5th Sunday after Pentecost
Proper 7
Matthew 10:24-39
Fear not, therefore; you are of more value than many sparrows
24 "A disciple is not above his teacher, nor a servant above his master;
25 it is enough for the disciple to be like his teacher, and the servant like his master. If they have called the master of the house Beelzebul, how much more will they malign those of his household.
26 "So have no fear of them; for nothing is covered that will not be revealed, or hidden that will not be known.
27 What I tell you in the dark, utter in the light; and what you hear whispered, proclaim upon the housetops.
28 And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul; rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell.
29 Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? And not one of them will fall to the ground without your Father’s will.
30 But even the hairs of your head are all numbered.
31 Fear not, therefore; you are of more value than many sparrows.
32 So every one who acknowledges me before men, I also will acknowledge before my Father who is in heaven;
33 but whoever denies me before men, I also will deny before my Father who is in heaven.
34 "Do not think that I have come to bring peace on earth; I have not come to bring peace, but a sword.
35 For I have come to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law;
36 and a man’s foes will be those of his own household.
37 He who loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; and he who loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me;
38 and he who does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me.
39 He who finds his life will lose it, and he who loses his life for my sake will find it.RSV
Grace and Peace to you from our Lord and Saviour, Jesus who is the Christ. Amen
During his years as premier of the Soviet Union, Nikita Khrushchev denounced many of the policies and atrocities of Joseph Stalin. Once, as he censured Stalin in a public meeting, Khrushchev was interrupted by a shout from a heckler in the audience. "You were one of Stalin’s colleagues. Why didn’t you stop him?" "Who said that?" roared Khrushchev. An agonizing silence followed as nobody in the room dared move a muscle. Then Khrushchev replied quietly, "Now you know why." The point was well taken. 1
Fear can be a very paralyzing emotion. Fear can make people not act or fear can make people act and do foolish things.
In our gospel lesson this morning, Jesus is urging the disciples not to be afraid of spreading the good news of the gospel.
Jesus really lays it on the line for the disciples. He tells them that they should not be afraid of those who would kill them. He tells them further that He has not come to bring peace to earth, but the sward. And I think he meant the sword of the cross which will bring salvation.
He goes on to say that Jesus has come to set man against father, daughter against her mother, etc.
He even says he who loves his father and mother more than me is not worthy of me.
And finally, Jesus says we are to take up the cross and follow him.
We are to lose our lives for Him.
That is all pretty harsh stuff to deal with in this gospel lesson. Jesus makes it sound like that the living the Christian live will not be easy, in fact it will be very difficult. As Christians, we are to be a sword in this world.
With all this doom and gloom about being a Christian, it is a wonder that the church every got off the ground. It is a wonder that the disciple found the courage to go and spread the good news about the gospel of Jesus Christ.
But they did.
And they did because not only in these verse are things that make us hesitant of following Jesus, but Jesus assures us that we are very valuable to the Father and He will protect us.
Jesus says:
29 Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? And not one of them will fall to the ground without your Father’s will.
30 But even the hairs of your head are all numbered.
31 Fear not, therefore; you are of more value than many sparrows.
And it is those words that I would like us to study this morning.
31 Fear not, therefore; you are of more value than many sparrows.
As we walk our pilgrimage on this earth, we are to remember that our heavenly Father is there to protect us, to protect us from worry about the future.
We are valuable to Him. He even knows how many hairs are on our heads and if you head is anything like mind, God has to continue to count each day as the bald spots grow and grow.
We have a God who cares for us, period.
A text that is never used in the Revised Common Lectionary I think tells us very plainly why we should not worry.
It says:
25 ¶ "Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you shall eat or what you shall drink, nor about your body, what you shall put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing?
26 Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they?
27 And which of you by being anxious can add one cubit to his span of life?
28 And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they neither toil nor spin;
29 yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.
30 But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O men of little faith?
31 Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ’What shall we eat?’ or ’What shall we drink?’ or ’What shall we wear?’
32 For the Gentiles seek all these things; and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all.
33 But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things shall be yours as well.
34 "Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Let the day’s own trouble be sufficient for the day.
Jesus is telling us again in this text that jour heavenly Father will care for us. Today and tomorrow are in God’s gracious hands.
Someone once said:
"Worry is like a rocking chair, it uses up your energy without getting you anywhere"4
Jesus says fear not, your Father in heaven knows the very hairs on your head. Do not be anxious about tomorrow, tomorrow with God’s help will take care of itself.
But many of us are like the very busy man in the following:
A business manager went on holiday to an island in Greece.
One day, while he was on the beach, he was called up on his mobile phone by his secretary, wanting some help. He gave her some instructions and told her to call him back when she had finished.
As he was pacing up and down waiting for a return phone call, he came across a fisherman, dozing in the shade of his fishing boat, that had been pulled up on the beach.
As the manager passed, the fisherman woke up and the manager decided to talk to him.
"The weather is great and there’s lots of fish. So how come you are sitting about here - when you could be out there - catching more fish?"
