God's Hidden Creative Power

One of the most fundamental characteristics of the parables is that they are set in a specifically non religious context.  Another characteristic is that the content of the parables seem ordinary and mundane (e.g. a sower sowing seed, a women in search of a lost coin, and a women baking bread). 

This weeks' gospel lesson contains a recitation of a number of very short parables.  Most of them consist of only one verse of text.  One of the parables describes the Kingdom of God as analogous to a women baking bread.  It is hard to imagine a context that is less obviously religious and more mundane.  Women in ancient Israel were, literally and figuratively invisible.  They were prohibited from appearing in public in most contexts and were excluded from virtually all positions of power and authority.  They literally had no voice.  The women baking the bread would have been hidden and unseen.

Despite the fact that no one would have actually seen the women baking the bread and would not have given her a second thought, the women is creating enough food to feed an entire village (i.e. three measures of flour).  Additionally, the very act of leavening is something that takes place through a hidden agent.  A small amount of leavening dough was added to the flour to make it rise and the leavening dough was literally hidden in the flour.  To the casual observer, the agent that created the bread that fed the village would have been invisible.

God is the creator of all things.  And God is hidden from our eyes.  God is the creative power behind all things, even the creative power behind the things that cannot say God's name, and the creative power behind the creative endeavors of human beings who either refuse to acknowledge God or who do not know God.  God slowly and imperceptibly brings life to the world.

Removing Our Self Imposed Yokes

A yoke was a wooden crosspiece that was placed around the necks of two animals and attached to the plow or cart that the animals were pulling.  Yokes were also used on human beings who were enslaved or imprisoned to prevent escape and for public humiliation.

Last week in the epistle lesson from Paul's letter to the Romans, Paul said that we have two choices: we can either be slaves to righteousness or slaves to sin.  There are, simply, no other choices, and any perception of true autonomy or freedom is an illusion.  This week in Matthew's gospel, Jesus echoes Paul's position in the letter to Romans by stating that God's yoke is easy and his burden is light. 

The idea of an "easy and light" yoke cuts against the very notion of having a yoke.  But consistent with Paul's understanding of our choice of being slaves to sin or righteousness, what is implicit in Jesus' statement is that we similarly have a choice to be bound by two yokes: the yokes that we self impose upon ourselves, or the yoke of holiness.

We impose enormous burdens upon ourselves, consciously and unconsciously.  And the foundation of the yoke that we place on ourselves is grounded in our mistaken understanding of what we are.  We are God's children, and are already beings of infinite worth and value.  Forgetting this central assertion of our faith, or not knowing it in the first place, leads to insecurity and the notion that we are fundamentally unworthy and need to achieve something or do something in order to be worthy.  Our perception in our unworthiness then leads us to fear, anger, and self loathing, which adds more weight to the yoke.  Before we know it, we are burdened with an enormous weight that prevents us from living a life of joy and peace.

Jesus says that the solution is to take upon ourselves the yoke of holiness and obedience to God.  The foundation of this yoke is the understanding that we are already the children of God and are persons of infinite worth.  This then leads us to live our lives consistent with this understanding, and to treat others as people of infinite worth, which spreads peace and joy throughout the world.