Whose Voice is Calling?

 

I have a travel mug I carry with me every Sunday that says, "Be careful or you'll end up in my sermon." I showed that to our cat when he was being a pest. And it has now come to pass that he was the kicking off point for my sermon about listening for that voice that calls us into service, into action, and into love. 

At a time of war, we need more of that. See what you think.

Text: Psalm 23; John 10:1-10

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Anyone who has ever owned a cat knows that cats are cute…furry…and loving creatures

They’re also the most willful critters known to humankind.

Our current cat…Romeo…is no exception.

Just as it’s been with our prior cats…Romeo has a cat door and he can go in and out as he pleases.

But at nightfall…we want him inside. Even though we live in a downtown neighborhood…there is still wildlife that comes out at night…foxes and other potential predators.

We lost one feline friend to some unknown animal attacker…so we’ve been cautious ever since.

As the days grow longer and warmer…Romeo is happier spending more hours outside.

He enjoys going into the area behind our house to hunt for geckos in the many oak and magnolia leaves…and then falling asleep under a bush or the porch of the abandoned house behind ours.

Quite often…when I am coming home late at night…I’ll find that he hasn’t come home yet.

Isabelle will tell me that she tried to call for him…but…well…cats are willful.

It happened again this past week…when I got home at almost nine o’clock.

Romeo still hadn’t come home.

Isabelle and I were talking about his bad boy behavior…and how cute and annoying he can be about not coming back at night.

I was still unloading things from the car…and carrying on this conversation about Romeo outside when I heard the tell-tale sounds of something leaping over dead branches and onto the leaves in the backyard.

In trots Romeo…coming over to me to rub his white and black furry body against my shins.

He had heard my voice.

And now that both parents were home…he was ready for his dinner and the chance to curl up on chair in the office.

It’s funny how pets respond to the voices of their owners.

Because of the bonds we form with them…and the relationship and trust that we build with them…they come to know…and love us.

Shepherds build that sort of relationship with their sheep…which is the reason why we see so many references in the Scriptures to “Shepherds” and “Sheep.”

One of the most well-known of those is in psalm 23…”The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not be in want. He makes me lie down in green pastures and leads me beside still waters.”

We get that sense of the Shepherd who cares for the sheep so completely.

We, as those sheep, feel that love when we lay our trust on God.

Interestingly…one of the commentators I was reading suggested that we should have read a different psalm for today: Psalm 118, which figures prominently in Palm Sunday and Holy Week.

“Open for me the gates of righteousness; I will enter them; I will offer thanks to the Lord.”

It is a bit odd that on this Fourth Sunday of Easter…the Gospel passage we heard from John is not the part where Jesus refers to “I am the good shepherd,” but rather “I am the gate” of this enclosure where the sheep are kept safe.

And it’s also important to know where our Gospel lesson falls within the broader context of John’s Gospel.

If we think back many weeks ago during Lent…when Deacon Karyl would present to you some very lengthy passages of John’s writings…one of them was the healing of the blind man.

We might recall that Jesus and the disciples came across this man on their journey…and the disciples were like, “Who sinned to cause this man to be blind?” and Jesus said, “Nobody sinned, now watch this.”

He put mud on the man’s eyes and told him to wash it off in Siloam and—voila—he was no longer blind.

That started a whole controversy…the formerly blind man keeps getting interrogated…and when he made a confession that Jesus clearly was not some demonic force but rather a healer…this man got kicked out of the synagogue.

Jesus and this man were then reunited…and the man says he believes and worships Jesus.

Standing by and witnessing all of this is a group of Pharisees who hear Jesus declare that he “has come for judgment so that those who do not see may see and those who do see may become blind.”

The Pharisees take offense at this…and Jesus basically says to them…these representatives of the establishment religion… you’ve become blind. You’ve allowed too many “things” to become paramount to the one thing that matters: God is Love.

Not rules.

Not power and prestige.

God is Love.

