Sermon: Christ's yoke and discerning God's will (July 9, 2017)

Pentecost 5A/Lectionary 14

July 9, 2017

Matthew 11:16-19

Romans 7:15-25a

Genesis 24

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

            In today’s story from Genesis, we hear about how Abraham found a wife for his son Isaac. You see, Sarah had just died, so Abraham was probably thinking, “Man, if this whole ‘great nation’ thing that God talked about is going to happen, Isaac’s gotta get busy having some kids, and to have kids, he needs a wife!” So he sends his servant back to Abraham’s home country to find a wife for Isaac. The servant has some concerns about this, namely, why would some young woman come with him to some far-off land to marry some guy she knows nothing about? So he comes up with this idea. “If a woman offers me a drink of water from the well,” he says, “AND also offers some to my camels, then I’ll know she is the one!” This way, he thinks, he will know God’s will.

Have you ever used such a tactic to figure out what God wants you to do? Like, “Heads I take the job, tails I don’t.” Or, “If tomorrow it rains, I’ll take it as a sign that God wants me to do such-and-such.” This tactic worked well for Abraham’s servant in his quest to find a wife for Isaac: the very first woman who comes to the well is not only gorgeous, but also fulfills every qualification, and passes every “test” that the servant had in mind, and so naturally, the woman, Rebekah, is also willing to follow him back to Abraham and to Isaac, and God’s promise can continue.

Well, it worked for him, but it’s certainly not a foolproof way for us to discern God’s will, is it? Because too often, Paul’s words in his letter to the Romans come into play. “I do not understand my own actions,” he writes. “For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate.” In other words, despite our best intentions, and our knowledge of what is the right thing to do, our sinful nature is always wriggling its way into our decision-making. So when I try to use Abraham’s servant’s idea for making decisions, I see “signs” pointing toward what I would like to be the case as signs from God, and dismiss signs that point me toward something that makes me uneasy or uncomfortable, or things I downright don’t want to be true, as mere coincidence. Anyone else guilty of that? I always prefer that God would agree with me and my will, than have to adjust my attitude or my thinking or my acting to go along with God’s will! So if I can find things that make me believe that God’s will and mine are in agreement, then all the better.

Yes, I see the fault here, or at least, the potential for fault. So the question becomes: what IS a good way to discern God’s will? Because this is one of our most pressing spiritual questions, isn’t it? I don’t just mean about the big decisions of our lives – whether to take a new job, or get married, or have kids, or move into assisted living. Certainly we need God’s guidance on those decisions, too, but we need help even on the more mundane things. Should I give $1, $5, or nothing to United Way when I check out at Wegmans? Am I voting for the right people or ideas? Am I fighting for the right things? Am I devoting my energy to the right things?

For me, this is especially the case lately, as I look around the world at all the things that are not as they should be: sick people without adequate health care, people who work full time (even multiple jobs) and yet still are unable to reliably put food on the table for their family, veterans who are not cared for, children who don’t have the support they need to thrive, faithful people who are persecuted for worshipping God in the way they know how, people who are mocked and bullied simply for being the beautiful creatures God made them to be, an earth that is commodified, taken for granted and trampled upon for the sake of profit. All these things I care so much about – but what am I supposed to do? How do I know the best solutions, and what role is God calling me to take in those solutions? Where is the balance of serving the needs of the broader world, and serving the needs of my family? What is God’s idea for the future of the congregations I serve, and what role do I play in that? How do I, and how do we, discern God’s will for our lives, and how do we act on it?

So many questions to discern! And then, even if we do successfully discern God’s will, we are still susceptible to “doing the very thing we hate,” because, well, we are in bondage to sin and cannot free ourselves. But there must be some way at least to get a little closer not only to knowing God’s will, but to actually doing it?

I find our Gospel lesson today offers a helpful image for the task of

discernment. It’s in that very famous and well-loved line at the end: “Come to me all you that are weary and carrying heavy burdens,” Jesus says, “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 have long been fascinated by this image: how is it that Jesus can promise rest for our souls when in fact, a yoke is something used for a work animal? What does that even mean to say Jesus’ yoke is easy? I’ve seen how hard those animals work – that doesn’t look easy to me!

            But that’s how discernment can be sometimes, can’t it? It is not easy. It is hard work, work that requires reading and listening and praying and perhaps talking to trusted people. What is helpful about Jesus’ yoke as a discernment image is this: you cannot be yoked alone. A yoke brings two together, to share the load. And in the case of Jesus’ yoke, of course, you are sharing the load with Jesus. And Jesus is walking alongside us all along the way.

So as we discern that question, “What does God want from me right now?” this image urges us to consider it right alongside Jesus. That is, we read scripture, we pray, we talk to other Christians who will push and question and challenge us to think things through. As we make big decisions, whether that is in personal life decisions, or in forming our opinions about the various issues the world and our communities are facing and acting accordingly, we must look at the words and teachings of Jesus, and ask ourselves, “Where would Jesus guide me on this? If Jesus were in my position, which way would he go?” Because the fact of this image is: Jesus is in your position. You are yoked with him. Where you go, he goes – or perhaps better, where he goes, as long as you are yoked, you go, too.

            But here is something else important to know about this yoke image. Jesus was speaking to a community of Jews who were feeling exceptionally burdened by Mosaic Law, and its 600-some laws that they were required to follow. Imagine having to keep all of that straight, and living in the constant fear of slipping up! But along comes Jesus and he condenses all those laws to essentially two commands: love the Lord your God with all you have, and love your neighbor. It’s simpler, yes, but certainly not any easier to love in so open and undiscriminating manner as Jesus, who spent all his time with the sinning-est of sinners! Still, with Jesus’ interpretation of the law, every action can be filtered through the same question: is this action in the best interest of my neighbor? Does this action, or viewpoint, or vote, or opinion, or word, show the sort of love to my neighbor that Christ himself would show? If we are truly yoked to Christ, we must be in step with him!

            But at the end of the day, the reason Christ’s yoke is easy, and we will find rest in it, is that his yoke is one of grace. Yoked to Christ, our salvation does not depend upon upholding the letter of the law. It depends not on our actions, but on Christ’s action – his action to die for our sins and rise again to bring us into new life with him. And because of that grace, suddenly being in step with our God of love and service to neighbor becomes not just easy, but a joy, because we are living into the gracious love shown to us by our Savior.

            Come to Christ, you who are weary from the weight of the world, and carrying the heavy burdens of your decisions, and Christ will give you rest. When you take his yoke upon you, you will learn from him: learn what it means to love your neighbor without counting the cost. Christ is gentle and humble in heart, willing to serve even the lowest and most despised, the weakest, the least popular. In loving these, you will find rest for your souls. Christ’s yoke is easy, for it makes the burden of sin light. Take Christ’s yoke upon you, and you will live in the joy of God’s love and grace.

            Let us pray… God of wisdom, you not only guide us when we have decisions to make, but you also walk right alongside us all along the way. Help us always to be attuned to your will, always to have our neighbor’s well-being in the forefront of our minds, and then to follow through on what you would have us do. In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.