Burdens

The scriptures referred to are Galatians 6:1-16.

When things go wrong, it's good to have a way to fix them. Which is one reason I like multi-tools, the great granddaddy of which is the Swiss Army knife. There are also some other clever pocket and key-chain tools out there which are handy for little emergencies. But for a big job, you need the proper tool. You wouldn't want to put together a piece of furniture with the screwdriver or wrench you get on a tool shaped like a card, nor cut fabric with the tiny scissors on a Leatherman micra. I once had to put together something that had 3 different kinds of screws: Phillips, hex screws and the type that requires a set of Allen wrenches. Thank God I had all three in my tool box. To do a task, you need the right tool.

At this point in time, the biggest problems we are facing all require one thing we have in short supply. We have all kinds of technology to tackle the world's problems. We have machines and medicines and software and scientific knowledge we did not have a century ago. What we lack is not the know-how but the morality. On every level what is impairing us from handling problems that affect us all is short-sighted self-centeredness. People are concerned only with “what is good for me and mine right now.” Our elected officials are motivated only by those issues that benefit them and the contributors to their re-election campaigns and their party. Our corporations only care about things that increase their profits and the dividends for their stockholders. Governmental and corporate employees who realize that their organization is doing wrong, either by intention, incompetence or indifference, are only concerned with keeping their jobs and thus have become complicit. Meanwhile racists only care about themselves and their race. The wealthy only care about themselves and their class. Nationalists only care about themselves and their nation. And the implied corollary to this is “And to hell with everyone else.”

Contrast this with what Paul says in our passage from Galatians: “Bear one another's burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ.” This is a novel restatement of Jesus' command to “love one another as I have loved you.” (John 15:12) Paul is emphasizing what that really means. We often say we love something when we really mean we merely appreciate it. But that doesn't necessarily entail giving it support. I appreciate certain TV series but I don't join movements to save them from cancellation, even if I will miss them. What Paul is saying is that if you really love someone, you will help them with their burdens. You will take some of the load off of them or in extreme cases, all the load. We see this when a loved one is gravely ill and needs help with everything they otherwise would be able to handle, including bodily needs we don't like to think about. Some parents devote their whole lives to a disabled child.

To love someone else is to take on their concerns and needs and prioritize them, when necessary, even above your own. I saw a meme on the internet that quoted  a news report which suggested that parents leave something important in the back seat to avoid forgetting and leaving their kids in a hot car. The lower half of the picture is a little girl in a car seat with a quizzical expression and the words “Something important?” We've all forgotten to bring in the eggs or the ice cream or the yogurt we just bought only to remember them when it is too late. But you would think people would not forget their own flesh and blood. Sadly, some do.

We rightly regard that as an aberration because your kids fall squarely within the “me and mine” area that all human beings recognize as important. The problem is trying to widen that area of concern to include those not related to you by blood, race, religion, nationality, or shared orientation, interest or ideology. That is the challenge Jesus laid down for us. Can we grow to become people who love all human beings who are created in the image of the God we claim to worship?

And on the basis of the behavior and rhetoric of some of the more vocal and visible leaders in Christianity, I would have to say that we are failing that challenge. Every day in the news some preacher or priest or pastor goes on the record saying things Jesus never said nor would he ever say. They justify behavior Jesus explicitly condemns and condemn things Jesus never spoke about. Right now there are people who think the litmus test for being a Christian is one's position on abortion and homosexuality. But abortion, though practiced in the ancient world, is never mentioned in the Bible. And homosexuality is only mentioned in 6 passages out of 31,000 verses. Whereas hatred is condemned nearly 4 times as often, in 23 passages; anger in 26 passages; self-righteousness and conceit in 36 passages; oppression, neglect and injustice in 44 passages; sins of the tongue, like lying, gossip, slander and deception are mentioned at least 78 passages; pride and boasting in 80 passages. Hypocrisy is mentioned 3 times as often, in at least 18 passages, one of which is the entire chapter of Matthew 23, a long excoriating speech by Jesus. In contrast, Jesus never mentions homosexuality and neither do the Ten Commandments. It sounds like people who harp on these issues are unbalanced, at least Biblically.

