The readings for the 4th Sunday After Pentecost, Yr. A were: Jeremiah 20:7-13; Psalm 69:7-18, Romans 6:1b-11; Matthew 10:24-39. This sermon was preached at Grace & Glory Lutheran Church in Palmyra, VA on June 21, 2026. Without any children present, I still wanted to share some of my intended talk with the adults, the “older children of God, as I suspected it would be of interest and a help. So, this sermon is longer than my normal length due to integration of my children’s material.
I was hoping some of the younger children of God would be here with us today, because I was going to show them something…a picture…a picture that was taken for our Office Administrator’s, Cindy’s, seat. Out the office window, there is a lovely bush (a butterfly bush), and there must have been five to six beautiful Goldfinches in that bush. And then one day when I was driving home last week, I was passing the bridge over Lake Anna, and I saw this big, majestic Bald Eagle swoop down, hit the water, and fly off with its prey. Very cool! And then this morning driving to church with my wife, we are driving in and this Turkey Vulture flies up from the side of the road and almost gets hit by our car. That’s not the best ending to the week if that was to happen, but I think it is ironic or some kind of synchronicity that I encounter all these birds, and in the Gospel, we encounter Jesus speaking about two Sparrows.
When we think of God, we often think of Eagles, those majestic birds. Yet, Jesus often speaks about the smallest of birds. We can walk through our day, hear them singing, and we don’t even notice them! They are just part of our background. Yet, Jesus sees them all.
Recall, that just five chapters before in his Sermon on the Mount, the first of five discourses recorded in Matthew, Jesus presents the Beatitudes. As part of that gathering on that mountaintop, he tells the crowd, “Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they?” (Matthew 6:26). And today in chapter 10, what does he do? He tells us that we are of more value than two sparrows. It is very similar.
Jesus uses this very common imagery of small birds to reassure us of God’s great love for us. Today, he wants to reassure his Apostles (for that is who is talking to) that they are loved despite the bumpy road ahead. Certainly, God loves all of God’s creation, but God loves us more. This repetition or echo of teachings found in chapter five and chapter ten might just be a flag calling us to pay closer attention…to look deeper into this passage today.
You might recall that Moses received tablets with ten sayings on a mountain top. Centuries after Moses, Jesus gives sayings to a crowd on a mountain. Notice, Moses receives from God ten sayings as a prophet, but Jesus speaks or gives sayings to the crowd as God. He does so to help people start to realize with this echoing of the past his authoritative, prophetic status, and to help build a foundation for his new community that’s going to be called Church. The way Matthew tells his story, he hopes that people will start to understand the divine import of Jesus by seeing such parallels.
Yet, the beatitudes, this gift that Jesus presents to the crowd and to us, his Church, aren’t about what we do as the Law of Moses was. (“Thou shall or shall not…”) They are about what God does to bless us by grace through faith within even the most difficult of situations. Jesus wants us to reflect God’s blessings at all times. At the communion table, we often pray, “It is good at all times and every place to offer our thanks to God,” right? Jesus wants us to live into God’s blessings…as his Children…because that’s what we are now. In Matthew’s Gospel chapters five and six prove the lens we need to better understand what comes after in his account.
So as Jesus continues his discourse to expand upon these all important sayings, he says that we should not worry about how we might succeed or even survive. Worry about the future? No! Avoid that. Try to pull yourself back from that ledge. Don’t let fear hold you back. Yet, don’t fear guilt because you are afraid. God gave us that emotion to help us interact with and process our world. Certainly, fear too can be a gift helping us to preserve our life or the lives of other…Fear can save our behind…It is fear shouting, “Look! Danger! Do something!” Nevertheless, fear should never stop us from following God’s will. For we are loved and provided for by God, just like those vulnerable, almost powerless birds and lilies of the field.
So, my flock, vulnerable as we are, we need to listen closely to Jesus’ words today. If we have faith in Jesus…if we dare to follow him…he warns that there will be consequences. Oh, there’s already consequences living in a fallen world…everyone, everyone faces consequences of living in this fallen world…but just as the world rejects Jesus, don’t be surprised when it rejects us.
Using a rabbinical teaching style of his day, Jesus is saying we are his slaves – his emissaries, his ambassadors, or messengers if you prefer. We serve Jesus, and we represent Jesus in the world. And we are being sent in his name. Thus hen we go out into the world (whether to the golf course, work, or school), in that ancient mindset, we fully represent him. In that honor-based society, if we, as his representatives, if we are dishonored by others, it is as if someone is doing something to him.
