I’m tired of trying to figure things out, and I’m tired of being so strong...
Did you know that there is a website that will list all the old, ridiculous laws that are still on the books even though they don’t make any sense anymore?
Did you know, for example, that in Chicago, Illinois, it is against the law to eat in an establishment that is on fire? Did you know that in Oklahoma it’s against the law to get a fish drunk? Here’s a good one: in Norfork, Virginia, it’s illegal for hens to lay eggs before 8 a.m. and after 4 p.m.!!! In the great state of Arkansas, it is against the law to mispronounce the name of the state of Arkansas. In Key West, Florida, there is an ordinance prohibiting turtle racing within the city limits. And finally, though there are many more, in the great city of Seattle, Washington a goldfish can only ride on the city busses in bowls if they keep still.
Now although we have a good laugh at these laws, most likely there were logical reasons for their creation at the time.
I can just hear somebody as they almost step on one of those sluggish little turtles yelling out loud, THERE OUGHT TO BE A LAW! Haven’t you ever caught yourself saying that famous phrase: THERE OUGHT TO BE A LAW!?
Isn’t it also true that usually one utters those words when they’re feeling out of control and needing to gain some sense of command of the situation at hand? The truth is that many laws were created because we were feeling out of control. A friend of mine just told me this week that Nevada City is considering passing laws stating that no one can congregate on a corner or lean against a wall of a building. The merchants are feeling out of control because the kids are doing a lot of standing around in front of their stores and that’s not good for business.
We don’t like to feel out of control, do we? Well, neither do the Pharisees in this week’s Gospel. You know, when I first read our Gospel for this week, my first reaction was to ask, WHAT WERE THEY DOING THERE?
This itinerant prophet and his splotched following who lived on the wrong side of Samaria are engaging in the ancient art of gleaning a little bit of grain as they travel by foot to the next village, and guess who just happens to pop out from behind the cornstalks but the Pharisees. Now don’t you find that just a little bit odd? WHAT WERE THEY DOING THERE?
Can you imagine yourself deciding to take a Sunday morning off church? You’re going to play a little hooky and plant some tomato vines in your back yard, and suddenly you look up to wipe your forehead and there standing over you is the College of Cardinals, asking you why you’re not in church. Out from behind the cornstalks appear the Pharisees in full regalia to ask the most important question they could possibly ask:
Why do your disciples pick corn on the Sabbath?
You’ve heard the expression GET A LIFE? That’s what I want to say to those Pharisees. GET A LIFE for crying out loud!
WHY WERE THEY THERE? WHY WERE THEY ASKING JESUS THAT QUESTION?
I’ll tell you why it was so important to them.
The Pharisees believed that at any single, given, moment of time, if all the Israelites were to follow the Law, even if just for a moment, then God would at that moment establish his Kingdom.
Therefore, the Pharisees were the Kingdom Patrol on constant and vigilant watch. They made it their burden to see to it that the Kingdom would come. They weren’t going to leave it up to God. They were in control, and they were going to make it happen even if they had to plant guards in every cornfield in every district in the Land!
There really wasn’t any specific law relating to picking corn that you were going to eat, but it didn’t matter. THERE OUGHT TO BE A LAW, just in case God considers that Sabbath Work.
The Kingdom must come! We’re in control! My God, how seriously they took themselves. How seriously we sometimes take ourselves.
What really irked the Pharisees about Jesus? They couldn’t stand how radically FREE he was. It’s true. They feared our Lord’s freedom. He didn’t need to seize control. He never appeared to take himself that seriously. He never allowed his critics to have power over him or to draw him into their shadow. If folks didn’t listen to him or put him down, he just repeated what he knew to be true and shook the dust off his feet and went forward in love to the next opportunity.
When we take ourselves too seriously, we become so busy supporting our facade that we miss God-given opportunities!
