Matthew
10:24-39
What do
you think a human life is worth? …
Kenneth
Feinberg thought he knew what human life was worth. After September 11, 2001, he
managed the victims’ compensation fund, and had to determine how much the family
of each victim should receive. He began by thinking financially. Bob was 30
years old and earned, say, $50,000 a year and over a lifetime, he could have
earned $3 million. Sue was 50 years old and earned $500,000 a year. She could
have earned at least $7.5 million. So he set up an award system that gave more
to the family that depended on the higher income. (He added in other factors,
but this was his starting point.)
A few
years later, Feinberg was asked to manage the compensation fund for the mass
shooting at Virginia Tech. It occurred to him then that each life is worth a
lot more than what the cash payment is. And that each life is equal in value,
no matter how much the individual earned.
… Today,
we will consider what a human life is worth apart from its monetary value.
Jesus
promises that God knows when even a sparrow falls from the sky, and how many
hairs are on our heads. He says we are worth much more than two sparrows, which
are sold for a penny.
Since
God knows what is happening with every sparrow, and with all the hairs on our
heads, then God must know us intimately. And if God knows us so well, then we
can trust God to take care of us.
Unfortunately,
God rarely steps in and changes things. We still get fender-benders. We still
get arthritis and cancer and heart disease. Our loved ones still die. Families
and churches still fight.
The hopeful
thing is that God knows and cares what happens with us, and sends Spirit to be
with us, no matter what is going on. Each person has value; each person counts
in God’s eyes. Jesus says we are worth lots more than sparrows, and God even
knows what happens to sparrows!
Just so,
we are not worth what we earn at our jobs. We are worth what every other person
is worth -- we are priceless. We are worthy of God’s love because God made us. We
are worthy of being loved by Jesus just because we are his people, members of
his body, of his flock.
Since
we are so well loved and valued, our response can be to love and value
everyone. We love hungry people by feeding them. We love sick people by caring
for them and finding ways to heal them. We comfort those who are grieving with
hugs and food. We share Jesus with those who don’t yet know he loves them, too.
We
all have days or weeks, or longer perhaps, when we don’t feel that we are worth
much. Maybe not even as much as a sparrow. But, I hope we all remember we are
worth dying for in Jesus’ eyes, and perhaps that will boost our self-image.
…
So, now we come to the question all preachers ask as they prepare a sermon: “so
what?” I think the “so what?” of this message is that we can help others feel
and believe that they, too, are worth much more than sparrows in God’s eyes.
Here
is one way: LSTC, the Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago, discovered they
made a huge impact on the lives of the people of the small town of Drama,
Greece. They made the marginalized residents feel like a million dollars with what
they thought was a simple gift, the return of a rare book to its original home.
In
1913, Codex 1424 was stolen from a monastery near Drama in rural Greece. A
Codex is an ancient book, hand-written on sheep’s skin. It is estimated that
this particular Codex took the skins of 50 sheep to produce its 337 pages of
New Testament text. The book was made in the 9th century, so it is
1,200 years old, and has several unique features that made it extremely
valuable as a rare book.
Through
several steps after the theft, the Codex made its way into LSTC’s rare book
collection. Recently, the monastery from which the Codex was stolen traced it
to LSTC and requested its return.
LSTC
leadership agreed to return the book to its home, and during a campus worship
service presented it to Archbishop Demetrios, the leader of the Greek Orthodox
Church in America. The book was then taken to Drama, Greece, where it was
received as part of the annual celebration of St Barbara, patron saint of Drama,
with a procession through town and numerous leaders of the Greek Orthodox
Church present to receive it.
Seminary
President James Nieman made these comments. “We thought it was a nice and moral
gesture, a generous gift. But the area to which it was returned is rural and
poor, devastated even more by Greece’s recent economic disaster, making the
gift even more significant.
“These
are people who are disregarded. Paying attention to a request that the treasure
be returned – that they were listened to and taken seriously – has had a huge
impact. The area has a vibrant spirituality, and its people consider the return
of the Codex similar to the miracle of the wedding at Cana in the Gospel of
John.”
In
returning what was stolen, the people of Drama have been made to feel worthy
once again. They have been made to feel they are worth much more than two
sparrows.
… This
week, if you are feeling you are worth less than a couple of sparrows, remember
Jesus’ words and his many promises to be with us always. If you know someone
who feels they are worth less than two sparrows, remind them that in God’s eyes,
they are worth dying for, and in the words of a MasterCard ad – they are
priceless!
Please
pray with me. Loving God, thank you for your presence in our lives. Thank you
for making us feel worthy of being loved. Thank you for dying and rising for
us. Help us to share this good news with others. Amen
