This is an interactive sermon, at time you will be asked to respond with:
“SING OUT CHILDREN OF GOD.”

After I read the lectionary for today, my first reaction was: “Oh, my goodness.  You are in real trouble, Price.   What can I do? What can I say?  Then I spoke to The Rev. Bob Fiske.  I turned to him and said: “Bob, I need your help!”  He quickly put me at ease and even gave me some suggestions.  Then he said, “Let me read the scripture lesson first.”  The next time I saw him, I asked him: “Did you read the scripture?  What did you think?”  With a lot of excitement and enthusiasm, he said:  “That’s great!  What a wonderful scripture for Father’s Day! You could develop that into a great message for Father’s Day”.  He was referring to verse 35 of today’s scripture: “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.”   Right, Bob, that a good Father’s Day message.  That will really excite the congregation, but I am not going to attempt it.  Maybe next year you can deliver that message on Father’s Day.  I could probably develop a message on “Son-in-law against his mother-in-law”, but did you notice that was not included.

You might imagine which verse of today’s scripture lesson caught my attention.   Verse: 30: “And even the hairs of your head are all counted.”  I can relate to that.

The average number of hairs on the human head: 100,000.   Redheads have an average of 90,000 hairs; dark hair folks have 110,000, and surprisingly blondes have an average of 140,000 hairs on their heads.  

So you can forget about “blonde-jokes” and you can start telling “redhead jokes.”

As a kid I hated this red hair. Everyone would say: “What beautiful strawberry blonde hair you have.”  What boy would like strawberry blonde hair?  To make things worse, I have an identical twin brother.  That’s right he is just as handsome as I am!  No one could tell us apart.   No one called us be name.  Everyone called us “Red” and we both turned around and looked.    How I hated that nickname!  To this day I do not like the color red.  I have no red shirts, no red sweaters.  I do have a red tie; I didn’t buy it.  It was a gift.Mother was the only one that could tell us apart and call us by name, but   every time there was some trouble or something wrong in the house, she would shout out “Bill”.  Why did she call Bill all the time, my brother Ed was the troublemaker.

What about other distinguishing characteristics? Hair: the color or number of hairs is not the only characteristic.  Researchers have found that the human face has 80 so-called "landmarks" or “clues” -- including the bridge and tip of the nose, the size of the mouth and eyes, and the cheekbones. These landmarks are used in an increasingly important area of investigation called "biometrics," the process of identifying people by unique physical characteristics.

For years, investigators have used fingerprints as a biometric, but now, with powerful computer technology, biometrics can even include identification by focusing on the 80 landmarks of the human face.

Before you know it, investigators will be looking down from above, and even the hairs of your head will be counted!

But what's the point of all this? In a word: Security.

The hottest branch of biometrics is face recognition; a field that many experts hope will enhance airline safety. As airports scramble to beef up security in the wake of the September 11 attacks, aviation specialists say that face recognition technology could become our most important weapon in the war against terrorism.

Face recognition technology needs only 14 to 20 of those 80 landmarks in order to spot a face that authorities are seeking.   I wonder if it can tell my brother and me apart.

We don't have the fingerprints of terrorist groups but we do have the PICTURES of terrorist groups." In many cases, a picture is all that is needed. The technology is so precise that it cannot even be fooled by disguises such as wigs or fake beards.

Just as Jesus says in verse 26 of today’s lesson from Matthew, "nothing is covered up that will not be uncovered, and nothing [is] secret that will not become known".

Not that precise recognition of individual human faces is really anything new. God has been making positive identifications for years. How many of the facial landmarks do you think God sees?  He sees and recognizes all 80!