That’s what the Sabbath was in the first place. It was meant as a gift of opportunity from God. It was an opportunity to rest from holding up the facade all week long and to commune with God in a way that couldn’t happen at work or at home . . . where there is always more work and more responsibilities.
But do you know what happens when you take yourself too seriously? When keeping control of the situation becomes your God? Usually, you end up turning opportunities into obligations! The Sabbath, it says in Deuteronomy, the Fifth Chapter, was a gift from God to remind us that we are no longer slaves.
How interesting it is that we seem to have come full circle. How interesting that we can so easily find new forms of slavery, new forms of oppression and even Exile right here in our very hearts and souls because we take ourselves so seriously that we plant our feet in the cornfields of life, and we keep watch, and we appoint ourselves to be the saviors of the world!
Sometimes I think we need to be reminded to GET A LIFE. Jesus Christ is the LIFE, and the last time I checked he is the only Savior of the world listed in the catechism.
St. Paul writes in his letter to the Romans: Let us then cast off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light. My dear friends in Christ, I truly believe that the armor of lightmust at least have a latex coating. It must have enough rubber that some burdens can just bounce off instead of always being absorbed.
The Kingdom of God is NOT entirely in our hands. It is God’s Kingdom. How many opportunities have become obligations in your life because you couldn’t let go?
How many times has maintaining control of a situation meant more to you than the people you live with or work with? I don’t know about you, but I can only put my head down and ask for forgiveness.
Maintaining control is a burden not unlike the $900 watch. Have you ever heard the story of the $900 watch?
A man is at the airport waiting for his flight which is scheduled to leave at 6:00 sharp. . . but our friend has forgotten his watch. . . so he begins to scan the terminal looking for someone with a watch. He spots this guy walking past him and carrying two very large and heavy suitcases. He notices that the man is sporting this great looking, high-tech watch. He asks him the time.
The guys says, Sure, which country?
Our watchless traveler asks, Well how many countries have you got on that watch?
The answer was startling. Why. . . all the countries in the world.
Wow! That’s a pretty cool watch you’ve got there.
Oh, that’s nothing, replied the man with the suitcases. This watch also has a cellular phone. It can send faxes and E-mail, and even receive television signals in color on its tiny screen.
Boy, that’s incredible! I wish I had a watch like that. You wouldn’t consider selling it would you?
The man replied, Well, actually the novelty has worn off some, and so for $900, if you want it, the watch is yours.
Our friend couldn’t write the check fast enough. He tore it out of his checkbook and gave it to the man. The man took off the watch and handed it to him and said, Congratulations, here is your new hi-tech watch!
They shook hands, and then the man says, Here take these two suitcases also. . . they’re the batteries!
We carry far too many heavy burdens. . . burdens that we weren’t meant to carry. . . self-imposed burdens . . . and under their weight we miss opportunities to commune with God and to love God’s people. When Jesus says you must deny your SELF, I can’t help but think that he means that we should not take our SELF as seriously as we take other SELVES out in the world.
Put on the armor of light. Jesus is Lord of the Sabbath and all the other gifts and opportunities that God wants to give us. We needn’t try to do Jesus’ job. It’s self-defeating!
I’d like to close with the words to a song. I may have quoted these verses to you before, I’m not sure. It’s not a very sophisticated song, and the words aren’t written with the grace of a poet, and the music leaves much to be desired too, and yet, I think it says a lot to us about letting the self go.
I’ve been working so hard to make everything right; But for now it will just have to wait. Cause tonight I’d like you to rock me to sleep, and I’d like you to sing me a song. I’m tired of trying to figure things out, and I’m tired of being so strong.
I’ve never been too good at asking; I’m more apt to do it alone. And it’s strange how a lot of us think something’s wrong, if we can’t do it all on our own.
Tonight I’d like you to rock me to sleep, And I’d like you to sing me a song.
I’m tired of trying to figure things out, and I’m tired of being so strong.
(“Rock me to Sleep” by Tom Hunter, Long Sleeve Records Copyright 1977)
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