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Grace and peace to you from God our Father, from our Lord and our Savior Jesus Christ. Amen. Back when I was in high school, I was a big fan of the band Reliant K. Anyone else? Raise your hand if you're Oh yeah. Quite a few. Raise your hand if you have never heard of the band Reliant K and you thought it was a car. All right. Google this afternoon. Check him out. You might like him, you might not, kind of Christian pop punk, you know, as as uh as it happens. But uh I remember seeing the band Reliant K at the Creation Music Festival up in the Gorge Amphitheater. Anybody been up to that? Yeah. So um that was they they decided, you know, it'd be really cool if they got a bunch of Christian bands together and did so in one of the hottest places on earth at the hottest time of the year. And so um it was always a lot of fun. It was always just absolutely sweltering, you know, out in the middle of the of the desert in the middle of summer. And so Reliant K comes out dressed in scarves and stocking caps to begin their set. And and the first few songs of their set were Christmas carols. And I was uh I was very puzzled. It didn't quite line up with what I was expecting. And it was the first time I had ever encountered something I've heard of a lot since Christmas in July. Yeah. Well, today, of course, is June 28th, so we're not quite in July. But we are only three days removed from being as far removed from Christmas as you can possibly be. But today I'm led to think of Christmas, and just like that sizzling summer day when Reliant K gave us a taste of winter, I'm puzzled by some things that just don't seem to add up. Because every Christmas we hear the same amazing news that Jesus Christ, the perfect Son of God, has become flesh for us. And every Christmas we hear the exuberant song of the angels above the plains of Bethlehem. Glory to God in the highest, and on earth what peace among those with whom he is pleased. Peace, peace on earth. This is what Jesus brings. This is why Jesus came, which makes what he says in our gospel reading today seem to fit in about as well as scarves and stocking caps in a hundred degree heat. Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I have not come to bring peace, but a sword, a far cry from peace on earth, good will to men. What on earth is he talking about? This is a hard word for us. It's deeply troubling, not just because we all prefer peace, but because isn't Jesus supposed to bring peace? The angels famously sing so in Luke chapter 2, and the followers of Jesus had been singing right along with them for generations, for centuries. And 700 years before the angel's song, Isaiah had dubbed Jesus famously the Prince of Peace. And Jesus had more than lived up to the billing. In John 14, he says, Peace I leave with you, my peace I give to you. In John 16, he says, I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. And when he rises from the dead, what is the very first word that he says to his disciples? Peace. And then reflecting on the meaning of his death and resurrection, Paul will write to the Romans that because we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. He'll write to the Ephesians that Jesus himself is our peace. Jesus gives peace. So what gives? Jesus is peace. So what is going on here? Well, the first thing to clear up is that Jesus is not contradicting in any way all these other things that we've just heard. It's absolutely true that Jesus is our peace, that he brings a peace that the world cannot give or take away. His words here today do not negate that at all. But what he wants us to hear today is that alongside that peace, there will also come conflict. And that that conflict is inevitable. So while Jesus is not negating all the other stuff about peace, he is using something called dialectical negation. It's when you say no to one thing and yes to another to highlight the yes. God does it, for example, through Hosea when he says, I desire mercy, not sacrifice. And the sacrificial system was still very much in place in Hosea's day. And God wanted them to use it, but God was highlighting that mercy was always meant to accompany it as the greater part. So Jesus is essentially saying here today, do not think that I have come only to bring peace to the earth. I have not come only to bring peace, but also a sword. In other words, when Jesus brings his peace to a sinful, fallen, broken, messed up world, it will inevitably stir up controversy and conflict. And while the Greek grammar here is typically used to express purpose, like this is why I came contextually, Jesus is really speaking of the unavoidable result of his coming. When his truth confronts a fallen creation torn apart by lies, worlds will clash. But Jesus isn't speaking of physical swords clashing here. He's not calling us to take up arms and go into battle like some other world religions may espouse. Now you may be aware that usually one wields a sword with a strong hand and an outstretched arm. But Jesus' sword is best understood by removing the first letter. It's his word. The sword of Jesus is the word of truth he speaks. And this sword cuts deep. Hebrews says that it is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, actually, piercing to the division of soul and spirit, of joints and marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart. This is also known as the sword of the spirit. It's part of the regalia of the armor of God, right alongside the shoes of readiness, which are the gospel of peace, by the way. So this is what Jesus is saying: that with his coming into the world, his word will confront the world. And this kicks off inevitable conflict between God and Satan, between light and darkness, between those who receive the word and those who reject it. We saw but one manifestation of that in our Old Testament reading today with Jeremiah and the false prophet Hananiah. You might remember that from Lent when they were clashing over what the truth actually was. And in this type of spiritual warfare, there's no compromise. Jesus says, Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me. Whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. Jesus is speaking of unyielding allegiance. There's no middle ground. There