418 Living What You Value Most

   (Note: This blog entry is based on the text for “Living What You Value Most”, originally shared on June 19, 2026. It was the 418^th video for our YouTube Channel, Streams of Living Water (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCB7KnYS1bpHKaL2OseQWCnw), co-produced with my wife, Rev. Sally Welch.)

   I can’t imagine a worse Gospel reading for Father’s Day than the one that will be read this coming Sunday in most churches. Or a better one. Today, we’re going to find out why.

   This coming Sunday is Father’s Day. I just mention that as a community service so that you can be prepared, though it’s not as big a deal as Mother’s Day. I don’t know why. 😊

   There are lots of influences that make us who we are, probably too many to measure, much less to know. But, if you are like most human beings, I’m guessing that a big chunk of the person you are comes from your father.

   I think that most of us will remember or honor our fathers this Sunday with deep appreciation for the sacrificially given gifts they have given to us. Our fathers were our protectors and providers, servant leaders in our communities, our models for living with integrity and purpose, our jokesters and the men who were models of the Christian faith for us.

   For some of us this Father’s Day Sunday will not bring happy memories, however, and we acknowledge that.

   Some of us grew up without a father but had people who served as our fathers, and sometimes that was our mothers. Some had fathers who were distant and not so loving, and we desperately wanted the approval that never came. Some of us wanted to be fathers but couldn’t. Some of us no longer have their fathers and we miss them.

   All those feelings about Father’s Day are an expression of a deeply impactful and meaningful relationship. It is a relationship that is celebrated on a holiday by cultures all over the world.

   Jesus was conceived by the Holy Spirit, but he had an earthly Father, Joseph, who raised him. We don’t hear about his “step-father” Joseph after, approximately, Jesus’13^th birthday. But Jesus would have learned a life skill from his father, as did all boys of his time, which in Joseph’s case would have been being a carpenter.

   Jesus commanded us to baptize “in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit”. Jesus prayed to the first person of The Trinity, one God in three persons, using the word “abba” in the Aramaic language that he spoke. “Abba” is a familiar form of the word “father”, meaning something closer to “dad” or even “daddy”. Jesus is “one substance” with the Father.

   We love our fathers and we are grateful for all that they have done for us.

   That is the kind of relationship with which we love God. Having a father who is active in our lives forms us and is extremely important in making us the kind of people we are.

   But our relationship with God goes even deeper than our relationship with our mother or our father. It makes us who we are at the level of our truest selves, deeper than anyone can know but God.

   That is at the core of the Gospel reading for this week, Matthew 10:24-39, and it’s hard for us to absorb, especially when we tend to focus on our earthly families.

   Our relationship with God sets us apart from anything that would try to put itself in God’s place.

   That’s why this week’s Gospel reading begins with Jesus’ teaching that we who follow Jesus should not be surprised when we are condemned by the world (those without a relationship with Jesus) in Matthew 10:24-25,

²⁴ “A disciple is not above the teacher, nor a slave above the master; ²⁵ it is enough for the disciple to be like the teacher, and the slave like the master. If they have called the master of the house Beelzebul, how much more will they malign those of his household!

   “Beelzebul” is a name for Satan, the prince of demons. It literally means “Lord of the files”!

   Jesus reminds us that we should not be surprised when the world calls “good”, “evil”, or when it calls “evil”, “good”.

   It is how the world seeks to put  itself in the place of God.

   How can Christians live in that kind of a world? Jesus continues in Matthew 10:26-31,

²⁶ “So have no fear of them; for nothing is covered up that will not be uncovered, and nothing secret that will not become known. ²⁷ What I say to you in the dark, tell in the light; and what you hear whispered, proclaim from the housetops. ²⁸ Do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul; rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell. ²⁹ Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your Father. ³⁰ And even the hairs of your head are all counted. ³¹ So do not be afraid; you are of more value than many sparrows.

   Be bold, Jesus says. Fathers sometimes pretend they are scary animals or monsters so that their children can wrestle them and defeat them. To show them not to be afraid, but to struggle and overcome them. Don’t be afraid of those who have no ultimate power over you.