God is the gatekeeper…and I am showing the people the gate.

If you follow my voice…if you take in the lessons I am teaching you… and put these into practice… this gate will swing open to you.

And once you move through this gate…you will find that green pasture…that abundant life with the love and care of Psalm 23.

That’s what happened with that blind man in the chapter before in John’s Gospel.

Not only did he come to see…but as all those other voices kept pestering him and badgering him about his miraculous healing…the voice he ultimately listened to and believed was Jesus.

Because the voice of Jesus spoke in a tone that conveyed mercy…compassion…and love.

Or…to put it another way… it was words of the unconditional love that provides health…healing… and hope.

This has been one of the greatest offerings that I’ve seen here at St. Barnabas as well as our wider Episcopal Church.

Now…I grew up as an Episcopalian…so this is the one Christian tradition I’ve known my whole life.

I have seen it’s good… it’s not so good…and I have experienced the wounds of when it has been downright bad and ugly.

But I have also seen and known our denomination to be that one place…that flickering light of Christ… for those seeking a relationship with God that is loving and not rule-bound or—worse—some terrifying abusive Father.

I have heard the stories of so many people who kept searching for a place where they felt safe and could start to relate to God through Jesus…the Jesus who was that shepherd of the Middle Eastern tradition…leading people out of their despair and into a journey with Love.

A true and lasting Love that keeps saying, “You matter.”

This is the message we are to share with all the various people we encounter in our lives.

There is a God who loves each one of us deeply and wants us to extend that love to others.

There is a place where you can be loved and accepted as the beloved child that you are.

There is health…healing…and hope with unconditional love and it begins with each of us who will listen for it…and hear it calling our names.

Come and see.

Take and share.

In the name of Our One Holy and Undivided Trinity.

Representation Matters: A Sermon for 5B Pentecost

 

On Wednesday...Juneteenth...I was remembering the day that would have been my mom's 97th birthday. As a way of marking the date, I posted a video I had made for her memorial service in Tallahassee of her "reporter on the scene" account she did for the international LGBTQ+ program "This Way Out" of Bishop Gene Robinson's consecration in November, 2003. It was delightful, if bittersweet, to listen to my mom's voice and in her very "Anonymous Peggins" way describe the event that rocked The Episcopal Church 20+ years ago.

I also heard some interesting interviews as I drove to a clericus meeting with a variety of black artists, part of the Juneteenth programming happening on NPR that day. More about that in a moment.

As I left clericus and started on my way to Valdosta, I was shocked and hurt by a meme posted by one of the St. Barnabas faithful. It was one of those designed to denigrate queer people while extolling the mighty and proud U.S. Army. (For the record, the church member apologized.)

And then...as I started researching the First Reading assigned for this Sunday (1 Sam. 17:57-18:5, 10-16), I was again hit with more homophobia as biblical commentators attempted to distance this reading from any suggestion that King David and Prince Jonathan might have had some feelings for one another that went beyond handshakes. 

All of these thoughts...experiences...and the wounds ripped open in me...led to this sermon.

And, dear reader, please understand that I did A LOT of research for this one.

Texts: the 1 Samuel mentioned above and Mark 4:35-41.

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I will never forget the first time I saw a woman standing at the altar.

I was about ten years old and our Episcopal Church had called a deacon.

I didn’t know what that was…but I knew it was someone ordained…and I knew her name was Fran Potter.

What I didn’t know was what an impression it was going to make on me to see her…the Reverend Fran Potter…standing up front…wearing a white alb and stole…climbing into the pulpit at Christ Episcopal Church…and being at the table.

There was this bubble of excitement…of joy…and of glee…to see a woman…someone who looked about my mom’s age…standing in the same space as all the male priests and curates I’d seen up to that point.

Even as a little kid…I was amazed at what a difference that made in my perception of who could be a minister in the church.

Representation matters.

This week…as many of us were marking and remembering Juneteenth…I was struck again by what it means to see someone occupying space that was normally held by the cultural majority.

