The yoke of freedom

This morning I'm reflecting on the sort of relationship God wants to have with us as his people, and how we often say we want that, but at the same time fail to give him control for one reason or another. Jesus gave an amazing offer to us when he said: “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, 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,” ‭‭(Matthew‬ ‭11:28‭-‬30‬ ‭NIV‬‬).

First of all, does everyone even know what a yoke is? In Jesus time people would have understood this reference, but in case you don't know, "a yoke is a wooden crosspiece fastened over the necks of two animals and attached to a plow or cart. A yoke allows two animals to share a load and pull together." It can also imply the carrying of a burden depending on how it is used. One major problem many of us face is that we fail to realize that we are weary and burdened, therefore we fail to see how we are in need of a relationship with God and that what he offers us is far better than what the world does. If we look at Jesus' words closely here, he does not offer to completely remove the yoke we are attached to, rather, he offers to replace it with HIS yoke. This seems to imply we are all yoked to something. At first glance this could be easy to shrug off and say whatever, but if we really look, I wonder how many things we are in fact doing this with. I think that we often look to those things for purpose and identity, rather than to God our creator, and this leaves us controlled and in a sense enslaved by these things rather than being able to do them in true freedom. How many of us are yoked to our career or jobs, or our relationships, or our family, or addictions? The list goes on and on and on. We all have a natural void inside of us that we need to fill with something, and we look to those things we fill it with to give us a sense of purpose and meaning. I assure you, if you aren't yoked to Jesus, you are yoked to something else.

Jesus offers us true freedom, a yoke that is easy and a burden that is light. How do we take him up on this offer of freedom? It starts with us realizing that we are in fact weary from carrying the burdens of the world, and we need to remove the yoke we have taken on ourselves and allow Jesus to replace it with his. Jesus never said that it was an easy life to follow him, which is why we are told to take up our cross and follow him. Compared to the burdens of the world though, it is extremely light and easy, and we have a savior who comes alongside and is in fact yoked together with us and helps to carry that load.

Reflections on Martin Luther King Jr, the Christian minister

Martin Luther King Jr, obviously well known for his civil rights activism here in the US, but perhaps decreasingly known for his pastoral role as a Christian minister. An article published online by PBS in 2006 said this, "The role of pastor may be one of the most overlooked sides of Martin Luther King Jr. but it was one of the most important aspects of who he was." His Christian faith is what was at the core of everything else he did, preaching biblical love as Christ has for us, rather than violence, to inspire social change.

I was recently introduced to a sermon MLK did several versions of, where he drafted an imaginary letter in the style of one of Paul's letters in the New Testament, addressed to American Christians. The entire sermon is very good and thought provoking, and even today, over 60 years later, still feels very relevant to us in our current day here in America. I'd like to share just a couple sections that struck me the most personally:

"I am impelled to write you concerning the responsibilities laid upon you to live as Christians in the midst of an unchristian world. This is what I had to do. This is what every Christian has to do. But I understand that there are many Christians in America who give their ultimate allegiance to man-made systems and customs. They are afraid to be different. Their great concern is to be accepted socially. They live by some such principle as this: “Everybody is doing it, so it must be all right.” Morality is merely group consensus. In your modern sociological lingo, the mores are accepted as the right ways. You have unconsciously come to believe that right is discovered by taking a sort of Gallup Poll of the majority opinion, and how many are giving their ultimate allegiance to this way.

But American Christians, I must say to you, as I said to the Roman Christians years ago, “Be not conformed to this world, but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind.” Or as I said to the Philippian Christians, “Ye are a colony of heaven.” This means that although you live in the colony of time your ultimate allegiance is to the empire of eternity. You have a dual citizenry. You live both in time and eternity, both in heaven and earth. Therefore, your ultimate allegiance is not to the government, not to the state, not to the nation, not to any man-made institution. The Christian owes his ultimate allegiance to God, and if any earthly institution conflicts with God's will, it is your Christian duty to take a stand against it. You must never allow the transitory, evanescent demands of man-made institutions to take precedence over the eternal demands of the Almighty God."

Reference:

MLK Jr Sermon Transcript

God revealed in nature

I believe that nature is one of the biggest proofs of God. Sure, you can also take the opposite view and say it's random, but I think creation speaks for itself. Paul also made this declaration in Romans, "For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse," (Romans 1:20 NIV).

The more science moves ahead and we get more and more data, it only serves to reinforce my faith that none of this happened just by chance. The sheer complexity of all life is just astounding. It is remarkable to consider the odds of things just lining up randomly to not just create one type of life, but an entire Earth full of it. When I ponder these things, it helps remind me of how great our God is. There is nothing too great or too small for him. He can handle whatever we bring before him, whatever load we are carrying. For the God who created everything also created you and I, "‭‭For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb," (Psalms‬ ‭139:13‭ ‭NIV‬‬). No matter what you believe about yourself or what you are going through, God loves you and he has a plan and purpose for your life.