4th Sunday after Pentecost & Father's Day (2026)

Grace and peace to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, Amen.

Well, Happy Father’s Day! Don’t you think this text just perfect for Father’s Day? “I will set a man against his father and a daughter against her mother.” …

“Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me!”

Doesn’t that just make you want Father’s Day brunch!

Yes, this text is most certainly jarring. Especially today as people around our country celebrate fathers and father figures. At this point you probably wouldn’t believe me that this sermon given by Jesus to his disciples, was meant to be comforting… I’ll see if I can make my case.

Let me begin by putting this text into its context. Jesus has done a bunch of healings and there are crowds pressing in on him needing more. He prays for God to send help in his ministry to these poor, sick crowds. He calls on his disciples to do so. It’s at this point that Jesus speaks about how their work will be divisive in their lives – to be a Christ follower is to love people into wholeness and health. Love the sick, the mentally unwell, the sinner, and even, your enemy. And, loving your enemy is especially divisive. The musical Wicked captures this well when the Wizard tells Elphaba (the Witch of the West) “There best way to bring folks together is to give them a really good enemy.” So, to take that power away by loving your enemy is risky business.

Now, with that context in mind, I want to read a different translation of our Gospel text. It’s by the Rev. Eugene Peterson in a Bible called, “The Message.” This translation puts scripture into our modern language, tone and rhythm. The Gospel message today is translated like this: (I encourage you to follow along as best you can in your bulletin)…

“A student doesn’t get a better desk than her teacher. A laborer doesn’t make more money than his boss. Be content – pleased even – when you, my students, my harvest hands, get the same treatment I get.

Don’t be intimidated. Eventually everything is going to be out in the open, and everyone will know how things really are. So don’t hesitate to go public now. Don’t be bluffed into silence by the threats of bullies. There’s nothing they can do to your soul, your core being. Save your fear for God, who holds your entire life – body and soul – in his hands.

What’s the price of a pet canary? Some loose change, right? And God cares what happens to it even more than you do. He pays even greater attention to you, down to the last detail – even numbering the hairs on your head! So don’t be intimidated by all this bully talk. You’re worth more than a million canaries!

Stand up for me against world opinion and I’ll stand up for you before my Father in heaven.

Don’t think I’ve come to make life cozy. I’ve come to cut – making a sharp knife-cut between son and father, daughter and mother, bride and mother-in-law – cut through these cozy domestic arrangements and free you for God.

If your first concern is to look after yourself, you’ll never find yourself. But if you forget about yourself and look to me, you’ll find both yourself and me.”

I hope you are beginning to see Jesus’s comforting message. Let’s look a little closer… Section one, has Jesus proclaiming that the students – the disciples, should expect the same treatment as Jesus is going to get. He doesn’t resolve the tensions that are faced by Christians in the world with this statement, he’s just being honest that we Christ followers make will make outrageous claims and do weird things that sound weird, disturb, confuse, annoy and get us into trouble.

For example, we claim that our Almighty God is born into the fragile human body of a helpless baby.

We claim that Our Lord Jesus is the Christ, the anointed one of God, who then focuses on raising children from the dead, healing the sick, and feeds the hungry. Our Lord raises no army and doesn’t really “Lord Over” anyone or anything.

We claim that this Lord Jesus is Christ Our King because he… dies on a cross? Our triumphant King was killed by an emperor… another king… and that is Christ’s victory?

We claim that in Christ’s dying on the cross, through the place of total and utter weakness, God’s mercy flows to us and because God saves through weakness, we join in that place of weakness to glimpse parts of God’s kingdom on earth. It’s a bit weird to look for God’s Kingdom on earth in a bunch of sick people being healed… No wonder Jesus was warning about being bullied!

And then, Jesus tells the disciples, don’t be intimidated by those bullies! God cares so much for you and the world, that even a pet canary – a worthless pet by the world’s standards, is cared for by God and that certainly means YOU human disciples of the Living God, are cared for so much more!

To make sense of this metaphor, instead of a canary, I want you to think about a beta fish. They are $5 or $10 at the pet store – pretty inexpensive. When they die, they often get unceremoniously flushed down the toilet. So, if God cares what happens to that beta fish, then, Jesus says, we can be certain that God cares for us! 

And there is Jesus’s most obvious care-filled expression. What we proclaim is foolish and we will be made fun of for it. But, we know God is in those claims. We know God is changing the world because Christ died on the cross. We know that God cares for the poor, sick, homeless, hungry and weak because Christ cared for them. We know that God thinks not about armies and wealth because Christ didn’t think of those things. We are promised life and love; healing and wholeness; fullness and joy through God because God brought those things through Christ the crucified one.

Which leads to the final exhortation.

Jesus says, in Peterson’s translation, “If your first concern is to look after yourself, you’ll never find yourself. But if you forget about yourself and look to me, you’ll find both yourself and me.”  

Everything comes to us through Christ. When you see the world through rose-colored glasses, it means you see everything in a positive way. I wonder if Jesus is asking us to see the world through Christ-centered glasses?

[Remember these from about a year ago…?]

When you take off your Christ-centered glasses, then your family, your home, your job, your wealth, and your status all fall flat. That’s what Jesus is doing when he speaks about family members being set against each other. Family is certainly good – but family doesn’t ultimately fulfill without Christ.

When you put your Christ-centered glasses on, then a good thing like family, shines bright! It’s magnified because you see your family first through Christ who is the beginning and the end – the Alpha and Omega.

Christ says, “If you look first to me, you’ll find both yourself and me.”

Our Christ-centered glasses are going to look a bit foolish because we make foolish sounding claims and do foolish looking things because of them. But it is Christ who makes our lives, our work, our relationships and our world sing! Don’t be intimidated by the bullies – take heart, for God loves you… and them. Our call is to proclaim peace among peoples, healing of all wounds, full tables for everyone, and love for all – especially of our enemies. And we focus on those things because of Christ and in Christ’s name.

Amen.

Rev. Ryan Heckman | June 21, 2026