First Reading: Jeremiah 20:7-13
7O Lord, you have deceived me, and I was deceived; you are stronger than I, and you have prevailed. I have become a laughingstock all the day; everyone mocks me. 8For whenever I speak, I cry out, I shout, “Violence and destruction!” For the word of the Lord has become for me a reproach and derision all day long. 9If I say, “I will not mention him, or speak any more in his name,” there is in my heart as it were a burning fire shut up in my bones, and I am weary with holding it in, and I cannot. 10For I hear many whispering. Terror is on every side! “Denounce him! Let us denounce him!” say all my close friends, watching for my fall. “Perhaps he will be deceived; then we can overcome him and take our revenge on him.” 11But the Lord is with me as a dread warrior; therefore my persecutors will stumble; they will not overcome me. They will be greatly shamed, for they will not succeed. Their eternal dishonor will never be forgotten. 12O Lord of hosts, who tests the righteous, who sees the heart and the mind, let me see your vengeance upon them, for to you have I committed my cause. 13Sing to the Lord; praise the Lord! For he has delivered the life of the needy from the hand of evildoers.
Psalm 91:1-16
1He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High, abides under the shadow of the Almighty. 2He shall say to the Lord, “You are my refuge and my stronghold, my God in whom I put my trust.” 3He shall deliver you from the snare of the hunter and from the deadly pestilence. 4He shall cover you with his pinions, and you shall find refuge under his wings; his faithfulness shall be a shield and buckler. 5You shall not be afraid of any terror by night, nor of the arrow that flies by day; 6Of the plague that stalks in the darkness, nor of the sickness that lays waste at mid day. 7A thousand shall fall at your side and ten thousand at your right hand, but it shall not come near you. 8Your eyes have only to behold to see the reward of the wicked. 9Because you have made the Lord your refuge, and the Most High your habitation, 10There shall no evil happen to you, neither shall any plague come near your dwelling. 11For he shall give his angels charge over you, to keep you in all your ways. 12They shall bear you in their hands, lest you dash your foot against a stone. 13You shall tread upon the lion and adder; you shall trample the young lion and the serpent under your feet. 14Because he is bound to me in love, therefore will I deliver him; I will protect him, because he knows my name. 15He shall call upon me, and I will answer him; I am with him in trouble; I will rescue him and bring him to honor. 16With long life will I satisfy him, and show him my salvation.
Second Reading: Romans 6:12-23
12Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, to make you obey its passions. 13Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments for righteousness. 14For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace. 15What then? Are we to sin because we are not under law but under grace? By no means! 16Do you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness? 17But thanks be to God, that you who were once slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you were committed, 18and, having been set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness. 19I am speaking in human terms, because of your natural limitations. For just as you once presented your members as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness leading to more lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness leading to sanctification. 20For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness. 21But what fruit were you getting at that time from the things of which you are now ashamed? For the end of those things is death. 22But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the fruit you get leads to sanctification and its end, eternal life. 23For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Gospel: Matthew 10:5a, 21-33
5aThese twelve {disciples} Jesus sent out, instructing them, 21“Brother will deliver brother over to death, and the father his child, and children will rise against parents and have them put to death, 22and you will be hated by all for my name’s sake. But the one who endures to the end will be saved. 23When they persecute you in one town, flee to the next, for truly, I say to you, you will not have gone through all the towns of Israel before the Son of Man comes. 24A disciple is not above his teacher, nor a servant above his master. 25It 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. 26So have no fear of them, for nothing is covered that will not be revealed, or hidden that will not be known. 27What I tell you in the dark, say in the light, and what you hear whispered, proclaim on the housetops. 28And 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. 29Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? And not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your Father. 30But even the hairs of your head are all numbered. 31Fear not, therefore; you are of more value than many sparrows. 32So everyone who acknowledges me before men, I also will acknowledge before my Father who is in heaven, 33but whoever denies me before men, I also will deny before my Father who is in heaven.”
