Drop Your Burdens!

There’s an interesting book that came out in 2021.  It’s called “First Nations Version - an Indigenous Translation of the New Testament".  It uses cultural metaphors and language for the old biblical story that we know very well.  Jesus is called “Creator Sets Free” and John is known as “Gift of Goodwill”.  Their version of Luke 3 says, after all the historical stuff about who was in power:

“It was during this time that Creator’s message came down from above like a burden basket and rested on John.  His message was for all to return to Creator’s right ways of thinking and come to the river to perform the purification ceremony to be released from their bad hearts and broken ways.  John was like a voice howling in the desert, ‘clear the pathways! Make a straight path for the coming of the honored one.  Then all people will clearly see the good road that sets them free.”

Wow, what different images these bring up.  Being released from bad hearts and broken ways to follow a good road sounds pretty enticing.  All too often the old language that we are used to, “Repent and turn away from your sins” sounds like an invitation to browbeat ourselves with guilt, shame and blame, tell ourselves how awful we are, and come to God groveling and embarrassed.  Not at all appealing.  That might have worked at one time, but most people today recognize that guilt and shame do not grow healthy souls.  Psychologists and counsellors do not spend time insulting and bullying their clients into better behavior.  It just doesn’t work!  But being released from broken ways, who wouldn’t like to be set free to walk along a better path?  Sign me up for that!

How do we do that?  Now, this is not the time to go down to the river to pray and wander into it up to your waist for a baptism.  Too cold these days for sure.  But it was curious that John’s message of repentance and redemption was described as a burden basket.  What is a burden basket?  Why is it mentioned as part of this scripture on the second Sunday of Advent when we focus on peace?

Turns out the burden basket is known as a tool for building peace.  It was traditionally used by women to gather firewood for their homes, and it was worn on their backs like a backpack.  When a woman got home, she would hang it by her entranceway.  The women were only supposed to put as much wood in it that they could carry, so as not to hurt themselves or burden themselves more than was healthy for them.

They hung their baskets outside their homes as a reminder that their homes were sacred and they were to leave their burdens at the door and not bring them inside.  This was also a metaphor for how they were to behave when they went to someone else’s home.  Visitors would touch the baskets and remember not to bring their burdens into someone else’s living space.  They were not to add their burdens to their hosts.  If they were visiting with anger or hurt, jealousy or fear, those feelings were to be set aside.  One does not add one’s burdens and problems to someone else without permission.  One deals with their own issues outside the sacred space first, and does what they can to recognize and be responsible for dealing with their own loads. It’s called accountability.

What a kind and peaceful way of living!  What a way of to be responsible for and then released from the things that weigh us down.  There is a time, of course, for asking for help, but knowing when that time is, and who the appropriate person is to ask for help is also a way of building peace.  Laying down our emotional burdens is a way of reminding us to purify our intentions and our words and our actions.  And be accountable for our own burdens so they won’t hurt someone else.

What burdens would you put down if you had the chance?  There’s so much to choose from.  The world right now feels like it isn’t very peaceful.  South Korea is under martial law one moment and then not the next.  I’m unsure if the ceasefire in the Middle East is a thing or is it off again, Ukraine is still at war and North Korean soldiers are fighting for Russia, and what’s happening in Syria? I don’t understand the Tariff thing with Mexico and the States, and the whole situation in the world seems anything but peaceful.  We teeter between anxiety and apathy, neither of which are healthy alternatives for us as humans or as a society.  Where is peace found in all this fear?

People are lonely, people are anxious, people are struggling, people are hurting.  They don’t know where to turn to and they don’t know that peace is possible.  And maybe we don’t have control of what happens in the bigger world, but we can choose to commit to being bearers of peace.  And only carry as much as we can manage.  The rest gets left.  Drop that burden.  Right here, right now.  In this burden basket we call Christ’s good news.  Release our broken ways, our hurting hearts and our wounded path for the good path that purifies us so we can all walk the good road that leads to peace.  Amen