2026 07 05 Pentecost 6A Proper 9A
Genesis 24.24-28 Psalm 45.10-17 Romans 7.14-25 Matt 11.15-19, 25-30
There are some people
that no matter what you do, you can’t please them. Everything they see in you is negative no
matter how fabulously you might succeed. If you’ve experienced this, you are not alone. Jesus tells us that John came neither eating
nor drinking, and they said, he had a demon.
Then Jesus came, eating and drinking and they called him a glutton, drunkard,
friend of tax collectors and sinners!
There are two aspects
to reflect on with this; have we been those with a critical spirit, always
looking for the failure in people? Then,
on the flip side, have we experienced not being able to please people no matter
what we do? For both, Jesus offers the
solution – His yoke – His way.
What Jesus is
describing at the beginning of our Gospel reading is a critical spirit. A critical spirit is an obsessive, habitual
attitude of fault-finding and negativity that seeks to tear down rather than
build up. This mindset is NOT the way of
Christ. The mindset of Christ, and his
followers, is that of the servant of Abraham.
When this servant looks at ordinary people, he doesn’t see ordinary
people….. he sees the chosen, who have the anointing of God on their lives, and
his roll is to call them out, equip and empower them.
It has often come to
my attention that the servant of Abraham was never named but incredibly
honourable. He was the most senior
servant and in charge of the household and probably the heir of Abraham’s
fortune before Abraham’s son came along.
As such, he could have been bitter for the change. He could have questioned Abraham’s decisions
and caused descension in the household, becoming critical and undermining
Abraham and his wishes, but there is never a hint of any negativity at
all. In all things the servant acts as
an agent of Abraham himself.
The servant was
entrusted with great riches and a great task, to bring back a bride. The servant prayed to God for success in his
mission, showing that he also was a worshipper of our God, the God of
Abraham. In his prayer he acknowledges
that God has already chosen the wife for Isaac, but it was his job to find her
and bring her in to her destiny.
The story is a
parallel for us, as we are also the servants of God. We are entrusted with valuable gift of the Gospel. We are the servants of God who are tasked
with the job of bringing back the bride for Christ. In other words, we find those who God has
already known and chosen, and declare to them the Good News about God and we
bring them into God’s kingdom. While it
is true that we are the servant, we the church, are also the called, the chosen
and the bride of Christ,
When the servant
comes upon Rebekah, he asks her to draw him some water. It appears that he is
testing her character. Not only does
Rebekah give water to this stranger, but she offers to water the camels as
well. This was no small task! Camels are said to drink approximately 530
litres of water in their first drink.
Rebekah was a woman of honourable character. After finding out her family, it was clear
that this was the chosen one.
The servant put a
ring in her nose and bracelets on her arms.
After the exhaustion of watering the camels and being out in open air,
she must have been feeling, and perhaps looking, flushed, and then this sudden lavishing
of gifts, must have come as a shock.
However, Rebekah knew what it meant.
When Abraham’s servant gifted Rebekah the gold nose ring and two gold
bracelets, she would have instantly recognized them as a formal, incredibly
high-stakes proposal of marriage from an immensely wealthy family. In that area and in that time, jewellery was a
universal legal and social language.
This was her engagement to an elite person.
Imagine that! But then Rebekah’s family tried to delay
Rebekah from going back with the servant.
And isn’t this the truth of our walk with God! God calls us.
We say, “yes, Lord. We will
follow you.” And what happens
next…..???? Life comes at us from left
right and centre – EVERYTHING gets in the way of us fully committing to
following God.
Rebekah is the
example of who we ought to be. She
responds to the call and she doesn’t look back. We, on the other hand, are
probably more an example of our second reading from the letter to the Romans
where it says “I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want,
but I do the very thing I hate.”
We are here because
we do desire to follow God, but we probably all know the struggle where it is
just far simpler to just be comfortable.
In fact, this Romans reading is one highly relatable to anyone
struggling with addiction. It is about the
inability within our selves, to do the thing that we know is good and best and
leads to life.
