9th July 2023
Reflection (readings are below)
Paul in his letter raises in an interesting question, why do we find it so hard to be the good people we want to be? Most of of us go through life thinking we could have done better, tried harder, had more luck etc. Most of us have regrets, or thoughts of ‘if only’ or ‘what if’. Maybe this is part of being human – we can imagine how things might be different.
What can we do if wish to become the good people we wish to be? Is it nurture or nature?
Abraham’s servant is keen to find a good woman to be Isaac’s wife. He does two things – he prays to God for guidance and he seeks to find someone who demonstrates goodness in their daily existence. And so it is he comes across Rebecca. She is willing and eager to be kind and helpful to both a stranger ( Abraham’s servant) and to the animals he comes with ( the camels). In last week’s Gospel we read of Jesus saying, “whoever gives even a cup of cold water to one of these little ones in the name of a disciple– truly I tell you, none of these will lose their reward.” And later in that gospel we have in the parable of the Sheep and the Goats, the teaching that in helping those in need, we serve Jesus. Being good in small things is indicative of being good in other ways too.
Abraham’s servant, I think, sees that by choosing someone who is good in small things, he will be ensuring that the nature of household over which she presides will be good. Being with good people, being nurtured by good people, makes it easier for others to be good too. The other take away from Genesis is the value of prayer in helping us do what we want to do.
Nevertheless for Paul, his sense of failure is acute. He feels that how ever much he wants to do what is right, his own body does the opposite. He calls this propensity sin and believes that it is something that has been deeply rooted within his very being. There is nothing he can do to uproot it – yet he knows someone who can: Jesus.
Paul understands that that which we cannot not do for ourselves, Jesus can do for us. To accept that can be hard – it requires a humility that does not come easily. We are more often sure that we can sort out our own problems. Often we believe that if we can’t sort out these problems ourselves it is because we are not wise enough, that we are not trying hard enough, that we are letting God down. Yet Jesus tells us time and again to be like young children, like infants that know nothing other than reliance on their parents to help them. Jesus tells us to trust in him, to share our worries and our shortcomings with him, because he can and will come along side and help us.
Returning to where I began, that like Paul, many of us struggle to do what we think we should do. It is not something that I am good at (!) but listening to and trusting in Jesus is key.
One Easter service we were asked to imagine that we were there in the garden and encounter Jesus: what would we ask him? ‘How can I save the world’ was my cry – to which the response was ‘ That is not your role but mine!’
Another time, when I particularly felt I had failed to do what God wanted, I sensed Jesus telling me ‘Whatever you do or don’t do, I am not going to love you anymore or any less.’ To live a good life is perhaps, to let ourselves love and be loved.
Genesis 24:34-38, 42-49, 58-67
The servant said to Laban, “I am Abraham’s servant. The 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. And Sarah my master’s wife bore a son to my master when she was old; and he has given him all that he has. My 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; but you shall go to my father’s house, to my kindred, and get a wife for my son.’
“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! I 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,” and 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.’
“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.’ She 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. Then 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. Then 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. Now 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.”
And they called Rebekah, and said to her, “Will you go with this man?” She said, “I will.” So they sent away their sister Rebekah and her nurse along with Abraham’s servant and his men. And 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.” Then Rebekah and her maids rose up, mounted the camels, and followed the man; thus the servant took Rebekah, and went his way. Now Isaac had come from Beer-lahai-roi, and was settled in the Negeb. Isaac went out in the evening to walk in the field; and looking up, he saw camels coming. And Rebekah looked up, and when she saw Isaac, she slipped quickly from the camel, and 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. And the servant told Isaac all the things that he had done. Then 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.
Psalm 45: 11-18
11 “Hear, O daughter; consider and listen closely; *
forget your people and your father’s house.
12 The king will have pleasure in your beauty; *
he is your master; therefore do him honour.
13 The people of Tyre are here with a gift; *
the rich among the people seek your favour.”
14 All glorious is the princess as she enters; *
her gown is cloth-of-gold.
15 In embroidered apparel she is brought to the king; *
after her the bridesmaids follow in procession.
16 With joy and gladness they are brought, *
and enter into the palace of the king.
17 “In place of fathers, O king, you shall have sons; *
you shall make them princes over all the earth.
18 I will make your name to be remembered
from one generation to another; *
therefore nations will praise you for ever and ever.”
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. Now if I do what I do not want, I agree that the law is good. But in fact it is no longer I that do it, but sin that dwells within me. For I know that nothing good dwells within me, that is, in my flesh. I can will what is right, but I cannot do it. For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I do. Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I that do it, but sin that dwells within me.
So I find it to be a law that when I want to do what is good, evil lies close at hand. For I delight in the law of God in my inmost self, but 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. Wretched man that I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!
Matthew 11:16-19, 25-30
Jesus said to the crowd, “To what will I compare this generation? It is like children sitting in the marketplaces and calling to one another,
‘We played the flute for you, and you did not dance;
we wailed, and you did not mourn.’
For John came neither eating nor drinking, and they say, ‘He has a demon’; the 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.”
At 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; yes, Father, for such was your gracious will. All 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.
“Come to me, all you that are weary and are 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.”
