It is a strange saying from Jesus, this business about a light burden and an easy yoke.

We have sometimes used it at the time of a funeral, and at that time it usually sails right over us and we don't think too much about it.

 

But here it is on a Sunday morning during this time in which we rehearse the Story of stories.

Perhaps another story can help us get hold of Jesus' story:

 

A couple lived in the middle of a land with many good things, but the people were always so tired.

They had such a hard time appreciating all the good things around them because everywhere they went they carried huge bags of stones.

Some were large and some were small;

some were natural stones right out of the ground and some were bricks and cement put together by people.

Every day they gathered stones from children, their neighbors, and each other, folks at church, anybody that crossed their path or their minds.

The stones were “worry rocks”,

            bricks of fear,

            cement slabs of hurtful memories

            granite rocks of unforgiving anger.

One day a neighbor told them of a person who had arrived in the city who was willing to trade precious jewels for stones.

A couple were curious, and dragged their huge bags over to see him.

He met them graciously and offered to exchange some gems for their rocks.

“It must be a trick,” said the man.

“No trick,” said the stranger, “just give me the burden and you get the jewel.”

With reluctance and some fear, the woman handed over her heavy bag and received a small bag of diamonds and other gems, a burden no larger than a small change purse.

She felt years younger, light on her feet, and glad to be alive.

The man remained suspicious, and took out his stones slowly and began to bargain, one at a time.

Surprisingly, the stranger listened patiently to each account of fear, anger, hurt, and woeful memory, and gently traded a jewel for each heavy stone.

Finally, the man, too, had a new and lighter burden to carry, and went off singing and dancing.

Each of them still had a burden, but oh, how different it was!

 

What are the burdens for us?

Perhaps they are the angers, hurts, and jealousies as in the story just told.

Perhaps they are the anxieties of economics in this contentious time.

Perhaps they are questions about our own worth in the sight of God and each other.

--the bossiness of a child on the playground may cover up the inadequacies the child feels.

--when one starts a new job we recognize that there is so much that we do not know.

--when one starts a new stage of life, ...whether it be school, or work, or retirement, assisted living..., one wonders about fitting in.

--at retirement or when the last child leaves home...what am I to do now?

--in serious illness...what am I good for now?

It is an immense pile of stones which we accumulate.

On each one of them are written the questions: What am I worth?

                        What good am I?

 

We work so hard to prove that we are really OK:

--the workaholic compelled to do more and more,

--those who feel that they must wear the most outrageous and uncomfortable clothes just because that is the only way to be up-to-date this year,

--those who think they are cool with alcohol or drugs,

--our compulsion to have not just a nice house but a stunning one,

--and on and on.

 

For all of these burdens, and for all of our efforts and exertions, Jesus is willing to trade a gem;

a small and valuable prize for our pile of misshapen rock.

 

Still, it is a burden which we receive at Baptism; we do not skip down the road with nothing.

But it is a burden which we can carry with joy, for its weight on us is small, but its value is great.

 

One way of describing the gem is to recognize it as the message that our worth doesn't come from our worries and work.

Our value is what we receive from God as a gift.

He says: I made you,

            I love you,

            I choose you as one of mine.

That is what makes us important.

That is the news that Jesus lives out in his life among us.

That is what we try to live out as a sign to the world around us.

We are valuable because God says so.

What a delightful jewel that is!

            -- a light and shining burden for each of us, no matter our age, or physical or mental condition.

 

We are so suspicious of the offer:

            there must be a hidden cost,

            there must be some strings attached.

Amazingly, God continues to be patient with us:

whether it takes a day or a long lifetime, God deals with all of our suspicions and objections,

            and gives us the precious story.

It is the treasure for all of us to keep.

 

How does one keep a story?

--by telling it!

And what makes it an even lighter burden is that we are not carrying this story alone.

It is our shared story with the church of all times and places.

But when those times come when we think that we want to lay down Christ's gift, to put aside the story and to pick up our old stony burden of worry about ourselves,

then we depend upon someone else to tell us the story again and how it applies to us,

to remind us of what a treasure we have been given.

 

A French writer once said:

“Alone, one is always in bad company;”

 

but together, then there is a chance for me to remind you about what is really important, and for you to do the same when I am weak and faltering.

 

Now and again we have mentioned Dietrich Bonhoeffer.

Early in the 1930's he recognized the monstrous evil in Nazi Germany and he helped to organize the Confession Church movement in Germany.

When his efforts were thwarted, his friends, fearing for his safety, arranged for him to teach at Union Seminary in NYC.

He could have lived there in personal safety, but he said that he would have no right to speak in a post-ward Germany if he did not share in his people's troubles.

So he returned to Germany, continued the struggle, and was eventually imprisoned by the Nazis and executed just a few days before the end of the war, at the age of only 39.

It was a burden which Christ gave to him; but he felt it to be a light burden which he did not regret receiving.

Hid jailors were amazed that even under sentence of death he continued to minister to the other prisoners and jailors also.

 

His faith, his words, his life and death have borne witness mightily in the 66 years since then.

Our lives are different because of the witness of Bonhoeffer and so many others.

They have reminded us of Christ's gifts when we have been weak.

May we stand ready to remind someone else of Christ's promises in the days ahead.

Is this a burden, a costly burden? Yes, But a joyful one.  Amen.