“A Life of Purpose”

Matthew 11:25-30

October 22, 2006

St. Paul UMC, Little Rock

Rev. John Andrew Fleming

Some of you may remember that a few weeks back, Susie, Annie Grace, Julie, and I made a quick trip to Nashville, Tennessee. The occasion was the grave side funeral service for Susie’s uncle, William Jerome Simpkins. Truthfully, I wasn’t planning on going. Susie and I had already made the deal that I would stay home with the girls while Susie went to be with her family. We didn’t want Annie Grace to miss any school, and so I would get her there on the days that Susie was gone. The plans changed when Susie’s Aunt Jane called and asked if I would mind being the minister at the funeral service.

Now mind you, we were only going to be gone a day and a half. That is the amount of time Susie had taken off of work. We were leaving on Monday afternoon and returning Tuesday night. The time we would be away would be less than forty-eight hours. You wouldn’t have known that by the amount of luggage we took. All we really needed was something to wear to the funeral service and a change of clothes. Traveling, I have discovered has become more complicated with children. There is so much to take. We had to take Julie’s high chair and her exer-saucer. We had to take Annie Grace’s favorite toys and movies for her to watch on the portable dvd player we purchased for such occasions. And then Susie and I also had to take all of our stuff. I will admit to you that I almost always take more than I need. I want to be prepared. To make it to Nashville for those nearly forty-eight hours, I thought we were going to have to rent a U-Haul.

Max Lucado has written a great little book based on the 23rd Psalm. The title of the book is Traveling Light and the case that he makes in the first chapter are convincing. I can relate to his words. Max begins his first chapter, The Luggage of Life, by admitting that he has never been one to travel light. He has tried, but since the day he stuck three of his fingers in the air and took the oath of a Boy Scout and said the pledge to be prepared, he has been bound and determined to do just that - be prepared. Max writes that when he travels, he is prepared for a baptism, a costume party, to enter a golf tournament, or to parachute behind enemy lines. Max admits that he does not know how to travel without granola bars, soft drinks, and rain gear. Max travels with things like flash lights, gas powered generators, and a global tracking device. He says he doesn’t even know how to travel without a cooler full of hot dogs, just in case he happens upon a back yard cookout. Max writes this, “I don’t know how to travel light, but I need to learn. I need to be able to enjoy a journey without carrying so much stuff with me.” So he asks himself, “Why don’t I just drop all of my luggage?”

His is a good question, don’t you think? I think the odds are good that most days between the time we put our first step on the floor and our first step out of the door, we pick up luggage. You now know that I am not talking about leather bags. I am talking about the other kinds of luggage that we tend to carry around with us. These are our burdens. The bags we carry around are a suitcase of guilt, a carry on bag of not quite being happy and fulfilled. There is a duffel bag of weariness and a hanging bag of grief. If you will add to that a backpack of doubt, an overnight bag of loneliness and a trunk of fear, then you will see that you are weighted down. In fact, if you carry all those things around, it might be a good idea to borrow one of the carts that sky caps use. Is it no wonder why you are so tired at the end of the day? You see, lugging luggage is exhausting. Maybe you ought to put those bags down. You are carrying things you don’t need to bear.

Do you need a little more convincing? If so, listen to the invitation of Jesus, “Come to me all of you who are weary and are carrying heavy burdens and I will give you rest.” This is a favorite passage for many. Because we all tend to find ourselves being weary. And being weary, of course, is different from just being tired. Being tired means that a day off will take care of things. Being tired means that a good night’s sleep and doing something that charges your battery will make a world of difference. Being weary is different from that. You can do all those things and still find weariness in your life. Weariness means that no matter what you do, you still find yourselves in a situation that is tough, perhaps one where there seems to be no way out. No matter what you do. No matter what you say, things don’t seem to get better. That is weariness. “Come to me all of you who are weary” invites Jesus. He also invites those of us to come who are carrying heavy burdens. So here is the obvious question. What are some of the burdens we are carrying?

The burden that is the most obvious to me and one that we all carry is the burden of sin. It is the burden of disappointing God. It is the weight of letting those we love down. It is the burden of letting ourselves down. We all sin. There is no getting around it. Paul reminds the Romans, and thus us, that we have all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.