In the face of this, Jesus says, “Expect it.” It is going to happen sometimes. Expect dishonor. Expect family rejection, and religious persecution, or scorn, being made fun of, being gossiped about…expect it. Expect that in following Jesus, people might misunderstand us enough or hate us enough to even kill us. And we are lucky enough to live in the United States that the threat of death is not always before us, but our brothers and sisters in other parts of the world still do. In trying to love in a world that so easily rejects love…rejects Jesus…there will be costs…The costs might vary, but there will be sacrifices that we have to face.
And just as in the Sermon on the Mount, in chapter 10, Jesus responds to the fear that we might rightly feel as humans. “Do not worry,” he says. For we who follow Jesus…who are his slaves…belong to Jesus. More than that, we are one with him…one with Jesus! And that’s exactly what Saint Paul describes to us. In some passages Paul calls us slaves to sin, but in others slave to God. In faith, we are to be totally dedicated and seeking to follow divine direction as we love those who Christ has entrusted to us, for we belong to Jesus. We represent him in the world. Yet as slaves to Jesus, we are also one with him. And if we die to ourselves or die as martyrs, it is ok. Paul writes, “For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we will certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his.” We are now dead to sin and are alive to God in Christ Jesus. We are something different, fully the Children of God…and thus ultimately free to live, love and serve as called.
We who are called by Jesus to follow him are deeply and intimately loved, for he is one with us. And God chose to create us and call us out of love and delight to accomplish God’s will in the world. So, to help mitigate our justifiable fears, Jesus compares us to sparrows. In those days, sparrows were considered insignificant. As many as they can be, they are small and vulnerable to the environment, carnivores, and other birds. In addition, in Jesus’ time, they were common food for the poorest of the poor. Thus, sparrows have been called “the Poultry of the Poor.”
Additionally in the Torah, the Law of Moses, sparrows could be the poor person’s offering at the Temple, instead of more costly animals. According to Leviticus 14, sparrows were particularly prescribed for sacrifice by lepers…the feared, homeless, isolated, and poor as lepers. As one commentator writes, “The most remarkable thing about sparrows is probably how unimpressive they are. Although you may have seen thirty of them today, you may not have noticed a single one.”[i] Still as with the other birds of the air, or lilies in the field, and now just two small sparrows, God notices. God sees. God cares. More than that, God saves. Yes, “not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your Father.” They are caught within God’s loving gaze, attention, and care…And that’s exactly what Jesus promises for those that believe…who trust in him. And that’s exactly what Jesus promises for those who believe in him.
In the Hebrew scriptures, one of the names we hear for God is el roi (pronounced el raw-EE) which means “the God who sees.” Hagar, the concubine of Abraham who was cast out from the tribe due to Sarah’s jealousy, alone and unseen in the wilderness, uses those words to name God.[ii] At risk of death, alone and afraid, she was rescued by the intervention of an angel who also announced she would give birth to Abraham’s other son, Ishmael. In her suffering, without hope and alone, she understands after this experience that she was seen by God in her suffering all along. And so, she calls him el-roi (the God Who Sees) in her prayers of thanksgiving.
And el-roi sees us, too, even within our doubt, darkness, and suffering…even when we try to run away in our sin like Adam and Eve in Paradise in their shame after eating forbidden fruit. Even when we just feel small and powerless, God sees us and loves us. God seeks for us. More than that, Jesus promises that we who follow Jesus…who serve as his ambassadors and share in his death…We belong to Jesus. He will never let us fall beyond his love’s reach. Never! We are intimately loved and cared for…even when we think we are alone and God has abandoned us…whatever wilderness we find ourselves in. Yes, “even the hairs of your head are all counted” (Matthew 10:30). We are precious to God and loved as if by a perfect mother or father.
Yet since we believe and trust in Jesus, the world naturally rejects us to…For, we are in the world but not of it (John 17:16). We are Jesus’ flock. (Whether you prefer bird or sheep imagery, we are his flock.)…We are no longer slaves but God’s children (Galatians 4:7)…We are claimed as his family. Jesus said, “Whoever does God’s will is my brother and sister and mother.” Saved through our faith and baptism, that’s who we are now! We are saved, sent, and ultimately safe because of Jesus’s steadfast love for us on Judgement Day…whatever we have done or failed to do.
