Caitlin Trussell with Augustana Lutheran Church on July 9, 2023
[sermon begins after three Bible readings – if you’re picking and choosing, read the Matthew reading]
Matthew 11:16-19, 25-30 [Jesus spoke to the crowd saying:] 16“To what will I compare this generation? It is like children sitting in the marketplaces and calling to one another,
17‘We played the flute for you, and you did not dance;
we wailed, and you did not mourn.’
18For John came neither eating nor drinking, and they say, ‘He has a demon’; 19the Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, ‘Look, a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!’ Yet wisdom is vindicated by her deeds.”
25At that time Jesus said, “I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and the intelligent and have revealed them to infants; 26yes, Father, for such was your gracious will. 27All things have been handed over to me by my Father; and no one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.
28“Come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. 29Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me; for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”
Romans 7:15-25a I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. 16Now if I do what I do not want, I agree that the law is good. 17But in fact it is no longer I that do it, but sin that dwells within me. 18For I know that nothing good dwells within me, that is, in my flesh. I can will what is right, but I cannot do it. 19For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I do. 20Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I that do it, but sin that dwells within me.
21So I find it to be a law that when I want to do what is good, evil lies close at hand. 22For I delight in the law of God in my inmost self, 23but 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. 24Wretched man that I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? 25aThanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!
Genesis 23:34-38, 42-49, 58-67 [Laban, Rebekah’s brother, received a visitor who said,] 34“I am Abraham’s servant. 35The Lord has greatly blessed my master, and he has become wealthy; he has given him flocks and herds, silver and gold, male and female slaves, camels and donkeys. 36And Sarah my master’s wife bore a son to my master when she was old; and he has given him all that he has. 37My master made me swear, saying, ‘You shall not take a wife for my son from the daughters of the Canaanites, in whose land I live; 38but you shall go to my father’s house, to my kindred, and get a wife for my son.’
42“I came today to the spring, and said, ‘O Lord, the God of my master Abraham, if now you will only make successful the way I am going! 43I am standing here by the spring of water; let the young woman who comes out to draw, to whom I shall say, “Please give me a little water from your jar to drink,” 44and who will say to me, “Drink, and I will draw for your camels also”—let her be the woman whom the Lord has appointed for my master’s son.’
45“Before I had finished speaking in my heart, there was Rebekah coming out with her water jar on her shoulder; and she went down to the spring, and drew. I said to her, ‘Please let me drink.’ 46She quickly let down her jar from her shoulder, and said, ‘Drink, and I will also water your camels.’ So I drank, and she also watered the camels. 47Then I asked her, ‘Whose daughter are you?’ She said, ‘The daughter of Bethuel, Nahor’s son, whom Milcah bore to him.’ So I put the ring on her nose, and the bracelets on her arms. 48Then I bowed my head and worshiped the Lord, and blessed the Lord, the God of my master Abraham, who had led me by the right way to obtain the daughter of my master’s kinsman for his son. 49Now then, if you will deal loyally and truly with my master, tell me; and if not, tell me, so that I may turn either to the right hand or to the left.”
58And they called Rebekah, and said to her, “Will you go with this man?” She said, “I will.” 59So they sent away their sister Rebekah and her nurse along with Abraham’s servant and his men. 60And they blessed Rebekah and said to her,
“May you, our sister, become
thousands of myriads;
may your offspring gain possession
of the gates of their foes.”
61Then Rebekah and her maids rose up, mounted the camels, and followed the man; thus the servant took Rebekah, and went his way.
62Now Isaac had come from Beer-lahai-roi, and was settled in the Negeb. 63Isaac went out in the evening to walk in the field; and looking up, he saw camels coming. 64And Rebekah looked up, and when she saw Isaac, she slipped quickly from the camel, 65and said to the servant, “Who is the man over there, walking in the field to meet us?” The servant said, “It is my master.” So she took her veil and covered herself. 66And the servant told Isaac all the things that he had done. 67Then Isaac brought her into his mother Sarah’s tent. He took Rebekah, and she became his wife; and he loved her. So Isaac was comforted after his mother’s death.
[sermon begins]
I didn’t do much preaching after I was diagnosed with lymphoma a few months ago. One of my friends asked me about how I was handling the preaching part of things and I told her that I had colleagues who were preaching. My friend decided that was a good thing because all of my sermons would end up being about cancer. That hasn’t been the case since I started preaching again. One of the principles of preaching is to preach from your scars not your wounds. This is meant to caution the preacher when an event is too fresh or too raw. I’m sharing the rule with you because I’m going to break it today. Today’s Bible stories are just close enough home.
I’ve talked about how much Sunday worship has meant to me during these months. Hymn singing, communion, baptisms, and my colleagues’ preaching have pushed the reset button for me during weeks that felt like too much. I’m solidly and theologically Lutheran even though I wasn’t raised a Lutheran culturally. I believe that God’s word is revealed through preaching, however imperfectly we preachers may get it done week-to-week, that God’s promise of presence is real in the sacraments of baptism and communion, and that God’s transcendence is experienced in the collective effervescence of hymn singing and choir singing and in the mystery of making that organ sing during preludes and postludes. I’m a churchy woman and find great comfort in the traditions of faith. So in today’s Bible reading, I nod along in agreement when Jesus says, “Come to me, all of you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest…for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.”
Yes, sweet Jesus, you are indeed a place of rest. As a churchy woman, I also believe that this congregation as part of the church around the world is the risen body of Christ. Part of the theology of the resurrection is that we are Jesus’ resurrected body in the world. We are the hands and feet of Jesus, the heart of Jesus, called and sent into the world to be gentle and humble of heart. To unburden the burdened and give rest to the weary. As Pastor Gail said last week, we are the face of Christ to other people when we care for them and, conversely, other people are the face of Christ to us when we receive care from them.[1] I’ve received so much love and care from you. Sometimes, the weary one is ourselves and we are as much in need of receiving Jesus’ good care as we’ve ever been. This is where scripture comes in to remind us just how big God is and how far beyond acceptable boundaries God works.