SING OUT, CHILDREN OF GOD

Today's text from Matthew is Jesus' baccalaureate speech to the disciples, just as Ben and Carol’s remarks to our newly commissioned Stephen Ministers. However, the group of twelve anxious apostles was being prepared for a dangerous mission. Part of what Jesus says is a warning in verse 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". But some of it contains words of comfort and solace, such as the reassuring reminder that God the Father knows the disciples, and is always watching over them. That is as comforting for today’s disciples as it was for Jesus’ disciples.  A sparrow may fall, but God knows it. The hairs may fall out by the will of God, but please God, enough is enough.    The hairs on their heads are numbered. Their value far surpasses that of the many sparrows sold in the marketplace. Yet to God even that worthless sparrow is, if you excuse the pun, “priceless”.

God has this face recognition thing down cold. Jesus promises that God will not forget us or fail to recognize us and acknowledge our service. And Christ himself promises to be involved in this process, saying, "Everyone therefore who acknowledges me before others, I also will acknowledge before my Father in heaven" (v. 32).

In other words, if we recognize Jesus in public, then Jesus will recognize us in the presence of God.

SING OUT, CHILDREN OF GOD

All these words are spoken in the context of danger, a situation as familiar to 21st century disciples as to the first followers of Jesus. They faced the Roman military, and we face militant terrorists. They were maligned by the religious opponents of Jesus, and we are misrepresented by those who distort the Christian faith. They all found enemies among the members of their own households, while we, too, discover that strong convictions can create conflict and tension with persons closest to us … fathers, mothers, mothers-in-law, family members (vv. 35-36).

These are dangerous times, times in which it is especially important for us to know God, and to be known by God. Face recognition is absolutely fundamental to our faith.

Fortunately, our Lord sees us infinitely more accurately than even the most advanced state of the art technology. The Lord searches us and knows us. He knows more about me that I know or then Mildred knows.  God sees when we sit down and rise up; he discerns our thoughts from far away. The Lord searches out our paths and resting places, and is acquainted with all our ways.

God simply cannot keep his eyes off of us -- but this is not because he's concerned about suspicious activity. No, it's because he loves us. Isn’t that a comforting thought?  Let me repeat it: God simply cannot keep his eyes off of us. He loves us more than the most wonderful father remembered on Father's Day.  And therein lies the true meaning of Father’s Day.  He loves us enough to call us into the community of faith through the sacrament of baptism. He loves us enough to draw us closer to himself through all programs, classes and opportunities offered here at this wonderful church, the Prescott United Methodist Church.

SING OUT, CHILDREN OF GOD

The constant surveillance of our Lord is based on love, steadfast love, not on suspicion. He follows us to the ends of the earth because he wants to protect us, not prosecute us. God counts the number of hairs on our heads because he delights in what he has created, imagine getting so excited about a single hair.  His delight is not because he is assembling a criminal profile for some future prosecution.   If God values sparrows at a penny a pair, how much more must God value the crowning glory of his creation?   The God who cares for a trivial bird also cares about our trivia -- even the number of hairs on our heads. 

God sees us, knows us and protects us ... because he adores us. We are not condemned to be nameless, faceless souls, caught in the rat race of daily life. Instead, we are always going to be precious children of the Lord, created, redeemed and sustained in every difficult time and place.

There is nothing we can do to make God love us any more. There is nothing we can do to make God love us any less. In the eyes of God, we always have 100 percent face recognition.    That puts a smile on my face.

SING OUT CHILDREN OF GOD

But that's not all. We should take this recognition and flip it around, and try to see GOD every bit as clearly as God sees US. In particular, our challenge is to recognize that God has taken human form in the face of Jesus Christ, and to point this out in public. Once again listen to verse 32 of today’s scripture: “Everyone therefore who acknowledges me before others, I also will acknowledge before my Father in heaven.”

How do we acknowledge Jesus before others, and recognize God at work in human life?

Christ-recognition can happen through telling a story to children, something as simple as doing a children’s sermon, through faith- sharing, through hope-spreading, through love-offering, through serving as a Stephen Minister and through Body-of-Christ-building.

Recognition has eternal importance. The particular technology is unimportant. What matters is that you acknowledge the human face of God, just as he acknowledges you. 

SING OUT, CHILDREN OF GOD

Amen.

Sermon delived by Bill Price on Fathers Day, June 19, 2005.