Proper 9A

After spending three weeks reflecting on the great mission discourse from Matthew’s gospel, the lectionary veers us off into another direction. In fact, though today’s words are some of the most familiar of any bible passage, they are also quite unexpected in Matthew’s gospel.

Any regular attendee at the 8.00 Rite One Eucharist hears week in and week out what have come to be known as the comfortable words which follow the absolution. The first of four possible verses the prayer book offers is the King James version of Matthew 11.28: ‘Come unto me, all ye that travail and are heavy laden, and I will refresh you.’ The NRSV translation which we hear this morning alters the verse slightly to: ‘Come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I wwill give you rest.’ Another possible translation can be, ‘Come to me, all you who work hard and are loaded with burdens, and I will give relief to you.’

What is most remarkable about this verse is its unexpected source. It would seem that Matthew combined or, at least, was aware of some verses from the very end of the Book of Ecclesiasticus, otherwise known as the Wisdom of Jesus Son of Ben Sirach. This book dates from roughly two centuries before the birth of Christ, originally written in Hebrew and translated later into Greek. The book of Ben Sirach is devoted to Wisdom and is similar to an earlier biblical book, the Book of Proverbs. It stresses the teachings of wisdom: proper speech, riches and poverty, honesty, diligence, choice of friends, sin and death, retribution and wisdom itself. The most well-known passage from the book is one that we hear on All Saints’ Day, ‘Let us now sing the praises of famous men, our ancestors in their generations….’
Wisdom is a central figure in many places of the Hebrew Scriptures, notably referred to in the Book of Job, Ecclesiastices, Proverbs, and the Psalms.

The early Christians continued teaching about Wisdom but shifted the emphasis from Wisdom as a separate entity to being incarnate in Christ Jesus. Paul describes Wisdom in First Corinthians as Christ. [T]he source of your life [is] in Christ Jesus, who became for us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification and redemption’ (1.30). The Gospel of John starts with a clear reference to Wisdom, using the synonym, ‘word’ as, ‘In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God….’ Matthew, then, follows in a well-established tradition when he writes what we know so well.

This verse invites us to seek Wisdom in Jesus and his teachings. As challenging as Jesus’ teachings are to the status quo, fundamentally they are a light load compared to a system, that (in the eyes of the writer, Matthew) was cumbersome and picayune. The greatest gift that comes with assuming the yoke of Jesus’ teachings is that through him, one also knows God the Creator. This knowledge is not limited to the wordly-wise but to the innocent and downtrodden. Most of all, this verse invites us to consider God and Jesus in a different way, one that can lead to freedom and hope.

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What a break from the teachings about the heavy demands of discipleship we have been hearing! Today’s gospel asks us to find God’s grace and divine revelation through Christ. Christ’s offer of a yoke is gracious because it is a yoke that is shared, and of love and of forgiveness.

Maybe the image of a yoke is too distant for us. We are not first-century peasants labouring under yokes. We are not tenant farmers whose lives are governed by the wills and whims of landowners. We are not bound to 613 commandments that tell us what to do.

But we have other yokes that constrain us. The yokes that weigh us down come from, as Paul would have it in today’s reading from Romans, our more unspiritual side. Some of those yokes are overworking, overeating, over-drinking, worrying (these days that is a biggie), smoking, working wrongly. Those are burdens to our body. As our physical body is burdened, so then is our soul. We create yet more yokes for ourselves: being worried stiff about our day-to-day sustenance; fearing loss, not trusting in God. The list goes on and on. I have my own; I suspect some of you have yours.

So what would it mean for us to shift our focus from negative yokes that really will wear us down into the ground to a yoke that brings us everlasting life? What would it mean to put all our trust in God — not passively but being proactive about living out that trust in our daily life? What would it mean to seek Wisdom, God’s revelation, through Christ? And what would it mean then, to place Wisdom on our shoulders and carry her rather than all those negative burdens?

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This past week in El Salvador I gave two workshops — one of two days to the clergy, one of one day to lay leaders. Bishop Barahona had chosen last year the theme for my teaching time: the theology of authority. Initially, I thought I had heard him wrong (as may well be the case when talking in Spanish in a not-always clear long-distance phone call) and that he wanted me to talk about the authority of theology. But as I started my preparation, I realised that the first subject, the theology of authority was most fitting.

As Episcopalians, we place our trust in three areas that hold authority for us — Holy Scripture, tradition (which includes church history and the creeds), and reason (which includes our experience). The latter influences everything else and therefore, whatever scriptural reading or theological studies I undertake are always influenced by my point of view, my starting point and my assumptions. At the same time, in order to engage in any of these reflections, I must seek Wisdom, God’s revelation, through Christ.

The reason I tell you this is to explain why over fourteen years now, you have not heard me preach about the depravity of humankind, a particular type of yoke (topic) popular to many preachers. This morning’s reading from Romans might well invite that line of thought. However, I don’t place most of my emphasis there for a couple of reasons:

First, God created us in God’s image and for that, we are fundamentally good. We just make really bad decisions sometimes. But to say that our whole being is a sordid, dark rotten mess is for me to denigrate the divine creative process.

Second, Jesus Christ came to redeem us. Through the cross and resurrection, we have already been redeemed. We do fall, we do sin, we do make egregious errors, but we have already been forgiven by God. We just need to accept that divine forgiveness that is stretched out in front of us.

Third, our daily life provides us plenty enough examples of our mortality, finitude, brokenness and sorrow. Why focus on that in a sermon when, as those who have died and risen with Christ through baptism, we have a message of hope to proclaim to this world?

For these reasons and many others, I focus on God’s goodness, mercy, justice, love and compassion. These attributes of God we can find and nurture in one another so that God alone is not the sole provider of gentleness.

Hence, the well-known verse in Matthew’s gospel, Come to me all you that labour and I will give you rest, fits in well with a theology that operates from the above assumptions and starting points.

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If we go back to the notion that God helps us through Wisdom to let go of the yokes that hold us back in order to find the shalom that God desires for each one of us, we can shift our focus from negative yokes to that yoke that brings us everlasting life. To take my questions from above and place them into statements: We can put all our trust in God — not passively but being proactive about living out that trust in our daily life. If we seek Wisdom, God’s revelation, through Christ and place Wisdom on our shoulders and carry her rather than all those negative burdens, we will find that our lives would be changed to the roots. We will become freer. We will live into the fullness God desires for us. Our problems will not disappear but they would be put into perspective. It will be easier for us to live out the Great Commandment so crucial to Matthew’s gospel — to proclaim the Good News of God in Christ.

Can we do it? Yes. We have already been given the grace to do so through baptism. Listen again to the prayer we say after someone’s baptism (BCP, 308). Listen to what we ask God to give that person. Realise as you hear the gifts that you have already been given them. And then realise that seeking Wisdom, taking her yoke upon you has already happened — through baptism. Pray the prayer at will. And then go for it… with God’s Holy Wisdom.

[The congregation prayed the prayer thusly.]
Heavenly Father, we thank you that by water and the Holy Spirit you have bestowed upon us the forgiveness of sin, and have raised us to the new life of grace. Sustain us, O Lord, in your Holy Spirit. Give us an inquiring and discerning heart, the courage to will and to persevere, a spirit to know and to love you, and the gift of joy and wonder in all your works. Amen.