061224 Steeple Article - His Yoke is Easy

In the eleventh chapter of Matthew’s Gospel Jesus first rebukes several towns where He had performed many healing miracles and yet the people had not repented and turned their hearts to the Lord. Then Jesus prayed out loud, "I thank thee, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that thou hast hidden these things from the wise and understanding and revealed them to babes; yea, Father, for such was thy gracious will. All things have been delivered to me by my Father and no one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and any one to whom the Son chooses to reveal him. Come to me, all 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." (11:26-30)
Last Tuesday evening we sang Handel’s modified text, “His Yoke is Easy, His Burthen is Light.” Burthen is an outmoded word for “burden.” An Outmoded phrase may at first seem to be just one more obstacle to receiving and carrying the yoke and burden from Jesus. Handel seemed to understand the wit and even humor that Jesus uses, because the ornamental baroque melismatic vocal runs require the singers to rapidly and with great difficulty change the pitch of the first syllable of the word “easy” as if poking fun at God for calling the Christ-like life style anything but EA . . . sy!
Catherine Nard gave Malik Hatcher one of Tom’s neckties recently after the 9 year old learned how to tie his first necktie. I told him to wear the tie as a sign that he follows Jesus whose yoke is easy and whose burden is light.
You can learn how to wear the clothes of righteousness and carry the burdens of service to God and others, when you allow Jesus to teach you how to receive life’s tasks and responsibilities by His examples and when others gently lead you by example.
Singing the complicated yet beautiful passages from Handel’s Messiah takes practice and sometimes years to perfect each and every turn of pitch, each vowel and consonant, each dynamic variation, and each rhythmic pulsation. Yet, when it is performed with others in a seemingly casual sing along atmosphere, we are encouraging each other to not take it all so seriously or with such a sense of burden and care. We can have fun and learn a little bit more how to sing with a forgiving and thankful heart even if it’s not all perfect. The perfection is in the loving and caring spirit where we share worship and God’s word with joy, hope, peace and love.
John works out and lifts weights with Annemarie and me at the downtown YMCA as he describes ways to helps under-achieving and marginalized children to learn how to repair computers, draft and edit websites on the internet and play intricate rhythmic passages on drums in his neighborhood mission project. He makes it fun and easy by allowing the students to “just play” with what others might consider difficult and daunting.
Dear Heavenly Father, thank you for Jesus’ prayer and Your examples of ease in Katherine, Tom, Malik and John. Help us to work smart and not hard in Your Kingdom at hand so that we will have the endurance and energy to bear burdens with ease in Jesus name, Amen.