His Eye is on the Sparrow Matthew 10: 26-31 As we close our service this morning, we will sing the great Gospel hymn: His Eye is on the Sparrow. A hymn that reminds us that God watches over us, and offers a reason to sing because as the hymn s chorus goes, we are both happy and free. But the Scriptural inspiration for that hymn is not the much more familiar passage from Matthew chapter six in which Jesus speaks of the lilies of the field and the birds of the air. No, it is this passage from Matthew Chapter Ten, which begins with some bold words. So, where does Jesus take us before He takes us to the sparrows? Well, He tells us not to be afraid of people. Good point. While most people will confess to being afraid of the dark or of snakes or mice or speaking in public good thing I got over THAT one the thing we have most to be afraid of is people. And no, I don t think Jesus is talking about people who might mug you in the broad daylight, or car jack your car, or steal your identity and make a mess of your credit rating all things that are pretty scary when you consider them. I think He is telling us that the most dangerous people in the world are those who play fast and furious with the truth. Let s go back in history, way back, as we remember a story about a serpent who convinced a woman and a man who had everything right that something was missing. And look at where we all ended up. And from that moment on, the truth, the real truth, has suffered. Along with us. There are a whole lot of people out there and I m not just talking about politicians who try to sell us a bill of goods, trying to convince us that their view of things is the only view that matters. The lies abound. But while Jesus certainly would tell us to be wary, He also tells us not to be afraid. That which is covered will be uncovered; secrets will be revealed. Or in other words, the truth will triumph. Andrew Melville was a Scottish scholar and theologian. He was the successor to John Knox, the father of the Presbyterian Church in Scotland. His zeal for the faith brought him into conflict with the king, James VI (later to be King James I of Great Britain.) On one occasion, the king threatened to either hang or exile Melville. His reply was simple: You cannot hang or exile the truth. And I suppose that when King James was busy making sure that the Bible was translated properly into English - yes, THAT King James he must have missed the thirty-sixth chapter of Jeremiah, in which King Jehoiakim, on receipt of a scroll from Jeremiah containing words of the impending doom of the nation, simply took a knife and cut the scroll to pieces and threw the pieces in the fire. Well, that s a good way to deal with the truth you don t like isn t it? Just cut it up and burn it. By the way, Jeremiah just wrote his words all over again, including more of them. And as we know, it was his words, not King Jehoiakim s, which were fulfilled. The truth will triumph
And the truth is what Jesus teaches us. The truth is the way of love when hate attempts to dominate public discourse. The truth is the way of respect for all when bullying rears its grotesquely ugly head. The truth is the way of peace when competing factions use whatever methods they can muster, claiming that the end justifies the means. The truth is anything that points us away from brokenness, prejudice, intolerance, and fear and brings us closer to Jesus Christ who, as He told His disciples in the Upper Room, IS the truth. And where is the truth? We read a devotion the other day written by a young woman named Julie. When she was sixteen, her father died from an aneurysm. Her faith took a beating, as you can imagine. She began to wonder if she could control anything. But she slipped into bulimia. If she couldn t control her emotions, she could at least control how she ate. But as the bulimia took control, not her, she began to despise herself. Her self-esteem, selfimage, sense of value, all were broken. Until she turned back to the God who had always been there for her, only she didn t know it. And in this devotion, she wrote that as her journey of healing took place, she carried with her verses of Scripture written on cards. And whenever she felt herself being drawn back into the lies she had once believed about herself, she would pull one out and be reminded that there was a truth God s truth that set her free. You see, if God has His eye on even a sparrow, and had counted all the hairs on our heads, won t He give us the truth that sets us free? It s all in here (hold up Bible). We just have to read it. Everyday! Everyday! Louis Zamperini was an Olympic runner the 1936 Olympics. He hoped to compete in the 1940 Olympics, but World War Two stopped them. While flying in a bomber over the Pacific on the way to Japan, his plane was shot down. He and two other crew members drifted in a raft on the ocean for fortyseven days, until they were found, and captured, by the Japanese. He spent months in a Japanese prison camp, enduring brutal treatment. When the war ended, and Allied troops freed the prisoners, he returned home to California. But all was not well. Not surprisingly, he suffered from PTSD Post- Traumatic Stress Disorder. And to cope with it, he turned to alcohol. It was easier to anesthetize his pain than to get help. Which his wife, family, and friends tried to convince him to do. He was in a downward spiral. But when you are in a downward spiral, all you can do is look up. Which, at a Billy Graham rally which his wife dragged him to, he finally did. He was walking out of the rally, with no interest in the God Graham was preaching about, when he remembered a prayer he uttered in that raft on the Pacific. A prayer asking God for help. He returned to the rally, fell on his knees before the Lord, and welcomed Jesus into his heart. And spent the rest of his life sharing the Gospel truth, and how it can release us from our pain. Just a prayer from a stranded sailor trapped in a raft adrift in a vast ocean. And though God did not answer it right away look at all he went through! He still answered it! A simple prayer that set him free. As well as many others who heard his story over the years. It s told in the book: Unbroken.