Quietly, the fisherman replied: "Because I caught enough this morning"
"But just imagine" the manager replied "if you went out twice a day, you could bring home twice as much fish. And do you know what could happen?
Puzzled, the fisherman shook his head.
"Well" the manager continued - waxing lyrical to his theme "you could buy yourself a motorboat. And then, after say a couple of years you could buy a second one. Then perhaps after three years you could have a cutter or two.
And just think, one day you might be able to buy a freezing plant. Then you could go on to get your own helicopter to help you trace shoals of fish for your fishing fleet.
You could then buy your own truck to ship the fish to the capital thereby cutting out the middle man"
"And then what" the fisherman replied.
"And then " the manager concluded triumphantly " you wouldn’t have to worry. You could then sit down calmly on the beach, dozing in the sun and looking at the beautiful ocean."
" Well, my friend" the fisherman replied "what do you think I am doing now!" 2
You see we can get so caught up in the business of life, in the busyness of life that we forget what is important.
What is important is to be in Christ and with Christ. And that means then we should be reaching out our hand to those around us with the gospel of grace that Jesus told the disciples to proclaim.
But I think many of us are like that business man pacing the shore, only thinking about himself and his comforts and not any one else.
When I was in high school, I wanted to be in the boy’s glee club real bad. But I could not sing a note. So first I had to be in boy’s chorus where several of us who wanted to sing, had in effect group lessons several times a week.
I worked at learning to sing that the next year, my senior year, I was allowed to join the Boy’s Glee club.
One song that we sang has been with me for many years now and sums us for me what our Christian calling is all about.
Listen;
No man is an island,
No man stands alone,
Each man’s joy is joy to me,
Each man’s grief is my own.
We need one another,
So I will defend,
Each man as my brother,
Each man as my friend.
I saw the people gather,
I heard the music start,
The song that they were singing,
Is ringing in my heart.
No man is an island,
Way out in the blue,
We all look to the one above,
For our strength to renew.
When I help my brother,
Then I know that I,
Plant the seed of friendship,
That will never die. 3
We are not islands, but we are linked together by our Saviour so that we can help one another in our faith life.
We are linked to God as we realize that he does care for us so we are then not afraid to reach out to a borther/sister in need.
As we are linked to God, we realize that we continue to change.
Leighton Ford says, "God loves us the way we are, but He loves us too much to leave us that way . Isn’t that true. God loves you, but at the same time He is moving, changing, reforming, renewing, redeeming you, because you are His child."
Ours is not a static relationship we have with God through Jesus Christ. It is always changing. We change as we begin to realize that we do no thave to fear the future, or worry about how we are going to live. And with that change, we are then able to reach out to others.
John Brokhoff in his book Jesus...Who says on pg. 69, " Man gets his value because God loves him in spite of his unworthiness to be loved. From the beginning man disobeyed God’s love and will. He has been a rebel and fought against God."
He continues,"If we really want to see what value God places on us as individuals, we need just to look at the cross. See those thorns--you were worth the pain. See those nails in his hands and feet, you were the reason for it. See the agony of a miserable death ---He died just for you. And don’t forget who was on that cross. It was God’s Son--God so loved you that He gave His only Son. So that is what you mean to God. You are worth God’s self-giving in Christ. It is almost too good to believe!!!"
We are so valuabe to God that He sent His son to die for us.
So then with that value, God expects us to reach out to others so they can experience that value as well.
We are walk with another on the journey of life.
My family enjoys the music of Sawyer Brown. Over the years there are a few songs that I have come to enjoy, more for the lyrics and the country music.
A closing song lyrics by Sawyer Brown speaks about walking in another’s shoes.
Down our long dusty driveway
I didn’t wan’t to go
But I set with tears In my eyes wondering
Daddy took me by the hand
Looked out at the school bus and his little man and said,
"Don’t worry boy It will be all right"
Chorus
’Cause I took this walk your walking now
Boy, I’ve been In your shoes
You can’t hold back the hands of time
It’s just something you’ve got to do
So dry eyes I understand just what your going through
Cause I took this walk with my old man
Boy, I’ve been In your shoes
Down our long dusty driveway
I set my mind to go
I was eighteen and wild and free and wondering
Daddy took me by the hand
Look at the world and his grown man and said,
"Don’t worry boy It will be all right"
Chorus
Down our long and dusty driveway
This time we both would go
He had old and gray
And his mind was wandering
Daddy took me by the hand
Said, "I know where were going and I understand
Don’t worry boy it will be all right"
Chorus5
Boy, i’ve been in your shoes.
Christ has been in our shoes and he asks us to be in another’s shoes.
Amen
Written by Pastor Tim Zingale June 13, 2005
1 by Karl Eckhoff from a sermon at SermonCentral.com
2 4 from a sermon by Martin Dale found at SermonCentral.com
3 Words by Joan Baez
5 Artist: Sawyer Brown Song: The Walk Greatest Hits 1990-1995 [Curb]