Quit Being Afraid
This past week was our Gaston County area VBS at Holy Trinity in Gastonia, and I had the privilege of teaching the Sticky Scripture station. The task was simple, drill into the kids the verse of the day, and explain to them why the memory verse was important to remember. As the week progressed, I was reminded each day, and with each age group mind you, that adults and kids think and process many things differently, and what might seem important or pertinent to me, may not mean a thing to a 6-year-old. On Tuesday, our “Sticky Scripture” came from Psalm 139: verse 1 reads, “O Lord you have examined my heart, and [You] know everything about me. It’s a pretty straight forward passage: God always sees us and knows everything in our heart. Then I asked some questions.
In order to ensure they understood, I asked the following questions: Do you believe that God knows everything? To this question the kids said a resounding “Yes!” I then asked them, do you believe that God always knows what’s in our hearts? With far less enthusiasm, they responded, yes. So, I then asked, if God sees what’s in our heart, what does He see when we’re at home when mom or dad tells us to clean up our toys, or put away our stuffed animals? I got nothing. Silence. Then one little boy looks at me and says, can God see through walls? Yes, I said, He sees everything. The boy thought for a moment then asked, can He see into secret places? Of course I said, God can see us no mater where we are. The little boy thought again for a moment and said, oh, I’m not sure I like that! I wonder how many adults would respond in the same way.
I have no idea what that young lad was worried about, but clearly the thought that God could see us, and knows what’s in our hearts, no matter where we are, clearly had him worried. In our Gospel lesson for today, Jesus clearly states, “nothing is covered that will not be revealed, or hidden that will not be known” (vs. 26). For some, these are words of comfort, God sees all and knows all, our pain, our sorrows, our struggles, and even our fears. For others, like the young lad in my Sticky Scripture station, clearly the though of God seeing all and knowing all caused him some anxiety. So, what about us? How much do we know about the people around us?
We have the internet and we can search for many things, but can we really say we know everything about every person on Earth? God, of course can and does! Jesus’ instructions to His disciples prior to them being sent out for the first time continues in today’s gospel reading. Last week we heard Jesus tell the disciples He was sending them “out like sheep among wolves.”
Jesus warned them to be as shrewd as snakes and as innocent as doves. Furthermore, they were to be their guard saying, you will be handed over to the local councils and will be flogged in the synagogues. On [Jesus’] account they would be brought before governors and kings as witnesses to them and to the Gentiles. [But don’t worry], when they arrest you, do not worry about what to say or how to say it. At that time, you will be given what to say, for it will not be you speaking, but the Spirit of your Father speaking through you (vss. 15-20). This week’s gospel reading picks up where last week’s stopped.
Jesus continued by telling the disciples about all the dangers and hardships they will face and ends by saying (in effect), “What do you expect? Jesus reminded them, a disciple is not greater than his teacher. If the world gives [your Lord] a hard time, it will give you one too” (Matthew 10:24-25). And how does Jesus reassure them? Did He sell them life insurance? Give them bullet-proof vests? Teach them how to diffuse conflict? No to all of these. Instead, He says, “Don’t ever be afraid of your enemies and critics. Even though it’s not obvious now, the truth will come out in the end. So, speak up; shout it out; stand and deliver” (10:26-27).
As if the fact that God sees and knows everything isn’t scary enough, now Jesus warns us that the price of faithful discipleship can be costly. We saw an example of this in the news this past week when some of the baseball players wrote Bible references on their hats in response to Pride night. None of the references I saw were offensive, yet these players were scolded by the league. But not everyone is willing to speak up. Far too many today want to reason, “we don’t want to be heroes, especially not religious ones. It’s all we can do to get to church on Sundays and we’re supposed to be speaking out against sin and hypocrisy? The question is, why are we so hesitant? Do we hold back because we don’t want to offend? Are we worried we might lose a friend? Or are we simply afraid?
