If you want to hear it... here is a link to the recording of the sermon from the HopeWhangarei website... of course in preaching live it varies a bit from the script. https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/hope-whangarei/episodes/13-8-23-Howard-Carter---Bear-one-anothers-burdens-e28ri62/a-aaae171
One of my earliest musical memories as a child is hearing the Hollies 1969 song “He ain’t heavy, he’s my brother”, it was recorded and released the same year by Neil Diamond. All I remember is the haunting mouth organ introduction and that line “he ain’t heavy he’s my brother’ and as I started to prepare this message for today on ‘bear one another’s burdens’, it ended up on repeat on the playlist in my head. “ He Ain’t heavy He’s my brother”…
The song was written by two men, Bobby Scott and Bob Russell, who only meet three times and composed the song. It was quite poignant as Bob Russell had terminal lymphoma and died six months after it was released.
But the line ‘he ain’t heavy, he’s my brother’ has a deeper origin. father Steven Boes writes…
‘Back in 1918, a boy named Howard Loomis was abandoned by his mother at Father Flanagan’s Home for Boys, which had opened just a year earlier. Howard had polio and wore heavy leg braces. Walking was difficult for him, especially when he had to go up or down steps.
Soon, several of the Home’s older boys were carrying Howard up and down the stairs.
One day, Father Flanagan asked Reuben Granger, one of those older boys, if carrying Howard was hard. Reuben replied, “He ain’t heavy, Father… he’s m’ brother.”’
In 1947 Flanagan saw a photo of a child being carried by his brother in a magazine with that same caption under it and wrote asking to use the photo and the slogan for the basis of his growing organizations logo. …that was Boystown… ‘he ain’t heavy he’s my brother’ Let us bear one another’s burdens and in this way you will obey the law of Christ.’
Our winter sermon series this year is called ‘One Anothering: The Spirit filled art of Christian Community’ and we are exploring Jesus new commandment to love one another as I have loved you by looking at twelve ‘one another’ sayings in the New Testament Epistles. Seeing how Jesus inspirational and aspirational command works itself out in everyday life, in practical terms. Bear one another burden’s and fulfilling the law of Christ for me picks up Jesus teaching in the sermon on the mount about going the extra mile… Jews could be made to carry the pack of a occupying roman soldier for a kilometer, a task that was onerous and seen as the epitome of oppression, we can push you around like a salve or a beast of burden, but said Jesus show love even to your enemies by carrying it an extra K. As the passage we had read finishes with this morning we should not get tired of doing good to others and especially to our fellow believers… part of that is bearing one another burdens.
Let have a look at this exhortation in its context in the book of Galatians. Then at what it means and some practical thoughts about how we live it out.
Paul was writing to a church struggling with a controversy over whether gentile believers needed to obey the Jewish law to be Christians. Paul writes to remind the believers that it is through the life death and resurrection of Jesus that we have been put right with God, not by the law. His teaching is summed up in Galatians 5:6 where he says ‘for when we are in union with Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor lack of it makes any difference at all; what matters is faith that works through love.” Then Paul had gone on to defend himself against allegations that without the law it would lead believers to simply fall back into appeasing the desires of their old self. Paul counters that by calling the believers not to focus on their own wants but the needs of others, to serve one another, in doing that they were fulfilling the spirit of the law, by loving their neighbour as themselves.
He then goes on to point the believers to walking in step with the spirit is the way to avoid falling into simply focusing on our own desires, as we walk in step with the spirit says Paul it will lead to us developing this glittering list of virtues. Things we call the fruit of the Holy Spirit… love, Joy, peace, patience, goodness, kindness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.
