Faithfulness
Craig Atwood, HMC June 21, 2026
Matthew 10:24-39
“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 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 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.
INTRODUCTION
It is good to be back home after our two-week Moravian Heritage Tour in Europe. About three dozen people, almost all from Home Church, were able to go on the tour Later in the summer we will prepare a presentation with pictures and stories. We walked a lot, sang as often as we could, and spent time with Moravians in several places. We are hoping to put together a presentation for the congregation later this summer. The highlights of the trip included learning about John Hus in Bethlehem Chapel where he used to preach, visiting Kunvald where our church began, and seeing important historical documents, hymnals, and a Kralice Bible from the 16th and 17th centuries. At place called Chalice Rocks, where Moravians worshiped in secret during times of persecution, we celebrated Holy Communion using a 500 year old chalice that belonged to Bishop Jan Augusta. We also enjoyed a Singstunde and Sunday worship in Herrnhut, and the people there really liked Mrs. Hane’s Moravian cookies that we brought as a gift. On the way to Amsterdam we visited Herrnhaage and Comenius’s grave in Naarden. I got home late on Friday and I am still jet lagged and bit fatigue. Forgive me if today’s sermon is a bit ragged!
FATHERS DAY
As you probably know, Ginny and I almost always preach from the texts assigned for each Sunday, but there are times when you wonder if the lectionary is playing a joke on the preacher. Today is one of those times because it is Fathers Day in the United States, but these are not texts I would have chosen for that topic. The lectionary is used by a billion Christians around the world, so it is just a coincidence that today’s text says that Christ came to bring division and sets children against their parents. I was tempted to cut off the last part of our gospel lesson and focus on Jesus’ promise that God’s eye is upon the sparrow, but I’ve been impressed by how well Ginny tackles the most difficult lectionary texts, and so today I’m going to emulate her.
MY FATHER
Only a few of you ever knew my father, but our family, neighbors, and people he worked with knew that he could spontaneously combust in fits of rage that were frightening. It was hard growing up in a household where you never knew whether your father was going to come home happy and take you on an adventure to the circus or be a smoldering volcano. I loved my father, but I feared his wrath.
For many years this shaped my image of God the Father. The Old Testament often speaks of the fear of God, and I equated that fear with the fear I had of disappointing my father or making him angry. It took many years to come to an understanding and experience of God as comforting and caring. I suspect I’m not alone in this. I think many people confuse God the Father with the Godfather.
As I got older, I saw that my father’s relationship to his own father was difficult. To me, my grandfather or Pawpaw was a kind and loving old man who loved country ham and telling stories. After his death I heard enough stories from my father to see that he was often harsh and demanding to his family. I can image what it was like for an asthmatic kid like my father to labor on a dairy farm trying to please a patriarch whose only interest was the farm and its animals. Over the years I came to a better understanding of my father and his father and his father before him as I came to understand generational trauma.
For many years I struggled with the commandment to honor your father and mother, but one day it dawned on me that the best way to honor our parents is by becoming the best adults we can be. God does not expect us to simply follow in our parents’ steps. We do not need to become our parents. Instead, we must take what is good from their legacy while turning away from what is destructive. I learned many good things from my Father, including the importance of church, and I try to honor him by following those good lessons.
But I also realized years ago that we do not have just one father in our lives; we have many. I had many fathers at Hope Moravian Church, and fathers at Moravian Seminary and in graduate school. I have surrogate fathers and mothers here at Home Church who show me what it means to be a Christian, a mensch, a parent, and a friend.
HAGAR
What does all this have to do with our lectionary readings for this morning? For one thing, these Scriptures remind us that there are flawed fathers in the Bible, even among the patriarchs and kings. In our Old Testament lesson, we heard the story of Abraham and his first son Ishmael, whom Abraham rejected because his wife Sarah was jealous. Ishmael’s mother Hager fled from Sarah’s abuse, but they almost died of thirst in the desert. The Lord God heard the baby’s cries. God spoke to Hagar and provided her with water. Many pastors and political figures forget or ignore the fact that God spoke to an enslaved woman and that her son also became patriarch of a large nation.
Countless women in our country and throughout history have had to flee from violence for the sake of their children just like Hagar. This story reminds us that God cares for them. God loves them. The Bible teaches us that God is the father to the fatherless and mother to the motherless. Whether or not we are fathers and mothers, we should take this story to heart and protect those who flee from abuse. We should be like God and listen to the cry of those who flee into the darkness and beg for water. And, like God, we should provide help.
JESUS
This brings us to our gospel text for today, which seems to me to be three separate lessons of Jesus that Matthew put together. First, Jesus reminds his disciples that his path is not always an easy path. I am frequently disappointed by the purveyors of the prosperity gospel who claim that faith in Jesus will bring earthly rewards, which contradicts the whole New Testament.
