This Sunday started my week off of camp and Pastor B was going to be away from CTK in Slidell, so he asked me last week to preach this past Sunday. I have preached before but on a topic or on a special Sunday. Here are the readings:
Zechariah 9:9-12
Rejoice greatly, O daughter Zion! Shout aloud, O daughter Jerusalem! Lo, your king comes to you; triumphant and victorious is he, humble and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey. He will cut off the chariot from Ephraim and the war-horse from Jerusalem; and the battle bow shall be cut off, and he shall command peace to the nations; his dominion shall be from sea to sea, and from the River to the ends of the earth. As for you also, because of the blood of my covenant with you, I will set your prisoners free from the waterless pit. Return to your stronghold, O prisoners of hope; today I declare that I will restore to you double.
Romans 7:15-25
I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. Now if I do what I do not want, I agree that the law is good. But in fact it is no longer I that do it, but sin that dwells within me. For I know that nothing good dwells within me, that is, in my flesh. I can will what is right, but I cannot do it. For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I do. Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I that do it, but sin that dwells within me. So I find it to be a law that when I want to do what is good, evil lies close at hand. For I delight in the law of God in my inmost self, but I see in my members another law at war with the law of my mind, making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. Wretched man that I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!
Matthew 11:16-19, 25-30
But to what will I compare this generation? It is like children sitting in the marketplaces and calling to one another, 'We played the flute for you, and you did not dance; we wailed, and you did not mourn. 'For John came neither eating nor drinking, and they say, 'He has a demon'; the Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, 'Look, a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!' Yet wisdom is vindicated by her deeds." At that time Jesus said, "I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and the intelligent and have revealed them to infants; yes, Father, for such was your gracious will. All things have been handed over to me by my Father; and no one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him. Come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. 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. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light
And here is my sermon . . .
My favorite movie for a long time was Dead Poet's Society, in which Robin Williams plays a
teacher at a male boarding school who inspires his students. In one scene, he leads his students out to the courtyard, and instructs them to take a walk. Students wander around the yard, but before long, two, then three, then the group are marching in time and clapping to a rhythm. Robin Williams' character, Mr. Keating, questions them – saying – you were free to walk however you wanted, but after not long at all you fell into conformity, into
one stride, into the pressure of the group. Have you ever been given freedom – perhaps when you graduated from a school or stood at the crossroads of new employment or a new relationship – and felt – not so free anymore?
Freedom is a very weighty word for us, tied to so closely to our national identity. Most of us when we think about freedom, especially in terms of us as Americans, think about freedom as freedom from restrictions. We value the freedom to buy as much as we want, seek the job we choose, and live where we want. These are all great blessings we enjoy and
give thanks for. However, with all those come pressures, anxieties about money, health, the future, our safety, the safety of our stuff! What a paradox we have, of life out of balance! What a sense of irony is at hand here!
Paul feels this paradox very personally when he describes the inner conflict in Romans 7. The freedom that he has been given by God leaves him in this paradox, on this scale, tipping to either side. Heart versus body, sin versus will, good versus evil. In fact if Paul were to try to find the solution to this “war” within his own self, there would be no resolution he says, retched man that I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! – and isn't it beautiful that the answer to this great and convoluted passage of conflict is so simple – Christ – and thanks be to God for that.
If Christ is this simple answer for finding a deeper freedom, not a freedom from restrictions but a freedom that means more, on a deeper level. . . then how do we find that freedom? How do we meet Christ in such a way as to fall into this gift?
Jesus answers in Matthew - Come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. 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. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.
This sounds great! Easy! Light! But we are still the ox in this situation, the ox under the yoke. How can we be free if we are yoked? Christ's yoke, just like one for oxen, if you can picture it, offers us two aspects which are both freeing and gracious. First, we are given freedom from our burdens, from our weariness in the world through Christ, but this freedom of release is granted as we are granted freedom for the work given to us by the Holy Spirit. Our yoke is easy. But the Greek word, chrestos, can also be translated as fit for use, good, manageable, or suited for a specific purpose. So our yoke it is suited for us, made for the wearer, perfect in its completeness for the job that needs to be done.
Our Christian call, granted to us by the Holy Spirit, is where we find that delicate balance between the work of the yoke and the rest that it gives. Have you ever had a moment when you have been needed and you have been just the right person for the job at hand? Perhaps you were helping a friend, or were just the right person to fix that computer, that tool, that situation between co-workers. This gospel struck me so strongly when I was approached by a friend this week in a moment of severe crisis, needing help – and – I was the one she asked for help. As I spoke to her I didn't analyze, I just did the job at hand, I just went, like an ox in a yoke, driven forward, and everything else fell away, all my other worries.
My sense of call has been shaped by moments by this, where I have felt the nudge of the Holy Spirit that this is my yoke, this is my spot. As I grow more and more excited about entering seminary at Philadelphia in the fall, I know that it will not be easy in the sense that we always think of it, as lenient or undemanding, but that I was made for it, and that through the power of the Holy Spirit, I and you, come to Christ, each fitted for the yoke, freed from the world and for our purpose.
When you come into the work of the Spirit, everything you had worried about, all the little things that had been revolving in your mind disappear, as you go to work there is a moment of clarity, you are in the zone, and the job is done, you move forward under the yoke with freedom for the task at hand . . . because the yoke is easy, and the burden is light . . . It is so powerful to me that we each are called into this relation with Christ in our baptism – we are baptized into the death of Christ, taking on our yoke – and raised again to new life, freed for our purpose. . . What if we, instead of falling into step of conformity, with society, so easily like in the scene from the movie I described at the beginning, we all tried to fall into step with our yoke?
Each of the readings for today have the strong conflict of juxtaposed paradoxes, of freedom and slavery, of the confusion created by humanity without grace. With Jesus we are invited into relationship, to the yoke. We are made for our yoke. We are the right tool for the job, and when we follow our call, go where we are driven, it is easy. We are children and hence the Father will bear the weight for us, but our path is light because He is the only one who can take our burdens. Amen.
