Do Not Be Afraid

Matthew 10:24–39 NRSV

“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.

Well, isn’t this a fun text on Father’s Day? I love how the Spirit speaks through even the historic ordering of the weekly preaching text rhythm. It never ceases to amaze me how our created calendars and social events often coincide with a particular scripture. However, while I’d love to unpack the reasons why we love Christ more than our blood relations, in the interest of focus and in hopes of not offending my own family too much, I am going to focus on something else. You see, that’s also one of the beauties of the Scriptures: within a text, there are many pieces of wisdom to consider, lessons and teachings to take to heart, and paths to follow. To focus in one area is not to ignore another at it’s expense, but to glean clarity on small pieces in hopes of someday growing in understanding of the whole.

What does Jesus have to say to us today? Let us pray and open our hearts to the movement of Christ’s spirit amongst us.

Prayer

There are just so many things we cannot control.

We try, of course.

We try to control our schedules, but they are often beholden to the demands and needs of others.

We try to control our diets, but then a special occasion comes along.

We try to control the future, but then our plans change.

We try to control our health, but you really can’t get in the way of genetics.

And we try to control each other. But we all know how that goes. Control leads to grasping leads to frustration leads to despair and giving up.

Don’t we wish someone would put our global and interpersonal chaos in order?

We try. We try with rules, laws, agreements, contracts. We try with obligation and “should’s”.

But there are just so many things we cannot control.

Try to control the cancer with treatments, but it’s a roll of the dice.

Try to control your finances, but events beyond our influence change the game.

Try to control your partner or your child, but then you realize the deep cost to that relationship.

Today we’re focusing on that control through the perspective of fear. Do we seek to control things because we fear the alternatives? If we just keep things decent and in order, perhaps we’ll be able to control things enough to function.

The last couple of weeks, as we’ve gone back into the Gospels of Jesus, we’ve heard the call to practicing deep mercy and forgiveness. To relinquish control of our grudges and should-haves and to accept the encompassing mercy of God that forgives, reconciles, and makes a way forward.

We’ve also heard about Jubilee, this idea that it’s not only individual or personal mercy that is to be shown, but also communal and societal orders that must be restored, debts released, captives sent home, the balance of wealth and power leveled.

So what is Jesus on about in our passage today? Fear, swords, balances of power, light versus dark.

There are so many things we cannot control, so what does Christ teach us to do instead?

Let’s turn to the text and do a little work unpacking what’s here.

Remember, there are just so many things we cannot control.

So let’s look through this passage with that in mind. What can we control? What are we to do?

Alright, Jesus opens with a statement that disciples and teachers, slaves and masters, are like one another. He goes on to point that the servants of Beelzebul, an evil spirit, will also be as bad and malicious as their master.

Rather than totally trying to understand this as some sense of equality between servants and masters, I read this rather as people and communities are wrapped up together in a shared “spirit.” There is a spirit that is shared, an ethic that is to be consistently adopted. In this house, we will…

So Jesus is saying, “look for where this person or spirit comes from, what is their motivation, who do they serve?”

Jesus precedes this teaching with an earlier part that speaks about being sent out into persecution. The world is not a safe place, there’s just so much we cannot control. Being a faithful witness to the Good News will lead to persecution and struggle — the chaos bites back.

But then, he goes on, and says look — “there’s nothing to fear.”

What? Even malicious forces? Even spirits of evil?

No, Jesus instructs. Do not fear.

Why? When we’re out of control, doesn’t that lead us to fear? Anxiety? Trepidation?

No, Jesus teaches, have no fear of them. Why?

Because nothing is covered up that will not be uncovered and nothing secret that will not be known. What is said to you in the dark, tell in the light; and what you hear whispered, proclaim from the housetops.

There are just so many things we cannot control…but you know what we can do? We can tell the truth about them.

There was an article in the Cascadia Daily this week about a volunteer chaplain who was dismissed from their work of doing Bible studies and leading recovery groups in our local jail because the volunteer coordinators found out this person is in a committed same-sex marriage. It turns out that an independent non-profit is overseeing who can visit in the jails and has the power to dismiss volunteers at their prerogative…not because of any harm done, not because of poor counseling to the inmates, but because of their sexual orientation.

It came to light that this group dismissed the chaplain, who happens to be a local, ordained Lutheran minister. What was done quietly behind closed doors under the assumption that nothing would come of it is now in the local newspaper. What is done in the dark will be proclaimed in the public square.

