7th Sunday after Pentecost
July 3, 2016
Galatians 6:1-6
(Or watch here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_hoaOiSMlsE)
A blog started in 2005 called postsecret.com. The author
doesn’t post his own writing, like many of us do on blogs. Y’all know that I put my sermons on mine, in
case you want to hear something again or you’re out on Sunday and missed it. In
any case, this author gets his content from other people. He passed out a bunch
of postcards at Metro stops in Washington, D.C. and invited folks to mail them
back to him anonymously with a secret on them that they had never told anyone
before. The project started off slow, but now he gets about 200 postcards every
day. Obviously, he doesn’t post all of them, but 11 years later he still
updates the blog once a week with new cards. The practice reminds me of the
Catholic rite of going to confession. You go in the confessional booth, confess
your sins to the priest, and receive forgiveness, with only the priest knowing
all your secrets, or at least as many of them as you confess to him. In this
case, it’s the whole online community who hears your secrets, and yet it’s more
anonymous than a confessional booth, because no one knows who’s secret is
whose. Yet at the same time, you finally get to share whatever secret has been
weighing you down.
In our Galatians reading today, Paul writes that we are
to “carry each other’s burdens,” because in doing so, “we fulfill the law of Christ.”
Jesus says that the greatest commandment is “You shall love the Lord your God
with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.” And the second
is like unto it: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” So, loving your
neighbor as yourself means sharing your neighbor’s burdens. That’s part of what
we do as the church. We come together to worship and to share our burdens. We
share prayer concerns and at times like over donuts, we share what’s going on
in our lives. Your neighbor can’t share your burden if they don’t know about
it. Now, for those who tend to over-share, please know that we don’t really
want to know what you had for breakfast, or lunch, or dinner. However, we, your
brothers and sisters in Christ, do want to know what’s weighing you down, what
heavy loads you’re carrying, because we want to share the burden with you. We
don’t want to share it because we’re masochistic and love pain; we want to
share it because we love you. Sharing your burden is one way we can show love
to you, and so fulfill Jesus’ commandment to love our neighbor as ourself. Sharing
others’ burdens is why we’re sending flood buckets to West Virginia after the
massive storms they’ve had there and it’s why we’re talking about changing
legislation around guns after the shooting in Orlando. The Bible says we’re to
bear each other’s burdens.
Now
the next thing that Paul writes in Galatians is that “each person should test
their own work and be happy with doing a good job, not comparing themselves
with others.” Each person should test their own work, each person is to
evaluate their own work. Sometimes we are our own worst critic and sometimes we
do need an outside opinion. If you’re making a quilt and you want to decide on
the next fabric to use, I can give you ideas, but you’ve got to decide yourself
what you think will go best. Another
translation says, “You are to each judge your own conduct. If it is good, then
you can be proud of what you yourself have done, without having to compare it
with what someone else has done.” And that’s part of the idea here, with being
happy for doing a good job. I remember one math class in high school where the
teacher returned papers and tests by passing them down each row and so you saw
the grade of the person who sat behind you. The guy who sat behind me always
had a better grade than me, no matter how well I did. One time I aced the test,
I got 100, and he got 105, because he got the bonus question right. I was happy
with my 100, yet I was competitive enough that I was disappointed I still
hadn’t gotten a better grade than my classmate! That’s why Paul says, “All must
test their own work; then that work, rather than their neighbor’s work, will
become a cause for pride.” Take pride in a job well done. Have high
expectations of yourself, whether it’s work to earn a living or work at the
church or work at home or work in the community. Take joy in doing a good job,
not in comparing your job to others. Being competitive can be a good thing,
because it can get you to improve. My math grade improved because I wanted a
better grade than the smart guy behind me. But make sure it doesn’t
over-consume you so that the competition becomes your focus instead of doing a
good job. In other words, keep the main thing the main thing.
As
we celebrate our country’s birthday tomorrow, let’s remember that as Americans
as well. Our country is unique from any other country on the planet. We can’t
really compare ourselves to anyone, or even to our past. A comparison or
competition might be helpful to learn more about ourselves, yet our goal is to
do a good job now, and not just a good enough job but work we can take pride
in. We know that our troops are proud of the work that they do and our vets are
proud of the work they did. Are you proud of the work that you do, today? If
you’re stuck in a rut, perhaps get an outside opinion, get some other ideas,
something to get your brain churning again. That’s part of why we’re here, to
bear each other’s loads; not to compete with you, or to help you compete with
yourself, but to help you do a better job.
And
yet just three verses after Paul says we’re to bear each other’s burdens, he
writes that “each person has to carry their own load.” There are a few places
in the Bible where it directly contradicts itself, and this seems to be one of
them. Wait, what, Paul? We’re to carry each others’ burdens and we each have to
carry our own burden?! Well, this goes back to that sharing secrets. It’s still
your secret, even after you share it, whether anonymously or in a confessional
booth. You still have to carry it. We can pray for you about an upcoming
doctor’s appointment, we can even go to it with
you, but we can’t go it for you. We
can hold your hand during an MRI, EKG, CAT scan, or any other three letter
test, but you still have to go through it yourself. That’s how each one of us
also carries our own loads. We each have our own cross to carry, and it helps
to share it, it helps to describe it to others, it helps just to acknowledge it
sometimes, yet it is still ours to carry.
Friends
make the burden lighter. Jesus makes it the lightest of all. He says, “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.” He doesn’t say that you get no burden at all, he says that it’s
light and easy and gentle and you can find rest for your soul here. If your
burden has been overwhelming you, or all you can see is your neighbor is doing
it better, or even how you used to be able to do it better, then it’s time to
re-shift your focus back to Jesus. Take his yoke. Love God with all your heart
and soul and mind and strength, and love your neighbor as yourself. Those
aren’t the easiest things to do. Sometimes we love ourselves more or we love
other things more or we don’t want to recognize who our neighbor is. Yet that’s
the way to find rest for your souls. In serving others, we serve God. In
carrying each other’s burdens, it makes it easier to carry our own burden. It’s
a paradox, I know. Yet that’s what God calls us to do. Love God. Love your
neighbor. Share your neighbor’s burden. Carry your own burden. May God grant us
the strength and courage to do so without complaining and to his glory!
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