We worship and follow the Incarnate Son of God who lived in poverty and died on a cross. Matthew tells us that followers of Jesus and not fanboys and fangirls of the Messiah; they are disciples who follow their master no matter how stony the road they must travel. We must be ready to carry the cross as he did because disciples are not greater than their master.
WHOM TO FEAR
The second lesson is that Jesus tells us to have courage as we proclaim and live out the gospel. Several us just completed a pilgrimage to Bohemia, Germany, and the Netherlands where we stood where John Hus fearlessly preached the gospel in Prague despite being threatened with excommunication, arrest, and execution. We traveled to Kunvald where Gregory the Patriarch and his companions had fled to so they could create a church dedicated to following the Sermon on the Mount. We visited the Moravians in Mlada Boleslav where in 1620 a bishop wisely hid the church’s records before he fled from persecution. In Chalice Rocks where the stones themselves rang with songs of faithfulness and courage in times of crisis.
We walked through Herrnhut where Moravian refugees built a settlement and where Zinzendorf inspired them to preach good news to the world. We sang at the grave of Comenius, who chose to turn his exile into a pilgrimage and whose last thoughts were on Christ’s peaceable kingdom. And here we are this morning in Home Church where so many saints have proclaimed the gospel, and where so many people have responded to Christ’s call of discipleship. Yes, there is such a thing as trauma passed down from parent to child through the generations, but there is also faithfulness that is passed down through the centuries as people give their lives to Christ and take up the cross of faithful service.
DIVISION
It is so tempting to sing about God’s eye being on the sparrow and to rest in the arms of Christ as our Savior, but there is a third lesson in our Gospel passage. Christ tells us that the good news of salvation is not good news to everyone, and it sometimes causes conflict and division. I could recite story after story of great men and women of the Christian Church who disappointed or defied their fathers and mothers for the sake of Christ. The parents of St. Augustine, Martin Luther, John Calvin, and Count Zinzendorf sent their sons off to school to become lawyers, but each chose the path of discipleship. Theresa of Avilla, Julian of Norwich, and Katie von Bora followed Christ rather than the demands of parents.
Many of us here this morning in Home Church had fathers and mothers that supported us and prayed for us as we pursued our vocations, but that is not true of all of us. I know some of us have experienced division in your families when you’ve celebrated God’s love for all and resisted those who demean, abuse, and exclude others. I know there are people in this room experienced division when they supported desegregation during the Civil Rights movement or equal rights for women.
Jesus never promised us a rose garden, but he walks alongside us on the path that leads us up into a new and brighter future. He never promised us that we would never experience conflict or discord, but he does promise that he will be with us, that he will strengthen us, and that one day he will welcome us home with open arms and pierced hands.
NOT A LICENSE TO BE A JERK
But here’s the caveat. I’ve known too many Christians, some of them pastors, who think that this passage from Matthew provides them with a justification for being rude, insulting, or even abusive to their families. This passage is a favorite text for cult leaders who persuade vulnerable people to cut off ties with their familes.
We must take these sayings of Jesus with the context of the rest of Jesus’ teachings, especially the Sermon on the Mount. Jesus is not calling on his disciples to be sowers of chaos or mavens of discord. In the Bible, it is Satan who stirs up conflict for the sake of conflict. Perhaps Jesus is simply telling his followers that those who bind up the broken-hearted, give release to captives, and defend the vulnerable will alienate the powerful and selfish.
You have probably heard that it is not just what we say that matters; it is also our tone of voice and our attitude that communicate meaning. Unfortunately, we do not know what tone of voice Jesus used when he spoke these words, but I think it is a mistake to assume that he gave these teachings with the proverbial voice of God echoing off the hillsides. Perhaps Jesus’ voice was filled with sympathy and infinite sadness as he warned his followers that his path of truth, peace, and justice would disrupt the status quo and familial harmony?
Rather than compelling people to reject their fathers and mothers, perhaps he was simply preparing them for the evitable frissons that come as people reject the chains of the past and walk into the light of the morning star? I picture Jesus sword as being as sharp as a scapple, which he uses to excise the tumors of hatred and the infection of generational trauma so that the healthy tissue of the gospel may grow strong.
CONCLUSION
My father taught me that part of the challenge of being a Christian is to love others despite what they do or say rather than because of what they do or say. When he died several years ago, I wrote his funeral memoir. I was honest, but kind, and I think he would have appreciated what I wrote. We honor our parents best when we follow Christ build a more peaceful and beautiful world where all children feel blessed and every tear is wiped from their eyes. Amen.
