We just heard in Matthew’s Gospel:
‘Come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens,
and I will give you rest. 29Take my yoke upon you, and learn
from me; for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your
souls. 30For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.’
This beautiful statement is one that I remember from my
childhood…although phrased a little differently.
This passage is among what we Episcopalians know as “the
comfortable words of Jesus.”
I have vivid memories as kid hearing these words…and the other
short “comfortable word” snippets of Scripture…read right before the priest
would lead us in the Eucharist.
This particular one from Matthew has been one of those touchstones
in my life.
I have returned to it often…whether I was feeling particularly
burdened or not.
Even at times when I wasn’t attending church…I could still hear the
voice of one of our priests reciting this passage.
These truly are comforting words when we think of Jesus offering us
respite from the burdens of the world…shouldering the load…stepping alongside
us when we need him most.
And they were necessary words…given what Jesus had been offering up
to his disciples in the verses before.
This was a way of giving them this blessed assurance for their
souls.
Prior to this passage… Jesus has given a very detailed description
of the dangers of discipleship…
To follow him will be a hard…and arduous path…a perpetual struggle.
He’s warned the disciples that he’s sending them out like sheep
among wolves.
He’s announced that families will be divided on account of his
name.
He’s even announced that there are cities that face a massive downfall…worse
than what happened in the story of Sodom’s destruction in the Book of Genesis.
With all that as the set up for today’s Gospel reading….we get the
idea that Jesus is not only wanting to offer comfortable words….he’s also saying
to those who are feeling especially worn out by the world…those who have been
among the disinherited and the pushed aside:
I see you.
I am with you.
And I’m promising the heavenly gifts will come to the tired and
weary who turn to the Source of Light and Love for help.
Realizing all of that…there couldn’t be a more perfect Gospel
lesson to have on the day when we remember St. Anna Ellison Butler Alexander
and all that she did living at time and place where there were many obstacles
set up in her path.
Y’all have the biography of Anna Alexander in your bulletin insert
with the readings.
So you know that she is the daughter of former slaves on the Butler
Plantation, which was a huge tract of land along the Georgia coastline.
You know that she became the first and only African American to be
set aside as a deaconess in the church…and it would only be later that
deaconesses would gain recognition as deacons.
We know that she and her siblings built churches and schools in
Darien and Pennick and that she taught school in and around Brunswick for more
than 50 years.
But what makes this Gospel lesson…and these comfortable words of
Jesus… such a perfect reading for her saint day is that they reflect her
reality when we remember the times in which she lived and did her work of
Christian witness in the world.
It was the turn of the 20th century.
The Civil War was still a relatively fresh memory for people who
were still alive.
Jim Crow laws were well-established throughout the southern United
States. And there lynching and attacks on Black communities happening across
the South and Midwest. The area known as Black Wall Street in Tulsa, Oklahoma,
had been destroyed by white violence.
The whole town of Rosewood, Florida, which was a predominantly
Black town was wiped out by vigilantes when a white woman claimed she had been
assaulted by a black man in January,
1921.
Here in Valdosta, we remember the horrific killing of Mary Turner
and her unborn child in 1918.
Our own Georgia diocese had split in 1907…and the new bishop of
Georgia excluded Anna Alexander and all Black churchmen and women from
participating in the diocesan conventions…a wrong that would take more than
forty years to correct.
Knowing that this was the reality in which St. Anna was placed to
live out her calling as a teacher and moral guide to children in Pennick…we can
imagine that she might have earmarked her own Bible to return to these
comfortable words of Jesus.
We can appreciate that for St. Anna Alexander… having to persevere
and find ways to fund her church and school under such circumstances… she
needed a Jesus who both forewarns his disciples that discipleship comes with a
cost…but not to lose hope… and to remember that Jesus would be there to comfort
and sustain them through their trials and tribulations.
These words…penned for Matthew’s community reeling from the Roman
Empire’s destruction of the Temple in 70 CE… were likely just as important for
St. Anna Alexander to ponder and consider as she helped lift up the hearts and
minds of black children in Pennick in the early 1900s…while living in a world
full of violence and danger.
Even today… in September 2024…I can believe there are many people
both here in this church and outside our red doors who the need to hear Jesus
say, “Yes, child, it is tough to be my disciple. The world makes it hard. But
don’t give up. I’m with you… my teachings…my yoke…will keep you afloat amidst
these storms of life. The time is now. Believe…and spread the love.”
We are fortunate to have this mediator and advocate that we have in
Jesus.
We have his example of living in Love…even as people walked away
from following in his footsteps grumbling that the demands to love were too
great.
Jesus demonstrates what it means to stick close to that source of
love…speak truth to power… and even when rejected… even to the point of death.
And yet…he still was able to rise again.
In these times when we are seeing people turn against each other…
even within families… we have these comfortable words of Jesus to keep
reminding us that we are not alone.
If we will accept his teaching… a teaching grounded in love for
each other… no obstacle… no rhetoric… will grind us down.
Go to Jesus…go to that source of Love…all you who are weary and
heavy laden. Close your door… or shut your eyes… and ask for that rest your
soul needs.
Seek that solace and receive the strength you need to keep going.
In the name of the one holy and undivided trinity.
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