First Reading: Zechariah 9:9-12
9Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout aloud, O daughter of Jerusalem! Behold, your king is coming to you; righteous and having salvation is he, humble and mounted on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey. 10I will cut off the chariot from Ephraim and the war horse from Jerusalem; and the battle bow shall be cut off, and he shall speak peace to the nations; his rule shall be from sea to sea, and from the River to the ends of the earth. 11As for you also, because of the blood of my covenant with you, I will set your prisoners free from the waterless pit. 12Return to your stronghold, O prisoners of hope; today I declare that I will restore to you double.
Psalm 145:1-15
1I will exalt you, O God my King, and bless your name forever and ever. 2Every day will I bless you and praise your Name forever and ever. 3Great is the Lord and greatly to be praised; there is no end to his greatness. 4One generation shall praise your works to another and shall declare your power. 5I will ponder the glorious splendor of your majesty and all your marvelous works. 6They shall speak of the might of your wondrous acts, and I will tell of your greatness. 7They shall publish the remembrance of your great goodness; they shall sing of your righteous deeds. 8The Lord is gracious and full of compassion, slow to anger and of great kindness. 9The Lord is loving to everyone and his compassion is over all his works. 10All your works praise you, O Lord, and your faithful servants bless you. 11They make known the glory of your kingdom and speak of your power; 12That the peoples may know of your power and the glorious splendor of your kingdom. 13Your kingdom is an everlasting kingdom; your dominion endures throughout all ages. 14The Lord is faithful in all his words and merciful in all his deeds. 15The Lord upholds all those who fall; he lifts up those who are bowed down.
Second Reading: Romans 7:14-25a
14We know that the law is spiritual, but I am of the flesh, sold under sin. 15For 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 with the law, that it is good. 17So now it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. 18For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. 19For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing. 20Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. 21So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand. 22For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being, 23but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. 24Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? 25aThanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!
Gospel: Matthew 11:25-30
25Jesus declared, “I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you have hidden these things from the wise and understanding and revealed them to little children; 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. 28Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. 29Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”
Practice Makes Perfect
This weekend we celebrate the 250th anniversary of the founding of our country. And as we celebrate, we want to be sure we take time to thank God for not only the privilege of living in a democracy, but for the freedoms that we enjoy each day. We also need to pause and remember that the freedoms we enjoy came at a cost, and as we celebrate, we also want to give thanks for those who sacrificed so much that we might live free. This of course reminds me of a story that speaks to our forgetfulness.
There was an elderly gentleman who was traveling abroad for the first time in a very long time. As he approached the customs counter in France, the attendant asked for his passport. Since this was his first time traveling by air and navigating customs, he wasn’t prepared and didn’t have his passport handy when asked. Forgetting where he put it, he searched his briefcase with no luck. Next, he searched his jacket; again, no luck. As he continued to search, the people in line and the clerk began to get impatient.
Seeing the look on the customs clerk’s face, he apologized and began searching through his bags. Before long comments were being made and after a few moments the customs clerk curtly said, “visiting France is a privilege and one should have the required documents ready when asked.” Again, the gentleman apologized as he continued to search. Again, the clerk became impatient and this time gruffly said, “really masseur, you act as though this is your first time visiting France”! Finally, the gentleman located his passport and as he handed it to the clerk he said, “no this isn’t my first time in your country.” “I see” snapped the clerk, “then why didn’t you have the required documents ready, didn’t you give your papers to the clerk the last time you visited”? “No”, replied the gentleman. “The last time I visited your country I landed at Omaha beach in Normandy on the 6th of June 1944. At 6:30 in the morning, I guess there weren’t any French customs agents, to show my orders to!”
Sadly, we too often forget the sacrifices that were made so we can live in freedom. On occasions, like this weekend, we should pause and reflect on those sacrifices made and give thanks for the privilege of living in a country where we not only have personal liberties, but religious freedom as well. And because we live under a democracy, some have the tendency to think that our system of government and even our Christian walk is one of perfection. Of course this is far from the truth, neither our system of government, nor our Christian walk is perfect, both require work.
How many here today would argue that we spend our entire lives learning? From the time we were young, we spend our time learning new things. At first, we learn to talk, and then to walk. If you watch toddlers, they learn to jump, then to run, and to play. Mom and dad spend hours working with their children so they learn the basics. At some point we start with tricycles, then we move to bikes with training wheels. Soon the training wheels come off and we practice riding. For the boys, we would spend hours learning to pop a wheelie. Countless hours were spent learning to master our bicycles.
As we grew older, we started school. In school we practiced the basics, our ABCs, learning to write, learning to spell, learning to read, learning the basics of math. How many times did you go over your times tables to memorize them? And what about sports? How many hours have parents and children spent learning the basics of baseball, basketball, soccer, or lacrosse? Were our children able to master the game from day one? Of course not. Practice is required. The more you practice the better you get. And even when you reach proficiency, more practice is required.
Think of our professional athletes at the top levels of their sport. If you were lucy enough to be hired to play in the NFL, each spring there are training camps. In the Major Leagues, each of the teams support minor league teams, a place where future players can train to become good enough to play in the Majors. In the world of auto racing, kids start out in go carts and work their way up through the various circuits in order to be good enough to drive and compete in NASCAR. And if you were to ask, even the best of the best, spend countless off-track hours in simulators just to remain sharp and improve their skills.
When I entered the military, I spent more than a year learning the basics of my specialty. I spent hours learning things like Ohm’s law, the principles of electricity, and how to use basic electronic test equipment. Once I arrived at my first duty assignment, I spent another 8 months going over these principles and learning how to test and repair electro-optical and laser guidance equipment under supervision, just to earn my next certification level. But the learning and practice didn’t stop there.