I would call myself a fundamentalist if it still meant a person who sticks to the fundamentals, or basic beliefs and behaviors of following Jesus. But the fundamentalists are more interested in peripheral matters and have drifted away from things like love and grace and imitating Jesus. I would call myself an Evangelical if it still meant a person who emphasizes the good news of what God has revealed and done in Christ. But again that word has come to mean something else. They have prioritized the 5 passages in the Bible on our responsibilities to the civil authorities over the 29 passages about our responsibilities to children, the 29 about our responsibility to the fatherless, the 28 passages on our responsibility to love our enemies, the 32 passages on our responsibility to the oppressed, the 51 passages on our responsibility to aliens, and the 88 passages about our responsibility to the poor. To those who call themselves Fundamentalists and Evangelical Christians, my response is that of Inigo Montoya in The Princess Bride: “You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.”

At the heart of the gospel is God taking on our burdens in the person of Jesus Christ. He took on our flesh, with all its vulnerabilities to pain and death. (Matthew 4:2; Luke 24:64; John 19:30) He took on the burden of parents and siblings who did not always understand or support him. (Luke 2:48-50; John 7:3-5) He took on the burden of being a refugee, fleeing with his family from violence to live in another land. (Matthew 2:13-15) He took on the burden of being opposed for doing the right thing. (Mark 3:1-6) He took on the burden of speaking the truth to those in power and paying the price. (John 18:37) He took on the burden of experiencing the estrangement of God in our place. (Mark 15:34) He took on the burden of dying for our sins. (Mark 10:45; 1 John 2:1-2)

In 1 John it says, “We know love by this, that he laid down his life for us—and we ought to lay down our lives for each other. How does God's love abide in anyone who has the world's goods and sees a brother or sister in need and yet refuses help? Little children, let us love, not in word or speech, but in truth and action.” (1 John 3:16-18) If Jesus made such sacrifices for us, we, his followers, should also be willing to make sacrifices for others. And we cannot look at whether such people are worthy of our help. As Paul points out, it was while we were still sinners that Jesus died for us. (Romans 5:8) Oh, and we his creatures were also his killers. So how can we refuse to help others, when, as it says in Romans, “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God”? (Romans 3:23) If, as James points out, you are a lawbreaker regardless of how many laws or which laws you break (James 2:10) how can we act as if some sins puts anyone beyond God's love, mercy and grace? Or as Jesus said, who of us is sinless and therefore worthy of casting the first stone at another? (John 8:7)

When Peter asks Jesus how many times he should forgive a brother who sinned against him, the disciple suggested the number be set at 7. Jesus said, make that 70 times 7. (Matthew 18:22) If we are to be that forgiving to a fellow human being, how much more forgiving is God towards us! And think of what a burden it is for a just God not to deal with people who do unjust things in the manner they deserve. Do you not burn with indignation when you hear of some outrageous action on the part of a person who harms or molests or kills a child or an animal and yet escapes punishment? Imagine how that hurts God who created and loves both the perpetrator and victim! And yet, if the person truly repents, if he or she really changes their mind and behavior, if they actually turn to God to turn their life around, he will forgive them. Imagine what that costs him.

I got a hint when I read the story of a family dealing with the tragedy of one child killing another. In what is sadly too common an occurrence these days, a toddler found his father's gun and shot and killed his sister. He was too young to understand what he'd done but the family still had to deal with the loss. They loved both children and they do not blame the toddler but they cannot forget what he has done. That is a burden they must carry for the rest of their lives. The situation is not a perfect parallel but I am reminded of what Jesus said as he was being crucified: “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.” (Luke 23:34) That is how forgiving God is.