Jesus goes on and poses another thing to consider — even if the body can be harmed, killed, destroyed…evil cannot threaten the soul. As much as we try to control, through power and manipulation…we cannot undermine God’s sovereignty over our souls.

He speaks, instead, of sparrows. Little birds.

How much can a little sparrow control? Their food, the weather? Maybe they can control their place to nest, but even this is subject to so many uncontrollable dangers.

So this little, vulnerable family of birds. So much less then you and me, at least in our anthropocentric scheme of things. And yet, even their living and dying is known by God.

Jesus uses a similar teaching in the Gospel of John, which I often will include as a part of a memorial service. In it, he questions if worrying can add a day to your life and whether God will not clothe us more beautifully than the birds of the air and the grass of the field. He’s saying — look, these things that are totally at the whim of the Creator, who are living without striving and seeking control, these things are cared for. So won’t you and I be? Aren’t we more?

So, do not be afraid.

There are just so many things we cannot control.

And to this, we hear Jesus say, “do not be afraid.”

Our world will seek to divide us. We will be cut off from family and friends because of it.

Think about our modern examples of this: families split apart by politics. Communities severed by the wealth gap. Wars between nations who share common parents and ancestry. Relationships that are strained even against commitments of marriage or blood connection.

Who has a relative they struggle to be with because of their religious or political views?

Who has lost a friend to division over just war or genocide?

Who among us has wrestled with having to choose what they know is right because it will cost them a friendship?

There are just so many things we cannot control.

We try. We make compromises. We settle. We get conflict avoidant. We ignore the issues.

But when it comes down to it, Jesus is teaching us that there will be things we must not compromise upon that will drive us to make these kinds of choices. Who will we serve?

He goes on to speak about these divisions and how he has come not to bring peace, but a sword.

Wow Jesus, I thought you were meek and mild.

A sword?

There is a similar allusion in the the book of the Revelation, where the Son of Man comes riding on a horse with a sword pointing out of his mouth. He rides in judgement of the nations.

What’s the deal with the sword? Is that how we gain control, through violence? Through dividing families, friends, and nations with war? Are we to become foes and take up arms against our enemies?

Some have certainly taken this to mean just that. Fight for what’s right.

But there is another reading of this sword, that for me unlocks the whole passage.

The threat of the evil one, the threat of the powerful, is to make us relent and give in. There’s just so much we can’t control, so we give up.

But the other readings of the sword, throughout scripture, is not of violence, but of dividing the truth. Cutting to the quick. Speaking plainly. Being honest. Shining the light.

I think the local news story is a cautionary tale for us. And it fits exactly into what Jesus teaches us today. Nothing covered or secret will not be made known. As they say, “the truth will out!”

So who are we to fear?

Who are we to be at odds with?

None of these.

Fathers and sons are set against each other, not by evil, but by truth. By the power of Christ, which will not let us settle for division and strife, but will cut to the heart and call us to repentance.

Let’s connect this with mercy and jubilee. To those who have wronged us, do we seek retribution and punishment? The world might tell us to, but does Jesus? Not so much — rather, with the sword of truth, we tell each other honestly of the pain inflicted AND extend mercy and forgiveness. In the jubilee, do we take back land through violence? Or do we collectively seek the economic and societal benefits of redistributing wealth through peaceful means?

There is just so much we cannot control.

Gratefully…when we find our life in Christ, when we live in this mercy that is willing to take up a cross and walk, this is where we find freedom. Freedom from control. Freedom to receive grace. Freedom to realign our relationships, kinships, citizenships, all unto a shared purpose of being the living truth of Christ. Unity, through our differences.

And with this, we share a common focus, a common love — Christ our Redeemer. It is not through our control that mercy reigns, but through our relinquishment of such attempts at power and resting in the grace and mercy of God. Nothing more.

We can grasp on and try to control our lives. But this is futile. It slips away.

Rather, let us lose our lives, lose our grasping for control.

For it is in this, when we let go and receive mercy, both from Christ and from each other, that we find truth. This is where we find life, wholeness, shalom, peace. Here, there is nothing to fear. For we all rest in God’s truth, finding God’s life, living as God’s faithful witnesses in a world that is so very much out of our control.

This is good news. Because we are not in control. God is. Let us lose our lives together, letting go to find life abundant in the sharing of truth and shouldering of each others burdens, unto the glory of Christ our Savior. Amen.