   Jesus goes even further for us by his actions. He says, in John 16:33,

³³ I have said this to you, so that in me you may have peace. In the world you face persecution. But take courage; I have conquered the world!”

   Our hope is in God, not the world. And God is deeply connected to us. God is present for us when we read the Bible, which points to one thing: Jesus giving his life us on the cross, which is validated when He takes his life back again in His resurrection.  We encounter him today in the Word and in Baptism and Holy Communion,

   I had conflicts with my dad when I was a kid. I think that we all do as we grow up. But I loved my father and he loved me, and we both said it and we knew it.

   Love is why we celebrate Father’s Day. It’s part of keeping the Fourth Commandment: Honor your father and your mother.

   We don’t worship our ancestors, but we honor them. It’s a commandment!

   In fact, honoring your father and mother are at the top of the list among the 10 Commandments that have to do with how we treat one another.

   Martin Luther, the 16^th century Church reformer, describes the meaning of this commandment in this way, “We are to fear (note: respect) and love God, so that we neither despise nor anger our parents and others in authority, but instead honor, serve, obey, love, and respect them.”

   So, honor your father this Sunday. It is the expression of a deeply held relationship that comes from our life’s defining relationship with God, as we see Jesus explaining as our Gospel reading continues, in Matthew 10:32-33,

³² “Everyone therefore who acknowledges me before others, I also will acknowledge before my Father in heaven; ³³ but whoever denies me before others, I also will deny before my Father in heaven.

   Philip Dick, the science fiction writer whose highly esteemed written works like Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? and Ubik were turned into popular movies, such as “Minority Report”, “Total Recall” and “Blade Runner”, once said, “Reality is that which, when you stop believing in it, doesn't go away.”

   What is reality?

   Our relationship with God is our relationship with reality that is beyond our understanding. The one true living God alone is worthy of our worship.

   Who do you worship?

   It might not be what you think.

   Martin Luther observed, “A god is that to which we look for all good and where we resort for help in every time of need... whatever your heart clings to and confides in, that is really your God."

   It could be our money, our reputation, our acceptance, and even our family. That is why not making God just first in our lives but everything in our lives is so necessary and so hard. The world, even things that are important, is always trying to pull us away.

   Jesus does not exempt us from that struggle. He does not protect us from it. But Jesus is present with us in the struggle.

   In fact, it is that struggle that makes us who we are, because it helps us realize that we need a savior and that we have a Savior in Jesus Christ!

   Jesus shows us as he continues, in Matthew 10:34-38,

³⁴ “Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth; I have not come to bring peace, but a sword.

³⁵       For I have come to set a man against his father,

and a daughter against her mother,

and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law;

³⁶       and one’s foes will be members of one’s own household.

³⁷ Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me; ³⁸ and whoever does not take up the cross and follow me is not worthy of me.

   How do we know who we are? By knowing Whose we are!

   Following Jesus Christ is everything because God has made us for it. But following Jesus is a narrow way, a sometimes difficult way.

   As G.K. Chesterton, the English author, in his 1910 book What’s Wrong With the World, said,  "The Christian ideal has not been tried and found wanting. It has been found difficult; and left untried."

   The doors to the hearts of people who don’t know Jesus, who are still in the world, are locked by sin, by ignorance, by pride, affluence, fear, and many other things. How do we find the key to unlock the human heart?

   Jesus is the key that opens all of them, but God always uses some means to make that happen, and often it is through us.

   But sometimes we are the problem.

   When people who are not Christians come to visit our worship services, we might as well be speaking another language. Our church culture locks them out.

   Do we share an actual Christian experience, or are we only using religious language? Do we offer a path for people who are outside the faith to help them move past our in-group jargon? Do we have any expectation that they will encounter the life-transforming power of God?

   New people want to be engaged. They want to be a part of receiving the real transcendent power of God that cannot be found anywhere but through God’s Church.

   I’m not concerned about the Christian Church. It is the Body of Christ, and nothing will prevail against it as a whole.