A recovering addict
is possibly way ahead of the rest of us, in understanding the reality of our
human condition. We, whose addiction to
sin is less visibly destructive can fool ourselves into thinking that we don’t
actually have a problem. St. Paul comes
across as one of the most disciplined humans ever, yet he wrote this; “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 person
that I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? (remember, last week
we read that the wages for sin is death) Thanks be to God through Jesus
Christ our Lord!”
Thanks be to God,
through Jesus Christ our Lord, because God knows our struggle and rescued us
from our condition. Christ has told us
to come to him if we are weary… weary of this crazy round-a-bout of striving
and failing. He tells us to take his yoke
and that his yoke is easy. When he tells
us this, he is not saying that life is without discipline. In fact, the idea of a yoke, IS one of
discipline. Often when oxen were yoked
together, an older and stronger Ox would be paired with a younger one. The younger would be trained while the older
took the brunt of the heaviness. Jesus bears
the crushing weight of sin, and he trains our feet to walk in the right paths
God knows that we are
but flesh and he sent Jesus to die for our sin.
Though the wages for sin is death, Jesus paid that price. We are free, but we need to understand that
we are not to use our freedom as an excuse to go on sinning. Our eternal life is secure through Jesus, but
Jesus did more than die on the cross – he rose from the dead and….. He sent us
his Spirit. There is a really, super
important, vital reason that he sent us his Spirit - and it is because, in our
own strength, we cannot live the life that God calls us to.
Our church – The
church in general- has been in decline for many years. And that is what happens when we don’t rely
on those gifts that the Holy Spirit brings.
The servant brought Rebekah valuable gifts. He put them on her and she wore them. The Holy Spirit is sent by Jesus and brings
us gifts also. The gifts that the Holy
Spirit brings are valuable beyond compare.
We are told that the Holy Spirit in us is a deposit guaranteeing our
eternal life. This is paralleled to the
gifts received to Rebekah. They
guaranteed her new life with Isaac. She
took those gifts and wore them, and she set out on the journey, stepping into
the destiny God had prepared for her.
We need to decide if
we are going to step into the destiny to which God has called us – and we can apply this to the church. We stand on the brink. If we are to grow the church, every single
one of us needs to take an active part, even if that part is simply to commit
to praying for each other every day. In
fact, prayer and praise is the secret and powerful weapon – it was through obedience to God and then through
shouts of triumphant praise to God – that the walls of Jericho came down.
We have been given
gifts. Amazing gifts. These gifts come from God through the Holy
Spirit, and in 1 Corinthians 14, we are told “Pursue love and eagerly
desire spiritual gifts”. Are we
eagerly desiring the spiritual gifts, or have we “looked a gift horse in the
mouth”? Looking a gift horse in the
mouth would be that critical and negative spirit. Literally, the saying comes from the idea of
being given something of great value and then treating it as common.
We have been given
the gifts of the Holy Spirit and we, the church, are the bride of Christ. I wonder if we don’t really know what to do
with the gifts of the Holy Spirit. So
those gifts, rather than being worn, are hidden away – treasured perhaps -but
hidden. That is not why the Holy Spirit
has given us gifts. Shall we let fear,
negativity and doubt be the familiar family members who hold us back? Let’s
walk away from negativity and let’s take hold of those gifts and wear them. Let’s say, “yes Lord, I will journey with you
to the unknown land of the future”. As we go into the future, let us, as the
church, put on our gifts. Step out in
our gifts. Those gifts are for the benefit
of our church and our community. Many
are sick – who among us has God given the gift of healing? Many need encouragement – who among us has
God given the gift of exhortation? We
need direction – Who among us has the gift of prophecy?
God has given us a
hope and a future. God has given us
gifts to walk in triumph into that future.
God shows his love to the thousandth generation of those who love
him. Church, we are not paupers! We are lavishly gifted. Will we wear the gifts and go with the
servant of the groom – the Holy Spirit - and journey with him to our destiny in
God?
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