Jesus’ response is, “Stop being afraid.” Not just this time; stop being afraid from now on. Jesus continued, do not be afraid of people who can kill the body, but not the soul.” The only thing we’re to be afraid of, Jesus warns, is to be afraid of “the One who can destroy both the body and soul in hell” (vs. 28). The point Jesus is making is, people can hurt us only temporarily because life comes from God. Even if they kill us, God, the creator of life, will raise us.
Jesus is pointing out an important fact, the voice of the people, or society isn’t the voice of God. We worry way too much about what other people say or think of us and far too little caring about what God thinks of us. Yes, but …. We know this is true. We’ve heard it before. And admittedly, it’s easier said than done. So what’s the solution? More advice? More instruction? That’s what we would expect. But Jesus isn’t just a teacher sent by God, He is the revelation of God. But Jesus also reminds us that even though we will face opposition and persecution, God cares deeply about us and what happens to us.
Jesus continues by reminding us, “Are not sparrows the most common and cheapest bird around? Yet not one of them dies apart from God your Father” [knowing] (10:29). “And what about you?” Jesus asks. “God even knows every hair on your head. So stop being afraid. You are of much more value than any sparrow” (10:30-31). We really need to stop and consider what Jesus is saying here. God sees and knows everything that we go through and nothing that happens to us escapes Him. Even if we die, it doesn’t happen apart from God.
Even if we seem totally abandoned, even if our prayers don’t seem to be answered, even if everything seems hopeless, God knows, God sees, and God cares. Since that’s the case, we can stop being afraid. However, we are creatures of our basic instincts. Not being afraid isn’t something that we can easily accomplish. However, as long as we let fear control us, we will still be afraid – afraid of other people, of death, or of circumstances, whether real or imagined. But as Jesus assures us, we can stop being afraid because of a promise — a promise that our heavenly Father, the almighty God, the One who watches over even the most common of birds, will be with us and take care of us.
When someone makes you a promise, what do you have to do? Generally nothing. If your grandparents, for example, place you in their will and say that when they die you get the farm, what do you have to do? Be nice to them? Work really hard? Why? They’ve already promised you the farm. “What do I have to do?” is the wrong response to a promise. It doesn’t make sense. If you find out you’re going to inherit something, you say “That’s wonderful! Thank you.” Because of that promise you have a retirement plan. Suddenly the future isn’t so uncertain.
Most of our life is lived not according to “the logic of promise,” but in asking and answering the question “What do I have to do?” If I want to graduate from school, what must I do? If I want to get promoted, what must I do? If I want to be respected, what should I do? And there’s nothing wrong with that. Those are all important things that we can work on. Most of life is like that. What goes wrong is when we try to put the “logic” of “What do I have to do?” into our spiritual life. “What do I have to do to get God to care about me?” Stop being afraid? No! This way of thinking is backward.
In reality, it’s the other way around. God cares about us, so you don’t have to be afraid. The response to a demand — to graduate from school, to support your family, to be someone others respect – requires something from us. The response to a promise, especially God’s promises, is altogether different. The response to a promise is to celebrate, to rejoice, to give thanks — because someone else has done something for us. God knows every hair on our head. God even cares about the sparrows, and we are of much more value than any sparrow. God will take care of us. That’s a promise. We don’t have to be afraid…ever.
Yes, but …. Who can believe this? Who can live without fear? Are we suspicious even of God’s promises? We hear of promises that aren’t kept. Our grandparents may promise to leave us the farm when they die, but who’s to say they won’t go bankrupt and lose the farm long before that? Companies promise all sorts of things to entice us into purchasing their products. We buy the items only to be disappointed. Life teaches us to be suspicious of promises, not because people who make promises don’t have good intentions but because fallible, mortal, sinful human beings like us can’t always keep our promises.
