This past week we celebrated Independence Day, the Fourth of July, with all of its patriotic pageantry. And so, today, I have a question for you about a very important component of our country – our money. My question is this: In addition to the words “The United States of America,” what words can be found on each and every coin in your pocket and on each and every piece of currency in your wallet? Yes, they are: “In God We Trust.” It would appear, however, there are people in this country who, while they have no problem carrying these words in their pockets, find it troublesome, if not unconstitutional, to speak them in public.1
Perhaps, it’s a good thing our “Declaration of Independence” was written before our Constitution, since there might be some who would maintain this Declaration is “unconstitutional.” After all, the opening sentence of this Declaration makes reference to “… the laws of nature and of nature’s God …” This Declaration even goes on to state: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness …”
These words were written some two and a quarter centuries ago to declare our independence from a country that had placed us under the yoke of tyranny, a yoke of “taxation without representation,” one of several unreasonable burdens. Today’s Gospel reading speaks of a different kind of yoke, a different kind of burden.
Jesus, himself, knew of the many burdens of those who listened to him: their personal burdens, their political burdens and their religious burdens. He, also, realized God knew of these burdens, as well. Jesus remembered that when the Israelites, many generations ago, had been burdened by the Egyptians, they called out to the Lord God who sent them a leader, a savior named Moses. Moses led them out of bondage into the Promised Land. Through Moses the Israelites received the laws of God. They received Torah: the Way, the Law which would ease their burdens. Originally, it was said the “yoke of Torah” joined the Israelites with their God. But over time, the Law, itself, became a burden. It took away their freedom. It bound them in meaningless rituals. Now the Law, itself, had become a burden.
Once again, God heard their cries and sent a “new” Moses, but one even mightier than Moses. God sent his only son, Jesus the Anointed One, Jesus the Christ. God sent him, not as a new conqueror, not as someone who would take away the burden of foreign occupation by the Romans. Instead, the Lord God sent a “just” savior, one who is meek, one who is humble enough to ride on a small donkey, and not on a war chariot.
God sent one whose very person reveals the nature of God not to the wise and learned ones, not to those in power but, rather, to those who can see in this human form the revelation of God, the Father. God sent not a royal king, but, rather, a humble carpenter. He sent a man who knew, first-hand, about yokes and burdens.
Scripture scholars remind us that a major product made by carpenters was a yoke. And these were not mass-produced yokes. Each yoke was one-of-a-kind. The carpenter measured both the yoke and the oxen obliged to carry it to make sure the yoke fit properly and would not be a burden to the animal carrying it. Humans also carried yokes – yokes with buckets on them for hauling water and farm produce, yokes for primitive ploughs needed to make the fields ready to receive the seeds. Yes, all of these yokes needed to fit those who bore them for their daily tasks. Yokes were required, but they, themselves, must not add to the hardship of the tasks. And, so, when Jesus saw his friends laboring under the yoke of a Law which no longer freed them, he urged them: “Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am meek and humble of heart; and you will find rest for yourselves. For my yoke is easy, and my burden light.”
Jesus speaks these same words to us. He knows we, too, are burdened by life, by personal needs and communal tasks. However, as a carpenter who fashioned yokes, Jesus also knows those who are yoked together have an easier time of it than those who carry their loads separately. Therefore, the yoke he offers to us is a double yoke, carried by two rather than by one, alone. Yes, he fashions a new yoke for us. A yoke made from the wood of the cross he carried. A cross he asks us to carry as well. For this cross is shared as the yoke is shared.
In the Second Reading we heard today, St Paul reminded the Romans, and reminds us: the spirit of God dwells in us, the spirit gives us life and we are joined together in the spirit of God. Yes, we have our burdens to carry, our tasks to accomplish, but they are ones we do not carry alone. The spirit of God joins us together. Jesus the Christ assures us that, joined with him, our burden is light.
A few minutes ago, we recalled how we carry coins and bills bearing the words: “In God We Trust.” There are, however, other words found in common on all of our coins, and on the one-dollar bill, words we need to remember as well, not only during this week of our Fourth of July, but also in the days ahead of us. These are Latin words: “e pluribus unum. – One from many.” They speak of our diversity and how we join together. How we join together into one nation, under God. How we, though many, join together into the one body of Christ.
14th Sunday in ordinary time; July 7, 2002
Zech 9:9-10; Rom 8:9, 11-13; Mt 11:25-30
- Two years later, in the political campaign for the 2004 national election, the general public, in fact, began to discuss, sometimes vehemently, the Constitutionality of the words referenced in this homily. I lost track of the e-mails in my inbox pointing out how our money and our documents as well as our Pledge of Allegiance refer to God, to say nothing of those in favor (or not) of allowing copies of the Ten Commandments to appear on public grounds.