The Rev. Joseph Peters-Mathews is the vicar of St. Hilda St. Patrick. The sermon for Sunday, June 21st, was preached using the below manuscript. The gospel text was Matthew 10.24-39.
The Rev. Joseph Peters-Mathews
St. Hilda St. Patrick Edmonds
21 June 2020
Pentecost +3, Proper 3
Matthew 10.24-39
‘”Take up your cross,” the Savior said,
“if you would my disciple be;
take up your cross with willing heart,
and humbly follow after me.”’
We pick up this week,
where we left off last week.
Jesus taught people how to live
as if the kingdom of heaven has come near.
He demonstrated that it has,
by working healing miracles.
Then he gave the 12
— and over time us —
authority to do the same.
The kingdom of heaven has come near! Amen!
This week Jesus continues to prepare the twelve
for their mission of declaring that the kingdom of heaven
has come near.
He’s directed them not to the Gentiles or the nations —
which we hear at the end of Matthew
and heard on Trinity Sunday —
but to their friends and neighbors.
He’s told the twelve to go to the lost sheep of Israel,
those without a shepherd to care for them,
the people whose leadership has sold them out
for temporary peace-by-power from Rome.
This will….
be challenging.
“Do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul…
Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth…
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.”
Following Jesus,
proclaiming that the kingdom of of heaven has come near,
living how he taught to live,
and enacting God’s unlimited love…
is going to cause problems in interpersonal relationships.
We ourselves may be seeing,
or experiencing,
those problems.
Yesterday a childhood friend posted a meme
“All lives matter.
Jesus died for us all.”
That’s not the only place I’ve been seeing
“All lives matter”
despite the fact that Black people
are two-and-a-half times more likely
to die at the hands of the police
than white people.
The police do kill more white people in raw numbers,
but when accounting for percentages of population
and percentage of death,
Black lives seem not to matter,
so all lives don’t yet matter.
Saying “All lives matter” denies those realities,
and saying “Black lives matter”
can cause rifts in personal and professional relationships.
A photographer went viral this week
after a bride cancelled her services
for being vocal about Black Lives Matter
on her personal social media page.
Multiple friends of mine
have gotten very vocal in the last four weeks.
You can tell it’s new for them — and their families —
because their families are not happy in the comments.
Jesus warns,
“Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth…”
and for too long societal white supremacy
and systemic racism
have sold out to peace-by-power
as Jeremiah condemned
saying, “Peace, peace” when there is no justice, no peace.
In the midst of Jesus warning the twelve,
warning them not to fear those who kill the body
but cannot kill the soul
warning them that their families may be turned upside down,
warning them that following him means taking up a cross,
and crosses are only used for one purpose.
In the midst of Jesus warning the twelve
that he has not come to bring peace to the earth,
Jesus offers them reassurance.
He’s already given them authority
to heal the sick
and proclaim because they believe it
that the kingdom of heaven
has come near.
Those who find their life will lose it,
and those who lose their life for Jesus’ sake will find it.
When two sparrows fall from the sky
God knows it.
As much God loves sparrows,
God loves the disciples even more.
God has numbered the hairs on their heads,
and has claimed them as God’s own.
Between tradition and history,
at least ten of these twelve were martyred for their faith.
The kingdom of heaven has come near
and in Jesus’ resurrection they found the fullness of life.
Despite common and popular theologies,
the message of Jesus isn’t all
sunshine, rainbows, and unicorns.
Following Jesus is the way of the cross,
and crosses are only used for one purpose.
At our baptisms or confirmations we
turn to Jesus Christ and accept him as our Savior,
put our whole trust in his grace and love,
and promise to follow and obey him as our Lord.
Jesus warns us that following him
is not peace,
but division among families and friends.
The kingdom of heaven has come near
and in God’s reign all lives do matter.
God has has shown the strength of God’s arm,
he has scattered the proud in their conceit.
She has cast down the mighty from their thrones,
and has lifted up the lowly.
God has filled the hungry with good things,
and the rich he has sent away empty.
All lives do matter,
and Mary tells us exactly which lives
God has special plans for.
Saying “Black lives matter” —
then working to dismantle
systemic racism and white supremacy
(even as one is benefitting from it)
is proclaiming that the kingdom of heaven
has come near.
Jesus warns us that in following him
he has not come to bring peace to the earth.
But Jesus assures us that as we stir things up
God has our backs.
God has claimed us as God’s own,
has numbered the hairs on our heads,
and loves us even more
than God loves the sparrows that fall in their deaths.
We’re not likely to be martyred for our faiths,
even as we remembered the Martyrs of Charleston this week,
martyred for theirs.
But the way of the cross is death,
and through that death,
new life in Jesus.
Paul tells us extensively today in Romans
that having been buried into Jesus’ death
we have been born into his resurrection.
God has claimed us as God’s own,
has numbered the hairs on our heads,
and loves us even more
than God loves the sparrows that fall in their deaths.
We’ve been marked as Christ’s own forever
and sealed by the Holy Spirit.
Do not fear those who kill the body
but cannot kill the soul.
“Take up your cross, then, in Christ’s strength,
and calmly ev’ry danger brave:
it guides you to abundant life
and leads to vict’ry o’er the grave.”