New Testament Eucharistic Readings for Sunday of Proper 9: Year A
Romans 7:15 to 25a; Matthew 11:16 to 19 and 25 to 30:
“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.” (Matthew 11: 28 to 30)
When our Lord Jesus invites us to come and take his yoke upon us, this is not an exchange of yokes, as I once thought. No, this is an invitation to join him in his yoke. And it’s more than that; it’s an invitation to connect with Jesus through someone we know in Christ Jesus.
This is an invitation to come and be a Trinitarian partner. We partner with another believer and become yoked with Christ in a yoke-fitted for three. I am learning to play guitar and piano. I am blessed to be led in my musical instruction by fellow Christians – fellow Christians who may not follow Christ in the exact same way that I do, but then, we are all evolving theologically.
With my guitar teacher, we mostly play Christian music for Cursillo songs and we are comfortable knowing that our Lord Jesus binds us together in a common brotherhood, a blessed yoke of learning. The same is true for my piano teacher. The weight of trying to learn to play these instruments on my own is more than I can bear. But Jesus assists me through my albeit younger teachers, to share the load in Jesus’ name.
The Bible is replete with examples of pairs of people through whom God (or Jesus) works through for our communal good. Some examples are; Moses, God and Aaron; Ruth, God and Naomi; Elijah, God and Elisha; Simon Peter, God and Andrew; John, God and James; and Paul, Glod in Christ Jesus and several others. My point is, that in our biblical tradition, we are called to seek out our Lord Jesus through another believer and share the burden of doing the work put before us with God’s help.
Most of the tasks before us are far more serious than playing music, but I needed to show an example of what we are able to do when yoked with Christ. Today we have racism, sexism, and just plain ego-ism. We need to partner with one another in fighting the “isms” of today. I begin to see that all isms are bad but cannot be overcome without teaming up with a fellow believer wherein we are yoked with our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
The work before us is plentiful but we laborers are few. Jesus says, “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.” Who do you know in Christ that you could work with for our communal good? Let’s be fitted in the yoke of Christ, and get to work.
Please keep up your thoughts and prayers and hopes for Ukraine, Russia, and our schools.
As we listen to what the Spirit of God is saying to us, let us live to love and serve, and to teach others to love and serve, while pondering anew what the Almighty can do. John
onewhoponders 