A Reading from the Book of Genesis (24:34-38, 42-49, 58-67)
[The man said to Rebekah and her household,] “I am Abraham’s servant. The Lord has greatly blessed my master, and he has become wealthy; he has given him flocks and herds, silver and gold, male and female slaves, camels and donkeys. And Sarah my master’s wife bore a son to my master when she was old; and he has given him all that he has. My master made me swear, saying, ‘You shall not take a wife for my son from the daughters of the Canaanites, in whose land I live; but you shall go to my father’s house, to my kindred, and get a wife for my son.’ I came today to the spring, and said, ‘O Lord, the God of my master Abraham, if now you will only make successful the way I am going! I am standing here by the spring of water; let the young woman who comes out to draw, to whom I shall say, “Please give me a little water from your jar to drink,” and who will say to me, “Drink, and I will draw for your camels also”—let her be the woman whom the Lord has appointed for my master’s son.’ Before I had finished speaking in my heart, there was Rebekah coming out with her water jar on her shoulder; and she went down to the spring, and drew. I said to her, ‘Please let me drink.’ She quickly let down her jar from her shoulder, and said, ‘Drink, and I will also water your camels.’ So I drank, and she also watered the camels. Then I asked her, ‘Whose daughter are you?’ She said, ‘The daughter of Bethuel, Nahor’s son, whom Milcah bore to him.’ So I put the ring on her nose, and the bracelets on her arms. Then I bowed my head and worshiped the Lord, and blessed the Lord, the God of my master Abraham, who had led me by the right way to obtain the daughter of my master’s kinsman for his son. Now then, if you will deal loyally and truly with my master, tell me; and if not, tell me, so that I may turn either to the right hand or to the left.” And they called Rebekah, and said to her, “Will you go with this man?” She said, “I will.” So they sent away their sister Rebekah and her nurse along with Abraham’s servant and his men. And they blessed Rebekah and said to her, “May you, our sister, become thousands of myriads; may your offspring gain possession of the gates of their foes.” Then Rebekah and her maids rose up, mounted the camels, and followed the man; thus the servant took Rebekah, and went his way. Now Isaac had come from Beer-lahai-roi, and was settled in the Negeb. Isaac went out in the evening to walk in the field; and looking up, he saw camels coming. And Rebekah looked up, and when she saw Isaac, she slipped quickly from the camel, and said to the servant, “Who is the man over there, walking in the field to meet us?” The servant said, “It is my master.” So she took her veil and covered herself. And the servant told Isaac all the things that he had done. Then Isaac brought her into his mother Sarah’s tent. He took Rebekah, and she became his wife; and he loved her. So Isaac was comforted after his mother’s death.
The Song of My Beloved
Hear the he voice of my belovèd! *
Over the mountains he comes leaping,
bounding over the hills *
like a young stag or a gazelle.
See where he stands behind our wall, *
gazing in at the windows,
peeking through the lattice.
My belovèd calls to me: *
Rise up, my beloved, my beauty, come away;
for now the winter is past, *
the rains are over and gone.
Flowers appear on the earth *
and the time of singing has come;
the voice of the turtle-dove *
is heard throughout our land.
The fig trees bend with scented fruit; *
and all the squash-vines blossom,
sending forth their sweet perfume. *
Rise up, my love, my beauty, come away.
A Reading from the Letter of Paul to the Romans (7:15-25a)
I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. Now if I do what I do not want, I agree that the law is good. But in fact it is no longer I that do it, but sin that dwells within me. For I know that nothing good dwells within me, that is, in my flesh. I can will what is right, but I cannot do it. For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I do. Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I that do it, but sin that dwells within me. So I find it to be a law that when I want to do what is good, evil lies close at hand. 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. Wretched man that I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!
The Holy Gospel of Our Lord Jesus Christ according to Matthew (11:16-19, 25-30)
Jesus said, “But to what will I compare this generation? It is like children sitting in the marketplaces and calling to one another, ‘We played the flute for you, and you did not dance; we wailed, and you did not mourn.’ For John came neither eating nor drinking, and they say, ‘He has a demon’; the 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.” At 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; yes, Father, for such was your gracious will. All 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. 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; 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.”
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TODAY’S HOMILY
by the Rev. Deacon George Snyder
I have to confess that the Bible often speaks to me in confusion. I read, and I do not understand. So often I just want to cry out, “Tell me what you want me to understand, but say it clearly.” That certainly was me two weeks ago when I started studying today’s gospel lesson. I never would have had any sense of what was meant if I had not gone to outside sources. Commentaries—or a well-read priest—are essential for understanding biblical times and their manner of life, and, consequently, how we are to apply a two-thousand-year-old document to our lives.
