Confessing Christ from the Housetops

Jesu Juva

St. Matt. 10:21-33                                                                    

June 21, 2020

Proper 7A                    

Dear saints of Our Savior,

          Jesus said, “Whoever confesses me before men, I also will confess before my Father who is in heaven, but whoever denies me before men, I also will deny before my Father who is in heaven.”  To put it plainly, everything hinges on who you confess.  Your confession counts.  It matters more than you know.

          But what does it mean, exactly, to confess Jesus?  The Greek verb literally means “to say the same thing.”  It means to say what has been said to you.  Let’s try it!  Let’s do a literal exercise in confessing.  Whatever I say to you, I want you to say back to me.  You echo what you hear from me.  Let’s start with something simple:  toy boat. . .  Now say “toy boat” three times in a row . . . .

How about this:  Shy Shelly says she shall sew sheets . . .

And finally, a bit of a challenge:  Lesser leather never weathered wetter weather better . . .

          How did that go for you?  Were you able to say back to me what I first said to you?  What you were saying, of course, were tongue twisters.  But what you were literally doing was confessing.  To confess is to say the same thing.  Now, for some reason, in our usage of that word, there’s often a negative connotation.  Things that get “confessed” are usually bad things: sin, guilt, and other bad behaviors are what tend to get confessed these days.  (That’s probably why today’s English translation went with “acknowledges” instead of “confesses.”)  But in the Bible, “to confess” is a neutral verb.  You can confess what is good and holy just as easily as you can confess what is bad and profane.

          So, to confess Jesus before men is simply to speak and say what Jesus has already spoken and said to us.  You confess Jesus Christ every time you echo, repeat, and profess the teachings of Jesus (as when we confessed the Nicene Creed a few minutes ago).  If Jesus says that all who believe and are baptized will be saved, then we confess that—we echo and repeat that.  If Jesus says that He alone is the way, the truth, and the life—that no one comes to the Father except through Him—then we confess that.  What Jesus has said; so say we.

          In today’s Holy Gospel Jesus was sending out the Twelve on their first missionary journey.  Jesus was sending them up to the rooftops so as to give

maximum publicity to His teachings.  What Jesus had been teaching the Twelve up to that point in private, they were now to preach and proclaim in public.  They were to go out “confessing” Jesus before people—teaching others what Jesus had already taught them.  And here the disciples are an example for us and for all Christians.  Christians confess Christ!  That’s what we do.  To our children, to our neighbors, to colleagues and friends—we are called to confess Christ.  And this confessing we do joyfully, faithfully, and willingly.  Why?  Because we want others to share in this same confession.  We want other people to know and receive the blessings that come to all who confess Christ.

          Sounds easy, right?  Wrong.  Confessing Jesus and His Word is never easy.  Down through the centuries countless Christian have been martyred and massacred for the simple crime of confessing Christ.  In today’s Old Testament reading the prophet Jeremiah simply sought to faithfully confess God’s Word to His people.  And for that “faith crime” Jeremiah found himself on the receiving end of a sixth century BC Twitter mob:  Denounce him!  Let us denounce him, say all my close friends, waiting for my fall.  With “close friends” like that, who needs enemies?  And don’t forget what Jesus plainly told the Twelve as He sent them out to confess Him before men:  You will be hated by all for my name’s sake.  But he who endures to the end will be saved.  And with that, suddenly, confessing Christ from the housetops doesn’t sound quite so appealing.

          What do you do?  What do you do when faithfully confessing Christ and His Word immediately puts you at odds with family, friends and neighbors?  Now more than ever, confessing Christ in the wrong place before the wrong people will put a target on your back.  What do you say when God’s gift of natural marriage is rejected in favor same-sex marriage which is unnatural?  When florists and bakers are hounded and hassled for courageously confessing Christ rather than going along with the mob?  What do you say when God’s gift of bodily identity—when God’s gift of maleness and femaleness—is rejected in favor of a self-chosen gender identity?  Or what about the man and woman who are living together, but doing so while rejecting the blessing and benefit of marriage?  What about when God’s gift of life in the womb is being massacred daily by Planned Parenthood—especially when most of the little lives they brutally end are black lives.  Do they matter?  Jesus says they do.  Are you ready to speak up and confess a better way, a better choice, a loving alternative?  Are you ready to confess Christ?

          It’s easy to say nothing.  It’s easy to do nothing.  It’s easy just to keep your head down and your mouth shut.  It’s easier still to go along with the crowd—to take a knee and raise a fist.  But there’s really no courage in that.  It requires no faith to do that.  People will applaud you if you do that.  But confessing Christ and His Word?  That takes courage.  That requires faith.  And it will not earn you a round of applause or a standing ovation.  People—perhaps a whole mob—will denounce you.

          This isn’t about politics.  We’re all free to demonstrate peacefully for justice and other causes we care about deeply.  But as you fall in step with the multitude, just make sure you know what you are confessing.  Your confession matters today and eternally.  And bear in mind that a movement which tolerates the beheading statues today will condone the beheading of people tomorrow.  To paraphrase the German poet Heinrich Heine, the burning of buildings and the burning of books will eventually lead to the burning of people.  Kyrie eleison. 

          But Jesus—He will never denounce you.  He will never disown you.  In fact, He will confess you before His Father in heaven.  For every disciple who dares to confess Christ from the housetops—for you who seek to faithfully bear witness to the teachings and love of Jesus—to you who aim to speak the truth in love, Jesus says:  Do not be afraid.  In fact, in today’s Holy Gospel He says it three times:  Have no fear of them. . . . Do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. . . . Fear not for you are of more value than a multitude of sparrows and even the hairs of your head are numbered. 

          The fear that quiets us—the fear that keeps us from confessing Christ and His Word—Jesus wants us to leave that fear behind.  Trust Him.  Follow Him in faith.  What you hear whispered from the pages of your Bible, proclaim from the housetops.  Because—come hell or high water or the end of western civilization as we know it—your body and soul are in the safe-keeping of Jesus the Christ.  If He knows when a single sparrow falls to the ground—if He knows the number of hairs on your head—then He also knows just the help you need.  For you, He suffered at the hands of a ruthless mob.  For you, He was denounced and put to death.

          The wages of sin is death.  It’s true.  But the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.  He was killed on Good Friday—nailed to a cross.  But by that death your sin was done away with.  By that death He destroyed death and opened the kingdom of heaven to all believers.  And that free gift of salvation is offered to all people—to every son and daughter of Adam.  All are invited; none are excluded.  The forgiveness of sins and the resurrection of the body and the life everlasting—that’s God’s free gift for you and for all who believe. 

          But some people—perhaps someone in your life—they may only come to know and receive that gift because you cared enough to speak up—because you cared enough leave the basement behind and head up to the rooftop to speak the truth in love.  Christ Jesus died to save sinners, of whom we are the worst.  We are not perfect, but we are forgiven in Jesus, and that makes all the difference.  That’s the good news that we are privileged to proclaim from the rooftops—to neighbors, family, colleagues, and friends.  God has reconciled the world to Himself in Jesus.

          That’s what we call the gospel.  God Himself has proclaimed it from the top of Mount Calvary.  God Himself has proclaimed it from the empty tomb of the resurrected Jesus.  God still proclaims it today from this pulpit, from that font, and from this altar.  His loving care for you reaches into eternity.  That’s what He Himself is confessing today—loud and clear—for all to hear.

          In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.