The Rev. Charles Youngson

July 9, 2023 The 6^th Sunday after Pentecost

Proper 9A: Matthew 11:16-19, 25-30

“I Will Give You Rest”

“Amazing breakthrough! Scientists have discovered a revolutionary new treatment that makes you live longer. It enhances your memory and makes you more creative. It makes you look more attractive. It keeps you slim and lowers food cravings. It protects you from cancer and dementia. It wards off colds and the flu. It lowers your risk of heart attacks and stroke, not to mention diabetes. You’ll even feel happier, less depressed, and less anxious. Are you interested?”

This is a fictional advertisement, but the treatment is real and backed up by thousands of scientific studies. And the best part is that it is completely free and available to you tonight. What is this miracle drug? A full night’s sleep. The ad I began with comes from the book Why We Sleep by neuroscientist Matthew Walker, a professor at UC Berkeley. His book explores what sleep is and why it is essential to our physical and mental wellbeing. It’s strange to realize we spend roughly a third of our lives asleep, more time than we’ll spend working at our jobs. And yet we pay little attention to it in our consumer-driven, always-on society. So much of modern life conspires to rob us of this precious commodity. Perhaps it’s not surprising to learn that the CDC estimates that 50-70 million Americans have ongoing sleep disorders. It can be hard to get enough sleep, especially if you’re a new parent and the phrase “sleep like a baby” takes on a very different meaning.

Jesus said, “Come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me; for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light” (Matt. 11:28-30). Rest for our weary souls. Doesn’t that sound wonderful? Don’t we all long for the rest that Jesus promises, a sense of wellbeing and peace which somehow transcends the outward circumstances of our lives?

Jesus probably wasn’t addressing sleep specifically, but I’m convinced that our physical, mental, and spiritual health are connected. Recently, I heard a therapist say, only half-joking, that most of his clients wouldn’t need him if they would just eat right and get sufficient sleep, exercise, and water. I wonder if the same would be true in my vocation. Would we all be healthier spiritually if we incorporated more rest, recreation, and sleep into our lives? Would our sense of connection to God and to each other be more loving, our sense of meaning and purpose clearer, and our willingness to follow Christ stronger? I think most of us would answer “yes” to these questions.

And that’s where we get to the difficulty of being human. Once we have the knowledge of what is right and good and even the intention to do what is right and good, there is still that bothersome gap between intention and action. And really, even if we get to the action stage, most actions are only transformative when they become habits. And we all know how hard it is to form a new habit. I once heard you can tell the difference between a good habit and a bad habit because bad habits are easy to form and hard to break. 

It may be an uphill climb, but good habits can be started later in life. When I need to remind myself of this, I think about flossing. For most of my life I never flossed unless I had eaten ribs or corn on the cob. But about ten years ago I started flossing, and now I rarely miss a day. So you see, dreams do come true!

But seriously, why is it so hard to form a beneficial new habit like a prayer practice or exercise routine? Why is hard to give up something we like that is hurting us or others? It helps to know that even Paul struggled with the gap between intention and action. In his Letter to the Romans, he writes, “I can will what is right, but I cannot do it. For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I do” (Rom. 7:18-19). Paul’s frustration leads him to lament: “Wretched man that I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death?” And then he answers his rhetorical question: “Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!” (Rom. 7:24-25) He recognizes that it is only by God’s grace that we learn to overcome the gap between intention and action.

Even during the ministry of Jesus, there was great debate over how a righteous person should live. John the Baptist lived an austere life apart from society, while Jesus ate and drank with tax collectors and sinners. And both were criticized by the religious leaders of the time. To this criticism Jesus responds, “Wisdom is vindicated by her deeds” (Matt. 11:19). In other words, any know-it-all can stand on the sidelines criticizing and being cynical, but actions speak louder than words. What fruit does one’s life produce? That’s the real question.