I was listening to an interview with George Shirley…the first African-American tenor at the New York Metropolitan Opera.  

Mixed in between snippets of his singing…which was full and round and gorgeous to listen to…Shirley talked about his faith in God…and how that helped sustain him in a world where he was very much a minority.

He mentioned that…as a tenor in opera…those parts are the male romantic leads…and so he would often have to stand beside a white…often European…soprano on the Met stage.

He shared one story from a time in 1963.

 A music critic for the Saturday Evening Post wrote a harsh critique of his portrayal of a French nobleman in the opera “Manon.”

This critic had said something about Shirley not “looking like a French noble man.”

Shirley said he could not let this particular comment go without a challenge.

He wrote a letter to this critic.

After asking questions about some of his other comments…he put to him a pointed question:

what does a French noble man look like?

And he went on to name one of the major sopranos of the Met who had sung the role of Aida.

That character is supposed to be an Ethiopian princess.

So…she’s supposed to be black.

But the sopranos singing that role at the Met in those days were not black women.

He never received a response to his letter.

Instead…that critic refused to look George Shirley in the eye for the rest of his career.

As Shirley noted…”Critics don’t like to be criticized.”

And it no doubt gave that critic something to consider when evaluating the performance of a singer who didn’t “look like” what they believed a character should be.

George Shirley loves singing…and has enjoyed playing various characters of Italian operas in his career.

One of the things he loves about music in general is its universality.

Music…from his perspective…is for everyone and doesn’t belong to any one group of people.

For him…there’s no reason why black people shouldn’t sing Verdi and white people shouldn’t sing the art songs of the late African-American composer Harry Burleigh.

As long as everyone is singing and honoring the texts…it’s all good.

And I can imagine for a young black boy to see a black man cast as a duke or prince in an opera…it sends a message of “I can be that, too.”

Again: representation matters.

The same can be said for the stories in the Bible.

And this morning…we heard the start of the relationship between the brave David…the Goliath-slayer…and King Saul’s oldest son Jonathan.

In our English translation of the Hebrew…we hear about the love Jonathan had for David.

That Jonathan gave him his cloak and his tunic… and the two men made a covenant with one another.

For anyone who is a member of the LGBTQ+ community…these words will prick up our ears.

After years and years of being told we don’t belong in the church… to have two men professing such deep affection for one another is a welcome sign.

Representation matters, right?

But after looking at the Hebrew…and checking sources…and doing the type of research you’re supposed to do when writing a sermon…the truth is…it’s not clear that this is a gay male relationship in the way that we here in the 21^st century might think of it.

Do gay people exist in the Bible?

Yes, of course.

Gay people have been in the world…long before the scientists of the 19^th century invented the term, “homosexual.”

And there are characters in the Bible who defy traditional gender stereotypes.

That beautiful coat given to Joseph.

As the biblical scholar Peter Toscano points out—this long-sleeve coat of many colors—uses the same Hebrew word—for the long robe worn by virgin daughters of kings (2 Samuel 13:18).

So the Bible contains the full scope of God’s created humanity…without zeroing in on Jonathan and David.

However…there’s no denying that this is a same-gender…same-sex relationship…something that we would call a “Bromance.”

These two men share a close bond… even a tenderness between them.

That type of representation matters.

It was distressing to me…as I was looking into the meaning of this moment…that there were male commentators who responded with vitriol and anger at the suggestion that this could be seen as a gay relationship.

Some of them suggested that commentators who see queerness in this story were like the dreaded enemy…the Philistines…the ones that David destroyed and killed their giant leader Goliath.*

Such criticisms…to me…went beyond your normal disagreement between theologians and scholars.

That’s when I looked at our Gospel lesson from Mark…and this scene out on the water.

Water carries lots of representations…one of them being emotion.

And in this scene…the waters are turbulent and violent.

The disciples are frantic.

They’re caught in a tempest on their boat.

