9am Family Service for The Third Sunday After Trinity
“Whoever finds their life will lose it, and whoever loses their life for my sake will find it.”
Summary
The truth will set you free, but first it will really p*ss you off! Both of our readings today speak honestly about the difficulties of following the truth. Jeremiah, in 20:7-13, knows that speaking out will land him in trouble, people only want to hear good news and he is charged with speaking truth to power and yet he feels compelled to speak. In Matthew 10:24-39, Jesus is also compelled to speak hard words: I have not come to bring peace, but conflict. In truth the conflict is not between father & son, mother & daughter, but rather between those who are prepared to confront the impact that their choices has on others and the world around them and those who desire to remain ignorant. Speaking out has never been easy (I know, my foster daughter was arrested AGAIN last week for protesting climate policies). We are asked to live out the truth we believe, whatever the cost, knowing that in doing so we are living in and with God who reveals the truth in love.
READING
Matthew 10.28-39
Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather, be afraid of the One 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 outside your Father’s care.And even the very hairs of your head are all numbered.
So don’t be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows.
“Whoever acknowledges me before others,
I will also acknowledge before my Father in heaven.
But whoever disowns me before others, I will disown before my Father in heaven. “Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword. For I have come to turn
“‘a man against his father,
a daughter against her mother,
a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law—
a man’s enemies will be the members of his own household.’
“Anyone who loves their father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; anyone who loves their son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me.Whoever does not take up their cross and follow me is not worthy of me.Whoever finds their life will lose it, and whoever loses their life for my sake will find it.