is no straddling the fence. There's no living between the trenches in no man's land. Jesus knows that his coming will disrupt even the closest of human relationships, that it will test and expose our loyalties, that it will stab a fork in the road and divert traffic one way or the other. Think of that recent controversy with the San Francisco Giants. Maybe you saw that in the news recently. They chose to have a pride night, you know, a week or two ago. And a few of their players didn't want to go along with it, and they actually wrote Bible verses on their baseball caps. And it's gotten those players in some hot water with Major League Baseball. And then team president Buster Posey came under fire for failing to address the issue to everybody's satisfaction. Many Giants fans are turning against one of their all-time most beloved players of their franchise as a result. And this type of conflict, it's not just in the news. Like we've seen it ourselves. We've experienced it. We've lived it. We have been in hot water with friends or family because of our association with Jesus. Maybe we've had family members ridicule us for attending church and holding fast to God's word. Maybe we've struggled to maintain a healthy relationship with a friend who's chosen a sinful lifestyle. Maybe we've suffered a breakdown of relationship with loved ones who've written us off as crazy or stupid or something like that. Sometimes faithful reception and proclamation of God's word breeds hostility and meets with resistance. And for such times, Jesus redirects us to the first commandment. On Mount Sinai, God had both begun and encompassed all ten of his commandments with one sentence. And that's essentially what Jesus is saying to us today when he says, Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me. Whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. Jesus is inviting us to examine our priorities, our love for him. He's compelling us to understand that the division his coming brings about is severe enough to be called a sword. He's asking us, as he asked Simon Peter after his resurrection, do you love me more than these? This, too, is a hard word. It's so easy to hold tightly to God's word until it rubs up against someone we love. It's so difficult to hold tightly to God's word when it means having to loosen our embrace on someone who's trying to tear us away from it. You know, even Jesus felt this. And he didn't hesitate to distance himself a bit from his family members who didn't believe who he was, instead, proclaiming those who heeded his word to be his mother and sisters and brothers. Because Jesus was and remains a man of unyielding allegiance, first and foremost to his father. Jesus was faithful to his father in everything. He did everything that the father gave him to do. He said all that the father gave him to say, and then he went where the father told him to go. Jesus did not just come to bring a sword, he came to bear a cross. And when one of his closest friends told him, Surely not, Lord, this will never happen to you. Remember what he said? Get behind me, Satan. Because in his unyielding allegiance to his father, Jesus was demonstrating unyielding allegiance to you. He came not to wield a physical sword or to incite violence from his followers in this world. But he did come to be a victim of the violence of this world. Did you know that our gospel reading today contains the very first mention in the book of Matthew, and therefore the very first mention in the entire New Testament of the word cross? Jesus says, Whoever does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me, inviting us into a conflict that entails suffering and pain. But the reason that following Jesus entails taking up a cross is because Jesus took up his cross for us. So I think that's why the very next thing he talks about is the incomparable reward that we receive when we receive him. Jesus says to us today, whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. You know, Emily and I were watching one of our favorite comedians again, a little clip from him, and he's talking about how cool it is when you unexpectedly find a $20 bill in like a jacket pocket. He says, You know, my plans changed for the day. It's pretty exciting. But to find your life, there's nothing better than that. Brothers and sisters, Jesus lost his life to find you, to save you from the sword of God's judgment. After all, that is what Jesus expressly came to do, speaking of his purpose. He came to save his people from their sins. So rest assured that if following him faithfully leads to awkward moments or tough situations, if it leads to suffering the death of relationships, if it leads to losing your life for his sake, it will also lead to you finding that life for all eternity. It will lead to the incomparable reward of the salvation that Jesus won for you. And he subjected himself to the sword of the governing authorities when he loved his father and loved you more than his own life. And he laid that life down in unyielding allegiance to the Father and in uncompromising mercy toward you, so that he might take that life up again and then give it to you. And he's coming again soon. Sword proceeding from his mouth, and in the meantime, you get to be his mouthpiece. Because earlier in all that Jesus is saying in this chapter here, he sent out his apostles to bring his peace to people, and we get to continue that mission with unyielding allegiance, knowing that in doing so we will face trial and conflict and sword, and knowing that the reward that Jesus has won for us is ours entirely by grace. And so in the end, perhaps this hard word of Jesus proves to be for us a word of great comfort, a word that soothes our weary souls when we encounter conflict, a word that strengthens us to cling to God and his truth, and that speaks forgiveness to us when we fail. A word that leads us into true and ultimate peace, both in heaven and on earth. That peace that Jesus truly did come to bring. And if these chilly temperatures keep up in bend, maybe we will truly have Christmas in July. In Jesus' name. Amen. And may the peace of God, which transcends our understanding, may it guard your hearts and minds in Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior now and forever. Amen.