Come to Jesus

July 3, 2011
Come to Jesus
Genesis 24: 34-38;42-49;58-67
Matthew 11:16-19;25-30
Third Sunday of Pentecost
Year A



The Fourth of July and Freedom

On this 4th of July weekend, we can all relate to the song “America the Beautiful. We can all agree that we live in the land of the free and the home of the brave. America is a very special country, a country where all are free to pursue their happiness and well being.

And even though we all enjoy that freedom, we all know that freedom is not free. We know the cost that many have paid with their lives, and that many others pay for with their obedience to continue to defend our country. We know that America is not perfect, our forefathers and leaders have done their fair share of injustice.


Freedom and discipline
But we also know that freedom is not free, because we cannot go around doing what we want to do. We cant just sit around and expect freedom to hand deliver everything that our heart desires. It takes much hard work and discipline. It takes obedience to our laws and rules. It takes being yoked, as Jesus would say. Jesus says to put on his yoke. The burden is easy and light. We are called to be obedient to his way of life.



Rabbi and the woman
There is an old story of a widow – who had two daughters and a field. Since her daughters were young – she would plow the field herself. But the law said to her that she was not supposed to plow with an ox and an donkey together. When she began to seed the field the law said that she was not to seed with a mix of different seed. When she began to reap and to stack her corn – the law said that she should not be reaping if she still had corn in the field. When she began to thresh – she was commanded to give her offering for the first and second tithe. She accepted the law and gave all that she had. But she sold her field and thought it easier to raise sheep – until the law said that she had to give her first fleece to the temple. She killed the sheep so that she could eat it – until the priest told her that she had to give the shoulder, the cheeks and the stomach of her sheep to the temple for sacrifice. Frustrated – she threw up her hands and asked the priest if there was anything that she could do to be free from the law. I have killed me sheep – and you are still asking for more - you killed the sheep asked the priest? Yes replied the woman. In that case the whole sheep belongs to me – he took her sheep, her lively hood and left her alone with her two daughters. There was absolutely nothing that she could do to escape the yoke of the law. It demanded everything of her. That is not the kind of yoke that Jesus is asking us to bear.

Freedom in Christ
Jesus asks us to take on the burden of freedom. Freedom in Christ. Galations 5:13 says that you were called into freedom. Matthew 11 says Come 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.
The yoke of Christ is voluntary, easy, and peaceful. The yoke of Christ is faith in Christ. The yoke fulfills all of the promises of God.

The freedom of Rebekah
Genesis 24 is a beautiful story of the faithfulness of Rebekah in fulfilling the promises of God. God promisedAbraham that he would have a family as numerous as the stars. In spite of himself destroying the promise. God works to fulfill the promise and saves Isaac. Now Sarah has died, and Isaac is unmarried. Before he dies he asks his servant to find a wife for Isaac. The servant prays for a successful mission, but it is Rebekah herself who offers herself as a faithful servant, by being willing to go home with the servant. When she sees her fiancé for the first time, she is estatic. And happily accepts the yoke not only of marriage, but of the faith to follow God.

Where are you in the story?
This unique perspective may be the point of this story, not only narratively (after all, the aged and well-off Abraham is not going to do this himself), but also theologically. This next phase of God's promise unfolds through the faithfulness not so much of the one calling the shots (Abraham), but of a trusted servant and kinfolk hundreds of miles away. God's story and promise is embedded in the interactions of all these people across all these cultures. Perhaps most importantly, that promise now depended on the decisions and discernment of the two who had the least power, but had been given the most trust by all involved — the unnamed servant and Rebekah.
Where does your worshiping community find itself in this story?
Where do some people in your worshiping community find themselves in this story?
(Note: These are two different questions which will likely have very different answers!)
Are you or some of your worshiping community Abraham, entrusting the hopes for the continuation of God's promise to another?
Are you or some of them the trusted servant, trusting God and skillfully navigating the negotiations that will help that promise come to fruition?
Are you or some of them Rebekah, suddenly finding yourself invited to be part of a story you didn't know could be opened to you?
Or are you or they Laban, invited to make a bargain that may seem like sending a sibling far away?
Put another way, is your congregation or are some in it releasing control, actively negotiating, being invited to consider a new future, or entering into some sort of exchange in which you may lose one thing to gain another?
Now a third level — where is your community — not just where your building is located, but the networks of relationships you have as individuals and a congregation — in this story?
Given where you are as a congregation, where your people are, and where you discern your community is, how might this story encourage you to understand the kind of role or roles you may have in continuing to embody God's promise, God's kingdom, where you are?
But don't stop there. Remember that the response of every person in this story involved a new commitment.
Abraham had to commit to ensuring the line would continue through his family and to sending a servant with clear boundaries but no micromanaging instructions to take care of that. The servant had to commit to fulfill Abraham's commission and to trust that God would indeed help that happen. Laban had to commit to allowing his sister to join the journey his uncle Abraham had embarked on many years, several cultures, and hundreds of miles ago. And Rebekah had to commit; indeed, she was given final say and freedom to choose — to take up the role of matriarch in an extended branch of the family and with a husband she had never met in a land far away.
How is God at work in our story?
Where we see ourselves, depends on where we see God on our lives. How is God blessing us today? How is God at work in our lives. In the story, we hear from everyone except God. God speaks to know one, God directs no one, there are no miracles present that point to an obvious God.



God at work not in knowledge but in faith
And yet God’s promises are fulfilled, just in the actions of those who are powerless over their fate, yet obedient and faithful to what they are supposed to do in life.
Jesus thanks God that God has hidden the promises of God from the wise and shown them to infants. Those who have the innocent faith of a child.

The faith of a farmer
A farmer was hard at work on his farm, and he did not realize that it was time for the Sabbath. Nightime Saturday came upon him, and he could not go home. The law forbid him from walking that far on the Sabbath. He had to spend the night in the field. He missed his home that night, he missed his family. But most of all he missed his scriptures. Without them he did not know how to pray to honor God. The next day, he told his rabbi what happened. The rabbi told him that he did not need scripture in order to praise the glory of God, to tell God that God was the head of his life. The farmer confessed that he did not think that far in his faith. He was not that wise. But he did pray the letters of the alphabet – a, b,c. Knowing that if he said the letters, then God would put the words together to hear what needed to be said. The rabbi could do nothing but praise the simplicity of his faith. Freedom is not free….but faithfulness is always rewarded and understood by God.

The invitation of Christ
All that God is to us is revealed in the lessons that Christ taught us. Jesus invites us to come. On this day and in the days to come. Take on the yoke of Christ and find rest, peace, and a freedom that is fulfilled forever. Real freedom is a promise of God to the faithful. Amen.