Fifth Sunday after Pentecost /Proper 9A 2020
Romans 7:15-25a
Matthew 11:16-19, 25-30
The Rev. Dr. Kathy Kelly
This sermon is one of those times when I couldn’t decide on which of the readings to focus on so I have woven them together. Today’s Gospel lesson is about identity. Who we are as followers of Jesus. In this infamous section of Paul’s letter to the Romans we find one of his classic sentiments about his personal struggle with sin and so we can reflect with him on our Christian identity as well. But from the Old Testament reading we get a love story. So I want to start there.
The optional reading for today is from The Song of Solomon. Most preachers blush and shy away from preaching on The Song of Solomon. It is a love poem between lovers and we don’t want to hear about that sort of thing from the pulpit! So we chose a less graphic love story from the Bible for this lectionary theme and hear all about the love story between Isaac and Rebekah instead.
But the poem of The Song of Solomon is a lovely, and I think when pondering our identity as Christians it helps to to ask these simple questions which The Song of Solomon sings about: What is your true desire?
My beloved speaks and says to me:
"Arise, my love, my fair one,
and come away;
These lovers are very desirous of each other and want to run away together. Isaac and Rebekah are also desirous but they are careful and true to their community and wait and get married.
All that said, I ask you to ponder these questions during this meditation on these readings: What primary desire is motivating and guiding you these days? How can we find rest in God's presence rather than our own ambition?
All that said, I find myself focused on one simple saying that sums all this up and that is this?
I know you are but what am I?!
Do you remember that childhood taunt? I know you are but what am I?! I never did quite understand what it means. Because, if I know that it is actually you who is the “loser,” or whatever the insult is - if I know that you are the loser and not me, then asking you to come up with some other description of me only invites more insults! I know you are but what am I?! That’s non-sense!
I once posted this on my Facebook page as a parody of the political banter we see on social media these days. I can actually hear some of those voices yelling this non-sensical phrase at each other when I read the news too.
I know you are but what am I?!
So the lessons for today are about identity. Who we are as followers of Jesus. Who Jesus is as our Lord and master. Who we are to each other in the community of believers. Who we are to the world. Well, we already know who we are in the 21st century, don’t we? We are the Children of God. The body of Christ. Followers of The Way of Love. We are One in the Spirit. Which means that we are all the same in Christ.
But these instructions from Jesus begin with the children of God sitting in the marketplaces mud slinging insults at each other. Then he reminds us that John the Baptist got called names. They said he was a demon. Jesus got called names too like “glutton,” “drunkard,” and worse, “a friend of tax collectors and sinners!” So Jesus compares this name calling to the way the crowd calls out to one another in the marketplace.
I know you are but what am I?!
In my recent study of the modern mystics I have especially enjoyed getting to know the work of Thomas Keating. Keating was a monk who lived a contemplative life and spent all of his life trying to teach all of us how to be quiet and sit in the divine presence without all this shouting for attention or making of demands that we tend to turn to, even in our prayer times.
Keating believed that our sinful human nature tends to draw out the worst in us and we end up mud slinging in the marketplace, because of our deep desire for certain things. He focused on these three things. It sounds like six things but he has two words for each:
He said that we get tripped up longing for 1. self esteem and affection; 2. security and survival; and 3. power and control. I don’t know about you but that fits my sinful nature spot on. Keating invites all of us to consider the option of letting all of that stuff go and opening our hearts to God instead. It’s very simple. It’s like the 2nd and 3rd steps of the Twelve Steps - “Let Go and Let God.” Why is this so hard for us? Why do we try and end up mud slinging insults at each other instead?
Part of the reason is our tribalism.
I have a friend who told the story of being a preacher’s kid. He said that his preacher-father would always say the same thing to him when he was a teenager leaving the house to go out and socialize. The father would say to his son, “Remember who you are!” The son, my friend, became a preacher too later on and recalled this phrase as something that felt confining and controlling at the time. He confessed that he had resented his father’s words as a teenager but had come to see them as useful in his adulthood.
To remember who you are is a way of practicing discipline of self, self awareness and self control. But we tend to think of it as belonging to this family, this church, this denomination, this race, this club. Then we end up mud slinging again so worried about keeping our esteem, security and control.
Why can’t we remember that we are Christ’s own?
Let go! Let God!
Paul talks about this struggle a lot. But before we look at this lesson, let’s look at the context: In Romans 5 and 6, the two chapters preceding this one, Paul has just made a strong case that those baptized in Christ have “died” to their (Adamic) humanity and have been united with Christ (6:1-14). Those baptized “no longer live in Sin” and are no longer enslaved to sin and injustice (“unrighteousness”). There has been a real “transfer” of existence and identity, from one “Lord” to another, from one mode of existence to another, affected not by the law but by the Spirit of the living Christ.
We know this. We’ve thought about this before. We know how to move from a theology of only keeping commandments to following the Way of Christ in love through our experience of that love.
