Posts Tagged ‘work’
Jesus’ Easier Yoke – Br. Curtis Almquist
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Br. Curtis Almquist
“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.”
When Jesus says, “Come to me, all that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest,” this is not about rest for the body, but rest for the soul. Jesus is speaking about relief from the heavy burdens of following the scribal law. The scribes – who copied, interpreted, and taught the scriptures – had taken the broad principles of the Hebrew scriptures and created a rule and regulation for every imaginable aspect of life. Jesus says the scribes “tie up heavy burdens, hard to bear, and lay them on the shoulders of others, but they themselves are unwilling to lift a finger to move them” (Matthew 23:4).[1] Read More
Labor and Prayer – Br. Jack Crowley
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Br. Jack Crowley
The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few. I’ve probably heard this sentence a few thousand times in my life. The truth is I’ve never known if it is good news or bad news. It always feels like both.
One of the best and worst parts of being a human being is labor. We labor with our hands and minds, we labor with God, we labor with one another, and we do the emotional labor of our lives as best we can. The best part of all that is we all have opportunities to do good work in our lives. The worst part is that something always gets in the way. Our labor is always limited by some obstacle, and is never as ideal as we first thought it would be. The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few.
The good news is that Jesus knows our human nature. Jesus knows we have this drive within us for labor. Jesus knows when we look at the woes of the world, we are often filled with compassion and want to do something. We want to labor for a better world. Read More
Considering Mary’s Response to God’s Call – Br. David Vryhof
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Br. David Vryhof
Common of the Incarnation
It has been the custom in monasteries such as ours to honor Mary, the Mother of our Lord, on the Saturdays in Ordinary Time between the seasons of Pentecost and Advent. Mary’s example – particularly the graciousness, generosity and humility with which she responds to God’s call – has been an inspiration to monastics throughout the ages, and to all who have sensed that God is summoning them to a particular task or way of being in the world.
The call that comes to Mary is a daunting one. God promises, through the angel Gabriel, to bless her with a son, who “will be great, and will be called the Son of the Most High,” and through whom God’s people will be established forever. This, despite the fact that she is a virgin. Remarkably, she accepts the intervention and the promise with openness and trust, and responds with those familiar words, “Here am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your word” (Lk 1:38). Read More
Work and Prayer – Br. Lucas Hall
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I worked very hard on this sermon. I’ve spent a long time thinking about it.
Most of it was a waste.
Because I spent a very long time mulling over this Gospel text, of Jesus and Martha and Mary. I worked very hard to understand the story. But not because it’s some complex thing. No, the trouble is, it’s actually rather simple. It’s a story with, like, one plot point. So my effort to understand was not deciphering some crazy esoteric text, but rather, to think about how I might make this very simple text come alive in some fresh way. How I might use it to point out something new, something exciting, something we haven’t all heard a thousand times before.
Because that’s my job, right? That’s what the preacher is supposed to do. That’s my task, my role this morning. I’m supposed to come up with something good, something true, something real. To preach well is to point to Christ, and Christ is not boring. But the more I thought, the more I plugged away at this problem, the more I realized that I had nothing. Nothing fresh, anyway. Nothing alive.
For the preacher, the antidote to this problem is supposed to be prayer. Prayer, encounter with the eternal, the infinite, the Living God, should yield…well, something. And I have been praying! But it’s been harder than normal lately. Less intuitive. I’ve felt overwhelmed by work. I’ve felt stressed. I’ve felt incompetent, and discouraged by that feeling, I’ve tried even harder to work my way out of it, to push through and do something right, something where I wouldn’t be left with lingering doubts and anxieties over whether I’m good at anything.
So, more pushing. More striving. More petition to God to accomplish what I’d set out to do.
Read MoreThe Call of Being Human – Br. Lucas Hall
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“Are you able to drink the cup that I drink?”1 James and John respond to this in the affirmative, with no further questioning. I wonder if this is an example of loving faith, or naïve foolishness, or both. Regardless, it is reasonable for us to ask, “What is this cup?”
The most obvious answer is that the cup Jesus mentions is a reference to his own death. In the Garden of Gethsemane, in the hours before his arrest, Jesus refers to his impending death as a cup that he desires to pass from his lips.2 If this is the case, Christ’s assertion to the sons of Zebedee that, “The cup that I drink you will drink,” is a truthful one. James becomes a martyr, the first of the Twelve apostles to die, beheaded on the orders of King Herod in Jerusalem.3 John, the Tradition of the Church holds, lives on, the only one of the Twelve not to be martyred, instead spending his days watching his companions meet their deaths, each one a new nail in John’s own inner crucifixion. Read More
Living in Rhythm – Br. Luke Ditewig
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Matthew 11:28-30
“Come to me, all you who are weary and carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest.”
We may expect Jesus to say: Stop. Breathe. Come away by yourselves.[i] Yet in this passage, Jesus says: “I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you.”
The yoke is an object of work, keeping two animals together to share strength. Jesus is saying: Work with me. Learn from me. Restoration comes from working my way.[ii] This way, this rhythm of life, will bring you more fully to life.
Jesus’ way, his personal pattern, includes private prayer and ceasing with Sabbath rest. Jesus’ way is also in his teaching.
Blessed are the poor in spirit, the meek and the merciful.[iii]
Love your enemies, and pray for those who persecute you.[iv] Beware of practicing your piety before others to be seen by them.[v]
Miracle Working Icon of the Mother of God – Br. James Koester
Sirach 38: 27 – 32
Psalm 107: 1 – 9
Matthew 6: 19 – 24
I have never been much of an artist. I can’t draw very well, and in fact I describe myself as one who draws stick people badly. At least, that is the story I have told myself for most of my life, not only as an excuse, but also as a defense. If I had to draw something, I would use that as the explanation of why I didn’t put the time or effort into it.
But then something happened. I visited the sister of another member of the community one afternoon and saw on her walls framed cross-stitch samplers that she had done. In an instant I knew that I had to learn how to do that, so by the end of the afternoon she had equipped me with a needle point hoop, floss, needle, fabric and pattern and after a brief lesson, I went home. Little did I know, that that afternoon’s cross stitch lesson would be a life changing event for me. I am not being overly dramatic when I say that my life has never been the same since. Read More