And where’s Jesus?

Sleeping.

They’re terrified and screaming at him to save them…which…of course… he did.

And then Jesus asks an important question:

“Why are you afraid? Have you still no faith?”

Yes…things were scary.

Storms will do that…because they’re unpredictable.

But Jesus was still in the boat…still with them.

“Why are you afraid?” he asks.

Why are some of these biblical commentators afraid?

As a culture and as a society…I think we are unkind to boys and men.

Somewhere along the way…boys are taught or conditioned that to be men…they can’t show feelings.

They are not allowed to be vulnerable.

They must be strong…choke back their tears.

That whole “frogs and snails and puppy dog tails” rhyme comes to mind.

God forbid any boy have a touch of sugar and spice and everything nice.

I did a training some years back at my massage school.

We met one weekend a month over six months to learn techniques for helping clients release trauma through their bodies.

The majority of the class were women but there were four men, and the instructor was a man, a former Vietnam Veteran.

On the last day of this intensive time together…we did the usual sharing as we were about to part ways.

And what I remember was that the women in this class expressed how much they had enjoyed working with the men.

These guys were stunned.

The women were so grateful to have been with men…most of whom were straight men by the way…who were confident enough in themselves and who they were…that they could let down their guards…and share their feelings with women…and with each other.

And in this world…allowing oneself to show any kind of weakness…is a true sign of strength.

I think the idea of men having the kind of deep affection for another man that we see happening between David and Jonathan scares people…or certainly some male theologians.

And out fear…they become attackers.

In that way…they become like King Saul.

Look at what happened to him.

Saul…who at first seems impressed with David…sees him as a threat.

He is jealous of his success as a soldier…his skill as a musician…

When he sees the love that his son Jonathan and…for that matter… all of Israel… is showing to his rival…“evil enters him” and he attacks.

He wants to kill David.

Destroy this one who can be both a great warrior AND a lover of men.

Saul fears David.

Fears make us do terrible things.  

Jealousy will make us do terrible things.

Losing control or power can make us go wild.

When we let those things…those emotions…take over our hearts…we strike out and attack each other.

And nothing moves us further away from God.

It’s this same fear that I read in all of those commentators who express such disgust about the possible gay reading of Jonathan and David’s relationship.

We may not be able to say beyond a shadow of doubt that Jonathan and David were gay.

But what we can say is that Jonathan did love David and could see in him the kind of man he wanted to be with.

And their kinship is a representation of male bonding.

Their caring for each other is proof that men can and should allow themselves to have feelings and be vulnerable with each other.

Boys and men should have the confidence that it is OK to be both a warrior and person who cries when they’re hurt.

Remember: Jesus wept at the grave of his friend, Lazarus.

We don’t need to be afraid of these feelings and relationships…whether they’re gay or straight.

That representation matters. 

In the name of God…F/S/HS

 

Weeds, Wheat, the Church and Us

 

I've been getting a lot of good feedback on my sermons lately. It seems that people are finding the topics relatable and helpful for their day-to-day dealings, which is perfect. And I could tell I had the congregation's attention when I started talking about Thai food at the start of this sermon.

Or maybe it was because the service is at 11am and so I usually start preaching at that tipping point time of 11:20...when the tummy starts to say, "Feed me!" 

Text: Matthew 13:24-3036-43

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I am a fan of Thai food.

One of my favorites is a chicken soup with cocoanut milk called Tom Kha Gai.

It’s rich and filling…and mixed with a couple spoonfuls of Basmati rice…I’m quite happy.

A main flavoring ingredient in Tom Kha Gai is lemongrass.

Now…I’m not the best gardener in the world…but our friends and neighbors across the street have often managed to grow some nice herbs that they’re willing to share.

One time… Donna planted some lemongrass.

I was excited.

Especially because Donna… as a professor at Florida State… has a coping mechanism for that end-of-semester grading slam.

She cooks. A lot.

She invites friends over to dinner.

