Come Unto Me...

Sunday July 6, 2008
Church of Our Saviour Children’s Homily

We have such a beautiful Gospel passage to read today- one of my favorites of all time. Jesus says something like, “Come to me all you who are weary and are heavy-laden and I will give you rest. I will lift your burdens.”

What is a burden? A burden is something that is too heavy to carry alone. If it was not too heavy to carry alone, it would not be a burden. It would just be something to carry.

We all have burdens… Maybe you have had a burden sometime. Have you ever picked up a bag of groceries and realized- Whoa! That is too heavy for me! Or maybe you have had a different kind of burden. Maybe you have had a burden in your heart- a great burden of sadness, or of loneliness, or a burden of scaredness. Or maybe you had something in your heart that just did not feel good at all. And these feelings make your heart feel heavy.

Well, I want to tell you that I just got back from a trip that taught me a lot about people who act like Jesus and lift people’s burdens in the world. I went on a trip with Father Richard and Gay Johnson all the way to New York City with our wonderful teenagers, and almost everywhere we went, we saw the lifting of burdens. At the amazing church where we lived, they reached out their arms to the whole city and said “Come to me” and they lifted the burden of hunger from the people who came to get free food from their pantry. They lifted the burden of homelessness from those who slept in their shelter. And for people who could not come to the church to get food because they were to elderly or sick, the church brought food to them! They tutored lots of children and they hosted a synagogue and a Presbyterian church and had dozens of meetings for people struggling with bad habits.

But one of the most touching stories about the lifting of burdens happened right in the middle of our week. We took a boat to a very famous island- Ellis Island. This is an island that long ago, thousands of people would come to, to lift their burdens of not having a safe country to live in. They wanted to live in our country where it was safer and where they would have a chance for a life without the burden of fear and hunger. And as we approached that island we saw the Statue of Liberty. Lady Liberty held up her torch high as if to say, “Come to me, all you who labor and are heavy laden and I will give you rest.” I remembered a poem about Lady Liberty that goes “Give me you tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breath free.” And I thought, “What do you know- here it is almost the 4th of July and Lady Liberty is acting like Jesus! You never know where Jesus is going to turn up!”

Well, during this trip I felt a little burdened myself sometimes. I felt burdened with homesickness and loneliness and tiredness. And what lifted my burden was to see our amazing teenagers helping each other, comforting each other and lifting each other’s burdens. And they not only pitched in to feed the hungry poor, but they also pitched in to feed the hungry us. I had four of the best meals of my life cooked by these wonderful teenagers and then miraculously, the kitchen was beautifully cleaned with no effort whatsoever by any adult!

Well, I thought about the wonderful church we stayed in and all the burdens they lifted, I thought about the beautiful cathedral we stayed in and how they were reaching out to Africa to take care of orphans there and lift their burdens, I thought of the Statue of Liberty and I thought about the amazing teenagers on our pilgrimage. And I thought I had never seen so many people acting like Jesus out in the world.

So if you do have a burden in your heart of loneliness or scaredness or sadness, you might reach out to a brother or sister or your mom or dad or someone else you trust. And you just might feel that burden lifting, because Jesus comes in all shapes and sizes in this world.

Amen.