In the first Bible reading this morning, we hear the story about Isaac and Rebekah’s arranged marriage. This is a story I’ve heard many times. God’s provision and maintenance of God’s covenant with God’s people had many twists and turns throughout the generations. Some of the best stories are in the book of Genesis. Isaac and Rebekah’s story goes into specific detail when a simple genealogy may have sufficed.[2] But, in the story, we’re privy to the thoughts of Abraham’s servant who has been sent to find a wife for his son Isaac. The servant prays to the Lord for a specific sign and through that sign he identifies Rebekah. God’s provision of a wife for Isaac is God’s commitment to the covenant with God’s people and the story’s sign is about watering the camels. God works through a servant, his thirsty camels, and woman’s kindness. New Testament stories keep the surprises coming in people like the Jesus and Syrophoenician woman or Philip and the Ethiopian Eunuch.[3] Unlikely people who remind us just how much God’s commitment to us is revealed in the gentle and humble in heart. Not necessarily people we would expect to be revealing God to us.
I said from the beginning of my lymphoma diagnosis that I don’t believe that God gave me this disease. I do believe that God works through all of life’s situations to remind us how much God loves each one of us. A few Sundays ago, I went to apply mascara and realized that I have very few eyelashes left. Chemo makes those fall out too. While I knew eyelashes fall out in theory, it was very different being confronted by it in the mirror. I talked about it with my daughter and ordered some fake lashes. Boy, did that go sideways fast – glue everywhere, cattywampus eyelids. A clear no-go.
When I went to the infusion clinic, I talked to my nurse about it and about how you never know what the tipping point’s going to be. In the infusion chair next to me, there was a woman getting a blood transfusion. She apologized for over-hearing and then told me where I could go to get fake eyelash instruction for free. We had quite a back-and-forth with her expertise as a former employee there. I’m shaking my head again at the wonder of her sitting next to me at the clinic and chiming in with the very information I was seeking. In hindsight, I saw Jesus in that moment, caring for me when the weight of cancer was exposed by something as feather light as eyelashes.
The next day, I followed the transfusion lady’s recommendation. At that makeup counter, I met Bella. Young, vibrant, and sporting incredible lashes, I gave her the nutshell of my story and how much losing my eyelashes has affected me. I told her that I’m a pastor and, while her eyes look amazing, that I need something understated as I preach and do communion and baptisms. After she asked me some relevant eye makeup questions, she told me the story of her grandmother who recently completed chemo and whose long Native American hair, that ordinarily grew well past her hips, was decimated. Bella told me she understood and proceeded to guide me through the store to find the closest thing to natural length lashes and to tutor me in the proper technique. There’s even a tool especially made for this application. She also gave me the alternative of simple eyeliner when lashes feel like too much. She was skilled and compassionate. Dare I say that she was gentle and humble of heart. Dare I say that, in hindsight, I felt a place of rest.
If God can work through thirsty camels and Rebekah’s kindness to bring a message of hope and clarity, then God can certainly work through a woman receiving a blood transfusion and a woman trained in the art of eyelashes. In addition to the churchy ways that give us a place of rest in Jesus, there is a wide world through which God’s care is present in surprising people and events. Jesus spent much of his time teaching his followers to see God’s care in unexpected people and events. This was a continuation from his Jewish roots and the stories that he grew up on like Isaac and Rebekah’s arranged marriage. Stories about his ancestors and how he came to be the son of Mary, a gentle and humble leader with concern for his weary and burdened followers.
It doesn’t take much for us to flip the script on Jesus and to glorify leaders for their toughness and earthly power. Or to see those attributes in other people and praise them for it. Or to desire those characteristics in ourselves. The funny thing about Jesus describing himself as gentle and humble of heart is that he’s angry in this story from Matthew. He’s challenging the religious leaders for the stumbling blocks they put in front of ordinary people that make God unreachable or unknowable.[4] The religious leaders accused John the Baptist for being too uptight, basically calling him an ascetic who had a demon, and they indicted Jesus for being too loosey-goosey, saying he was “a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners.”[5]
Yes, thank the sweet Jesus for being a friend of sinners. We aren’t going to get it right, this thing called living. Like Paul’s confession in his letter to the Romans, we’re going to do what we don’t want to do and not do what we should do.[6] Jesus’ command to love God and love our neighbors as ourselves is something in which we seem determined to find loopholes.[7] We say to ourselves, “Oh, not that neighbor, I could never love them,” or “Oh, not myself, I’m not loveable for these reasons.” Jesus’ commandment to love can feel like its own burden when love doesn’t make sense to us in any given situation. But Jesus says, “Come to me, ALL of you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest…for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.”
Amen.
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[1] Pastor Gail Mundt, sermon on Matthew 10:40-42 for Sunday, July 2, 2023. Watch at minute 27:00 here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uSNyQ0o1PJc
[2] Karoline Lewis, Professor of Biblical Preaching, Sermon Brainwave Podcast for July 9, 2023. https://www.workingpreacher.org/podcasts/910-fifth-sunday-after-pentecost-ord-13a-july-2-2023-2
[3] Mark 7:24-30 and Acts 8:26-40
[4] Matt Skinner, Professor of New Testament, Luther Seminary, St. Paul, MN. Sermon Brainwave podcast for July 9, 2023. https://www.workingpreacher.org/podcasts/910-fifth-sunday-after-pentecost-ord-13a-july-2-2023-2
[5] Matthew 11:18-19
[6] Romans 7:15
[7] Matthew 22:34-40