Now in chapter 7 of this letter to the church in Rome, Paul describes the human situation from which God has delivered humanity in and through Jesus Christ. This passage says less about the human struggle in Sin and more about human identity in Christ.
In Christ the “I” is no longer divided but united; no longer frustrated but fulfilled; no longer at odds with God’s will, but in conformity to it. God has done all this. All human systems (“law”) have been and will be incapable of achieving this thing that Jesus has done for us. It is only the Spirit through Christ that delivers humanity.[1]
So friends, how can we learn to stop slinging insults and drawing lines in the sand of our tribalism and embrace all of the world in the love of Christ that lives in and through us?
There’s an old Appalachian saying that goes like this: On the first day of the month, before speaking anything else, say aloud “Rabbit, Rabbit, Rabbit” and you will have luck all month. My mother and her 7 siblings loved this game as children and all through their lives waited to see who would remember to say rabbit, rabbit, rabbit on the first day of each month. They passed it on to their children and all of my siblings and cousins continued the tradition. My Uncle Buddy, who is now 95 took up this tradition and each fist day of the month, for a couple of decades now, he has been sending a brief email with family news to a large email list. As he has aged, Uncle Buddy has increased in the number of misspellings and typos in this monthly effort but he still sits at his old computer and hacks something out every month. And he’s always positive. Weddings and graduations and babies and other good news of the family.
One month his misspelling was of the word rabbit itself. The title line came out, instead of Rabbit, Rabbit, Rabbit, - Rabbi, Rabbi, Rabbi! I guess the “T” key on his keyboard was stuck or something and got dropped. All the cousins in my generation had lots of fun reminding Uncle Buddy no one in our family is actually Jewish though we would be very welcoming to any rabbi who perhaps married in. But this is the Robinson clan. There are no rabbis in our family!
Long before Uncle Buddy picked up this tradition, when my daughter Kate was about 5 years old, Mom reminded me of this old game which I had forgotten by then. So I decided to teach it to Kate. I was a busy mother and distracted and I couldn’t really remember how it went so I added that I think you might need to spin around three times. I apparently got this mixed up with Dorothy’s ritual exit from the Land of Oz. Spinning was not part of our family tradition of saying rabbit rabbit, rabbit first thing on the first day of the month.
The next morning I had forgotten all this conversation and Kate came to me tugging at me. She seemed to want to play charades. She was making all sorts of gestures but not speaking. She pointed to her closed mouth. She shrugged and stomped her foot and then she turned around three times. I stood there clueless. Finally she sighed loudly, stomped again and yelled, “Bunny, Bunny, Bunny!” She had been trying to get me to remind her which words to use. (At least she didn’t call me a rabbi three times!)
These sorts of family games are all around identity. Who are we as members of this family? What are our values? Our beliefs? Our traditions? Do we yell insults at other families in the marketplaces? Do we really have luck all month if we take time to remember to be careful about what we speak and when? Do these games help us to remember that we, in the end, are all the same? Or do we use identity formation to make sure we fall in line and know who is NOT a part of our clan?
My favorite song in the Messiah, which we used to sing every Christmas is also in these readings today. In the last words of this gospel reading Jesus tells us exactly who we are as the family of God. He tells us who he is too. He is The Great Shepherd and we can rely on him to comfort us and give us rest for our souls when we are weary.
“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.”
If you notice though, he didn’t say he would take our burden and carry us like that poem about footprints in the sand. No, here he says that we take the yoke. That sounds like taking more burden on when we are already weary, doesn’t it?
But there is a great difference between burdening ourselves with self aggrandizement, seeking “esteem and affection, security and survival, power and control” and taking on the gentle yoke of Jesus. Taking on the yoke of Jesus is easy and light and he is a gentle guide. This statement is not just about comfort. It is about discipleship.
Following Jesus is not a burden. It is living into joy. But it takes commitment. It takes letting go. It takes following.
Who are we in Christ? How can we let go of our worldly desires and sit confidently in the presence of God? Can we turn from our desires for self esteem, and affection, security and survival, power and control and turn toward the Holy Spirit? Can we become desirous of the love of the spirit of God instead?
Of course we can and we will because we are followers of The Way of Love. We are children of God. We are One in the Spirit.
I know you are but what am I?
We are the same. We are all sinners. We are all saints. We are all longing for God to comfort our fears. We are all longing for divisions and anger and hurt and destruction to end. And we all have our opinions about how that should happen!
Well friends. I believe we are called and commanded to follow the way of love. I have found in my spiritual journey that sitting in the quiet presence of the Spirit of God without agenda is the answer. I think Thomas Keating had it right. We must lay down our longing for esteem and security and control. We must lay down our opinions and our violence and our tribalism and learn to walk humbly with our God.
Amen.
[1] Kyle Fever, http://www.workingpreacher.org/profile/default.aspx?uid=2-kyle_fever