“I promise that I’ll repay you that money … if I can.” “I’ll be there promptly at noon … if something else doesn’t come up.” “I’ll complete the repairs, as we agreed … if I don’t find a better offer.” Human promises seem to always come with an “if” attached to them – “if I can”; “if something else doesn’t come up; “if I don’t get a better offer.” We can’t help it. It isn’t always bad intentions. It’s the way some people are. We cannot seem to make promises without conditions, without “ifs” attached. Yet Jesus made many incredibly far-reaching promises.
Not only about God knowing every hair on our heads and promising to care for us, but also many others: to the thief on the cross He promised, “Today, you will be with me in paradise.” To His disciples He promised, “I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go to prepare a place, I will come again.” Before He returned to the Father, Jesus promised, Lo, I am with you always.” To the repentant soul Jesus promised, “I tell you, your sins are forgiven.” And in the Beatitudes (Matthew 5:3-12): those who mourn will be comforted, the meek will inherit the earth, the pure in heart will see God, and so forth. But some might say, you can’t live on promises alone. To this I respond, if it’s God’s promise, yes you can!
The gospel of salvation is nothing but promises. The gospel is always a word about what will be the case forever, a word that opens the future to us, that frees us from being afraid. The good news of Jesus Christ would be an empty promise if Jesus’ death was the end of the story, but it’s not. We have the resurrection promised as well. Because God raised Jesus from the dead, death is not the end of the story. God did raise Jesus on the third day assuring us that Jesus can and does keep His promises. Even death could not keep Jesus from keeping the promises He made to us in the Bible. St. Paul reminds us of this in Romans 6:8, it’s a promise.
And it’s the basis for our hope in all of God’s promises. Even the sparrows don’t fall to the ground apart from God the Father and we are of greater value than many sparrows. Therefore, we have no reason to fear. God is with us. This is the promise the angel made to Mary when he said His name shall be Emmanuel, God with us. And Jesus made one more promise in the closing verse of our gospel reading, “Everyone who acknowledges me before others, I also will acknowledge before my Father in heaven” (Matthew 10:32). That’s a promise. But we need to be careful here. We can misunderstand these words thinking that if we acknowledge or confess Christ, then He will bless us by acknowledging us to God. But we need to read these words in context.
Here Jesus is talking to His disciples who have already been confessing their faith in Him; He’s saying to them, and to all who would follow Him in the future, that they will never be let down because He himself will acknowledge them before God. That’s a promise. One commentator translates this verse: “Every person who stands up for me in front of others, I will stand up for that person in front of my Father in heaven.” It’s that sort of rock-solid guarantee, a promise won through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus, that enables us to stop being afraid of people and circumstances and shout the gospel from the housetops. Fear of God as we know God through Christ bestows fearlessness of people and circumstances that might otherwise cause us to lose faith. The final verse is also a somber spelling out of the reverse.
Jesus said, If we deny Him, if we say, with Peter, “I do not know the man” (Matthew 26:72), and even swear to drive home the point, then Jesus will also say He doesn’t know us. No one will be forced into the kingdom. Even that is a promise, although it must be understood in light of Peter’s bitter weeping when he realizes what he’d done and the subsequent word of the angel at the tomb to be sure to include Peter in the news that Jesus is risen (Mark 16:7) as well as the marvelous account of Jesus’ threefold restoration of Peter (John 21:15-19) after the resurrection.
Today our crucified and risen Lord is in our midst, allowing us to stop being afraid because of the powerful love of God on which the promise is based: “Even the hairs of your head are all counted; you are of more value than many sparrows.” The promise Jesus made to be with us always continues in the blessed sacrament as we hear Jesus say, “this bread is my body, given for you, and this wine is my blood, shed for you.” We are strengthened each time we receive Christ in the bread and wine because He promises to meet us there. In this sacrament the promise is visible and touchable and tastable. “Take and eat; take and drink.” As we do this in remembrance of Jesus, we are reminded of Jesus’ promised to never leave us nor forsake us, therefore, we can stop being afraid.
Amen.