Our readings this week are Colossians 3.12–17 and Matthew 11:28-30

We've just been through the process of waiting for and receiving GCSE results in our house. It took me back a bit to my own school days. One of the things that has changed since I was at school, though, is that far less of the grade, if any, seems to be dependent upon coursework. When I was taking my exams, it was possible in some subjects to know before you even started a paper that you'd already passed because your coursework grades were high enough. It didn't matter if you didn't get beyond writing your own name, you'd have a passing grade - albeit not a very good one - by the end of the day. It brings a certain amount of relief to know that you're good enough before you even start on the serious business.

In our readings this week, we find an interesting truth that parallels that in both the letter to the Colossians and the words of Jesus. And it's a reassuring one.

I'm sure I've mentioned it before, but it's always struck me as worrying when people feel that they're not good enough to approach God, or when we start talking about being a 'good' or a 'bad' Christian. It seems to me the ‘pass mark’ is shockingly low. You don’t even need to have started the coursework, let alone passed it – and as for sitting an exam? Pfah!

The letter - or the part of the letter - we're reading this week from Colossians starts: 'As God's chosen people... put on...' It doesn't say once you have put on these virtues, and covered them in love, and started forgiving your neighbour, and become very good at everything you do in your life, then you will be God's chosen and loved people; it says: as God's chosen and beloved people, do these things.

As. You're already there. You didn't even need to write your name on the paper - God already did that for you in the moment God imagined you, and in every moment God creates you..

The starting point for this author is the fact that God has chosen you, that God has loved you in the state that you're already in - whatever that might be, wherever you've been, whoever you are, whatever you've done (I told you I've said it before!). You are chosen and loved.

Therefore, go out the author says, and act as if that's true. Because it’s true. Not to make it true.

In Jesus' words from Matthew this week, we find a very similar dynamic. 'Come to me,' Jesus says, 'those of you who are overburdened, those of you who are heavy laden… Come to me – as you are – and I will give you rest.'

And it's only once he's said that, that he then says, 'Take my yoke upon you.'

Come to me as you are - not in your strength, but in your weakness; not in your power, but in your weariness. Come to me, even though you may not think you're good enough, and you will find rest in me.

And from that place of being accepted, of being chosen, of being loved, you can begin the work of taking my yoke - my teaching, my way of being - upon you and into the world.

The yoke isn't the price of admission. It's what we choose to take up once we've discovered that we're already welcome.

It's worth repeating because it's always worth hearing:

You - and I mean you - are chosen.

You - and I mean you - are loved.

You - and I mean you - are therefore encouraged and equipped to put on all the virtues that flow from that knowledge and that experience, and to live that love out in the world for the blessing of others.