My heart warms when I hear:
Jesus said, “Are not the sparrows sold for pennies? Yet not a single sparrow falls to the ground without your Abba God’s knowledge. As for you, every hair of your head has been counted. So don’t be afraid of anything--you are worth more than an entire flock of sparrows.”
But I feel a chill in my heart when I hear:
Jesus said, “Don’t suppose that I came to bring peace on earth. I came not to bring peace, but a sword.”
Both quotes are from the gospel of Matthew barely two paragraphs apart. The writer of Matthew puts these words in the mouth of Jesus who is preparing his disciples to continue his ministry.
I read these words offered to followers of Jesus so long ago and I wonder how these two quotes prepare us to continue the ministry of Jesus.
As we continue our way through the gospel of Matthew we will have an opportunity to reflect further on these quotes in worship on Sunday (Matthew 10:24-39). When our season of epiphany began, I invited all of us to look for epiphanies, for places and times where God is revealed. Those epiphanies can happen in our lives and they can also happen when we read scripture.
Where can you see God revealed in this section from Matthew’s gospel? I’ll share my revelation on Sunday if you’ll share yours!
And perhaps to offer more fuel for reflection . . . check out one of our hymns for Sunday, Voices United #210 “You, Lord, are both Lamb and Shepherd, verse 1:
You, Lord, are both lamb and shepherd
You, Lord, are both prince and slave
You, peace-maker and sword-bringer
of the way you took and gave
You, the everlasting instant
you, whom we both scorn and crave
Instead of singing, “What a friend we have in Jesus!” perhaps we need to sing, “What an enigma we have in Jesus!”
See you on Sunday.
Shalom
Abigail
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