Then in chapter six grounds Paul those virtues with what Richard Longnecker calls ‘a loose collection of exhortations’ concrete terms of what it means to walk in the spirit as opposed to the law, practical ways those fruit of the spirit are used in everyday relationships. Our family loves cherries, Christmas for us is not Christmas with out a box of cherries of four on the table. In Rotorua we had a cherry tree in our yard, but it was an ornamental cherry tree, beautiful red cherry berries, but as I discovered they were totally bitter and sour and inedible, real cherries are designed for the sweetness and taste to be eaten and shared. Paul shows how those fruit of the spirit are not just to look nice on the tree but to be shared and consumed in relationships in the Christian community. . One resource I looked at recently defined discipleship as spending time with Jesus, to become like Jesus and do the things Jesus did’…
Paul's list contain negative exhortations, ways we shouldn’t act… with the focus on who we are our own importance and in then positive exhortations restoring those who are trapped in sin, bearing burdens, even carrying our own load, and not becoming tired in sowing good seed, which of course is the purpose of fruit to reproduce, and doing good. James Dunne in his commentary says that the spirit lead life leads us to be sympathetic to others and self-critical at the same time… self-aware of our own need for forgiveness and transformation…
The exhortation we are focusing on today from that list is bear one another burdens. In his Book Love One Another Gerald Stittser defines burden bearing as like comforting, it is a command that helps us deal with people who want to progress on the journey of faith but for some reason find it difficult’. There is some debate as to what is meant by burden but really that burden can mean anything that is oppressive and a hinderance to the other persons progress. Stitter asserts that modern phycology has the unwanted side effect of making people perpetual victims, that they will not find healing and wholeness, but our faith is in Jesus to be able to bring his healing and wholeness. A great example of what this might look like comes from that nameless group of friends in the gospels who bring their crippled friend to Jesus. Lowering him down through the roof of an overcrowded house. They carry him, they work at getting around the obstacles between their friend and Jesus, they use their skills and talents, ingenuity and imagination, determination and even their cheekiness, and their faith to see their friend encounter Jesus and come to a place of wholeness. Mind you sometimes we will need to help carry that burden for a long time, maybe even a lifetime…
Carrying burdens can be messy, the passage connects this exhortation to the one that went before, restoring those entrapment in sin and its consequences, helping them untangle from that web. Those who may be led off the path of following Christ, or who are actively hurting other people in the community. Paul says the person in tune with the spirit, will focus on gently leading them back, restoring them to right relationship with God and with their fellow believers. Gentleness is a fruit of the Holy Spirit and it is applied in this situation. Gentleness comes from the same word as meek, as being focused on the common good and not being distracted or put off that by any slight or injury.
Paul also warns us again that the life in tune with the spirit means we stay aware of the trap of sin that has tripped up the person we are working to restore. Perhaps remembering that experience with the ornamental cherry tree, when you are dealing with someone trapped in bitterness and resentment, it is easy to find yourself not caught up with the same feelings when you hear painful stories of wrongs that have been done and you can lose sight of grace and forgiveness. carrying others burdens can mean a sharing in that sort of pain and a walking through it to Jesus.
Bearing one another’s burdens does not mean that we dump stuff on each other. You may have found it interesting to note that a couple of verse after Paul talks of carrying one another’s burdens that he tells the Galatians to carry their own load. While the words are similar in meaning. Burdens speaks of an over oppressive situation whereas load talks of the everyday humdrum demands and weight of life. The context of load here speaks very much of finances. So someone might need to have help as they work their ay our of crippling debt, but the expectation is that as much as they can they are to be able to look after caring for themselves. In his letter to the Thessalonians, Paul has to tell believers there who were expecting Jesus imminent return so had stopped working and sold everything they had, and just waited round looking at the sky, to not be a burden on the Christian community but if they don’t work they don’t eat. The emphasis on financial help and loads does carry on here as it links what Paul is saying with the next verse which kind of seems like it does not fit… to share from the good we have received with those who teach the word. It is one of the earliest pieces of evidence of a developing dedicated professional teacher in the Christian church. Paul saw that as a proper and important development, even though his own practise was to support himself in ministry.
We need to be aware that we can get tired in carrying one another’s burdens, and in doing Good, and Paul warns against that. How do we keep ourselves from getting tired of doing Good. To help others requires that we keep our tanks full, we do the things that keep us us, we cultivate those. We look after our wellbeing, we rest, we sabbath and take holidays. We need a balance in our lives of the things that build us up and relationships where we need to be doing the carrying and building up. Carrying burdens is also a team sport, and we often think Paul is writing to us as individuals we have what I call You sing itis… we read you in the bible with as second person singular verbs not as corporate verbs… one another means that we are all involved as much as we can in the burden carrying.
The last thing I want to say about carrying one another’s burdens is that one of the things that often stops burdens from being carried is that most kiwi of reactions (note to international readers here Kiwi is how we New Zealanders refer to ourselves) … ‘ Oh I don’t want to be a burden’… scripture exhorts us to help one another. The most amazing thing I’ve seen in this church is when there is a ned that is expressed there are people who come to the fore and help meet those needs are carry those burdens. Remember you aren’t heavy you’re a brother, you ain’t heavy you’re a sister in Christ.
I started this message by talking about the song 'he ain’t heavy he’s my brother' and I want to finish by quoting some of the lyrics…
…
If I'm laden at all
I'm laden with sadness
That everyone's heart
Isn't filled with the gladness
Of love for one another
But they don’t get the last word… Jesus does… We know the gladness of being loved, so should love one another, we know what it is to have our burden carried, as Jesus invited us to “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. 29 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. 30 For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” So let us carry one another’s burdens and in that fulfil the law of Christ."
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