Open Carry

• Twentythird Sunday in Ordinary Time

on Matthew 11:25-30, 

in which Jesus praises God as Father 

and invites weary ones to try his yoke.

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• Author unknown, The Trouble Tree...

The carpenter I hired to help me restore an old farmhouse had just finished a rough first day on the job. A flat tire made him lose an hour of work, his electric saw quit, and now his ancient pickup truck refused to start. While I drove him home, he sat in stony silence.

On arriving, he invited me in to meet his family. As we walked toward the front door, he paused briefly at a small tree, touching the tips of the branches with both hands. When opening the door he underwent an amazing transformation. His tanned face was wreathed in smiles and he hugged his two small children and gave his wife a kiss.

Afterward he walked me to the car. We passed the tree and my curiosity got the better of me. I asked him about what I had seen him do earlier.

"Oh, that's my trouble tree," he replied." I know I can't help having troubles on the job, but one thing's for sure, troubles don't belong in the house with my wife and the children. So I just hang them on the tree every night when I come home. Then in the morning I pick them up again."

He paused. "Funny thing is," he smiled, "when I come out in the morning to pick 'em up, there ain't nearly as many as I remember hanging up the night before.

There's a kind of freedom you can only get by releasing your troubles,
laying them down. In doing so you free yourself, you open your arms your hands to receive blessings instead.

• In Matthew 11, Beautiful passage of God's grace offered in, through, & by Jesus Christ. Come to me, weary and burdened, my yoke is easy, my burden light.

There's a kind of exhausting works-righteousness that Jesus is speaking against here, a notion that there's a behavior-modification you can do to achieve the peace that God offers. (as if the trouble tree replaces meaningful relationship with God)

Jesus had seen the way religious leaders had heaped burdens and rules and practices on peoples' lives, turning the Law (which was given that it may go well with you) into legalistic lists devoid of life.

See Matthew 23, where Jesus fleshes that out: The teachers of the law and the Pharisees sit in Moses' seat... but do not do what they do... they tie up heavy loads and put them on men's shoulders, but they themselves are not willing to lift a finger to move them... 

(Trouble tree is no substitute for relationship).

• One time I was asked if I actually liked being married. Middle school girl who viewed the wedding ring as a shackle, a “ball and chain”. 

No, it's a sign of a wonderful relationship, a celebration not a limitation.
This girl needed to see marriage differently. Up to me to “open carry”.

And so as a Christian. Some people see religion as lifeless and restricting. They need to see people “open carrying” Christianity as a wonderful relationship, a celebration not a limitation.

Yoke both restrains and enables, and no one lives without yoke.

It is not a burden to be Christian, it is a joy to know God, to share life.

Carry yoke of Jesus.

• Jesus came to redeem the world of the brokenness that sin brought into the world, including the brokenness of religion, somehow thinking that if you do all these right things, if you follow this checklist of dos and don'ts you can behavior-modify yourself out of sin and into grace.

• God gave law and the law is good, but we cannot sufficiently meet its demands to earn God's grace – that is pure gift. God says I will cover you. Give me your heart, for I can do more with your heart than your measured legalism. I desire your obedience, yes, but I desire your heart so much more. Let me shoulder your burden with you, let me show you how to live, let me fill you and fulfill you.

And our response: praise, and open carry.

• Let Jesus sustain you.

• Into communion liturgy