Dear Friends;
Greetings to you on this beautiful spring day – a frosty morning but the promise of warmth in the rising sun in a clear blue sky.
During this Holy Week, I will be offering a brief “Today’s Post” each morning. (Though today’s may end up getting to you after noon.) On Friday you will receive a copy of the Good Friday Service that would have been held in the Sanctuary of Picton United Church, had we been able to meet.
Next Sunday is Easter Day! It is our hope and intention that the Services of both South Bay United Church and Picton United Church will be broadcast on YouTube at their normal worship hour. (A team is working hard to make this happen.) We’ll have more details for you later in the week.
Grace and peace with pastoral love and concern,
Rev. Phil
“Easy and Light?”
“Jesus said, ‘Come to me all you who labour and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me; and you shall find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”
Matthew 11.28-30 NRSV
We personally know people who are labouring and carrying heavy burdens in these days of COVID-19. Some of those folk are related to us. Some of those folk are us! We think especially of seniors isolated at home and missing grandchildren; and young parents trying to work fulltime from home, while managing the care of their kids who are not in school. Stress, anxiety and burdens are the order of the day.
And here is Jesus inviting us to take his yoke! Really Jesus? We don’t have enough to carry?! But wait. The most common image of the yoke is that moulded piece of wood that stretches across the shoulders of an ox or horse team allowing the load for each animal to be lighter. Jesus invitation to us is to allow him to share our yoke – to shoulder part of our burden – to lighten our load.
The promise of the image is not that our load will disappear – but that Jesus will be in harness with us helping us to bear the burden. The promise is that as we respond to this invitation, we will find rest for our souls.
My prayer for each of you today is that you will find time to be still, to gaze on beauty, to hear words you’ve longed for, to speak words you’ve meant to say.
I leave you with the words of John O’Donohue from To Bless the Space Between Us in a piece called “For Equilibrium”
Like the joy of the sea coming home to shore, May the relief of laughter rinse through your soul.
As the wind loves to call things to dance, May your gravity be lightened by grace.
Like the dignity of moonlight restoring the earth, May your thoughts incline with reverence and respect.
As water takes whatever shape it is in, So free may you be about who you become.
As silence smiles on the other side of what’s said, May your sense of irony bring perspective.
As time remains free of all that it frames, May your mind stay clear of all it names.
May your prayer of listening deepen enough To hear in the depths the laughter of God.