Grading time is good eating time in the neighborhood!

I started dreaming of the phone call…inviting us to come across the street.

Donna was going to get a hankering for Thai food.

She was going to see the lemongrass and think,

“I’ll make a pot of Tom Kha Gai soup!”

It would be delicious.

We’d all ooh and ahh…and express our gratitude for Donna…and the grading she was avoiding.

Well…one day… a friend we had in common stopped by to see our neighbors.

She spotted the lemongrass bending from the garden and into the walkway.

“That’s a weed!” she declared.

And without any hesitation or consultation… this woman ripped out the lemongrass and threw it aside.

When I heard this had happened, my heart sunk.

My visions of Tom Kha Gai…had gone bye-bye.

I suppose one could easily have mistaken the lovely lemongrass for a weed. It is long and green…and non-descript really.

The same was true of the weeds of ancient Palestine, which is probably why Jesus used the image of weeds growing up with the wheat to tell this particular parable.

In the Near East…there was a weed called “bearded darnel” which looked exactly like wheat. The differences between the two plants didn’t become apparent until they had reached maturity.

The wheat grain would bend down; the darnel plant would stand straight up.

As one commentator noted… this is the difference between the properly humble posture before God versus’ the person so full of themselves that they don’t think they need to bow before the presence of the Holy One.

Bearded darnel…also called tares or “cheat wheat”… is a highly destructive weed.

Its roots encircle those of the wheat… absorbing all the ground water and nutrients.

Its seeds apparently can cause hallucinations and even death.

This is one bad boy of a weed.

It makes sense then that the slaves or field workers in this parable would go to the landowning master and ask if they should get rid of this bearded darnel.

It also makes sense that the master says, “Uh-uh; let it be. The time will come, and then the tares will be bundled up and thrown into the fire.”

There was no way to simply “get rid of” the bad seeds of the bearded darnel without damaging the planted good seeds of the wheat.

This week in the office, Kathy saw the Gospel lesson and exclaimed, “Seeds again?!”

Yeah…again…with the seeds.

Only this time…Jesus isn’t speaking so much about scattering seeds everywhere.

This time… there is more intention… a good field ready for wonderful seeds…and then the “evil one” comes in when no one is around and laces this good field with bad seeds of bearded darnel.

Biblical scholars note that since this is Matthew’s Gospel… and Matthew’s Gospel is dated as sometime after the second destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem…the community hearing this is a new fledgling beginning of a church in Antioch founded by Jews living in the diaspora.

As a “new thing” with a community that was bringing in Gentile followers in a large more urban-like area…there were all kinds of tensions between old and new…Jew and Gentile… as they grew the early church.

The thinking is that this particular parable was directed at the early church.

In truth…it could be directed at the church as it began…and as it has been growing… and all the way to our time today.

In the Fourth Century…St. Augustine…who… love him or hate him…greatly influenced the path of the Christian Church… was constantly contending with various groups which had other understandings of who should be in or out of the church.

One of those was a group called the Donatists.

During the very early days of the church… when Christians were getting thrown to the lions in Roman coliseums for sport… there were Christian leaders who… fearing for their lives… renounced their Christianity.

Once the period of persecution ended… and it was no longer a danger to declare their belief… some did a time of penitence and reaffirmed their faith.

But the Donatists… named for Bishop Donatus of North Africa…being the ultra-purists that they were… claimed that anyone who had renounced their faith was not a “real” Christian.

Furthermore… anyone who had been baptized by someone who had renounced the faith… was not really baptized.

Thankfully… it was St. Augustine who put an end to that heresy.

Augustine was the one who successfully argued before a conference in Carthage…that baptism belongs to God…and has nothing to do with the worthiness of a particular clergy person.

This is still the belief in the church today.

It doesn’t matter if the priest… or even the hospital nurse… who baptizes a person in the name of the Trinitarian God is a “perfect Christian.”

The waters of baptism are made perfect in Christ and that’s what really matters… thanks be to God!

