In the Name of God:  Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.  Amen.

Some of you have mentioned that you’ve noticed that I’ve lost some weight.  I’ve been dieting!  Most of us know how difficult it can be to take off a few pounds . . . if I knew how to trigger my will power – how to turn on the diet switch – whenever I wanted to, I could become as rich as Midas by selling the technique.  But however it came about, my diet switch got turned on about nine months ago.  That doesn’t mean it’s all been easy sailing . . . far from it . . . it’s hard work, especially at the beginning.  When I first started this diet, Paul happened to be out of town, and this was both good and bad.  Good because he wasn’t around to tempt me with his cooking, bad because no one was around to catch me if I cheated.

That first night, sitting alone in front of the television, an internal argument erupted in my head.  One voice was saying, “Oh come on, you can eat a little something.  You’ve been SO good all day, a little snack won’t hurt.”  But another voice was saying, “Stop it!  You’ve only been on this diet a few hours!  Don’t start cheating now . . . if you do, you’ll never loose any weight.”  This argument became so fierce and went on for so long that a third voice joined in saying, “Listen to yourself!  Are you crazy?  Stop all this back and forth nattering already.”  It was a very busy night.

I remembered that evening when I read the beginning of the passage from St. Paul’s letter to the Romans that we heard this morning:  “I do not understand my own actions.  For I do not do what I want but I do the very thing I hate.”  Of course, St. Paul is talking about things far more serious than dieting – although any of us who struggle with our weight know just how serious this problem can be . . . the shame and embarrassment that can torture us; the health problems that may threaten us – but even so, Paul is talking about other things.  He’s talking about sin and salvation.

But I used that little story about my diet to help us understand what Paul is talking about:  If we’re struggling to resist some tempting item on the dessert menu, we can truly understand Paul when he says, “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.”  And we go ahead and order “Death by Chocolate.”  But think about this a little more deeply.  We’re all good people.  Every single person here today is a good person.  We all want to do what is right.  We all want to live good lives.  We care . . . we care about our families and friends, about each other, about our communities.  And we’re here this morning to worship . . . to praise God, to thank God, to be renewed and gather up some strength for the coming week . . . and maybe to ask for a little help along the way.  We’re good people.  And yet we each know that we’re far from perfect.

How terrifying it would be if we had to earn our salvation, if we had to somehow prove that we are worthy of God’s love.  How could we ever achieve such a thing?  I know all too well all of the ways in which I fail to be the person I would really like to be.  I imagine that we can all say that about ourselves.  And it’s no different when we consider what we achieve when we work together.  We love our little church!  It’s a wonderful place!  But we all know that there are ways it could be better.  And, oh my goodness, think about the wider church.  Think about our secular efforts . . . about our city government, our state and national governments.  Even when people of good will come together – and let’s just pretend for a moment that ALL politicians, of every political stripe, care first and foremost about the welfare of the people – even when people with the best of intentions come to work together, we all know how messy and imperfect the final product is likely to be.

We cannot achieve perfection on our own . . . or together.

Nevertheless, we all try to do our best . . . and one way we may try to do this is to follow the rules.  But what rules?  Well, there are the Ten Commandments.  That’s not a bad place to start.  And, of course, there are other guidelines we can find in the Scriptures.  In fact, our ancient Jewish ancestors enumerated 613 commandments in the Torah . . . the first five books of our Bible.  Oh my!  Think how many more we might be able to come up with in just the Epistles of Paul.  Lots and lots of rules and guidelines to help us be better people.  Isn’t that great!  But . . . wait a minute . . . can we all recite the Ten Commandments?  ( . . . ).  So . . . how would ya ever remember 613 of ‘em?  Oh my gosh!  How can you follow the rules if you can’t remember them all?  Doomed before you even begin.  That’s why some ancient teachers taught summaries of all the rules and regulations . . . summaries like the one Jesus came up with and that we hear at the beginning of every mass . . . summaries that try to contain the essence of ALL the other commandments in an easy to remember statement.

That’s great . . . but ya know, if you really care about the rules, these summaries of the law still leave an awful lot of gray area . . . an awful lot of room for interpretation . . . an awful lot of specifics to be figured out.  I don’t know . . . it’s all sounding so very hard; it’s all sounding like an awful lot of work.

Maybe we should go back to talking about dieting . . . like THAT’s easy to do!

The word that comes to mind thinking about all of this is ‘burdensome.’  I mean, I want to be a good person, really I do . . . but I’m having enough trouble watching my carbs and my sugar intake . . . all this business about rules and guidelines just feels HEAVY.

Which, I suspect, is just the way it felt to our Jewish ancestors.  All these rules and regulations . . . 613 of ‘em! . . . probably felt heavy and burdensome to them, too.  For the most part, the peasants of Jesus’ time lived as tenant farmers and were ruled by the landowners they worked for . . . a little like share croppers in the United States . . . they lived a subsistence life simply going from day to day, bearing a heavy yoke of obligation and work.  I imagine that most of them were good people, too, like us.  People who wanted to please God.  But, did it have to be so hard?  No wonder people were transfixed by Jesus’ teaching . . . no wonder people flocked to him . . . who could resist such a miraculous message!  Come to me, all you that are weary and carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest.  Don’t worry about all those rules and regulations, for in me they are fulfilled.  Through me you will receive the grace to do what you could never do on your own, to receive what you could never earn.

Are you a sinner?  Are you burdened with regret and guilt?  Have you failed in some way?  Are you in pain?  Physical pain?  Emotional pain?  Spiritual Pain?  Are you drowning in concerns over money?  Have you given up dreaming?  Are you worried about the future?  Lonely?  Disappointed?  Frustrated?  Angry?  Grieving?  Then come to me, Jesus says.  Come to me and lay down all your burdens . . . your burdens of sin, and anger, and grief, and disappointment.  Lay them all down.  Don’t worry.  Have no anxiety.  You’re part of the family.  God the Father, the Lord of heaven and earth, wants to carry your burdens for you.  The all powerful all loving creator of the universe wants to embrace you, to adopt you, to love and care for you.  Will you let God love you?

Will you admit that you can’t do it all on your own?  Will you surrender your burdens?  Will you put them down, and walk into the new life offered you by Christ Jesus?  Will you to come to the table and eat and drink and celebrate this gift of freedom given to you?  Then praise the Lord!  Sing to the Lord a new song; sing his praise in the congregation of the faithful.  For we are loved, you and I, and we are free!  Free of all our burdens.  Praise the Lord!  Praise Him!  Praise Him!  Praise Him!

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