{"id":10,"date":"2016-10-26T20:21:40","date_gmt":"2016-10-26T20:21:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/test.ststephensottawa.ca\/?page_id=10"},"modified":"2016-10-26T19:00:47","modified_gmt":"2016-10-27T00:00:47","slug":"ministry","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/test.ststephensottawa.ca\/?page_id=10","title":{"rendered":"Ministry"},"content":{"rendered":"

Message from the Interim Moderator<\/strong><\/p>\n

Rest & the 3-legged race
\nTake my yoke upon you and learn from me \u2026 and you will find rest for your souls. \u2013 Matthew 11:29
\nJune. Church picnics, weddings, and 3-legged races. You know, those races in which two people, who may have different height and body-types, agree to be tied together at the ankle. To become one runner. The secret is to establish a rhythm you can both maintain.<\/p>\n

Three-legged races are hilarious to watch and sometimes frustrating to run. And they\u2019re a great picture of life in the church family. Teamed up with folks whose personalities are different from ours, we share frustrations and laughs as we lope toward a common goal.<\/p>\n

And sometimes we just get tuckered out.<\/p>\n

\u201cAre you weary? Carrying a heavy load? Come to me,\u201d says Jesus. \u201cI\u2019ll give you rest.\u201d About now, I\u2019m picturing a month at the cottage, complete with catering service. But that can\u2019t be quite what he has in mind, because Jesus\u2019 next words paint a picture of work:
\nA team of oxen ploughing a field. Two animals yoked in a harness. It\u2019s an odd image for rest. But look at them, working in step. Watch their easy rhythm.<\/p>\n

\u201cTake my yoke upon you and learn from me,\u201d Jesus says. \u201cFor I am gentle and humble at heart\u2026 and you will find rest for your souls.\u201d Jesus invites us to live in tandem with him. To engage in his work\u2014and ours\u2014as he teaches us. We\u2019re not in this on our own. Step by step, he leads, he lopes along with us.<\/p>\n

Walking with Jesus takes practice. It\u2019s a bit like running a three-legged race. We have to learn the rhythm, to walk in step. When we pull away, everything stops, and we fall.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy yoke is \u2018easy,\u2019\u201d he says. The word he uses means kind. Jesus is a carpenter, remember? His yoke fits. It doesn\u2019t chafe. When we learn from Jesus, when we live in tandem with him, there is no shortage of work. But it\u2019s life-giving work. He engages our gifts and passions, and he fuels us with his Spirit.
\nJesus is offering to carry the load with us. Our challenge is to let him. When we quit pulling away, and begin to take our cue from Jesus, we find rest for our souls.<\/p>\n

We learn rhythms of grace. We match our stride to his. We take time to pray. We read his Word. We listen for his voice. In faith we step along with him.<\/p>\n

As we learn to trust him, we find rest from anxiety. As we receive his forgiveness for wrongs we have done, we find rest from regret. As we offer forgiveness to people who have wronged us, we find rest from resentment.<\/p>\n

We find rest, because we\u2019re becoming the people God made us to be. The church family God calls us to be. There is good and purposeful work to do. Work of grace and love and compassion. This summer, we could have fun honing our skills at running 3-legged races. Rhythms of grace.<\/p>\n

Denise<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Message from the Interim Moderator Rest & the 3-legged race Take my yoke upon you and learn from me \u2026 and you will find rest for your souls. \u2013 Matthew 11:29 June. Church picnics, weddings, and 3-legged races. You know, those races in which two people, who may have different height and body-types, agree to … Continue reading “Ministry”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-10","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.ststephensottawa.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/10","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.ststephensottawa.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.ststephensottawa.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.ststephensottawa.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.ststephensottawa.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/test.ststephensottawa.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/10\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11,"href":"https:\/\/test.ststephensottawa.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/10\/revisions\/11"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.ststephensottawa.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}