Even before Christianity… we can see in the story of Jacob from our first lesson that the faith we have inherited from our Jewish ancestry is full of characters who are less than ideal people.

Why is Jacob sleeping with a rock under his head?

Because he’s running away from his brother Esau who is not just a little bit angry at his younger twin brother not only tricking him out of his birthright…but he also fools his doddering blind father Isaac into giving him the blessing that was meant for Esau!

And yet…this ancestor of our faith has a vision of angels not only ascending…but descending down a ladder… with God there at his side…making promises never to leave him as he makes this land his home.

The up and down… the good and the bad… are both part of the place of God… in the heart of Jacob.

Which brings us back to wheat and weeds… the church… and us.

What is the church but the gathering of the people of God.

Who are the people of God? Everyone.

A bunch of everyone’s who have human hearts… hearts which are challenged every day to live with the wheat and weeds in ourselves and those around us.

While our job is to spread good seeds everywhere… no matter what ground those seeds land on… our job in the church and in ourselves is to encourage and cultivate those gifts of goodness and have patience with those parts that we don’t like about ourselves or our fellow members.

That is some of the toughest work we have as Christians…and as the Christian church.

We know that as we see the various schisms that have grown up as we watch the in-fighting that continues to plague us in our own denomination as well as others.

The call is constantly to leave the ultimate judgment to God… and be careful with the seeds sown in our own field.

In the name of God…F/S/HS.

The Burden of Love

I'm tired. Even without having a single massage client this week, an intentional break that I established for myself due to some physical issues, I am still tired. It has been too hot...with heat indexes regularly above 100-degrees all week. It seems I can't consume enough water to keep my energy replenished. 

So, the Gospel really spoke to me on a physical level.

I'm also mentally tired. In providing pastoral care, I am hearing more and more the same thing from people that I am feeling, personally. I am tired of the attacks on people, especially the most vulnerable people. I'm tired of the tearing down of the institutions, and the norms of how to behave with those whom we don't see eye to eye on issues. 

So today's Gospel really spoke to me on the psychological and spiritual level as well.

What does this passage from Matthew say to you? Maybe what I have said meets you where you are, too.

Text: Matthew 11: 16-19, 25-30 and a little bit of Romans 7:15-25a

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“Come to me all you that are weary and carrying heavy burdens and I will give you rest.” 

I’m not much of a gambler…but I am willing to put money on the table that just about everyone in this room this morning heard those words and felt a sense of relief.

All of us have some burden we’re carrying…some more than others.

To hear Jesus say, “Come to me you worn-out person and I will give you rest” could and should be met with a sigh of “Thank you!”

This particular passage from Matthew is one the few that has stayed with me for most of my life. I remembered it as the words shared right before the passing of the peace when I was a child growing up in the Episcopal Church. My church used Holy Eucharist Rite I from our current Book of Common Prayer… a way to comfortably transition from the 1928 Prayer Book with its penitential language and use of “thee’s and thous”.

There’ve been times when these words have brought tears to my eyes for no special reason other than that relief that they have in the ears.

They call these the “comfortable words” of Jesus.

And they are “comfortable”…especially if we look at them in light of everything else Jesus’ has been saying up to this point.

He’s warned his disciples then…and us now… that people are going to be hostile…they aren’t going to be welcoming…and they aren’t going to won’t listen.

Heck…in some cases back in the days of ancient Palestine… professing Jesus as the Messiah would get dragged into court…or even killed.

In this country…professing Christianity won’t get us killed.

But living out our faith in a real way… in the way Jesus teaches… in that way of true loving and caring for the people who need it most and seeking to mend the wounds inflicted by people and systems… has become harder and harder to be a Christian.

It’s made it almost impossible to call one’s self a Christian when people associate “Christian” with a particularly cruel and petty practice of the faith.

It’s that kind of burdensome practice of religion…that is at the center of Jesus’ petition to “Come to me all that are weary and carrying heavy burdens I will give you rest.”

