S.P.A.C.E. 15th July 2020 28 ‘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.’

Matthew 11:25-30 (A lectionary reading for tomorrow)

Laboureur dans un Champ (worker in a field) Vincent Van Gogh (1889)

Downloaded from https://www.christies.com/features/Highlights-of-the-Bass-Collection During his short and troubled life Vincent van Gogh carried many burdens. He was unlucky in love. He failed to find fulfilment in various occupations. Although successful as an art dealer he became disillusioned with the commercialisation of fine art. As a protestant missionary in Belgium, a role he approached with pious frugality, he fell out with the church authorities for “undermining the priesthood.” (He was living in squalor in a hut, having given up his allocated lodging to a homeless man). And artistically he gained recognition only in his final years, by which time he was increasingly troubled by mental illness, which was his greatest burden and one which eventually led to his suicide. Laboureur dans un Champ was painted while he was in St Rémy in Provence for treatment following one of his psychotic episodes. It was the first painting he was able to do after a six-week exclusion from his studio. His doctors had imposed this ban for his own protection but it was deeply frustrating for him. Van Gogh had occupied himself with painting throughout his time in St Rémy as he found it helped his condition, though the particularly heavy brush strokes may suggest that his anxieties remained with him.

For about a year this view, seen through the barred windows of the room allocated as his studio, was all he saw of the outside world. He painted the scene many times in its various seasons and moods. Now as he returned to his studio once again he may have been tempted to envy the peasant farmer his life of simplicity and comparative freedom in the seemingly endless open space. If the artist painting this scene found his burdens lifted by his work the same would probably not have applied to his subject, the man ploughing in the heat of the Provençal sun. The aching reality of subsistence farming in the days before mechanisation is rather different from any romanticised view of agricultural labour. Our burdens may come in various forms. We may not carry the weight of problems of a troubled artistic genius or a 19th century agricultural worker but if we have no burdens we are fortunate. At present there is good reason to be concerned about issues of mental, physical and economic well-being – either our own or that of others close to us. But even in more normal times many are worn down by their cares. They may spring from our concern for our children or aged parents, worries about health, work, or relationships. Other worries, equally real to us may actually be self-inflicted. We suffer self-doubt, we strive to achieve unrealistic ambitions, or we may worry about our image. We work hard to earn money, without stopping to question whether we really need the things that money buys. We even worry about planning our relaxation, so that social activities or holidays can themselves be a cause of pressure rather than a means of relaxation. And we seldom take time to stop and listen or even to stop and stare. So those verses from Matthew, said by Jesus to a simpler and slower world of farmers and fishermen, are even more relevant to us today – they are welcome words to a weary world. They are a reminder that Jesus did not come to load us with empty religious ritual. Instead he called us to a living faith through which he helps to carry us over our difficulties, ease our burdens and release us from anxiety.

***** Some points for prayer

• for all who cry out for rest and relief, • for those whose pressured lives give them little time for reflection and relaxation, • for those specifically affected by Covid19, • for all who are weighed down by the burdens of guilt or self-doubt, • for all whose wealth or success prevents them seeing their dependence on God.

Heavenly Father, we have not made you. You have made us. Deliver us from burdens that are exhausting us. Carry those for whom anxiety has brought ill health. Support the weak and weary. Keep us all secure in the safety of your strong and everlasting love, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Tony Staples, Licensed Reader The next SPACE reflection will be posted on Wednesday August 5th