   I certainly don’t think that it needs to be torn down and rebuilt. But it does need some fundamental renovation in many places.

   What needs to change? Here are four things that, in my opinion, most need to change:

   First, when I retired, my family and I spent almost a year as church nomads. We went to a different church almost every week. Most were Lutheran churches, many were churches of Sally’s denomination, the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ)/UCC denomination, and some were other kinds of churches. In many of those churches I could see why someone would want to join them. They had a great preacher, or a wonderful small groups ministry, or a wonderful choir, band, youth program, music program, school, or social ministry. But there was not one where I could see how someone would come to faith in Christ. There were no expectations or preparations for people to come from zero to faith. There were no mechanisms for it. That needs to change.

   Second, church culture is as foreign to people who were not raised in the church as any other unfamiliar culture. Hymns and songs, colors and seasons, candles and Bible readings, sacraments, jargon, and more lock people out. Will they stay long enough to use the key? Will they learn that Jesus is the key to everything? Will they learn the fundamentals of the Christian faith? Will they learn the creeds and what they mean? The answer is not to abandon Christianity to save your church. When we expect little of visitors, we get little. The early Church required three years of instruction before a convert could receive communion. People tend to live up to expectations. If ours are low, that needs to change. 

   Third, people stay and join and remain members of churches for many reasons. Do we offer life transformation, a greater purpose in life, a truly loving Christian community, and the path to receiving eternal life? Or do we merely offer a political and social organization that uses Christian language, a museum that needs members to pay the bills? Or do we care about reaching people with the good news of Jesus? Are we, as has been said, telling people about Jesus like beggars telling other beggars where to find food? Are we consumer churches or missional churches? Do we understand that we have something that no other community group can give? If not, that needs to change.

   Fourth, we expect little of ourselves. In the Christian denomination of which I am a part, there is a sort of fatalistic view of the future. In accord with that view, we have a very low view of much of what is fundamental for the Christian faith, including stewardship. “Stewardship” is the belief that God has given us our time, our talent, and our treasure to manage for God.

   How are we doing?

   Let’s just look at one aspect of Stewardship: treasure, because that’s the most difficult. And yet Jesus taught more about money and the use of it than any other subject except the Kingdom of God.

   Martin Luther said that people go through three conversions. The head, or the conversion of a person’s beliefs and intellectual understanding of what is means to be a Christian. The heart, or the spiritual transformation to new life in a living relationship with the one true living God. And the purse or wallet, the application of the faith by entrusting your money to God’s purposes, which Luther said was the hardest conversion. 😊 It’s hardest because it  requires that we decide who or what will be our God. As Jesus said in Matthew 6:21,

²¹ For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

   Our Gospel reading from Matthew 10:24-39 today reminds us that God is not the most important thing in our lives. God is everything in our lives. God reforms everything about us, God renews everything, empowers everything, defines everything.  We are good stewards, or managers, of our money in response to what God has already done for us, not to earn it! We live for God, not the approval of the world.

   Jesus concludes this week’s reading with Matthew 10:39,

³⁹ Those who find their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will find it.

   We have a message to bring to people in our time who want to find themselves. They are going to have a rude awakening. But those who lose their life in the eyes of the world for the sake of Jesus will find it.

   The key words here, the ones that we proclaim, are “for-the-sake-of-Jesus”. That’s an expression of our most real, deepest defining relationship.

   This is a hard lesson for us to hear, especially in a week that we celebrate a holiday rooted in one of our most important relationships, the one we have with our earthly father.

   We need repentance and renovation. We need to take up our cross and follow Jesus. We need to change a few things.

   And we can start today, right where we are. It’s not about conforming to the world. It’s about changing what is inside of us. It’s about a change in attitude. It’s about being transformed by the one true living God and living what we value the most, a better life, a true life, in a living relationship with Jesus!

   Jesus doesn’t have the answer. Jesus is the answer.

   So, yes, this week’s Gospel reading from Matthew is a hard one to hear but also a very good one to live by, because in it are the very words of eternal life.