If God has His eye on the sparrow, and knows the number of hairs on our heads, will He not hear and answer, albeit in His time, our prayers? That s the truth we can live by. We just have to pray. Every day! Every day! Sally Payntar was a member of the first church in which I served. Faithful; Hard-working; Committed. She was the coordinator of a program in that church that brought children from Newark, one of the poorest cites in New Jersey, to suburban churches each Saturday morning for one-on-one tutoring and a chance to embrace opportunities they rarely had. A few years before I had come to that church, Sally had a serious stroke. It did not leave her paralyzed, but did cause several disabling issues. One thing that was not disabled was her faith. And her impatience to get back to that tutoring program. As I got to know her, she told me a story about her journey from the stroke to healing. Part of that story was a comment made to her by a nurse who was treating her in the hospital. As this nurse tended to Sally s care, she said to her: You must have done something really bad to have God do this to you. She must have known Job s friends, for that was their attitude toward his dilemma. Sally wasn t perfect, of course, but she did not believe in a vengeful God who destroys lives on a whim. And she told the nurse just that. Now, if I had been Sally, I might have reported that nurse to her superiors, because of her twisted attempt to theologize to at least one patient. I don t think Sally did. She just knew that God was giving her the strength to be what He needed her to be. Using His strength when she could have given up and given in to her stroke-created disabilities. Dottie and I have often shared that Philippians 4:13 is our favorite verse in the Bible. I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. But I sometimes wish that Paul had added another word. I can do all things ONLY through Christ who strengthens me. I think that is really what the verse means. Strength is hard to come by, even if you haven t had a debilitating stroke. But as Paul wrote in II Corinthians (and I m not going to add any words here) when he begged God to release him from the thorn in the flesh that tormented him, God simply told him: It is when you are the weakest that I am the strongest. And my strength will get you through. The truth of a strength that brings us through anything is a truth that triumphs. And since God knows when a sparrow two of which are sold for a penny falls to the ground, and since He has taken the time to count the hairs of all our heads, we can have the strength to face whatever it is we face. Despite the poor theology of a nurse who should have kept her poor theology to herself! We just have to turn to His strength. Every day! Every day! But Jesus takes us one step further with the truth. We have to speak the truth. Jesus words are not at all cryptic. What you have heard in the dark, repeat in broad daylight. What you have heard in private, you must announce on the rooftops. There are a lot of people out there like Julie whose self-image is like one in a fun house mirror except that the distortion is no fun. There are a lot of people out there like Louis Zamperini who try, brutally unsuccessfully, to do it all by themselves. And there are a lot of people out there unlike Sally Payntar who fail to embrace the strength God has given to them.
A lot of people who need to know the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. As Jesus said in John 8:32: You will know the truth and the truth will set you free. But who will tell if we don t? Back to words of Paul again (from Romans Chapter Ten -and I m not adding anything here either): Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. But how can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? And how can they preach unless they are sent? And who is sent? All of us! To repeat in broad daylight and shout from the rooftops! Last week, Dottie and I went to Sight and Sound, the Christian theater near Lancaster to see their production of Jesus. I know the Prime Timers saw it in August and I m sure they were as moved and inspired as we were. It is a powerful retelling of the meaning of Jesus life. But it doesn t follow the Gospel account chronologically. Nor is it a simple biography of the Lord. As the notes in the program state, the production focuses on how Jesus rescues us, rescues us from emptiness, brokenness, pain, and all the darkness that threatens to devour our souls. And it is interesting. The production does not end at Easter. Most stories about Jesus finish there or just after. After all, how do you top Easter? But the folks at Sight and Sound did. For this production ends with Pentecost. After we see Jesus ascend into Heaven (the actor portraying him on a harness), the scene shifts to the Upper Room, as the disciples wait until the promise made by Jesus of the Holy Spirit is fulfilled. And boy is it fulfilled! The stage is almost shaken by a rushing wind even those of us in the audience felt it. And the disciples jump up from their seats to feel it in their souls. Peter runs out first and the others ask him where he is going. I m going fishing, he shouts. But not for fish. For men as Jesus had told him he would do when the whole adventure began three years before. And Peter stands there on a balcony, overlooking a great crowd, and begins preaching about a Lord who rescues and a Spirit who transforms and a God whose love is so great (and although this isn t in the actual script, it certainly is the meaning) that He knows even when a sparrow falls to the ground and how many hairs are on our heads, even when some of them are falling out. And that is the threefold truth that sets us free. The final words of this passage about sparrows almost seem anti-climactic. But they are not. For they are a bold and powerful statement about the involvement of God in our lives. In one of his devotional books, Christian author Max Lucado writes: God will take care of you. Why is it important to remember that? Because knowing God is in charge counterbalances the mystery of why and how. Indeed it does. For you. For me. For us. For our church. For our nation. For our world. And there is a sparrow in your life who needs to know that. How can they believe unless they have heard? And how can they hear unless they have been told? And how can they be told unless someone has been sent? And we are that someone!
Worship October 28, 2018 Call: Litany Assurance: Litany Children s Message: Tell a secret: Jesus loves you. Pass it to the next child. Is that a secret? Should we keep it quiet? No! Memory verse from last week. This week: We love because God first loved us. I John 4:19 Prayer: Lord of love, we thank You for Your love that frees us from all the anxieties and frustrations we often face. We thank You for Your peace that frees us of the conflicts that beset us. We thank You for your strength that frees us from the limits we too often place upon ourselves. We thank You for the truth that does, indeed, set us free from all the lies and false promises that threaten to undo us. And we thank You for Your grace that frees us to live lives that pulse with hope. And Lord, as we have all of these blessings from You, help us to share them, to live lives that will witness of these to others, to shout from the rooftops the great good news that You have in store for all Your children. Needs, etc. LORD S PRAYER
We love because God first loved us. I John 4:19