Today’s lesson has a group of people in the village marketplace; these people are being what my mother would have called “just plain contrary.” How many times did I hear her say “I give you one thing and you don’t want it; then, I give you something else and you don’t want it either. Your problem is you don’t know what you want.” How many of you parents can relate to that?
Someone in the marketplace is playing on a pipe—like they would hear at a wedding celebration—but the people do not want to be happy and dance. The music switches to that which would be played at a funeral, but the people do not want to be mournful. What do they want?
Taking this a step further, John the Baptist came as an ascetic—neither eating nor drinking just living away from society. The people called him mad. Just the opposite, Jesus came eating and drinking and they called him gluttonous, a friend of tax-collectors and sinners. The people were not happy with that way of life either. No matter what the people were offered, they were not happy; they found fault with it. The problem is these people did not know what they wanted—just like me when I was a children.
William Barclay, one of the notable theologians of the 20th century says, “The plain fact is that when people do not want to listen to the truth, they will easily enough find an excuse for not listening to it. They do not even try to be consistent in their criticisms; they will criticize the same person, and the same institution, from quite opposite grounds. If people are determined to make no response, they will remain stubbornly unresponsive no matter what invitation is made to them.”
The people in the square were given two opposite responses—they didn’t like either choice. The people had heard the truth; they understood what Jesus wanted them to do—they knew what path they needed to follow. Rather than follow the path that Jesus outlined for them, they were being contrary like little children who wanted what they wanted and nothing less.
Who are these people in the square? Lest we make an inaccurate generalization, we must understand that many Jews of that era had things right; their closeness to God was of primary importance. Many Jews had a loving relationship with their Creator. The people in the square are the people of that era who were stuck where they had been struck for generations.
Many of the Jews of the era had plenty of reason to call John mad. They could criticize him for being so isolated, so eccentric. But the fact is John moved the hearts of many to whom he spoke; he moved their hearts to God. These Jews could criticize Jesus for mixing with the ordinary people—those at the lower end of society’s spectrum. But, Jesus, too, moved many people to a closer relationship with their God
John and Jesus were doing exactly what the Jewish leaders said should be done—moving people into a loving relationship with their heavenly father—but these leaders found fault with it because it was not the way they wanted people to find God. It was not the methods established by Judaism for centuries—ways that were working less and less frequently. Jesus’ way took away much of the power structure of Judaism. Jesus was trying to breathe new life into Judaism. He had no intentions of destroying it; after all, he was a Jew.
Jesus knew that the Judaic practice in his time was not achieving what it was intended to achieve: closeness to God. Again, Barclay whom I quoted a few minutes ago, says “when Jesus issued the call: “Come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest,” Jesus was not talking about those who have the weight of the world on their shoulders.” Jesus was not talking about people who were struggling because they had no job; he was not talking about people who had no food to put on the table for their children, he was not talking about someone who was grieving because of the death of child or a spouse.
Jesus was talking about those people who were seeking God and could not find him because they were weighted down with the rules of their religion. Barclay says, “For orthodox Jews, religion was a thing of burden…religion was a thing of endless rules. People lived their lives in a forest of regulations which dictated every action.” These rules were not taking the people to God; they were separating God and his people
Many Jews of that era must have been religiously exhausted by the rules of religion. It is infinitely important that we remember that most of those rules were written by the religious establishment—not by God. Jesus was telling these people, “Take my yoke upon you, learn from me, for I am gentle and humble of heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” Jesus wanted to make the pathway to God simple for his people.
In Matthew chapter 22, one of his disciples asks Jesus a question, “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?”
Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’” These two laws are all the burden that the Jews of Jesus’ time had to take on themselves. They could attain their desired closeness to God by doing just that, and forgetting the plethora of rules made my man.
Jesus invites us to take on that same yoke in order to be at one with God, and the burden of Jesus’ yoke will be light for us. We can forget all the rules that society wants to use to regulate us; we can forget all the rules that established religions tell us is the right way to worship our God. These rules have separated many in our modern world from him.
Jesus doesn’t tell us that we still won’t have the problem of paying DP&L; it won’t end our health problems; it won’t help us get along with that crabby neighbor. He talks about problems like that elsewhere. Jesus gives us something much more important. He promises us the most important thing we can possibly have: a closer relationship with the Devine. When we seek a better relationship with God, we seek his love, we seek his acceptance. We seek a life that makes some sense because we see a great deal in this world that does not make sense. We seek a life that helps us to be who we are created to be. It won’t end our problems. But, when we are with Him, we have the strength to handle anything that the world throws at us. When we are with Him, the problems of our daily life become miniscule. When we are with Him, we gain a better perspective of what the world can be.
“Come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest.”
Amen.
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