July 6, 2008
Eighth Day after Pentecost
Matthew 11:16–19, 25–30
16But to what will I compare this generation? It is like children sitting in the marketplaces and calling to one another,
17'We played the flute for you, and you did not dance;
we wailed, and you did not mourn.'
18For John came neither eating nor drinking, and they say, 'He has a demon'; 19the Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, 'Look, a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!' Yet wisdom is vindicated by her deeds."
25At that time Jesus said, "I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and the intelligent and have revealed them to infants; 26yes, Father, for such was your gracious will. 27All things have been handed over to me by my Father; and no one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.
28Come 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."
Good News: We are yoked with God.
Watch for the Cue
Ok, we're going to try this. I'm going to give you a cue, and we'll see how you respond.
Marco (Polo)
773-202-(LUNA)
Hey Chicago, whaddya say? (Cubs are goin to win today)
All around the mulberry bush, the monkey chased the weasel. The monkey thought it was a joke, (pop goes the weasel)
Cues. We live in a "cue" society; our advertisement industry banks on it. You didn't know that you needed that prescription medicine, but you should probably ask your doctor about it. You didn't know that you needed that new car, the one given at Christmas with big bow on it, but it turns out you do. Jingles, catch phrases, they are intended to cue us into something that we need but didn't know, that we desire but don't realize.
In today's Gospel lesson, Jesus is talking about cues. These aren't the jingles and the catch phrases of today, these are good cues. And he's talking to the Pharisees about how they don't recognize the cues of God, even though they're right there in front of them. They want Jesus to play their own games, they want John the Baptist to play their own games, but Jesus is saying that God has a different game in mind. And he uses the example of children's games, much like Marco Polo or Pop Goes the Weasel.
Children would sit in the market place while they're parents would shop or do business, and they'd play games. Two very popular games were "Wedding" and "Funeral". I remember my brothers and I playing "Cops and Robbers," or "School," or "Space Travelers" much the same way. If it's a marriage game, you start singing. And the Pharisees were singing, but, as Jesus points out, John the Baptist didn't want to play.
John was yelling about repentance, and the
You see, the Pharisees wanted something different out of John the Baptist, they wanted John to fit into their own mold. He wouldn't play, so they called him a demon.
And, likewise, Jesus was a little too outgoing for the Pharisees. He ate with sinners, partied at weddings, he cavorted with the lowliest in society. The Pharisees wanted to play funeral with Jesus, they wanted him to be more serious than he was willing to be, they wanted him to fit into their own mold of what a Rabbi, a Messiah was supposed to be.
Ironically, they did end up playing funeral with Jesus in a very real way.
Jesus says to the Pharisees, "You are like children playing a game, and you get mad when we don't play," because you cannot give God cues and expect God to play your games.
And we still do that, sometimes, as well. We still expect God sometimes to follow our cues, to play our games.
God doesn't play.
But in this passage, God is giving us cues. God is giving us a different framework, a different game to play in the work and person of Jesus Christ.
This last part of this section, this final part, where Jesus says,
"28Come 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 is the cue that God is giving to us.
You know, just as often as we expect God to play our games, I think we spend quite a bit of time trying to figure out if God is giving us cues for how to conduct our actions, how to move to the next station in life.
I remember hearing about how Oprah once was about to get on a plane and there was some delay and they wouldn't get out that night. She went back home to return the next morning. In the meantime, a huge storm came up, and when Oprah arrived back home, her basement was flooded. As she sat on her stage, she told her audience that she thought God had caused the delay so she could go home and sump-pump her basement.
Now, on the outside, that seems like an ok thing to conjecture. But if I was one of those passengers on the plane, and I thought God had delayed my vacation, my visit to see my grandparents, or a funeral, or a baptism, or anything so that Oprah could sump-pump her basement, I'd be pretty ticked off.
You see, I'm pretty convinced that the cues we get from God are 90 percent in hind-sight. I can't say that it wasn't God that caused that airplane to fail, but I can't find the ability to utter the words that it was.
But today God is giving us, giving you, giving those Pharisees, and those disciples, giving the world an unmistakeable cue. And it is not game, it is life.
God is telling you that you are yoked to God. And not just yoked to God in Christ, but this yoke is unlike any other yoke you've ever experienced.
See, a lot of us are yoked.
We're yoked to success. We're yoked to drugs, sex, violence, charity, good works, self-righteousness, workaholism, alcoholism…tons of yokes to be under.
But God's yoke is different.
Jesus describes this yoke as being "easy". That is not really a great translation. The godly life, the Christian life, is never "easy," at least not in our modern conceptions of the word. The word "easy" is better translated as "well suited."
My yoke is "well suited."
On a bright June day, I sat with Larry and his family in hospital room 603 at
As they gathered, family and friends, cousins and children, they told me stories about Larry. I didn't know Larry, never shook his hand, but I held his hand. I didn't know Larry, never heard him laugh, but I heard his children laugh as they told stories about his life.
Larry would not make it through the night.
I stayed with the family for much of the day. As my shift was changing, we prayed and I left them, and I walked outside.
And as I walked outside, I observed people going about their day, laughing and smiling. The birds were chirping, the cars were honking, and I wanted to go up to them all and shake them.
"Don't you know whats going on upstairs? There is a family that is about to go through a difficult, life-changing event. A father, brother, son, is about to die tonight, and here you are laughing, and chirping, and honking. Don't you know?!"
But then I thought back to my time with the family. How we had talked about God and faith, about the promises found in the good news that God is with us, even in death. About the good news that Jesus has promised eternal life.
And, somehow, that burden was lightened, if just a bit. It wasn't easy. Lord, it never is. But it's true. The hope, the promise that God has given, the cue that God has given in the person of Jesus Christ: that God is with us, in life, death, and everywhere in between, was well suited.
It was well suited for life.
You see, I don't know that we can always tell when God is giving us an individualized, specialized, situational cue, not until hind-sight. But if there is one cue that I see in writing, one cue that I see plain as day, one cue that is life giving: it is that we are walking with God through this life, yoked with the Christ no matter what ground of life we're tilling. Just as Christ moved past death into true life, we live with that promise as well. No matter what storms may come, whether it be weddings or funerals, drugs or self-righteousness, self-doubt or sump-pumps, we walk yoked with Christ, a yoke that is well suited to deal with them all.
Take the cue: you are yoked with Christ, and this is freeing news!
So, lets try one more cue, a cue that speaks to this life giving word:
Christ is risen! (Christ is risen indeed, Alleluia).
Amen.
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