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Sermon for the Fourth Sunday after Pentecost – June 21, 2026
Matthew 10:24-39
Dear friends, grace to you and peace from God our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ.
Like many of you, I’m thinking about my dad today on Father’s Day. I was thinking this past week about how he taught me to ride a bike. I was an anxious kid, not much of a risk taker, so I imagine it wasn’t easy for my dad to get me going on a two-wheeler. I was scared of crashing. I was scared of skinned knees. I was scared of embarrassing myself in front of the other kids on my block. My dad never said that those things wouldn’t happen. He was honest about the risks. He was honest about the dangers, the possible negative outcomes. But still, he challenged me to take off those training wheels and go. And did those things I was so afraid of actually happen? Yes. Yes, they did. I did crash! I did skin my knees! I did embarrass myself!
But my dad wasn’t just there to challenge me. He wasn’t just there to push me beyond my fears. I also remember him running alongside me as I learned to ride. When I crashed, I remember him already being right there beside me to pick me up. It was this fatherly love, expressed in both challenge and care, which eventually helped me learn the balancing act that is riding a bike. It eventually led to the exhilarating freedom of riding on two wheels without fear.
Our gospel reading for this week is a continuation from last week. Jesus continues to challenge his disciples, pushing them beyond their fears to go out into the world to share the gospel. Jesus is honest about the risks. He is honest about the dangers, the possible negative outcomes.
Jesus tells them that just as he was facing persecution, they could expect the same. The servants shouldn’t expect better treatment than their master! If Jesus got called nasty names like Beelzebul (which translated literally means “lord of the flies”), they could expect to be called something even worse!
Jesus tells them they could expect to be maligned. They could expect to be in conflict with others. Jesus tells them he didn’t come to bring peace, but a sword. Now of course Jesus came to give us peace in a sense – he came to give us peace with God, the peace beyond all understanding – but following him would not necessarily lead to peace with others. The disciples could expect to be rejected and persecuted and ostracized. Sadly, some of this might even come from their own family members.
There will be crosses to carry as they follow him, Jesus tells them. There will be times when it is difficult, times when it is painful, times when it is humiliating.
But Jesus doesn’t just warn them about the challenges they will face. He also gives them a promise. Jesus tells them that their Heavenly Father will be right there with them through it all. He tells them that their Heavenly Father will be there to care for them, come what may.
“Are not two sparrows sold for a penny?” Jesus asks. This is a rhetorical question. That’s how much sparrows actually cost back then. And I need to tell you, they weren’t being bought as pets! You see, sparrows were a common source of protein in Jesus’ time. Some of you here today no doubt will be horrified to learn that sparrows were netted and plucked and put on skewers and roasted and eaten, with a little Ranch dressing on the side to dip them into. As strange as it might sound to us to eat these cute little birds, in Jesus’ time they were considered heavy hors d’oeuvres. They were plentiful, and so they were cheap.
And yet, Jesus says, not one of them fell to the ground without the Father knowing about it. God sees each one. God cares for each one. God values each one. And you, Jesus goes on to say, are of more value to him than many sparrows! God sees you and cares for you and values you even more! Much more! Exponentially more! In fact, Jesus says, God has every hair on your head counted!
Leading up to Father’s Day, I’ve been thinking not only of my dad, but also about the incredible blessing of being a dad. When Jesus talks about every hair on our heads being counted by our Heavenly Father, it reminded me of how when our boys were babies, every little thing about them was precious to us. We counted and kept everything. Things that nobody else would care about were noted and kept and treasured by us – even things that are probably gross to other people. I think I still have a box of their baby teeth somewhere. For a while we even held onto the dried-up stumps from their umbilical cords. We also kept a tuft of hair from each of their first haircuts. We didn’t count each strand, but we carefully taped them into their baby books, and those little tufts of wispy hairs are so precious to us.
Parental love is like that – and this is how our Heavenly Father loves us. God sees us. God cares for us. God values us. Even the hairs on our heads are numbered and held as precious. And so, Jesus says, we do not need to be afraid.
The challenges and risks and dangers Jesus describes are still with us, in varying degrees.
As we seek to share the gospel, we can expect to be called names. We can expect to be maligned. We can expect to be rejected and ostracized, just like he was – and is. I don’t encourage spending time in the comments sections of social media platforms, but if you do, you will soon see that even the most innocuous Christian references can be met with the most vitriolic, hateful responses. As Christianity recedes from our culture, you can expect more maligning, not less. As we seek to follow Jesus, we run the risk of coming into conflict with others. This doesn’t mean we’re doing it wrong. Jesus makes it clear that it comes with the territory.
As we seek to be faithful to our Lord, these divisions might even surface within families, Jesus says. This danger was perhaps more pronounced in Jesus’ time, when following Jesus often meant breaking from one’s parents in tragic ways. This is not something God wants to see happen. The fourth commandment upholds the divine order of fathers and mothers being at the heart of family life and worthy of honor. But at the same time, Jesus knows that the call to follow him will sometimes result in divisions even within families, even between these most holy and cherished relationships. Sadly, sometimes it still does.
Jesus is honest about the fact that he has come not to bring peace, but a sword. That is to say, some will face violent persecution for their faith. This happened to the disciples themselves, and it continues to happen today in places like Nigeria, where our Christian brothers and sisters are being murdered at a shocking rate, with Anglican clergy especially being targeted recently by anti-Christian terror groups.
Our Lord Jesus is honest about the risks, the dangers, the potential negative outcomes that may come our way not only in spite of our Christian faith, but in many cases because of it. And still, he challenges us to take up our crosses and follow him.
But Jesus doesn’t just challenge us, he also gives us a promise. He promises us that his Father is our Father. This in itself is a remarkable thing!
My theologian-friend Chad Bird from the 1517 Network wrote a piece about this this week, and I’d like to quote part of it. He writes:
It is difficult to imagine a more audacious act than to stand before the Creator of the world and to name him “Father.” And mean it. And not only to mean it, but to act and speak as a child acts and speaks before a loving and doting Dad.
It’s shocking. It’s exhilarating.
And it’s beautiful beyond words.
To call God “Father” is simply to live in the space which Jesus created. To move from residing far from God as his enemy; or on the other side of town from him as a stranger; or down the street as an acquaintance; or in an adjoining house as a servant; and to move into our own bedroom as a child in his family.
You see, when we live in this house, when we move into the room built by Jesus, we inhabit the home not merely of a Master or Lord or King, but the one who’s given us his name and made us his own, now and forever.
“Our Father”: two of the most amazing words ever uttered.
Brothers and sisters, today Jesus describes God as “your Father,” and this Heavenly Father of yours values you more than many sparrows. This Heavenly Father is running alongside you as you learn to find the balance that will carry you forward in Christian faith and discipleship. This Heavenly Father is holding on to you even now. This Heavenly Father will be there in the painful moments, the wipeouts, the crash-and-burns, to help you, to heal you, to raise you up.
Because of this Fatherly love, expressed in both challenge and care, we do not need to be afraid. We can instead go forth in the exhilarating freedom that comes from trusting that this loving Heavenly Father sees us and cares for us and is near to us, today and forever.
Thanks be to God. Amen.
Rev. Jeffrey R. Spencer
Oak Harbor Lutheran Church