And if he can take on that burden, the brunt of all our sins and the burden of forgiving what we have done to harm his son and all the others made in his image, we can shoulder the burdens presented to us. The question was actually asked by Cain, the first murderer, in the 4^th chapter of Genesis: “Am I my brother's keeper?” A better translation is “guardian or protector.” And the obvious answer is “Yes!” Yes, we are to guard, to protect, to keep from harm our brothers and sisters. While I do not generally like to lump people into two categories, this is a fundamental difference: there are those who protect, who rescue, who help other people and those who do not. And those who do not help or protect others out of indifference are no better than who actively harm others; in fact, they are complicit in those sins. The Nazis could not have gotten away with sending people to death camps had not the general populace decided it was just not their problem.

We are called by God to love others and that means we are called to bear their burdens. Ideally we will all bear one another's burdens, me helping you with yours and you helping me with mine and everyone else helping everyone else. There is a wonderful illustration of this verse in the original edition of the Good News translation of the Bible. It shows a line of people, old and young, male and female, and each is holding with one hand a bag slung over their shoulder and they are each with the other hand cupping and helping lift the weight of the bag slung over the shoulder of the person ahead of them. They are fulfilling what Paul says in our passage: that “all must carry their own loads” and that we simultaneously “bear one another's burdens.”

Sometimes what stops us from bearing the burdens of another is the fear that we cannot do it. And yet there are videos of groups of people lifting cars off of a pinned child or a trapped driver with their bare hands. Together we are stronger than we think, especially when motivated by the power of love. Which is to say the power of God. We are all made in his image, however deeply we have buried that image, however obscured or distorted it appears under all the sin we have heaped upon it. I remember seeing a video at the Mel Fisher museum of how they restore the treasures they have brought from the bottom of the sea. A worker washes and gently brushes away centuries of accumulated muck from a shape that really doesn't look like much until she patiently reveals that underneath was a ruby cross or gold chalice. We are like that. And if we let the Spirit work on us the beauty inside us will see the light of day once more and shine.

A scientific study concluded that the key ingredient in building a civilization is religion. It is the glue that holds together people of different families and races and cultures. And in a society where the belief in a God who is loving and just is declining, it is not surprising that our civilization is showing cracks and coming undone. We no longer recognize the image of God in each person or the command to love others, be they neighbors or enemies, be they native or foreign, be they sinners like us or sinners unlike us. We will never get rid of evil by getting rid of certain classes of people. We will only get rid of evil by getting rid of it in ourselves. And we obviously cannot do it by ourselves. It would be like a doctor trying to do a heart transplant on himself. We need to trust God to open us up, fix what's inside and give us the heart of Jesus, Love Incarnate.

When I was in recovery for my broken wrists and legs my therapy was to increase my strength and flexibility through exercise with resistance. At times I had weights put on my healing limbs. And our therapy is to put that heart of love we get from Jesus to work, bearing the burdens of one another. We need to show that our love is not all talk. As Paul said in the previous chapter of Galatians, “the only thing that matters is faith working through love.”

That means loving the unlovable, as God does when he loves each sinner. It means initiating contact with those not like us, as Jesus did with the Samaritan woman. (John 4) It means reaching out to those society sees as pariahs, the way Jesus touched the leper and healed him. (Matthew 8:1-4) It means seeing in those who suffer not reasons for blame but opportunities to show God's love in action, as Jesus did with the man born blind (John 9:1-7) It means being willing to live a life of love even if you have to suffer and make sacrifices to do so, as Jesus and his disciples made the ultimate sacrifice.

The saying goes, “A ship is safest in the harbor but that's not what ships were made for.” We were made to love and that means pushing out of our cozy bays and sheltering coves into the vast rough seas of this world. It means braving storms and great waves that threaten to capsize us. But if we open our sails and let the wind of the Spirit move us and use the proper tools God gave us and follow Jesus, the captain of our salvation, (Hebrews 2:10) we will save many who are lost and sinking. And when we pull into home port at last, we will not report how we cowered within our walls but how we answered God's call and set forth on a life of adventure, went to many an exotic place, met with many a new and different people and made them our brothers and sisters. And we will see them no longer as burdens but precious treasures, who will stand beside us in God's kingdom with a great multitude no one can number, of all nations and tribes and peoples and tongues. God will wipe away every tear from our eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain. On that day God will complete the work of healing and reconciliation which we are to be doing right now.