?Freely Yoked for the Common Good |
A Communion Meditation
First Congregational Church | Wauwatosa, Wisconsin
Seventh Sunday after Pentecost/
Independence Day | July 3, 2005
Rev. Steven A. Peay, Ph.D.
[Texts: Romans 7:15-25a/Matthew 11:16-19, 25-30]gCome to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, 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.h
The people listening to Jesus on that long-ago day knew what a yoke was; they knew, because they saw them used in tilling the land. The yoke is a heavy wooden frame designed to go over the shoulders of draft animals, most often oxen. It is something made-to-measure; that is the frame is roughed out and then the animal is brought for a fitting. The yoke is then adjusted to fit the shoulders of the ox so that it will not chafe or make their pulling uncomfortable. A well-fitted yoke was something sought after, since the animal would do more and better work if the yoke didnft cause discomfort.
The people who listened to Jesus also knew what a yoke was because they were burdened by the demands placed upon them at multiple levels. Whether it was the Roman occupation or the demands of the religious elite, they knew what an ill-fitting yoke felt like. Jesus spoke to these folks who were worn out in the search for God. They were burdened under the weight of endless rules and regulations; with far more gthou shalt notsh than gthou shalts.h The Scottish Bible commentator Matthew Barclay, an old favorite of mine, points this out in his commentary on Matthew.
Barclay recounts a parable placed in the mouth of the Rabbi Korah that goes like this: gThere was a poor widow in my neighborhood who had two daughters and a field. When she began to plough, Moses (i.e. the Law of Moses) said, eYou must not plough with an ox and an ass together.f When she began to sow, he said, eYou must not sow your field with mingled seed.f When she began to reap to make stacks of corn, he said, eTake not the gleaning, or what you forget (Deuteronomy 24:19), or the cornersf (Leviticus 19:9). She began to thresh, and he said, eGive me the heave-offering, and the first and second tithe.f She accepted the ordinance and gave them all to him. What did the poor woman then do? She sold her field, and bought two sheep, to clothe herself from their fleece, and to have profit from their young. When they bore their young, Aaron (i.e. the demands of the priesthood) came and said, eGive me the first-born.f So she accepted the decision, and gave them to him. When the shearing time came, and she sheared them, Aaron came and said, eGive me the first fruit of the fleecef (Deuteronomy 18:4). Then she thought: eI cannot stand up against this man. I will slaughter the sheep and eat them.f Then Aaron came and said, eGive me the shoulder and the two cheeks and the mawf (Deuteronomy 18:3). Then she said, eEven when I have killed them I am not safe from you. Behold they shall be devoted.f Then Aaron said, eIn that case they belong entirely to mef (Numbers 18:14). He took them and went away and left her weeping with her two daughters.h [The Daily Study Bible: The Gospel of Matthew, vol. 2, p. 18-19]
What Rabbi Korah pointed out in the parable were the continuous demands of the 613 laws governing the life of a good Jew. Every action of life had its concomitant gbrush with the law.h What had been meant to be a means to relationship began to be an obstacle to it instead. God was transformed from a loving Creator and Father to an all-seeing Judge. Jesus comes to change that perception, to bring a yoke with a proper fit, and to restore the proper sense of relationship between God and humanity, with human beings experiencing the full dignity as children of God. I never tire of hearing Irenaeus, the great teacher of the early church, when he says, gGodfs glory | human beings fully alive.h
When Jesus offers the geasy yokeh he wants to lift the burden of trying to find ourselves and our relationship with God. He shows that faith is a tool, like a yoke, which brings us to God. Our yoke, what we must do, is custom-made for each of us and we must avoid trying to short-cut it or increase its weight. Many of the burdens we experience come from ourselves, rather than from God. The critique that Jesus makes of the religious elite of his day could easily fit any number of religious establishments in our world | even our own here on Church Street. Itfs not about rules and regulations. The bottom line is that we are called to love God and to love neighbor with every fiber of our being and that is accomplished through the yoke of loving relationship.
The yoke we freely take up leads to the common good. The restoration of human dignity is for all humanity, not just the exaltation of the individual. This is something we Christians in America sometimes forget and, believe it or not, we can learn a great lesson from a Frenchman who visited our shores back in the 1830s. Alexis de Tocquevillefs Democracy in America is an oft-quoted, but I think not fully read, masterpiece of observation and insight. He notes that aristocracy tends to lead to selfishness while democracy leads to individualism. Tocqueville describes selfishness as an gexaggerated love of selfh that goriginates in blind instinct.h Individualism, on the other hand, gproceeds from erroneous judgment more than from depraved feelings; it originates as much in deficiencies of mind as in perversity of heart.h Tocqueville does a superb job of demonstrating that selfishness and individualism are both, ultimately, destructive of common life and the good that it does. [See Democracy in America, vol. 2, p. 104]
The antidote for individualism, which is just selfishness in a more liberated form, is from free institutions and from the exercise of voluntarism on the behalf of others. What he says is something we need to remember. Tocqueville writes, gThe free institutions which the inhabitants of the United States possess, and the political rights of which they make so much use, remind every citizen, and in a thousand ways, that he lives in society. They every instant impress upon his mind the notion that it is the duty as well as the interest of men to make themselves useful to their fellow creatures; and as he sees no particular ground of animosity to them, since he is never either their master or their slave, his heart readily leans to the side of kindness. Men attend to the interests of the public, first by necessity, afterwards by choice; what was intentional becomes an instinct, and by dint of working for the good of onefs fellow citizens, the habit and the taste for serving them are at length acquired.h [Democracy in America, vol. 2, p. 112] In other words, we learn the value of the common good by making it happen | we serve and we grow. Here, in a different form, is the easy yoke.
In our contemporary society we have too often forgotten the wisdom of the common good. Wefre eager to get ahead. Our mantra is gI donft have time.h Our goal is to have more, but, when push comes to shove, that is not the measure of gthe good life.h Rather, it is seeing the good of the whole and seeking to hold that up. Concern for the common good makes the burden light and the church, as it did during Tocquevillefs visit, must light the way. We must renew our commitment to care for each other and to build up not only this gathered community of faith, but the larger communities of which we are all a part. The tune that is piped and the game that is played is more than just what is good for me | itfs seeing the good of others and seeking that.
Ifm not saying that itfs easy to do. We can certainly hear that struggle in Paulfs letter to the church at Rome, canft we? There is always a tug, a pull, between that which is right and good and that which is self-centered and wrong. There is a conflict between the yoke that gives life and freedom and that which pulls, burdens, and weighs us down. The choice comes from within us, aided by Godfs Spirit and the gift of grace, to live as God has called us to live, freely yoked for common good, making a difference because wefve experienced what it means to be different, to be renewed.
Like the cross the yoke takes on new symbolic meaning for us. No longer does it represent servitude and control. Now it means freely given service in relationship. We are free to share life together, to pull together toward the goal of the common good. The promised rest comes when we are freely yoked. Rest comes when we no longer have to play egodf and control every aspect of life, but give of ourselves freely as God has given freely to us.The sacrament that we share today is an apt reminder of the life wefre called to live. Jesus sat at table with his disciples and told them that every time they broke bread and shared a cup together they were to remember there was more to life than what they saw. We gather here, around this table, knowing that the bread and cup didnft just appear from nowhere | effort was made so that we might share together. So, our lives are to be. We are to make the effort to be Eucharist, thanksgiving, a reminder for each other of the unselfish love God calls us to live through Jesus Christ. Broken, poured out, shared so that all may be nourished | that is the essence of our lives freely yoked for common good. Hear the words of Jesus, take up the yoke, enter the relationship, and know what it means to find rest.