Jesus said to the Twelve:
“Fear no one.
Nothing is concealed that will not be revealed,
nor secret that will not be known.
What I say to you in the darkness, speak in the light;
what you hear whispered, proclaim on the housetops.
And do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul;
rather, be afraid of the one who can destroy
both soul and body in Gehenna.
Are not two sparrows sold for a small coin?
Yet not one of them falls to the ground without your Father’s knowledge.
Even all the hairs of your head are counted.
So do not be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows.
Everyone who acknowledges me before others
I will acknowledge before my heavenly Father.
But whoever denies me before others,
I will deny before my heavenly Father.”
Gospel reading from June 21, 2020. Solid gold. Rock solid diamonds. Shine on and on and on and on.
Firstly: fear no one. NO FEAR, JUST METAL. FEAR 👏NO 👏ONE 👏 How metal is that?! Kicking it right off. HOT. DAMN. Don’t be scared! Never be scared! The devil operates in anxiety and fear. Jesus works in peace and light. There is healthy fear that keeps us from doing crazy things — jumping into a shark tank, for instance — and unhealthy anxiety and panic that keeps us from living our full lives — eating a regular amount of balanced meals because we don’t deserve it, for instance. There’s no room for that kind of fear.
Now we get to the meat of the gospel-y brisket sandwich: why even worry?! WHY THOUGH!? How important are we to Jesus? (Answer: v important) How worthy? Worthy of “many sparrows.” So many sparrows. AT LEAST 80-90 sparrows! Probably more than that! By an impossible number! You are worth endless sparrows. If there were an infinite stream of sparrows somewhere, that wouldn’t begin to reach the valuation of how many sparrows you are worth. Crunching the numbers on sparrows — even a constant stream of endless, priceless sparrows is not enough value to come close to the value of your beautiful, perfect, human life.
(As an aside: I looked-up buying a sparrow online. Turns out, it’s pretty tough to do. Maybe in biblical times, they were just lying around, but not anymore. Strike that: at the time of press the photo that you see inserted here was found at a site called bird-b-gone.com. Apparently sparrows kind of suck.)
Our God knows you so well, He knows all the hairs on your head. He knows everything about you. Not only does he know everything about you, but he loves everything about you. He loves your hairs. He’s counted your hairs. He’s counted your tears. He’s counted your smiles. He’s counted all the bumps, bruises, cellulite spots, lost and gained weight, but He’s never thought of you as just any one of any of those things. You are a human person, with an endless sparrows of worth.
Think about everything we want for the sparrows of the world:
Clean air
Sustainable habitats
Plenty of worms
Strong wings
No anxiety
Hot take: sparrows are almost completely valueless, and we STILL want to give them fabulous bird-y lives. Why wouldn’t we fiercely demand at least the same thing for ourselves?
Quadruply quadruple the value of each thing we want for a sparrow, and appreciate how fearfully and wonderfully made you are. Flawless. Strong. Resilient. Think about the things you deserve:
Healthy and positive headspace
A good home
Real nourishment
Bodies fueled to serve the Kingdom
Full confidence in our self worth
If you’re struggling with eating, think: would Jesus want a sparrow to eat something to punish themselves? If you’re struggling with not eating, think: would Jesus want a sparrow to skip meals because He wants that sparrow to be better than the other sparrows? If you’re struggling with self worth, think: would Jesus want the sparrow to spin into an stress-filled, doom-loop, because the sparrow started worrying he’s worth less than another sparrow?
Do not be afraid. Trust endlessly that you are loved and worth thousands of metrics tons of sparrows.