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The FifthSunday after PentecostE. Bevan Stanley
July 9, 2017
Proper 9, Year, RCL
From the Epistle: Wretched man that I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
This past week we celebrated Independence Day. This is our national holiday, when we celebrate our Declaration of Independence from the political and economic tyranny of England. In 1776 we were no longer content to be dictated to about trade and taxes without representation. That tradition of independence is still with us today. We all want to live free. That is what the American Revolution was about. I do not believe I am the only one who is stirred by the motto on New Hampshire license plates, “Live free or die.”
Today I will speak of freedom. I will speak of freedom for we do not have it. We are still slaves, imprisoned, oppressed, bound. Choose the word that most nearly fits. We are not free. Or at least, we are not as free as Jesus wants us to be. Sometimes the forces that steal our freedom are external and political. Whether we are 18th century colonists oppressed by George III, Africans enslaved by white Americans, or Children of Israel enslaved by Pharaoh, we can always find some other race, nation, or people on whom we can blame our problems. Sometimes there are real political wrongs to correct.
More often we feel constrained, imprisoned by our personal situations. Our commitments, social pressure, economic situation, jobs, families, the prejudices of others. Sometimes our own bodies become prisons. Some time ago I was visiting a man with terminal cancer. He asked me what kind of animal he was. “What do you mean?” I asked. “If you go to a zoo,” he said, “you see animals in cages. They all have names. Lions, tigers, kangaroos, elephants. The animals in cages have names. What kind of animal am I?” “You are a human being,” I said. “And I am in the cage of my failing body,” he said. And the Apostle’s words echo in our ears, “Wretched man that I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death?”
But Paul is not speaking primarily of physical death. He is disturbed by the experience that we all have. “I delight in the law of God in my inmost self, but I see in my members another law at war with the law of my mind, making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members.” We all know this kind of internal enslavement. We are held captive by our fears, habits, family tapes, compulsions, neuroses, desires, instincts, and addictions. This is the law of sin that dwells in my members.
When something blocks or interferes with our relationship with God, Paul calls this separation, blockage, or static in the communication, “sin.” Paul notes also our own complexities. Part of us is holy, or at least desires to be holy, to do the will of God. Yet part of us wants to do what we want without interference. “For I delight in the law of God in my inmost self, but I see in my members another law at war with the law of my mind, making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members.”
Gerald May, priest and psychiatrist, points out that all sins have the marks of addiction. Indeed, the famed Twelve Steps of AA are an application of the New Testament’s understanding of salvation to the specific problem of alcoholism. The need for acknowledgement of one’s own inability to solve the problem, and the subsequent giving of oneself into God’s hands. The requirement of uncompromising honesty. The reliance on a community of people who have experienced the same acceptance of need and the power of God to heal. The requirement of telling others about one’s experience of deliverance. All of these are part of the teaching.
It does not matter what our burden is. It may be a behavioral addiction. It may be an interior addiction of desire or fear. It may be an inordinate attachment of any kind. It may be illness, or economic need, or oppression by exterior or interior forces. Whatever the burden that wearies us, we will not be able to carry it forever by ourselves. The message of the Gospel this morning is simple enough. We cannot do it ourselves. Jesus is ready, willing, and able to help. “Come too me,” he says, “you who are heavy laden.” Let me take your burden, and you take my yoke.
So, what is this easy yoke and light burden? What are we to learn from Jesus? First, it is the discovery that it is easy and light. God is not looking for spiritual heroics or long journeys. He thanks the Father for revealing the truth to infants, and concealing them from the wise and intelligent. The instruction of Jesus is such that an infant can get it even when the erudite miss it. Things are good and meant for our delight. People are there to be loved and to receive love from. Anyone who tells you that you are not good enough, pretty enough, bright enough, or strong enough is a lying bully. Apparently, it is very easy to over-think the truth Jesus is trying to convey. Indeed, the point that Jesus is making is that many who take religion seriously work far too hard at it. It is not God’s intent to burden us, or to exact huge effort before we are worthy to receive God’s blessings. God wants it to be as easy as possible for us to be in relationship with God.
Nevertheless, we have to do our part. We have to keep giving it to Jesus. We need to work at letting go one day, sometimes one minute, at a time. The hard part is keeping it simple. We want to avoid admitting that we need Jesus. So, we find ways to make it complicated so that we can justify our not changing or being changed.
Here is the promise and the task. The promise and the Good news is that we do not have to be imprisoned, bound, or enslaved. In Christ, we are free. For freedom, Christ set us free. This is the Gospel. The task is to live in Christ, “whose service is perfect freedom,” to live free. This is discipleship.
Paul calls us to live in Christ. I think this is the meaning of Jesus’ own words in the Gospel today. Come to me. Let me give you the yoke of freedom, the burden of new life, and you will find they are light and easy. But we have to be in Christ. We have to give ourselves to Christ. We have to have made ourselves over to Christ completely and without reservation. Then we will be free.
We are not as free as we would like to be. But thanks be to God we can be. We can be victorious with our king and messiah. We can walk according to the Spirit. We can be free. We can live light and easy. Every day can be for us Independence Day. Amen.