Sermon Proper 9 A All Saints 7-5-20

Zechariah 9: 9 – 12 Psalm 145: 8 – 15 Romans 7: 15 – 25a Matthew 11: 16 – 19, 25 – 30

Life with a Mask

So, what does it feel like to have to wear a mask everywhere you go? Yeah – I hate it too! Smiles vanish under a mask and I am left feeling that everyone is glaring at me – if they bother to look in my direction. I smile and then think, oh, goody I have wrinkled my forehead for nothing! No one can see a smile anymore. No one! Yet I still want to smile. I still want to say hello even to strangers. Somehow a simple mask, worn only to protect others from me, stops me, makes me feel unfriendly and unfriended.

Profound changes are taking place in our society right this minute. Some of these are long overdue, some completely unexpected. Introverts have had a great 4 months with a ready-made excuse for not going anywhere. Us extroverts have hung out by our doors thinking when? when?? when will this be over??? Driving around Tybee on Friday and seeing all the cars and people out and about makes me even more impatient and, I am afraid to say, even more fearful.

I hate feeling fearful! I hate looking at every stranger in Publix or CVS and wondering are you safe? Are you Covid-19 positive? Am I safe here? I truly hate it! But this is where we are – and where we may be for some time to come.

The Psalmist says that:

The Lord upholds all those who fall:

he lifts up those who are bowed down.

Lately, lots of my prayers have included a bold request for a little break for all of us. It seems that God means it when God promises to be with us even through the Valley of the Shadow of Death. There is no end of God’s patience with my impatience and for that I can rejoice with the Psalmist.

In our reading from Romans, St. Paul describes the struggle within himself between what he wants to do and what he actually does. Put simply, Paul wants to do good and be good, but finds himself too weak. He frequently does the evil that he does not want to do instead. This is one of the Scriptures I thoroughly understand.

Too often I desire to make changes in my life, and I make a grand resolution and then it fritters out to fog and I am still exactly where I started. The war inside me goes round and round. St. Paul says that this is the power of sin within me. Once more St. Paul knows me very well.

In our Gospel reading from St. Matthew, Jesus gives a rather good exposition on public opinion. Jesus reminds the crowd that John the Baptist came to them as a hermit. John lived outdoors, ate what he found in the woods and wore skins that he tanned. Not a gentleman to be invited into anyone’s home. So, Jesus says, the crowd described him as being possessed by a demon, totally unfit for polite society. Then Jesus reminded his listeners that He, Jesus, went to dinner frequently, enjoyed good food and drink and good company. But He was judged to be a glutton and drunkard, notwithstanding His teachings and the miracles that He performed. Sounds a little like we find holiness hard to stomach however it comes, doesn’t it? Or even to recognize it when it does not look like we think it should.

We as the Church are in a time of seeming immobility because we are not meeting together, and we are not talking to each other about all the things going on around us. Yet, this may turn out to be our finest hour if we hold onto the word of God in Jesus Christ and our various experiences of God’s grace to us. God has always called blessings out of trial, richness out of seeming poverty. God equips us for the things God calls us to do. Why would this time be different?

Our Gospel closes with great comfort for us. Jesus says:

Come to me, all you that are weary and 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.

Learn from Jesus – that is our call. Take the yoke that Jesus lays on our shoulders knowing that it comes from the Holy Spirit. Learn the lessons that Scripture and prayer and our daily experience teach us. We are called by God, we belong to God, and our God always prepares and leads those whom God calls.

The Lord is faithful in all his words

and merciful in all his deeds.

The Lord upholds those who fall;

he lifts up those who are bowed down.

Blessed be the name of the Lord! Amen.