Even at my next duty assignment, I wasn’t allowed to work alone. I had to work to learn newer, more advanced equipment. You see the military is very much like the civilian world when it comes to proficiency ratings. You start out as a novice, then you work and train to achieve your apprentice level. Once there, you work with others and in many cases take tests to achieve your journeymen certifications. But it doesn’t stop here. You progress, practice, study, and test to achieve your master certifications. In the Air Force we call these the 1, 3, 5, 7, and 9 levels. For the average enlisted member of the Air Force, it takes more than 20 years to achieve the highest, or 9-level certification. And guess what, after being awarded my 9-level, I still had to work, learn, and test to keep proficient. Whether we like to admit it or not, we spend our whole lives learning and working to keep up with changes.
Consider the musician. Did any of our gifted children wake up one day, pick up an instrument and immediately play a difficult piece of music? Of course not. Even the most gifted of children had to learn the basics. They had to learn how to play the notes, learn to read sheet music, learn tempo, and to learn to take direction. Think of the hours of practice that it takes to even play a simple piece of music. And if you rented an instrument for your child, you even had to decide if you continued to rent that instrument over the summer or allow the lack of practice to show come the fall when they started school again. Now I know Diane makes it look easy, but I know, as many of you do, that she spends hours each week just so she can play for us each Sunday.
How often do we look at a professional athlete, an accomplished musician, a plumber, electrician, or mechanic and forget the number of hours they spend honing their craft to become the professionals they are? Stop and consider our medical professionals, our legal advisors, and our educators. Each of these, along with countless other professions, spend their lives studying, reading, and practicing, in order to stay at the top of their professions. Ask any of our educators, they’ll tell you they never stopped learning and working to improve their abilities.
When you stop and consider it, it takes a lot of work and practice to not only become proficient in our earthly endeavors, but hours, even years, working to improve. The question is, why are we willing to go to so much effort in our secular endeavors, but we find it hard to put the effort into learning to live as a child of God? The life-long road of sanctification is one of ups and downs, it’s the failures caused by sin, but it’s the successes we have because of God’s Holy Spirit. Just because Christ lives within us, doesn’t automatically mean we’re suddenly perfect. Our Christian walk is a lifelong journey to perfection, and this is why I one could say that the Church is best defined as a “community of practice.”
The Church is a place where we choose to live the life of Christ. And as we strive toward becoming perfect, we know that we will fall short, miss the mark, and even come up short at times. But this is the reason the Holy Spirit is given to us, so that we can remain part of the church community’s “practice session” that is Christ’s church. Think about it for a moment, isn’t the Christian wilk very much like learning a musical instrument, a life-long project? Yes, it brings great joy. Yes, it brings focus and direction. Yes, it brings a love of artistic perfection. But it does take continual, gradual, life-long practice.
Here in this week’s Romans text, it’s clear that Paul the Christian is still working, learning, and practicing. “Saul the Jew” came face to face with his failure to embody the Torah. But he wiped out that failure when he met Christ and came to terms with the grace Jesus offers. Romans 7 sets the scene for the deliverance that Christ’s death and resurrection have made available. For Paul, there’s one and only one measure for perfection, Jesus. He is the one who we strive to emulate.
We all know people who are focused on the wrong measure for success: wealth, fame, celebrity, power. Boston College has a Center on Wealth and Philanthropy. A few years ago, they surveyed 165 households with an average net worth of $78 million. These multi-millionaires were asked such questions as “How would you describe the ultimate goal or deepest aspiration for your life?” They published the results of their study, and Graeme Wood in The Atlantic (April 2011) summarized the survey.
According to this summery, “If anything, the rich stare into the abyss a bit more starkly than the rest of us. The truly wealthy know that appetites for material indulgence are rarely sated. No yacht is so super, nor any wine so expensive, that it can soothe the soul or guarantee that one’s children won’t grow up to be creeps.” (As quoted in “It’s Not Easy Being Filthy Rich,” Utne Reader, July-August 2011, 27). The reality we must face is that all the fake measures in the world can’t “soothe the soul.” Then there are those who never give a single thought to their spiritual life.
These are the people who “live only for the moment,” who seldom, if ever, think about tomorrow; these are the “if it feels good do it” devotees. These are the ones who cannot hear the difference between “what they want” and doing “the very thing I hate” (v.15). This is why the church is important; as members of the body of Christ, we are part of a gathering that are constantly studying, learning, and striving to be like the Master. We are the ones who recognize that we need to study and work to become the disciples Jesus calls us to be. The Church is the community where people can learn and practice their faith and adjust their lives as needed.
Every person in the pew makes up the church, the body of Christ. But we are crippled and compromised by our sinful nature. We want to do good. But we, along with St. Paul, say “For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me (vss. 18-20). This is why we spend our lives working, learning, and practicing, to strive for the perfection found in Jesus. This is why Jesus prayed that the Father would send us the Holy Spirit to strengthen us, to guide us, and to call us back when we fall short.
The “saints” in our church pews are “practitioners,” not “perfectionists.” We’re called to a life of discipleship learning, practicing, and striving towards the perfection we have in Jesus. And those who are further along, are more learned, are more proficient, they are called to work with those who are new, with those who are just beginning their Christian walk, and even those who have mastered one or two skills. This is why we gather, to support each other, to learn from each other, and to pray for each other during the difficult times.
God chose to establish His church to do His work in the world through us, as imperfect as we are. And becoming proficient in our call requires practice. But the question remains, are we willing to put in the time, to practice until the day we become perfect? Our goal as a member of God’s kingdom is to follow our Master, Jesus Christ. By focusing on our eternal Master, we can live in the hope that one day our lives of sanctification will reach perfection. But in the meantime, we keep learning, working, practicing, and looking to God to help us work together to be His hands and feet in this world.
Amen