Get Yoked!

Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.

(Matthew 11:28-30, ESV)

I loved spending time in my grandpa’s barn.  He had all sorts of things hanging on the walls, shoved into the corners, and placed in the rafters.  Things that he would use once and a while or things that had been put away from a forgotten time. One day when I was searching through my grandpa’s barn, I came across an old wooden piece with two metal loops on the ends.  I was too young to know what it was so I asked. He told me it was a yoke—brushed off the dust, and set it down.  Curious I asked what a yoke did.  He lit up with excitement as he told me stories about how farming “used” to be done. He told me about how when he was young they didn’t have as many tractors on the farms—maybe two or three in a community.  He said to me that animals pulled the plows and in the harvest time they carried the large wagons. 

Whenever I read this passage, I can’t help but think about those oxen that my grandpa used to talk about. I remember him telling me how the yoke bound one ox to another so the work would be shared and get done to the best of both oxen’s abilities. When both oxen are aware of the yoke—all benefit. When the yoke is forgotten both can try to go their own way. They get frustrated. Sometimes I think about that yoke.

As a community of faith we are all about relationships.  Relationships with God, with one another, with the community in which we live.  Windsor UMC truly is setting out to build God-centered relationships through acts of love.  This often means that we have the opportunity to remember the ways we are yoked to each other and that we do not exist in a vacuum but are yoked to the community around us.  This yoke, when recognized makes us stronger; stronger listeners, responders, care givers, and servants.  I am totally convinced that our congregation at Windsor UMC has hearts full of care for those both inside the church and outside its walls.  You are amazing people.  I wonder where God is calling us to be recognize our yoke?  

As clergy, we say our stole (the piece of fabric we wear around our neck for worship) is our yoke to Christ. We wear this metaphorical yoke every Sunday to remind us who we are tied to. In the Lenten season I often let go of the stole as a special reminder of its importance. The yoke to Christ Jesus connects us, uplift us, and it makes us better at our jobs. There is a reason clergy wear the stole—a yoke—every Sunday.  It is all too easy to get distracted, tired, or worn out and forget the yoke we have taken up in ministry.  If we forget the yoke, it is easy to feel alone in our ministry. When we feel like we are alone we are no longer the best at what we do—we are inefficient, and our abilities are limited.

Similarly when we as a community of faith forget our yoke to God and the community we often try to drift away; to go our own way.  We stop listening to the tugs and pulls of those who sit beside us or those who haven’t found their way into the doors yet.  We can start to assume and make conjectures about the lives of others; though we might not have the slightest knowledge of their needs. The yoke, when recognized, calls us back into line—a line of compassion. 

Where in this season of Lent are you called to recognize “the yoke”?  Where are you being led, nurtured, pulled, or corrected?  Are you willing to feel the beam and strap, the bow and hitch to know that you are not alone?  Sometimes that yoke can feel like it takes away the individualism of our lives, but rather it is a recognition that we can never truly be individuals without the presence of community.  What I do affects others, what they do affects me.

I look forward to hearing the stories of how the yoke has enriched your life. You are a powerful congregation that can do amazing things. 

-          Pastor Jon Bailey