Zechariah 9:9-12
Romans 7:15-22a
Matthew 11:16-19, 25-30
My friend Bill has taught me many things over the years. But, one of the most important is the need to trust in God’s providence.
Bill, more than any other person I have ever met, truly lives based on his absolute belief that the future is securely in God’s hands. Even more, he trusts completely that God will guide him into whatever future God has prepared for him.
What amazes me about the level of Bill’s trust, is the fact that his personal story is filled with all sorts of twists and turns, failures and successes, joys and sorrows and surprises.
If, in fact if he is right and that God is driving his life, then it seems like God might be a little drunk at the wheel…
But Bill has assured me many times that it is precisely because his life has taken so many odd twists and turns that he is confident that God has to be in control.
“I have to trust that God can see the big picture, what it all means, or my life wouldn’t make any sense at all!”
He confesses that his life improved a lot when he finally admitted that he was not in control of his life.
“Most of the really dark alleys and dead ends I have been in were at those times when I wasn’t paying attention to where God was leading…” He would explain.
Of course, Bill doesn’t just sit around and wait for God to do things in his life. In fact, he is one of the most active people I know. He loves taking risks, pushing things and trying to make things happen -- doing new things. He prays. He reflects. Then he acts. And then he prays some more. But he does it all in the firm belief that, if it isn’t God’s will, it isn’t going to happen, and he’s OK with that.
Bill’s one of those people who have helped me learn how to cope with the worries in my own life.
I remember, when I was struggling with whether or not to move on from the ministry I was doing, I went to talk with him about it.
He is always good at helping me clarify things. He listened to me. Thought about it for a minute and then said:
“You know, I believe God will keep you here as long as God needs you here.”
That was his whole response. But, there was a lot of wisdom in those simple words. And he was absolutely right.
Bill taught me that, when we trust God, when we are in line with God’s will for our lives, when we are open to God’s guidance in our lives then things will just fit.
Like a well-tailored suit, or a comfortable exercise outfit, or your favorite old shirt… it just feels right.
On the other hand, when we ignore God’s leadership and guidance things will begin to feel all out of kilter. We’ll feel like the proverbial square peg in the round hole, like a pair of pants that are too tight, or that feeling you get when you’ve taken one too many wrong turns, know you need to stop for directions, but don’t want to admit you’re lost.
Jesus’ words at the end of today’s Gospel lesson, I think, touch on the question of God’s providence and our willingness to place our trust in what God is up to in our lives and in the life of the world around us.
It’s about giving up control and depending on God to show us the way through our lives.
The passage starts with Jesus pointing out that sometimes our wisdom can get in the way of our vision. And that’s true.
Sometime we can become too smart for our own good.
When we become too impressed with our own wisdom and knowledge, we can easily become arrogant, and prideful. Our over-confidence in ourselves can simply push God out.
“Why do I need God to tell me how to live?” We say to ourselves, “I’m wise enough to make decisions on my own!”
But it doesn’t work. And we all know that.
Our faith, our ability to trust God, is often weakened by the kind independence and self-sufficiency that we are taught from childhood on – and that our culture tells us we must have in order to be successful in the world.
I think that’s why Jesus says that the faith is revealed to infants. To those too young to even speak. Too dependant to be able to do anything for themselves. Too clueless to have any awareness of anything beyond their parents’ love…
When we come to understand that our wisdom can’t save us and our knowledge cannot guide us, and that we are, in fact, wholly dependant on God…
Then we are ready to take Christ’s yoke upon our shoulders.
We all know that a student who thinks he or she already knows it all is hard to teach!
But, when the twists and turns and dead ends in life strip us down… then we are ready to learn what Jesus has to teach us. Then, we are ready to be disciples. Then, we are truly ready to be yoked to our master and follow where he leads and to go where he wants us to go.
And, he promises that yoking our lives to his will be “easy”.
Now, that can’t mean that nothing challenging, or hard, or difficult or troubling will ever befall us.
If that’s what Jesus meant, then he was lying. After all, the disciples hardly had an easy time of it as they went out into the world following Pentecost. Christians still bear witness to the struggles they have to face all the time.
No. I’m sure that’s not what Jesus meant.
Jesus’ promise here is that, yoked to him and his teaching, we will find ourselves at ease. That is, our life will fit better. We will have the proper perspective when the challenges and struggles do come and we will know that they are never more than temporary setbacks.
Yoked to him, we know that even the tragedy of death can be overcome.
The more we allow Jesus to lead, the less we fight the yoke, the more we will come to know that “peace which passes all understanding.”
The more we will discover the real meaning, and purpose and joy which only comes when we are living our lives in line with God’s will, living yoked to Jesus Christ our Lord, confident that our future is securely in God’s hands.
Amen.