You’re at the door, to leave the building. A man is standing there, as gatekeeper. He says only those who “name one ancient Christian whose name doesn’t appear in the Bible” can leave. … Whose name will you give?

As I read the sermon, I wondered how most preachers I know would respond to it. I realized immediately that they would tell me of the many flaws in Beecher’s theology and personal life – just like they say of Desmond Tutu and Martin Luther King Jr, even Dietrich Bonhoeffer – and many others whom non-Christians regard as great Christians.

The father of Bishop Peter Storey, a South African anti-apartheid activist, understood that theology is the root of practice. In one of his memoirs,[4] the Bishop writes that his father told him, “everything begins in theology and ends in politics.”

Jesus used his disciples, those who followed him on his journeys, to distribute the food he miraculously produced. But he didn’t use his disciples to dismiss the people. No. He sent his disciples away – into a dark and stormy night, in a boat, on a lake known to be dangerous. And then he personally refused to enlist the men; and ordered them home.

From these two texts, we may say that Israelites are the people to whom God gave the law through Moses. And true Israelites are those who apply themselves to obeying the law. Pharisees applied themselves to being true Israelites. Applied themselves to waiting for the coming of the Messiah. The Messiah who would fulfil the promises God made through his prophets. Promises enshrined in the first part of our Bible. The part which we call the Old Testament.

Today, Matthew tells us that after Jesus explained the parables to the disciples, he asked them whether they now understood them. And they replied, “yes.” I wonder if they lied. I wonder because I’ve read many books about the parables, produced by scholars after years of study.

Today, while pondering the reading, I recalled some controversies over 20 centuries of church history. I asked myself how leaders of the church were guided by this parable when they had to deal with them. I find the history very instructive.
Take for example the sexual abuse of minors by clergy. Did church leaders appeal to the parable and say

I see that over the last ten years our congregation has moved from being “resisting Lutherans” whose saints are activists like Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Martin Luther King Jr., Desmond Tutu, and Dorothy Day, to “adapting Lutherans” who cherish purveyors of health, wealth, longevity, and opportunities to supply the material needs of others.

A yoke enables a person to pull a load, to accomplish some work, to fulfil a task. A yoke is a connection to others, and to God. A yoked person does work directed by another. A yoked person has a sense of personal and national destiny.