James Laney was once the President of Emory University. He tells a story on himself of the time when he was just four years old. James had an aunt who was sick and came for a visit. She was not able to walk and had to use crutches. On this particular day, James was in the family’s garden, stomping around he wasn’t supposed to do that. He had strict instructions not to do that, but he did it anyway. About that time, his aunt came outside and saw where he was. She called out to him. He looked up and said that he was like Adam and Eve. He was looking for a place to hide. He was guilty and soon his guilt turned into anger. After all, this was his aunt and not his mother. She wasn’t in charge of him. James lashed out at her. He called her awful names. Then he ran and hid. Later that day, he came back to his house. He walked past the bedroom where his aunt was sitting in a chair. As he walked by, their eyes met. He saw her, cut and stung with his words. He was unprepared for what he saw and yet he was drawn to her, by some, strange, unexplained grace. He walked up to her, and she threw her arms around him. There was forgiveness.

Getting rid of the burden of sin is not as easy as that for most of us, but it could be. One of the greatest burdens that we have is sin. There are others, but sin is the one that seems to be the most troubling.

“Come to me, all of you who labor and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest.” I want you to see what Jesus says next. He offers these words, “Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me; for I am gentle and humble in hart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” Did you notice that Jesus invites you to bring your weariness to Him and your burdens to him and once you do, what he offers you is not rest, but work. “Take my yoke upon you,” says Jesus.

There is a wonderful legend concerning the quiet years of Jesus, the years prior to his public ministry. The legend claims that Jesus, the carpenter, was one of the master yoke makers in the Nazareth area. People came from all over the place, from miles around, for fittings for the hand carved yokes made by Jesus and his father, Joseph. When customers arrived with their teams of oxen, Jesus would spend a considerable amount of time measuring the team. He wanted to know their height. He wanted to know their width. He wanted to know what the distance was between them. He was interested in measuring the size of their shoulders. After the measurements were made, the team of oxen left.

Within the week, the team would be brought back by their owner, to Jesus and the carpentry shop. When they had arrived, Jesus would carefully place the newly made yoke on the shoulders of the team. Jesus looked for the rough places. Jesus smoothed out the edges and made sure the yoke was a perfect fit.

That is the yoke that Jesus places on us. I do not want you to be misled by the word easy. As in, “For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” The root word for easy here comes from the Greek word that literally means, well fitting. So the yoke Jesus asks us to take is supposed to fit us well. It is supposed to bring rest for our weary souls. It is supposed to be a perfect match for us.

Our problem, I think, is that we try to live our lives without Jesus. We try to figure out who we are supposed to be and what we are supposed to do all by ourselves. When it comes time for the purpose of our lives, often we fail to consult the one who gave us that purpose in the first place. Rick Warren has written a wildly success book. It’s title, of course, is The Purpose Driven Life. Rick writes that the search for purpose has puzzled people for thousands of years. That is because we typically begin at the wrong starting point. We ask questions like, “What do I want to be? What should I do with my life? What are my goals? What are my ambitions? What are my dreams for my future?” These are questions, friends, we ought to be asking God, not just ourselves.

We can’t go it alone. I wonder how long it will take us to realize, to really realize that until we fully put God in the center of our lives and ask God to walk with us day by day, that we will be weary and tired and spent and worn out. I think it was the great thinker, Augustine, who put it this way, “Thou hast made us for Thyself, O Lord, and our hearts are restless until they rest in thee.” Lay down your burdens. Give God your cares. How can you lift someone else’s load if your arms are full? For the sake of those you love, travel light. For the sake of the God you serve, travel light. For the sake of your own joy, your own fulfillment, travel light.

So our theme for these three sermons in the sermon series is Going Deeper. Last week we thought about our discipleship and the things that keep us from following Jesus all the way. You will remember that it was the rich man’s possessions that kept him from discipleship. This week what I am hoping we take home is first, that we can give God our weariness and our burdens. But when he places the yoke on us, it fits us well. When Jesus places the yoke on us, it is a yoke of service. The real trick, friends, is to find out how God has wired you, what he has made you good at, and do just that.

In less than a month, we will be signing up again for ministries for the church. I hope between now and then, you will pray for discernment and ask God to give you the courage to use the gift that is inside you. Let us pray.