“THE HEAVy YOKE” – a sermon preached the day after the Live 8
Concerts
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A sermon preached |
“My father
made your yoke heavy
– I shall make it heavier still” (1 Kings 12:14)
King Solomon has just died.
The new King is his son Rehoboam.
The children of
and ask that he lessens the yoke placed on their shoulders
by his father Solomon.
The yoke is of course the carved piece of wood
which was placed on the shoulders of the ox
to enable it to pull a cart or a plough –
and as such symbolises burdens carried.
But Rehoboam replies –
“You may think you had a heavy yoke to bear before –
but you ain’t seen nothing
yet –
I’ll give you a real yoke, some serious burdens to carry!”
And if the Book of Kings sees Solomon as a good thing,
it very definitely sees Rehoboam
(under whom the Kingdom of David begins to fragment)
as a bad thing –
he may have been Solomon’s son,
but the wisdom gene
seems to have skipped a generation or two -–
he is a lager lout of a King
who lets power go straight to his head.
Sadly history is littered with such abuses of power by the
rich and mighty.
Vivaldi’s
exquisite Gloria, which is woven into our service
today,
was probably composed in 1713 –
the year in which the Treaty of Utrecht concluded
the war of the Spanish Succession.
The Treaty of Utrecht is normally remembered by the British
as the treaty that ceded Gibraltar to
But the man of the Queen Anne omnibus
would probably have been much more grateful
for another part of the treaty which we would rather forget.
The British negotiators obtained for
a monopoly on the export of African slaves
to Spanish South America.
And to our shame,
could conduct the South Atlantic Slave Trade.
And when
in the following year Queen Anne died,
I wonder what would have happened
if African emissaries had come to the new King George I
and protested that their yoke should be lightened by the new king,
what would he have said?
Probably “My predecessors made your yoke and your chains heavy-
but I will make them heavier still”
Last Monday I was listening to a debate
in the national Methodist Conference
on the theme of power and leadership in the Church.
One speaker quoted Tony Benn, who said:
"If I
meet a powerful man, I ask five questions:
What power have you got?
Where did you get it from?
In whose interests do you exercise it?
To whom are you accountable?
And, how can I get rid of you?"
(Tony Benn, July
2002)
And thinking about that quote,
you realize that power can be used legitimately
on behalf of the weak and vulnerable –
but also there is a recognition that time and again
power is abused.
So this weekend, we think of the G8
and the power brokers of our modern world:
and we wonder what they will say and do for the poor next week?
As Nelson
Mandela said at the Jo’burg concert yesterday
“It is easy to make promises, but never go for action” -
And our fear must be that
when the political talking and posturing is done,
our leaders will simply do what powerful leaders
have always been tempted to do -
promise to lighten the load, but actually pile on the burden.
But as Christians we cannot settle for half measures -
the Gospel isn’t about compromise,
it is about peace and justice for all.
When
Vivaldi had written the wonderful opening passage
of his Gloria “Gloria in Excelsis – Glory in the
highest”
he immediately followed it with the piece
“Et in terra pax” – “And on earth peace”.
It’s no good singing about the glory of God
unless we immediately follow it with a commitment
to work for peace and justice in the world.
”I desire mercy not sacrifice, says the Lord”.
We all
know about people who are so heavenly minded
they are no earthly use.
But our calling is to be so heavenly minded,
so full of the vision of the glory of God,
that we cannot rest until heavenly peace and justice comes on earth.
And so
maybe Stevie Wonder was right in
when he said he thought God would be smiling from heaven
as he listened to the Live 8 concerts.
For surely this is how you give glory in the highest –
by working for peace on earth below.
And so briefly to
our NT passage,
today’s lectionary Gospel reading.
Jesus says “My yoke is easy & my
burden light.”
What does that mean?
(1)
It
means there are burdens for us to bear –
Jesus does ask us to take up our cross and follow him
(2)
And
the burdens we carry are not just our own –
we are all called to be Simon of Cyrene –
to carry the burdens of others.
And we meet their needs not with
UN resolutions and G8 communiqués,
but by sharing their load.
(3)
But
still my yoke is easy and my burden light –
How can such a massive burden be light and easy?
Well God gives us burdens
and also gives us loving power to carry them.
There is an old legend which probably has more charm
than truth to it that tells how
Jesus during the long silent years in
took his father’s carpenter’s craft
and was known as the maker of the
best yokes
that man could make.
Every yoke had to be made to fit an individual beast,
and this required great skill
Was Jesus the carpenter whose yokes fitted well,
whose yokes were easy?
Literally
we don’t know - symbolically it is certainly true
For a
good yoke allows a great weight to be taken well
and
this is what Jesus gives us in the power of the Spirit -
the well fitting easy yoke of God’s love and power.
So as we await the G8 meeting in
and as we reassess our own lives,
We know that the
yoke which Christ gives us
is in one sense heavy indeed
It is
nothing less than a call
·
To
share in carrying Christ’s cross
·
To
identify with all who suffer under the yoke of Rehoboam
·
To
shoulder the hunger and heartache of a hungry continent
and a suffering world.
But
through God’s love, it can be done.
But you
remember the old story?
A man comes along the road carrying a heavy burden -
A passer by hails him:
you have a great burden there my friend -
No he replies, this is not a burden, this is my brother.
As a
human race we walk together
(as Paul Macartney sang last night)
a long and winding road.
This week
may the world walk the road of peace and justice
And what
we ask of the world
may we in God’s power live in our own lives
Then
shall Christ himself be King.
Then
shall every burden be carried
Then
shall every yoke shall be light
Then
shall our road lead to the door of Heaven itself.