The Rev’d Lucy Nguyen
14TH Sunday in Ordinary Time, Sunday 5 July 2026
Readings: Psalm 45:10-17, Zechariah 9:9-12, Romans 7:15-25a, Matthew 11:16-19, 25-30
The readings this morning make it very clear that God longs for connection with us. God is always available and accessible to those who need and want God.
Psalm 45:10-17
Praise for God’s grace, mercy, and faithfulness to God’s promises.
Zechariah 9:9-12
A prophecy of the King who will come to God’s people bringing peace, justice, and freedom.
Romans 7:15-25a
Paul laments his struggle to do the good that he wants to do, while the sin nature within him leads him to do what he doesn’t want to do, but he celebrates Christ who provides freedom from this struggle.
Matthew 11:16-19, 25-30
Jesus laments the resistance and misunderstanding of those who judged both John and him, and gives thanks that God reveals wisdom only to the childlike. Then he invites those who are burdened to come to him and receive rest. John Van de Laar
And the readings tell us that in this world where the effects of sin – injustice, slavery of all kinds, conflict, and judgement – are widespread and bring devastation to so many, Christ comes as the one who seeks to bring relief – liberation, justice, peace, and mercy to all.
The readings, our foundational faith documents, our spiritual primer, leave us with a choice.
Will we accept Christ’s invitation and come to Jesus to find life, or will we question the effectiveness of Christ’s message and presence, and seek to go our own way?
Will we live in faith and communion with God, or will we live as functional atheists, or agnostics?
As John Van de Laar asks, will we live simply and generously, resisting the temptation to hoard, accumulate, and consume more than we need that we bring rest to those who struggle to survive each day.
Will we work within our community to bring change to unjust laws, to take notice of the hurting and vulnerable ones, and to welcome those with whom we would normally not associate that we bring rest to others.
Will we take actions that make no sense to those who benefit from and buy into the world’s systems, systems that do not bring life and grace and liberation to all – for both those who do them and those who benefit from them.
Now, you may be thinking, “Lucy stop brow beating us, we’re trying, or not depending on the day, and circumstances – we’re only human!”
Well, yes, we are “only human” and that’s why the Roman’s reading is so super for us today. Paul in his rather convoluted raw admissions validates the universal, daily struggle against human nature to do the right thing.
His words shatter the myth that becoming a Christian means an instant, magical end to all personal struggles and bad habits. It establishes that the path of sanctification is a process, not immediate perfection.
We, “believers” love this passage because it offers profound comfort, dismantles the pressure to be perfect, and reminds us that true hope is Jesus.
In openly admitting his own weaknesses, Paul’s testimony reminds readers that struggling with that which turns us away from God does not negate God’s healing love for us. In a way this text confirms that the feeling of internal anguish over the “wrongs” we do is actually a sign of spiritual life and a love for God’s ways.
The real challenge for us, well for me certainly is that Paul’s words point us directly to God’s grace. He strips away the temptation to rely on self-effort, rule-following, or personal willpower. The focus shifts entirely to the ultimate cure: “Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!”
In our Gospel reading Matthew (Mt 11:16-19, 25-30) Jesus calls us/those who are “weary and carrying heavy burdens” to lay them down.
It is an echo or a reminder of an understanding of God from the First Testament reading of Zechariah (Zech 9:9-12), which depicts God setting “prisoners free from the waterless pit”.
In preparing for this morning, I found Paul’s text agitated my thinking about alcohol.
I come from a family and culture of drinking.
I hang out with sober groups online for my own wellbeing and so often Paul’s words are echoing around the conversations in these groups …
“For I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate,”.
Now I’m not up here to suggest prohibition, we saw how that didn’t work. I use alcoholism as a still contemporary issue that may be relatable either for self or for a friend or family member.
And I find it encouraging that the Co-founders of Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) Bill Wilson and Dr. Bob Smith (knowing that AA is not for everyone) were raised in Christian traditions and deeply influenced by the evangelical Oxford Group though neither identified as Christian.
Wilson and Smith intentionally made their program spiritual rather than strictly religious. This open approach allowed people of all faiths—or no faith at all—to achieve sobriety. We can draw inspiration from their work in that the core tenets of A.A mirror our lectionary readings in several specific ways, and they may apply to a variety of actions, not just drinking, of which we just wish we could stop!
Jesus invites the weary to bring their heavy burdens to Him. “Come to Me (Matthew 11:28).
The First Step of A.A. is admitting powerlessness over a destructive force and acknowledging that one’s life has become unmanageable.
Jesus promises that in accepting his yoke, believers will find “rest for your souls”.
In AA it requires turning one’s will and life over to a Higher Power.
Both the biblical text and the A.A. recovery model advocate letting go of self-reliance, admitting that one cannot fix the underlying spiritual brokenness on one’s own.
In Matthew 11:25, Jesus thanks God for revealing profound truths to the “little ones” rather than the intellectually sophisticated.
The similarity in A.A. is the taking of a “searching and fearless moral inventory” and admitting to God, oneself, and another human being the exact nature of our wrongs. It demands the exact same vulnerability and childlike honesty. It requires stripping away ego.
Our Christian path emphasize that true peace requires actively resolving past wrongs and clearing away the wreckage of old habits.
Perhaps your issue is not alcohol addiction perhaps it’s a pattern of avoidance. A searching and fearless moral inventory may be asking yourself to confront the communal issues of how we resist living in ways which can bring rest to those who struggle to survive each day, how we resist doing the work to bring change to unjust laws or how we ignore the conversations which challenge world’s systems that do not bring life and grace and liberation to all.
Thankfully we do not do all this work alone. We do it in this faith community and we do it in the belief of the power of Jesus, the Holy Spirit, God – you name your triune connection. I encourage you to have an honest conversation this week about how you do life in this season.
And if you’re wishing for a bit more anchoring go ahead, take a peek into Romans 8 (we’ll be talking about it next Sunday at 7:30am) Chapter 8 has been described as one of the most powerful transitions in Scripture.
For now, Paul ends Romans 7 crying out for rescue from a “body of death”.
Let us be brave pause here at the end of chapter 7 in the crying out.
Be assured even the most devout followers of Christ face a persistent, daily challenge between ego and soul. We are crying out, but our struggles do not define our status before God. God loves you right now! And it is honesty with ourselves and with God where we will find healing. Stay safe, and stay present, God is with you.
Thanks be to God.
Amen.