

Choose to live life in community.

Paul is writing to the church in Galatia about the importance of living in community with one another.

He is making his comments in light of the struggle that it is to avoid sin in life, but he makes a statement that when lived out puts us in line with the invitation of Christ to live his way.

Galatians 6:2 ESV

2 Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.

To live in line with the way of Jesus is to be willing to meet the needs of others.

When we see someone else in the Church who is weary or burdened, we come to their aid with joy because it is in doing so that we offer hope to them.

Burdens come in all shapes and sizes. Some burdens are self-inflicted.

We can help shoulder these burdens by offering grace, forgiveness, and a willingness to help navigate a better way.

Some burdens happen to us: a divorce we did not ask for, a sickness that was unexpected, a job loss that is devastating.

In these instances, we can carry each other’s burdens by being a listening ear, by bringing a meal, or by meeting a financial need.

It was last year about this time that the Ashwood Apartments burned down in North Coventry. About a hundred people were immediately homeless. Montgomery and Chester County housing authorities were already overwhelmed with a housing crisis and many of the people who were displaced were already on public assistance.

As a regional church, we stepped up. Josh Park, Pastor of Branch Life Church coordinated an effort that had local churches adopting family units to help with their need. We adopted Ron.

Remember Ron? Some of you help shop for Ron, move items into storage, pray for him or just encourage him. Well, Ron has a new home in heaven now. He passed away just shortly before he was to move to a new facility in April.

I share this story because it is a great example of the church being the church in the community. Even the county took notice! They told Josh that they were amazed at the ability of the church to mobilize people to help in a crisis.

Wherever there is a lack of hope in our community, we are there to carry the burden.

Because when Christians are here, Jesus is here, and when Jesus is here, hope is here.

Love fulfils the law.

Romans 13:8 ESV

8 Owe no one anything, except to love each other, for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law.

Here is the good news: When we love one another in this way, we fulfill the most basic law that Jesus required.

We love God with our whole heart, and we, in turn, love our neighbors as ourselves.

Jesus said all the law of the prophets hung on those two things.

That sounds like hope to me.

A hope that no matter where we find ourselves today, Jesus offers us rest and peace, and we don’t have to go it alone.

Burden-bearers sometimes need boundaries too.

I just want to add this because sometimes we can also wear ourselves out bearing each others burdens.

When we invest in the relationships God gives us within the Church, we find help in living within our margins.

Sometimes we need someone to help us say “no.”

No to the things that occupy our time, occupy our attention, or occupy our resources.

Sometimes we need someone to remind us that we are loved by God and that is enough.

Sometimes we need someone to help us slow down and rest in the grace of God.

So, are you weary today? Are you burdened by life?

Come to Jesus and find rest.

You don’t have to do this life alone.

We are in this together and that gives us hope.

Questions for reflection:

Are you weary today? Is life a little overwhelming to you? How can you trade your burden for Jesus’ yoke? What do you have to bring to Jesus?

What does it mean to be part of a community? Are you helping to bear the burdens of others? Are you sharing your concerns so that others will know? Are we looking out for each other so that no one is burning themselves out?

This month, as we are inviting people back to church do you know anyone who has stopped going to church? Is there someone who might come if you invited them? Take a few invitation cards with you today and pray about who you might invite back to church.