And that’s when Jesus invites his followers to a simpler way. Though it seems counterintuitive, Jesus teaches that, if we want to find rest for our souls, we must take on a his yoke. Now, a yoke is a wooden piece of farm equipment that harnesses an ox or a pair of oxen to a plow. It fits across their shoulders and loops around their necks. The priest’s stole is sometimes said to symbolize the yoke of Christ. Jesus was a carpenter, and there’s an old but probably fanciful story that Jesus used to make the best yokes of any carpenter in Nazareth. His yokes were easy on the necks of the oxen. 

Of course, here Jesus uses the term metaphorically. In those days, the rabbis would sometimes speak of the yoke of Torah. The yoke of Torah was given by God to guide the people through the difficulties of life. But well-meaning religious professionals had added to the Torah to the point that it had become a burden to the average person. What was meant to draw people to God was actually building a fence around God that no one could climb. Jesus invites his followers to take on his yoke, because it captures the heart of the Torah. And the essence of his yoke is contained in those two simple but profound commandments to love. As today’s collect puts it: “O God, you have taught us to keep all your commandments by loving you and our neighbor.”

Now we may think, “Hey, I don’t want a yoke around my neck. I don’t want to be yoked to anything. I want to be free.” But the reality is we don’t have the option of avoiding a yoke altogether. We are all going to be yoked to something.  Whatever is most important to us will become the yoke that steers us. As Bob Dylan sang in a song recorded just up the road at Muscle Shoals Sound Studio, “It may be the devil and it may be the Lord, but you’re gonna have to serve somebody.” Jesus is calling us to yoke ourselves to him. And he promised his yoke is easy, not because it leads to a life of leisure. Rather, it is easy in the sense that it will guide us in our true work of serving God. And it’s in God’s service that we find perfect freedom, as St. Augustine put it.

And so science confirms what the Bible reveals: we are designed to work, and we are designed to rest from work.  Even God rested on the seventh day. And God commanded the Israelites to rest on the Sabbath, reminding them that their ancestors were slaves in Egypt.  And slaves don’t a day of rest. To fail to rest is to submit to a yoke of slavery, as Paul writes to the Galatians (Gal. 5:1). The yoke of Jesus is easy because it steers us toward the Sabbath rest that God promises. And it prepares us for the eternal rest that is our destiny.

Our God is not the harsh taskmaster so many people are taught to believe in. God doesn’t give us some arbitrary list of rules to obey out of a need to exert power over us. The law is to help us live joyfully and abundantly within our earthly limits.  Our God is the God of the Psalmist who tells us, “The Lord is gracious and full of compassion, slow to anger and of great kindness. The Lord is loving to everyone, and his compassion is over all his works” (Ps. 145:8-9). Our God is a loving parent who invites us to sleep in his warm, protective embrace.

Perhaps you remember being a small child and falling asleep on the sofa or in the car after a full day of playing outside.  Maybe you remember the feeling of your mother or father lifting the dead weight of your body and carrying you to your bed without you awaking.   Maybe you remember waking up the next morning fully rested, almost unaware of how you wound up in your own bed. When I think of the rest that God offers, that is the image that comes to mind. 

I believe sleep is a spiritual practice because like so many spiritual practices, it teaches us to let go and let God. It teaches us to let go of the need to be in control, the need to be productive, the need to be needed. It decenters the ego just long enough to allow our true selves to hear God’s voice. After all, God has been known to communicate through dreams at times. Ultimately, sleep is a spiritual practice because it helps prepare us for that final sleep. It teaches us to trust that when that final sleep comes, we need not be afraid. For we can rest assured that God is watching over us in sleep and will awaken us at the dawning of God’s endless new day.

So let me close with a prayer I love from the service of Evening Prayer in the Book of Common Prayer: “Lord Jesus Christ, by your death you took away the sting of death: Grant to us your servants so to follow in faith where you have led the way, that we may at length fall asleep peacefully in you and wake up in your likeness; for your tender mercies’ sake. Amen.”