Yoked

Charlotte Collins Reed
Christ Church Episcopal
July 10, 2023

9 Proper A 

          What drew me to the Episcopal Church as a young teenager, in addition to adults who took an interest in me and the chance to sing in a wonderful youth choir, was the clear message that we humans are made in the image of God, redeemed in Christ, and are, therefore, inherently good.  This was music to young ears who heard a consistent message from the world around me that a person could not be too thin, too smart, too popular, or too athletic, and I was none of those things.  But at St. Mark’s Episcopal Church in Little Rock, all of the youth were valued equally as children of God.  In the Episcopal Church, at every baptism we promise to seek and serve Christ in all people.  In each and every person, we believe that we can find Christ, which makes each and every person inherently good.

          So when I read the passage from Romans this morning, my heart does not exactly sing with joy.  Val’s music, the hymns this morning, Liz and Heather’s voices, (this lovely garden, the sound of the fountain, the quiet of the early morning), and you make my heart sing this morning, but not Paul’s words to the Romans.  “Wretched man that I am!  Who will rescue me from this body of death?”  Ugh.

          However, I have to admit that on one level Paul’s words do resonate.  Certainly I have experienced times when I want to do right, but do wrong, sometimes on a daily basis.  I would guess that this is true of most of us.  However, does that mean that nothing good dwells within me?  Is the sin that Paul says dwells in me to blame or my own inability to self-correct?  Not only does Paul seem to put blame on the sin that dwells within us, he has us captive to “the law of sin that dwells in our members.”  What are we do to with Paul’s words this morning, other than to find a different reading to preach on….which was the advice of some of my colleagues this week!

          Since, at the end of the gospel reading, we have Jesus’ beloved words “Come to me all who are weary and carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest….for my yoke is easy and my burden is light,”  perhaps Jesus can shed some light this morning on how we are to understand Paul’s words.  Jesus hung out with sinners and ate with tax collectors to the extent that some people saw him as a glutton and a drunkard, two notorious sins.  So, Jesus knows something about sin, even if he never partook.

          Jesus seems to express a bit of frustration in this passage.  To the crowds that were gathered, Jesus says “John came neither eating or 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.”  There is no pleasing whoever Jesus is talking about, which is not clear in the reading.  Yet, Jesus says, Wisdom is vindicated by her deeds, not by popular opinion.

          Then Jesus says “I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden this things from the wise and intelligent and have revealed them to infants.”  Admittedly, I love any time Jesus talks about babies!  But, how do infants know they are loved?  By the actions of those around them.  They know that they are fed, held, rocked, cuddled, and they know they are loved by the sound of our voices not what our words say. They know they are loved by our actions.  And that is true for all of us, regardless of our age.  We know when someone’s actions do not match their words.  We can wax eloquent about “God loves you, no exceptions” or promise to seek and serve Christ in all people until we are blue in the face, but if our actions do not match our words, the words are meaningless.

          In the baptismal covenant, when we promise to do outrageously hard things, like seek and serve the Christ we know is in every person, or resist evil, or proclaim by word AND example the good news of God in Christ, or even be faithful in worship, our answer is “I will with God’s help.”  This work is so hard that we cannot do it alone.  We do that work together with each other and with God.  Jesus says something similar in that beloved verse at the end of the passage.  “Come to me all who are weary and carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest.  Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, and there you will find rest for your souls.  For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”  In baptism, we are yoked with Jesus so that we never do the work we are called to do alone, and we are defined not by our success or failure at that work, but by the one with whom we are yoked.

          Both Jesus and Paul agree that our actions, our work, matters.  Our work shows the world who we are and what we believe.  Sometimes we succeed in showing the world the love of God with our lives, and sometimes we want to do that, but we fail.  At the end of the day, despite Paul’s claim to be a wretched man, captive in a body of death, I think both Paul and Jesus agree that we are not defined by the sum of our successes minus our failures, much less our failures alone.  After asking “Who will rescue me from this body of death?”, Paul says “Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!”  Our worth is defined by Jesus.  Jesus says “Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me.”  Learn from Jesus that all people, including ourselves, are infinitely loved by God.  Learn from both Paul and Jesus that our actions matter.  What we do shows the world the love of God, whether we are in the mood to be God’s vessels that day or not.  But good day or bad, at the end of the day, we are still made in the image of God and yoked with Jesus. 

                                                                                      Amen.