Because what Jesus was naming were a couple of things: First, there were those who were the self-righteous religious grumblers and hypocrites…and then there were those who the grumblers and hypocrites were wearing down.

One of those being worn down was John the Baptist.

We didn’t hear this part today…but at this point in the Gospel story…John is in prison having called out Herod Antipas for divorcing his first wife and marrying his brother’s ex-wife.

The Jewish historian Josephus adds a wrinkle to that story,

Josephus reports that Herod feared John the Baptist because John had gained a following out there by the Jordan River.

Herod…who was in league with the Roman Empire… worried about any person who might pose a threat to the power structure… and John…with his camel hair shirts and diet of locusts and wild honey…wasn’t afraid of challenging even the most  powerful people, and saying “You ain’t right by the law!”

Now…sitting in jail…John is in crisis.

He’s remembering his excitement that there was one coming after him that would have a baptism of fire and the Holy Spirit…one so much more powerful than himself that he wasn’t worthy to carry his successor’s sandals.

Sitting in jail…he thinks, “Maybe I made a mistake.

Nothing has changed.

Rome is still in charge.

The bullies seem to be winning.”

So John sends word to Jesus by his disciples…wondering…”Are you really the one who is going to make the crooked paths of this corrupt world straight for us? Or is there somebody else?”

I think we can all relate to John.

It can be hard when we see injustices in the world around us…and nothing seems to be changing.

The powerful pick on the powerless.

Those with means get their way.

When society seems unfair… when it feels as if we’re always getting pushed aside…that’s when doubt creeps in.

The longer the injustice persists…the doubt begins to chip away at our faith.

We stop trusting…our hearts grow harder…and we become resentful and angry…and no different from the bullies and tyrants we don’t want to be like.

To steal a line from Paul’s Letter to the Romans, we do the thing we do not want to do. We begin to close ourselves off and become governed by fear not faith.

Jesus…ever the patient one…implores John’s disciples to go back and tell him to stop looking only in those dark corners of doubt in his heart. Look and see that healing is happening… people are getting fed.

“You weren’t wrong, John.”

John…like us… is weary and heavy-burdened. Jesus is ready to give him and us rest.

But first…Jesus has some words for those then and now… who have burdened the Johns of the world.

He looks around at the crowd… some of whom are the powerful ones… the self-righteous…the very religious.

And basically… he tells them… “You wouldn’t know God if God came up and bit you on the nose!”

For they didn’t like John’s religion…with his baptism of repentance in the Jordan River. They called him a drunkard…even though he was stone-cold sober.

And they sure don’t like Jesus’ reinterpretation of the Law and pointing it back toward Love and Inclusion. They call Jesus a glutton…a slob who hangs out with “those people” from the wrong part of Palestine.

We still have that today, don’t we?

 

The smug and self-righteous are still among us in society.

The people who use their religious beliefs to justify withholding God’s love to those who need to hear it the most.

And yet Jesus calls us to stretch ourselves…being wise as serpents and innocent as doves…to not shrink from the call to follow in his path…being a force of love.

This is what it means to take on the “yoke” of Jesus.

To be “yoked” to Jesus is to learn from him.

We must allow Jesus to help us carry on the work of love in the world…work that will not be easy if we attempt it on our own.

Because there are things in this world that will break our hearts.

But our broken hearts are the pathway to understanding and being capable of connecting to people who want to know the God who eats meals with tax collectors…and touches and heals the untouchables.

That’s what Jesus wanted poor John to hear as he sat in the hell of a prison cell.

That’s what he wants us to hear as we contend with whatever burdens we’re carrying on this day.

His call to us is to live.

To live and learn from his life and ministry….and stay with him on the path of love…and engage in whatever way we can to make God’s love known to another struggling in this world.

Not through fear, but through love.

A love committed to repairing the breaches in society…and lightening the burdens we all bear.

In the name of God…F/S/HS.