Yet at the time that Matthew’s Gospel was first received, faith in Jesus meant people could be cast out of the family of faith (the Synagogues), their genetic family (as a friend of mine in Africa was), or even their greater community. To be one with Jesus, set one apart and often in opposition to others of this world. So, Jesus encourages us to hang on. We aren’t being called to conflict, but it will come to us since we represent Jesus. In faith, trust him with everything that we have. Don’t let any familial or other loss keep you from Jesus or what he calls you to do. Chose following Jesus first, even if it means facing death, even if dying to oneself as we sacrifice things to fulfill our mission assigned to us…Because as Jesus explains, “Those who find their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will find it.”
Look also at the prophet Jeremiah, heard from today as well. He was often criticized for suggesting the powers that be were in error. He shouted against the people of his time turning against one another and God. Doing so, he became a distraction that eventually led him to be viewed as an enemy. Until finally, he was cast in a pit to die, and once rescued, later jailed. When Jeremiah finally is released, he is not freed by his people. No, Jeremiah is liberated by the conquering Babylonians, and all those he loves are now in exile and the Temple and Jerusalem are in ruins.
As a human being turning to God, we often hear Jeremiah outline how he feels let down and in need. That’s why he wrote Lamentations. God has enticed and overpowered him, he says. Jeremiah could not resist following God, yet when he does? I can hear him saying, “What kind of trick is this, God?” He has become a laughingstock all day long; everyone mocks him. The powers that be and his people think he’s a joke – his family, friends…it seems that everyone has turned against him…And still then, likely through tears, he decides to trust God.
As Jesus warns us, that kind of rejection and dissension can happen when we try to follow God’s will for us…when we bear the name of “Christian.” Yet, it’s not the name per se. It is more than that. When reflect Jesus in what we do and say we will find the world against us at times. There are a lot of people that will cry out Lord, Lord! And not be saved.
Yet when all was said and done in Jeremiah’s story, we learn that God is big enough to use our enemies, even our imperial enemies, in his case the Babylonians, to do God’s will.[iii] God sees Jeremiah and his stiff-necked people and will save both of them. This is not because they deserve it, but God freely loves them. It takes some time…70 years!
Yet even then, God remains at work. The exiled Jewish people could not make sacrifices at the Temple which no longer existed. The Emperor intended to wipe out their religion and culture to fully integrate them. Many of that time wondered if there really was a God at all. “We are God’s chosen people, so how is this happening to us?” And, then the Rabbinical system began, and Synagogues were established in exile, to help the Jewish people remember their culture, language, and God’s love for them. They heard during their suffering God’s promises, and they hung on…with everything they had. And through that suffering and their faithful response to it, God made them more unified than ever before…more steeped in their faith…more faithful than they had been.
This is just the way God is…God has a steadfast love for us….never ending. We hear this promise throughout scripture. Before time began, at Creation, in Christ’s ministry, and in the world since Pentecost…God is love, and God freely chooses to love us. When Jesus has called us through his Spirit…we might struggle in faith…We might suffer for the sake of righteousness or in this Fallen World…but we are always seen and never alone.
As common as we are…as worthless we feel…or as sinful as we truly might be beyond anyone’s awareness…Jesus will catch us when we fall…like those small sparrows. For when we are one with Jesus through the gift of our faith and baptism, not even death can defeat us. Follow Jesus, we are told, serving and sacrificing as he asks each of us, because there’s nothing to truly fear. God is waiting to catch us. We…you…will not fall to the ground apart from our Father. Amen.
[i] Anon. “God of Eagle and the Sparrow.” Living with Faith. Downloaded at https://www.livingwithfaith.org/blog/god-of-the-eagle-and-the-sparrow on June 19, 2026.
[ii] Ibid.
[iii] Reid, S.B. “Commentary on Jeremiah 20:7-13.” Working Preacher. Downloaded at https://www.workingpreacher.org/commentaries/revised-common-lectionary/ordinary-12/commentary-on-jeremiah-207-13-6 on June 19, 2026.
Below, please find a video of our worship service. The sermon starts at about the 23:11 minute mark.
© 2026 The Rev. Louis Florio. All content not held under another’s copyright may not be used without permission of the author unless under terms of fair use and properly attributed. Scripture passages when used are from the NRSVue translation unless otherwise indicated.
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