Göttinger Predigten
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Third Sunday after Pentecost, 06/25/2017
Sermon on Matthew 10:24-39, by Ryan Mills
“A disciple is not above the teacher, nor a slave above the master; it is enough for the disciple to be like the teacher, and the slave like the master. If they have called the master of the house Beelzebul, how much more will they malign those of his household! “So have no fear of them; for nothing is covered up that will not be uncovered, and nothing secret that will not become known. What I say to you in the dark, tell in the light; and what you hear whispered, proclaim from the housetops. 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. Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your Father.And even the hairs of your head are all counted. So do not be afraid; you are of more value than many sparrows. “Everyone therefore who acknowledges me before others, I also will acknowledge before my Father in heaven; but whoever denies me before others, I also will deny before my Father in heaven. “Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth; I have not come to bring peace, but a sword. 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; and one’s foes will be members of one’s own household. Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me; and whoever does not take up the cross and follow me is not worthy of me. Those who find their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will find it.
In the Name of the Father, and of the Son +, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Well the other week I was out for a walk one afternoon, when I came upon a beautiful, perfect, blue robin egg, lying on the ground. It was that incredible sky-blue color that they have--I don’t think I’ve seen one like it in years--and so I looked up to find a nest, and I looked around for a mother robin, all to no success. So finally I bent down and carefully picked that little egg up. But the back half of the egg was broken, cracked open, and the remains of a tiny baby robin lay there. What a tiny thing of beauty, but all alone and cold in a forgotten corner of a park. It had fallen to the earth, alone, over before it had even started.
These days we are maybe all to used to moments like discovering that little baby robin egg. Beautiful things that we delight in become broken and end and fall all too quickly. Ourselves and our loved ones: struggling, broken, hurting, but good at covering it up with our good side. Beautiful kids around the world and in this city, made to grow up too fast, burdened by struggling families, pained by hungry bellies. Or even those who have gone before us in our lives, leaving us with beautiful memories but an unfillable ache in our hearts.
Today, Jesus tells us of the challenges that his followers will face in this world: rejection, slander, and suffering. He tells us of the fact that loving God and loving our neighbors as ourselves will often be opposed by others. He reminds us, that as the old saying goes, “If you want to follow a crucified Lord, you better make sure you look good on wood,” that what this world did to him, it will also do it to you and me. He reminds us, in the words of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, that when Christ calls a person, he calls him to “come and die.” That everything else we hold dear--our wallets, our families, our status in life--will be reset and reshaped and relativized by him who is our joy, our treasure, and our crown. But in the midst of the rejection and suffering, difficulty and danger that Jesus predicts for us, he also gives us a promise: “Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your Father. And even the hairs of your head are all counted. So do not be afraid; you are of more value than many sparrows.” The old spiritual has it right: “His eye is on the sparrow, so I know he’s watching me!” Usually we take suffering and death, pain and loss as a sign that God has abandoned us, left us alone. Even Jesus felt that way on the Cross, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” But here Jesus is promising us that no matter the situation, no matter the heartache, that we don’t go through it alone. God doesn’t prevent the sparrow from falling, but it doesn’t fall alone, it falls with God’s knowledge and care, it falls into the arms of him who made the birds of the air in the first place. God will not always rescue us like magic from every terrible and tragic situation, but he does promise that we will not go through it alone. In fact, Jesus says, God has every hair of our head counted—that’s easier for him to do with some of us than with others!—but that’s just a way of saying God has an intimate knowledge of you and me. He know you, knows what you’re going through better than you do yourself, knows your needs before you do, and has memorized every part of you because his care for you is so profound. If he can know and love and be with a tiny sparrow, no matter what, how much more will he care for you and me?! “His eye is on the sparrow, so I know, I know he’s watching me!”
The book of Romans today tells us today what God has done to us, so that no matter what we face, we don’t face it alone. St. Paul asks us, “Do you not know, that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into his death? We have been buried with him, therefore, by baptism into death!” When we face the worst that life has to offer, when our hearts are breaking, when it all comes to an end, God reminds us—you have already been buried! Because you have already died, you have already been joined to the death of Jesus on the Cross. It happened when you were baptized, buried with him by baptism into death! See, as Christians, death is behind us, Jesus did it for us, dying our death, living so that we may never die. The only death that matters for us, our baptismal death, has already happened. So when the end comes it is not the curtain coming down on the show, but the curtain coming up on what you and I cannot yet imagine. If God cares so much for little sparrows sold two for a penny, how much more will he do for you and me, who have been joined to his beloved Son’s death, and so are also promised a share in his resurrection--a life with him that never ends?!
And because of Jesus, because death is behind us, then what we are so scared of? What do we have to worry about? What is there to fear? When you live knowing this, that even if a sparrow falls, it doesn’t fall out of the hand of God, when you live like this, everything changes. As you face your burdens, your trials this week, what difference would it make to pray, “Lord, thank you that I am worth so much more than a sparrow, and even he does not fall apart from you. Thank you that you know me, that every hair on my head is counted. Help me trust your promise, “Don’t be afraid.”
I’ve sat at the deathbeds of some saints from this congregation who’ve told me this much, “I have a good God, why should I be afraid?” And if you look around you’ll see this trust, this confidence in action. One of our members told me about the Amistad worker house on Rosette St, who invite folks in to share their every meal, every day, who give out free bread for anyone who walks by, who are a place of peace and welcome in their neighborhood. And they have a motto: “The only solution is Love.” When death is behind us, when we’ve been buried with Christ and rise with him daily in our baptisms, then they’re right: the only solution is love, love for him who tells us “Don’t be afraid,” and fervent love for one another!
Somewhere in Rome there is a famous set of paintings of St. Matthew—the tax collector whom Jesus called to follow him. In the first painting, the artist, Caravaggio, shows Jesus pointing to Matthew and Matthew is pointing at himself, like’s he saying, “Who, me? No, you’ve got the wrong guy.” How many of us can relate? God is calling us to follow, to not be afraid, and we hesitate, we’re more comfortable in our little tax booth that next to our Savior. But the second painting shows Matthew now many years in to following Jesus, and Matthew is now busy baptizing people, but with an executioner looming over him. According to tradition, Matthew told the King of Ethiopia he could not marry his niece, a nun, and the King decided to get rid of him and marry her anyway. If the world crucified our Lord, what will it do to you and me? But Matthew isn’t cowering in fear, even with the sword above him. No, he’s reaching out in trust, in faith, reaching out for a palm branch, a sign of victory, of triumph, handed to him by a little angel from above, floating there with him on beautiful blue wings.
Jesus promises: “Aren’t sparrows sold two for a penny? But not one of them falls apart from your Father in Heaven. So do not be afraid: even the hairs of your head are counted.”
And the Peace of God which passes all understanding guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus, Amen.