Amazing Love

Matthew 10:16-32

Does anyone write letters any more? I am not talking about emails or texts or Twitter. I mean the kind of letter where you find a piece of stationery and a pen that writes smoothly. A letter where you carefully choose your words, lick the envelope, find a stamp. I love letters. I have a cherished stack from my mom and my grandmother and a dear aunt; letters they wrote to me when I lived out of state early in my marriage. Those letters were filled with advice, but they spoke from strong, unconditional love, too.

Our gospel text seems to me like that kind of letter from Jesus. He is speaking to His disciples, yet here is this letter stashed away for us, too. Jesus tells us that as we go forward with our harvest hands outstretched, as we do ministry in the name of Jesus, the road might not always be an easy path. We will meet some opposition along the way, so it is important that we have no fears as we place our absolute trust in God and make an unswerving commitment to our Lord.

And hidden in the middle of these warnings, Jesus speaks of amazing love when He asks: Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one will fall to the ground without the father knowing about it. And even the hairs on your head are numbered.

These are words of amazing love. God cares. He pays attention to even the tiniest details—knowing when a bird falls to the ground—numbering the hairs on your head and on mine. And we are worth more than millions of sparrows in the eyes of God.

It is difficult at times to realize and to fully appreciate just how much we are loved and valued by God. But countless times in scripture we are reminded of His amazing love.

As students of the Lord, as His harvest hands, we can do whatever is asked of us without being intimidated. Our souls, our core being cannot be harmed. God holds our entire life — our bodies and our souls — in His hands.

And God, a fierce warrior, is always by our side. When there is whispering behind our backs, when old friends or even a family member might hope that we fall flat on our face, God is there with His amazing love. When we cry out that we have had enough and we need a break — God’s answer is wrapped in love. God is infinite but He is also intimate. He sees every human misery, every human joy. He is there when we stand on a mountaintop and He is there when we walk through the valleys of human experiences.

But Jesus does want the job of spreading the word about this amazing love to get done despite opposition, so the gospel strings together what my mom would have called pearls of wisdom — advice that springs from concern and from unconditional love.

A disciple is not above the teacher — here He is saying that we might have to face opposition similar to what Jesus Himself faced.

Nothing is covered up that will not be uncovered—any evildoers that we might encounter will have their words and their deeds revealed and judged in due time. Knowing this, we can feel emboldened to speak God’s good news boldly and without fear.

Even the hairs of your head are counted—God values us so very much!

Everyone who acknowledges me before others, I also will acknowledge before my father in heaven. It is so important that we acknowledge Jesus and His kingdom now in everything that we say and do. And we need to encourage others to do this as well.

Whoever loves father and mother more than me is not worthy of me. Above all else, we need to love Jesus and give Him the highest dignity.

Whoever does not take up the cross and follow me — let us not shrink from inconveniences or from sacrifices when we are serving Jesus and His kingdom.

Those who find their life will lose it — Jesus tells us that we have to lay aside what our definition of the good life is; we shouldn’t think of personal success, but we need to strive to find our true identity and our purpose in serving Jesus.

Adorned with these pearls of wisdom and raised to a light-filled world by our baptism, we live in the freedom of the amazing love of the God who created us. The God who loves paying delighted attention to us. The God who made us in His own image. Are we like God in our spiritual traits? In our physical form? In our creativity? We don’t really know these answers but isn’t it breathtaking to think about and imagine?

God has set us in this beautiful creation — a creation that He proclaimed good and very good. Sometimes it is easy to forget that in our culture today where violence, corruption and greed are every-day occurrences. But God makes all things new. Every 24 hours God creates something new. We awake each day to something that never existed before and will never be again. The YOU that wakes up was never the same before and will never be the same again.

God’s mark is imprinted on our souls. We might try to ignore it or distort it, but it is always there. As we spread the good news of Jesus we also reflect a little of God’s joy, some of God’s intentions and some of God’s amazing, abundant love and grace.

It is through our Father’s Love and grace, through the promises of Jesus, and through the power of the Holy Spirit that we can make connections between our faith and our everyday lives. We can find the courage to share our faith with the people we meet. We can invite a friend to church. We are able to move out of our comfort zones and into those more threatening situations.

Probably, if truth were told, many of us just don’t feel competent to fulfill anything that remotely resembles the boldness we hear in today’s gospel. Many of us — and I put myself at the top of the list — don’t have the foggiest idea of what it would be like to live every day taking the words of Jesus seriously.

But we need to share what we believe while remaining open to every prompting from God. We need to dream of new ventures where we can demonstrate the amazing love that has been poured out on us.

It’s not easy work — but it is good work. We need to look to Jesus. He is always there with His arms outstretched. In Him alone we will find ourselves and we will find His amazing love.

The work we do for the Lord never mattered more.