Homily by The
Rev. Marcia McRae
St. John’s
Episcopal Church, Bainbridge, GA, 6 July 2014, Proper 9
Year A RCL:
Genesis 24:34-38, 42-49, 58-67; Psalm
45:11-18; Romans 7:15-25a; Matthew 11:16-19, 25-30
“The
road is long, with many a winding turn.”1
May we travel it together, guided by the Holy Spirit.
You
may recall the ballad “He
ain’t heavy, he’s my brother”
that tells about the long road that “leads
us to who knows where, Who knows when.”
The refrain teaches us about today's scriptures: He
ain’t heavy, he’s my brother.
(I have
learned that the lyrics of the 1969 ballad
by Bobby Scott & Bob Russell
are
inspired by an earlier story2.)
My
brother, my sister “ain’t heavy” because s/he is a gift to me
from God, yoked to me with God’s well-fitted yoke.
Jesus
says:
“my yoke is easy & my burden is light.”
The Greek word
for “easy” can mean “well-fitted”.3 Bible commentator William Barclay
says4
in Jesus’ day the wooden yokes for oxen were custom-made after the
ox had been measured. That way the-to-measure yoke fit well.
It makes
sense to do this so that your expensive ox can work well & with
less injury.
There
is legend5
that when Jesus worked as a carpenter, the shop had a sign over the
door: “My yokes fit well.”
Think
about those times in your life when you have had to work with a
heavy, ill-fitting yoke. St. Paul tell us his experience in our
lesson from Romans today:
living with the burden of sin, the yoke of
sin,
can make us lose sight of God – who is Love,
whose burden
is light, whose yoke is easy.
When
we lose sight of God’s love, we can fall into the grip of fear –
that bend in the road that leads us to inaction & a sense of
being alone.
Fear tells us we are at a dead end.
Fear lies.
The
road we travel with Jesus has no dead end: It has blind curves that
the Holy Spirit will guide us safely through. The Holy Spirit may
extend the hand of a Brother or Sister in Christ to lead you through
the fear, past the blind curve & on to the next stretch on the
road of life.
Paul
tells us clearly that, although our human nature is to stay mired in
fear & sin so that we do the wrong we don’t want to do &
don’t do the good we want to do,
Jesus is our rescuer.
Paul
says: “Who will rescue me from this body of death? Thanks be to God
through Jesus Christ our Lord!”
Jesus is
the answer.
Through Jesus & the guidance of the Holy Spirit, we
can
move forward in faith. We can live, trusting God. We can say “Yes”
to God.
Notice
what an amazing story we have in Genesis of a person saying yes,
accepting, trusting a new yoke:
We hear Rebekah say “Yes,” to the
call she receives, which our lesson says comes as God guides
Abraham’s servant.
Rebekah responds, trusting God
like her future
father-in-law Abraham does.
What
burden do we see Rebekah take on?
She takes on work when she
encounters Abraham’s servant at the spring.
She not only gives him
water,
but also she lowers her water jar many times into
that spring
&
hauls it up to water those
10 camels with the servant & his
assistants.
Rebekah puts forth extra effort to carry that
heavy load of water.
She knows:
“He ain’t heavy, he’s my brother”
– he’s a
fellow human being.
Rebekah
goes the extra mile – literally: She agrees to leave home to
journey to a new beginning, trusting God.
We
have to trust God to get on with life or we will get worn down,
bearing all its pressures alone. Then we lose imagination & joy.
Then we are like children who refuse to play – who refuse to be in
relationship with others, to work together, play together, to live in
the fullness of life God intends for us.
God
makes us for relationships, for unity.
God makes us in God’s image:
the Holy Trinity,
which loves us – loves you!
Rebekah
values relationships. Her name can mean bound7
or
a
team
of horses8.
Like a team of oxen, a team of horses works tied together.
Yoked
together, the team works in unity.
Oxen & horses show us that by
working together, the yoke is easy & the burden is light.
You
are smarter than any horse, any ox.
Through the Grace of the Holy
Spirit dwelling in you:
You know he ain’t heavy,
he’s your
brother,
she’s your sister
& all the rest
of us know:
You
ain't heavy!
You're our brother, you're our sister.
As the song by
Scott & Russell says9:
The
road is
long,
With
many a winding turn,
that
leads us to who knows where,
Who
knows when.
I
paraphrase, But
you're – we're strong
–
strong
enough to carry….So on we go…
gaining
strength for this journey…
If
I'm laden at all, I'm laden with sadness,
That
everyone's heart Isn't filled with the
gladness
Of
love for one another.
My
Sisters & Brothers, WE
have work to do to
fill empty hearts with
the gladnes of love for one another
– to fill those empty jars so they overflow.
Bibliography
Barclay,
William. The
Daily Study Bible Series: The Gospel of Matthew.
Vol. 2. Revised Ed. Philadelphia: The Westminster Press. 1975.
Boadt,
Lawrence. Reading
the Old Testament: An Introduction.
New York: Paulist Press. 1984.
Book of
Common Prayer.
New York: The Church Hymnal Corp., and The Seabury Press. 1979.
Brueggemann,
Walter. The
Prophetic Imagination.
2nd
Edition.
Minneapolis: Fortress Press. 2001.
Davidson,
Baruch S. “What Does the Name Rebecca Mean?” Accessed
5 July 2014.
Dios Habla
Hoy: La Biblia.
New York: American
Bible Society. 1983.
Harper’s Bible Commentary.
General Ed.: James. L. Mays. San Francisco: Harper & Row
Publishers. 1988.
Holy Bible.
New Revised Standard Version. New York: Oxford University Press.
1989.
http://www.oldielyrics.com/lyrics/the_hollies/he_aint_heavy_hes_my_brother.html.
Accessed: 5 July 2014.
Jewish Study Bible: Jewish
Publication Society TANAKH Translation.
New York: Oxford University Press. 2004.
The New
American Bible for Catholics.
South Bend: Greenlawn Press. 1986.
1
Note: Lyrics
by Bobby
Scott, Bob Russell.
Accessed: 5 July 2014.
http://www.oldielyrics.com/lyrics/the_hollies/he_aint_heavy_hes_my_brother.html.
3
Ibid. P. 17.
4
Ibid. 17
5
Ibid. 17.
8
Davidson, Baruch S. “What Does the Name Rebecca
Mean?” Accessed:
7/5/14.
http://www.chabad.org/parshah/article_cdo/aid/651535/jewish/What-Does-the-Name-Rebecca-Mean.htm
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