Ordinary Time Week 4

Psalm: Psalm 45:10-17 

Old Testament: Genesis 24:34-38, 42-29, 58-67 

Gospel: Matthew 11:16-19, 25-30 

Epistle: Romans 7:15-25a

This week we celebrated Independence Day. When the USA gained independence from the British and was able to begin to govern itself. In its purest form, stripping away the alcohol for some and the fireworks and the great deals on cars and refrigerators, it is still a celebration of the freedom we still have. Through nothing most of us did to deserve it or earn it, we reside in a country that lets us practice our faith openly and without oppression, that is not the case for many in the world still today. We must remember however that the Kingdom of God is larger than America. It was here way before us, and will outlive any earthly Kingdom. The USA is not the God-bearing, God-fearing nation many think it is or think it needs to be. The Church (and those who make up the Church), in all countries and across time is the primary way God brings himself to the world. The Church is the place where God’s story is proclaimed, where his people worship the Triune God, and they are challenged to follow Jesus Christ.

What does that have to do with the Scriptures this week? Not much, but just a reminder for us all. This week in Genesis is the story of Isaac sending his servant to find a wife among his kin, and finding Rebekah. In Matthew Jesus says “woe” to the unrepentant cities who did not listen to his message, followed by a word about him and Father’s unity, and ending with the well-known line, “For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” (Matt. 11:30) Finally, in Romans Paul confesses the dual and competing natures inside him.

Our reading from Romans actually isn’t very positive, but it must be read in context. Romans is so dense and each chapter builds on what comes before and points to the next chapter. This is the case with our verses here. Paul is confessing that he has two natures competing in him, one to serve the law of God and the other the law of sin. Paul seems to paint a bleak picture of what it means to be a Christian. We have an impossibly heavy burden placed on us and we are doomed to wage a constant battle inside ourselves.

Sometimes it may actually feel like that, but in the course of the letter that is not the picture Paul paints. Two weeks ago we read Romans 6 which in part reads:

What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin so that grace may increase? May it never be! How shall we who died to sin still live in it?...Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its lusts, and do not go on presenting the members of your body to sin as instruments of unrighteousness; but present yourselves to God as those alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God. For sin shall not be master over you, for you are not under law but under grace. (1-2, 12-14)

Moving forward into chapter 8, Paul makes the point again that we are “free from the law of sin and death.” (8:2) Christ Jesus has set us free so that we no longer have to wage an unending and unwinnable war.

This brings us back to Jesus’ word in Matthew 11 that his yoke is easy and his burden is light. (11:30) Jesus sets us free from sin and death to new life in him. As Jesus says in John 8:36, “So if the Son makes you free, you will be free indeed.” Last week we read in Romans ch. 6 where it said that we are basically slaves to sin or slaves to righteousness. We can’t not be one of those. Christ sets us free to be under his Kingdom of righteousness, serving a God who is love. We serve a good God who loves us and desires the best for us. Through Jesus he is able to enter into our suffering and comfort us. And ultimately he will restore all of creation to his purposes.

This week, take some time to delve into the Romans passage and seek new insight into its meaning. Paul has a lot to teach us about ourselves and the God we serve. May God continue to reveal himself to us through the Scripture and any other ways he deems appropriate.

Grace and Peace.