Sermon preached by Fr. Tom at St. Thomas, Plymouth
July 6, 2014
Proper 9 – Pentecost 4
“May the words of my mouth and the meditations of my heart be an acceptable offering in your sight, Oh Lord, my strength and my redeemer.”
You folks are familiar with the 80/20 rule perhaps. This is one of those observations in business that 80% of a company’s profits come from 20% of the customers. In the same way, 80% of the complaints come from 20% of the customers.
When I was working with Religious Life at the Academies, I observed that when you made a change of some kind in the liturgy or programming, about 20% of the people involved would like it, about 20% would hate it, and the people in the middle would not have strong feelings one way or another.
There are some people who are always in the unhappy percentage I think, and these are the people Jesus is talking about in today’s Gospel.
Jesus never pleased the scribes and Pharisees. Whatever Jesus did, the scribes and Pharisees criticized him. When Jesus healed people, they criticized him for doing so on the Sabbath. When Jesus reached out to tax collectors and sinners, they called him a glutton and a drunkard.
Jesus compared the scribes and Pharisees to children who refused to play children’s games. It didn’t matter whether the game was happy or sad, they wouldn’t play. They didn’t play games––they spoiled other people’s games. They didn’t have fun––they spoiled other people’s fun.
The scribes and Pharisees had criticized John the Baptist for his simple life. John ate locusts and wild honey––simple food that he could gather from natural sources in the wilderness. The scribes and Pharisees said that he was a little crazy (v. 18). Jesus lived a very different kind of life. He enjoyed a good meal and a glass of wine. The scribes and the Pharisees criticized him for being a glutton and a drunkard (v. 19). It didn’t matter what you did––the scribes and Pharisees would find a way to criticize you.
John the Baptist didn’t let that bother him, and neither did Jesus. The scribes and Pharisees could criticize all they wanted, and Jesus wouldn’t let it upset him.
But that was unusual. The scribes and Pharisees made life miserable for most people. Most people let it bother them when the scribes and Pharisees criticized them. The scribes and the Pharisees were important men, and they were chronically unhappy and willing to point out problems.
You hear about people who see the world through rose colored glasses, and the scribes and the Pharisees are just the opposite. They have eyes for sin and problems. They see it everywhere. It is like a filter that only lets in the bad.
Jesus looked at the world differently. We are told in 1 Samuel that “the Lord does not see as mortals see; they look on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart.”
The scribes and Pharisees are always pointing out what is wrong with religious practice. They place heavy burdens of sin and shame on people who listen to them. Jesus comes to free people from sin, and ease those burdens. Jesus tells people in today’s reading
“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.”
I think some people view the practice of the faith as a burden, and do not understand that it frees them. This Gospel reading points this out very well. The scribes and Pharisees are making life difficult for people who want to be religious. Jesus is telling them it is freedom.
God had given the Jewish people the law to guide them but, in the hands of the scribes and Pharisees, it had become a set of chains to imprison them. Jesus came and changed things. The chains were gone.
Jesus knows that some people can never be pleased. He is not one of them. We are prone to be hard on ourselves I think, and we look in the mirror and don’t see Mother Teresa or Billy Graham reflected back.
This brings me to my first question for you. Who are the scribes and Pharisees in your life? Is there someone that you can never please? You may suspect from my use of the mirror image that I am claiming many of us are the ones who are two hard on ourselves. We beat ourselves up, and we forgive others because we are supposed to. We don’t forgive ourselves.
I will let you think about that one for a minute or two. While you are pondering , I want to talk about this yoke business. Yokes are an anachronism in today’s society. We don’t yoke an ox to haul a wagon of grain to town. We don’t yoke a mule to plow our fields.
Susan’s grandfather Bunton told me that after WWII, he got an Army surplus jeep and used it to pull a plow on his small farm. He explained that because of the gearing and the power takeoff, you had to drive in reverse to make this work correctly. So I had this image of his pulling a plow driving in reverse and looking over his shoulder all day. I told him I did not think this sounded like a very good arrangement. He told me it was obvious I had never plowed with a mule. That Jeep was a blessing by comparison.
We are probably a lot happier that we don’t have to yoke horses to get to church, but we have yokes of other kinds.
So here is another question for you to ponder. What are the yokes in your lives? We all harness our lives to something, and in case you are having trouble thinking of some things I will throw some out. Some common yokes are success, reputation, politics. Some are internal too. We can be yoked by fear or anger.
When people are yoked by a desire for success or influence, we call it a drive. When they are yoked to fear or anger, we might say they are stuck. In both cases, I claim it is the same problem. These are the things that are important to us and influence our actions. They give us direction and provide a way for us to understand the world. We’ve all got them, and we have more than one. Put them in the wrong place and we are miserable and
What yokes do you wear? Which one is primary? We know the right answer. It’s Jesus. But is that really how we live? Is it reflected by our deeds and in our relationships? If we are going to call ourselves Christians we must fully yoke ourselves to Christ. He must be the primary and determining yoke. We cannot simply come to church, hear the gospel, say our prayers, and then go to lunch. The gospel of Christ demands a response.
There are two appropriate ways to respond, and we are back to those kids in the marketplace from the reading. We can dance, celebrating and giving thanks for Jesus in our lives. We can also mourn our sins. Either one is to wear the yoke of Christ. Both will reorient our lives and priorities.
Are we weary? Burdened? If so, maybe this means we are not fully wearing the yoke of Christ. Too often we treat our weariness and medicate our burdens with retail therapy, addictions, a new toy, perfectionism… I’ll let you complete the list. These solutions just mask the problem, and they do nothing for the weariness.
You know how children get so exhausted they just act bad? How they can’t hold their eyes open but refuse to lay down and rest? You also know, I’m sure, that it’s not just children. It happens at every age and in every generation. Jesus is calling us to rest in him.
My takeaways this morning have to do with two ideas.
First, who is the scribe and the Pharisee in your life? Who is it who is telling you that you are not good enough? Who is it that is placing heavy burdens on you? If you are doing it to yourself, then it is time to stop. Jesus offers us redemption and grace is abundant. We need to understand that the message from Jesus is “You can do it. I will help you.”
Jesus is offering hope.
Next I want you to think of the image of the yoke. If your primary yoke is not Jesus, then what is it? Is your yoke a burden or is it light? Maybe that can help us decide where we have put it.
Jesus is offering rest.
I have said these words in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen