Homily, Work and Rest
The Sixth Sunday after the Pentecost, Proper 9A (2026)
St. Peter’s Episcopal Church
Plant City, FL
The Rev. Derek M Larson, TSSF
Today’s Lectionary Readings:
Zechariah 9:9-12
Psalm 145:8-15
Romans 7:15-25a
Matthew 11:16-19, 25-30
In the name of God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen.
There are very, very fews things in this world more inspiring, more inviting, more exciting that a soft pillow and a big blanket. I’m serious!
It’s one of my favorite things in this world. Cozying up with a pillow and blanket on a raining day, or a windy day, or a cold day, or after a busy day, or really any day is absolutely one of my favorite things to do. Anyone else feel that way?
When the world around us is non-stop busy and chaotic and loud and demanding and never ending, a pillow and a blanket can act as a nice cocoon—a shelter from the outside world where we can rest.
We live in culture that longs for rest, but we largely don’t know how. We’ve been so shaped by the idolization of productivity and the need to fill our time and attention with technology and tasks, that we grow uncomfortable with too little stimuli or too much silence too little to do. And yet we long for it. We were made for it. On the seventh day of creation, God rested and hallowed it.
And for that reason Jesus’ words in today’s gospel are a balm for the weary, “Come to me all you who are weary and carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest.” That’s us. The weary. Those carrying heavy burdens. The invitation—the promise—is for us.
And yet, in the very next line, just where we expect Jesus to offer us a soft pillow and a big blanket, we are given instead a yoke. “Take my yoke upon you and learn from me.”
A yoke, which was a metaphor in Jesus’ day for a rabbi’s teaching, is literally a big wooden beam that lays across the shoulders, attached to a cart or plow whose weight must then be pulled across a field, back and forth, back and forth through the hours of the day. “I will give you rest,” Jesus says. I’m wondering if Jesus knows what rest is, because that does not sound like it. Where’s my pillow and blanket?
Or perhaps you’re not like me. Perhaps you’d prefer a pair of work gloves over a pillow and blanket. Perhaps you believe the problem with this world isn’t the lack of rest but that we’ve forgotten the meaning of hard work! That we are so bent on cutting corners and finding shortcuts and using computers to solve all our problems that we’ve lost the ability to create with our own two hands. Yes, God created a day of rest, but God also created six days of work and we spend entirely too much time on our couches in front of the television screen. And when Jesus says take up your yoke, perhaps a voice in your heart cheers, “Finally! Let’s get to work. The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. Let’s get out into the world and build something of value.” And yet what do we do with the pesky fact that Jesus calls his yoke, not hard work but easy, and his burden light?
In this beautifully poetic passage, Jesus holds rest and work in tension with one another, so that one finds its purpose in the other. But this passage is not about modern notions of work-life balance. It is not a vision for 8 hours of work, 8 hours of sleep, and 8 hours of play, not that there’s anything wrong with that. Instead, the passage invites us to consider not the amount of work and rest but the meaning of work and rest.
There are some who look at our world and say the problem is that we don’t rest enough. We’re all go-go-go and never take time for ourselves.
And there are some who look at our world and say the problem is that we don’t work enough. We’re lazy and take advantage of the system, concerned more about our own pleasure than contributing to society.
But the main question is not really about whether we rest or work enough, but whether we participate in the right kind of rest and work.
Does our work have meaning for the glory of God and the love of neighbor, or is it for the gain of the dollar at the expense of our neighbor?
Does our rest participate in a holy sabbath as the culmination of creation, or is it purely a fix of self-pleasure and the numbing of pain?
“Come to me all you who are weary and carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me.”
What Jesus is pointing to here is not the amount of work and rest, but work and rest with purpose. Work and rest with meaning.The yoke Jesus speaks of is not simply work, but purpose.
When our work is without purpose, our rest becomes shallow. Simply a pause in action filled with distraction. But when our work becomes a vocation, a calling from God to participate in bringing healing to this world through communion with God and one another, then our rest becomes a glimpse of that heavenly kingdom that Jesus proclaims.
Rest is not primarily the absence of work. It is the holy enjoyment of work that has meaning.
So what does that mean for us? Retired folks. Nine-Five folks. Gig-economy folks. Students. Salesmen. Stay-at-home parents? Should we all quit our work to find new jobs?
For some of us, perhaps. But for most of us it simply requires a shift in our awareness. How is our work, even the smallest or most menial task, an opportunity to love God and love our neighbor? And how is our rest, be it a Saturday at home or a 10 minute break at the office, an opportunity to love God and love our neighbor?
The yoke that Jesus calls us to, is simply that. A yoke that frames all of life—all our work and all our rest—according to those two questions. How is this moment, this task, this pause, this relationship, this pain, this joy, this work, this rest an opportunity for love?
And when love becomes so deeply ingrained within our daily lives, when it becomes the purpose of all our work and the purpose of all our rest, when it becomes the meaning of all our lives, then what was once heavy becomes light, what was once a burden becomes a joy, what was once suffering becomes healing. Not because all things are easy, but because all things become vessels of God’s love.
I still think there are very few things more wonderful than a soft pillow and a big blanket, but the yoke that Jesus offers, that holy work and rest, is by far one of them.
“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.”
Questions for Reflection
- How do my daily work and rest have purpose and meaning?
- In what ways does my regular work offer opportunities to love God and love others?
- In what ways does my regular rest offer opportunities to love God and love others?
- What is the quality of my rest? Is it real rest as God intends, or is it simply please and distraction?
- What is the attitude I have in my work? Is it just to get by for a paycheck, or do I participate in it with reverence and holiness as an opportunity to love God and love others?
Thoughts on Faith 