Donald M. Ashman
September 4, 2011
An old legend relates that long ago God had a great many burdens which He wished to have carried from one place to another, so He asked the animals tolend a hand. But all of them began to make excuses for not helping: theelephant was too dignified; the lion, too proud; and so on. Finally thebirds came to God and said, “If you will tie the burdens into small bundles,we’ll be glad to carry them for you. We are small but we would like tohelp.” So God fastened upon the back of each one a small bundle, and theyall set out walking across the plain to their destination. They sang as theywent, and did not seem to feel the weight of their burdens at all. Every daytheir burdens seemed lighter and lighter, until the burdens seemed to belifting the birds, instead of the birds carrying the burdens. When theyarrived at their destination, they discovered that when they removed theirloads, there were wings in their place, wings which enabled them to fly tothe sky and the tree tops.
When God created men and women in His image, He gave them free will, which(unlike animals in the legend) really did give them the choice to carryGod’s burdens or not. The legend conveys a truth, but it is only a legend orparable to help us see God’s plan for us, because for men and women God’sburdens are the burdens they carry for others – the love they show forothers, which lift them into happiness such as they have never known. Cynicsof the Christian religion scoff at such ideas and say that Christians canonly be happy when they die and what they really mean is that they are likethe elephant or the lion; they are too proud and self-centered to carryGod’s burdens. If we look at human history and God’s Divine Providence, wecan see that God in both the Old Testament and the New has, over threethousand years plus been teaching men and women how to become happy bycarrying the burdens of their brothers and sisters.
The Epistle and the Gospel today profoundly link Divine Providence inChrist’s priesthood and Christ’s teaching. St. Paul tells us that Christdied for our inability to carry the burden of our brothers and sisters, butthat he rose from the dead for the purpose of instituting a kingdom of loveand specifically taking Paul of Tarsus who had persecuted the early Churchand turning him into an instrument of Christ’s teaching. And the Gospel isan illustration of that teaching and kingdom: a reminder that humility is adivine form of carrying the burdens of our brothers and sisters that leadsto salvation; happiness now in this life and happiness for eternity. ThoseChristians who do not cultivate humility cannot understand the legend of thebirds; how that by carrying the burdens of our brothers and sisters, whichare the burdens of God, we come nearer to God.
They key to the parable was the willing humility and servant hood of thebirds. How that teaching is echoed in the Gospel – for neither thelegend-parable nor the Gospel go out of date. My favorite version goes likethis: two Episcopalians went up to the altar to pray. The first, a threetime church warden and tither of twenty years, stood and prayed thus withhimself, “Lord, I thank thee, that I am not as other people are, uninvolvedin parish life, leading questionable moral lives or just too cheap to giveof their time, treasure and talent – or even as that lazy, sluggard in theback of the church. The other, who hadn’t seen the inside of the churchsince two years ago last Christmas but had just been diagnosed with cancer,now knelt in the back of the church. He was insecure and afraid. He wouldn’teven look up to heaven but smote upon his breast, saying, “God, be mercifulto me a sinner.”
My dear friends, let me finish by spelling out God’s burden. The sick,frightened sluggard – on the surface of things – was not as worthy as thestalwart of the Church. His illness, his fear had brought him back, and heprobably did not fully understand how God uses illness to bring his childrenhome. Yet he – in his humility – would be saved in spite of hisimperfections. But the loyal son of the Church, like the elder brother instory of the prodigal Son, was in deep spiritual trouble because he had nohumility and judged his weaker brother callously. His happiness was in hisimagined righteousness not in his compassion for his weaker brother. But weneed to understand that God works in mysterious ways to bring the sluggardshome and the proud to the happiness of humility: for every one that exaltethhimself shall be abased; and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted.
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