So, we went to York Minster for the Eucharist. The choir sang the Vierne ‘Messe Solonnelle’ like a dream, the organ bellowed out and the ‘God of the lectionary’ played that divine trick again by giving us a Gospel reading that we needed to hear. The Gospel set for today was Matthew 11.16-19,25-30 which finishes with that wonderful passage
‘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.’
As we get ready for the debate about clergy wellbeing this afternoon these were words that we needed to hear, to be reminded of. But let’s be honest. The pressures on clergy, their families, their lives are real but so are the pressures on many people, in work and out of work; I may live in a ‘goldfish bowl’ but it is a very lovely one!
When the Dean of St Paul’s and I hosted the annual conference for the all the deans of the English Cathedrals immediately after Easter we took everyone across to Canary Wharf and to the offices of J P Morgan. As part of that fascinating visit we were taken down to see one of the trading floors. It was incredible. It was for a start off huge, row after row of desks, next to one another, each with five or six screens on and active, with telephones, with a person looking at all of this like the commander of the Starship Enterprise. Just as in one of those big American casinos it seemed a place in which you left time at the door. These guys – they mostly were guys – were operating across time zones. They may have almost literally straddled the Greenwich Meridian where those offices are located, but they were beyond, outside time – they were in the immediate moment in which money was being made and lost. It was fascinating to see and just a little frightening. I could only begin to imagine the levels of stress these youngish people were working under. And these are the people I see coming across London Bridge to the station late in the evening, finally heading to their home, their dormitory. These are the people I pass in the morning as I walk to the Cathedral and they are already heading back to the office to begin that out-of-time work again.
Wellbeing has to be something that we are concerned about, for clergy, but for each other. Lives are too precious and need to be lived well.
Jesus says this to the people – ‘I will give you rest’. It is just what we want to hear. But as Archbishop Justin in his sermon in the Minster this morning Jesus did not say that there was no yoke, there is a yoke to be worn across the shoulders, but it is lighter, easier, because Jesus is there alongside us, sharing the burden. There is always the yoke.
‘My yoke is easy, my burden is light.’
If you go into many a sacristy you will find there prayers that the priest might say as they put on the sacred vestments. There is a prayer for each item – the amice, the alb, the girdle, the stole and finally the chasuble. It is the prayer that we say as we place that final priestly garment on ourselves that reminds us of the yoke
O Lord, who has said, “My yoke is easy and my burden light,” grant that I may so carry it as to merit your grace.
The priest bears the yoke with Christ and with the people and carries it for the gathered people of God to the altar. There as the bread and wine are taken by the person wearing that yoke we remember Jesus across whose shoulders the wood was laid, a yoke he bore to Calvary, a yoke that would then carry him as he was raised for all to see.
Whilst we care for one another, whilst we
‘Bear one another’s burdens, and in this way … fulfil the law of Christ’. (Galatians 6.2)
we have to remember the burdens that each of us does bear, the stress under which so many live, the concerns that wear people down and the graciousness of God who sees us through it. The debate this afternoon will be interesting in the light of these gospel words.
Lord Jesus,
a yoke was laid across your shoulders for me;
may I gladly bear,
may I gladly wear
the yoke with you.
Amen.
Andrew Nunn's reflections from General Synod 
You must be logged in to post a comment.