But I Could Be Wrong (probably)

But I Could Be Wrong

Matthew 10:24–39

June 21, 2026

Imagine if every minute of your life was recorded. ///

These days, / that's not hard. //

A camera on a pole, /

or some smart kid with a phone, /

maybe your Alexa device — //

they're watching, /

they're listening, /

they're salivating over catching you doing something dumb, /

and sharing it with the world. //

Everyone wants to see an epic fail go viral. ///

Today's scripture from Matthew is hard. ///

Not what I would have picked for Father’s Day.

It says, /

"even the hairs of your head are all counted." //

Not just facial recognition: /

Follicle recognition. ///

"...for nothing is covered up that will not be uncovered

and nothing secret that will not become known." ///

Does this mean God's the original father of the surveillance state? 

Spying on you? /

Recording you? /

Playing it back at the Pearly Gates IMAX? //

So the popcorn angels can have a good laugh

before sending you to the DOWN escalator? ///

In today's tough scripture, /

is Jesus telling us how we're SUPPOSED to be? //

Parents and kids at each other's throats. /

Hating your father /

Daughters and mothers-in-law doing UFC at the White House.

Is that his point? ///

Or is Jesus describing how we already are? /

Is he telling us how he has seen us, /

or how we might be, /

or how we secretly think about being —

on our WORST days? //

Is Jesus painting a picture

of our most cringy, / most regrettable greatest hits? ///

As your pastor, /

as an allegedly educated expert on scripture, /

I have to say: ///

I don't know. ///

And maybe the Gospel of Matthew —

and Luke — /

who also tells this story —

maybe they didn't know, either. //

Memory is a faulty technology. //

Even security video can’t show what’s in your heart. ///

I could be wrong. //

But here's one thing I do know. //

When God sees families, / and households, /

and offices, / and even churches

start going to war with each other, /

When we see what God’s seeing /

we have a choice. //

We can pick up the weapons, /

Or … we can pick up our hearts: ///

We could say

"Jesus told me you’re wrong. Nanner nanner" ??? //

Or do we add, /

"But, then again, /

I could be wrong." ///

If you're trying to surveil the mind of Christ, /

if you're trying to see the God’s honest truth

of Apostles and scriptures from 2000 years ago, /

It's good to replay the evidence, closely. //

Because you could be wrong. ///

—

One of the nuttiest professors ever was Richard Feynman.

Feynman was one of the greatest,

Nobel Prize winning nuclear scientists and 

quantum physicists of the last century. //

Feynman was also a big nut. /

And he liked it that way. 

In the movie Oppenheimer, he’s the one playing bongos waiting for the bomb to go off. 

It’s true. He did.

There are witnesses. ///

Feynman maintained

the most important part of science, / and life, /

is being wrong. //

Feynman defined science as /

"A satisfactory Philosophy of Ignorance." ///

"A satisfactory Philosophy of Ignorance." //

I can get onboard with that. 

For Feynman, / what he didn't know

compelled him to find out what he could know. //

Feynman, / so smart, /

never forgot — /

he could be wrong.

He probably WAS wrong //

And that’s good. /

Because being wrong teaches us far better, /

Teaches us far more memorably, /

than being right. ///

Think about the lessons you've learned. //

What are the ones that you can't ever forget? /

The ones that keep you awake at night / 

Is it the times you got everything right? //

Or is it your failures that you replay? Over and over? ///

Being wrong — /

wait, / let me correct that — /

getting CAUGHT being wrong — //

those are the lessons you remember. /

True? //

This is why smart surgeons use Sharpies

to mark the knee you want replaced. //

You've got two. /

They're identical twins. //

Your knee doctors don't want to make a mistake

and be taught a lesson by the knee lawyers. ///

We don't like our ignorance. /

But it sure does teach us the lessons we remember. ///

I believe —

and this is a theory I test in public and online every sermon — /

I believe we would all be wiser

if we applied this philosophy of our own ignorance

to our understanding of the Bible. 

Here we go, y’all. ///

—

Scholars have determined with satisfactory confidence —

that give or take a few years, /

the Gospels — /

like the one According to Matthew —

were written down at least a generation after Jesus. ///

We do know – for a fact, /

the Apostles had no video. /

They had no police sketch artists with clay tablets. /

Saying, “Jesus, could you hold still for another hour?”

“I’m trying to get your nose right.”

No. They had no recordings of Jesus teaching. 

No YouTube. No audio, no video. ///

Does that mean the Bible is wrong? /

Does that mean Jesus didn't say

that wives and husbands were going to go at each other?

That children had to hate their parents? //

I don't know. /

You'd have to ask Mary and Joseph. ///

But what I do know is that 2000 years later, /

when we read scripture, /

chances are VERY high

that we're reading OUR experiences, /

OUR loves, our hates, /

reading OUR mothers-in-law into the words. //

I try hard not to be wrong when I’m doing my job on Sundays.

Or any day.

But especially on Sundays. 

When my performance gets reviewed on the internet.

I try not to broadcast my ignorance

I try not to be wrong //

But it's a higher probability than I'd like. ///

What are the chances that I'm right all the time? ///

What are the chances YOU are? ///

—

Now, the scripture turns /

from family fights

To fights the disciples got themselves into /

By doing what Jesus told them. 

We know that the Apostles were Jewish. //

But, wild rebels they were accused of being —

they believed Jesus was the Messiah, /

the Son of God, /

the Savior.

What they were saying was – to their families, friends, and bosses – heretical. ///

This put them in the crosshairs

of all the people they were going out to evangelize. //

Including their mothers, fathers, sisters, and brothers,

their wise rabbis, priests, and Joe From Legal. //

Twelve scruffy guys

versus the entire religious establishment. ///

That’s what’s going on in the scripture.

Jesus is giving them kind of like a pep talk —

something like the coach of a losing World Cup team  

might say. ///

I never came close to a sports locker room. /

Came closer to being stuffed IN a locker. //

So I could be wrong, //

But I just can't imagine

Nick Saban or Pat Summit saying, ///

"Now players, /

I just want you to go out there

and love everybody. /

Give them hugs and kiss their little foreheads. /

Ask them how their grandmas are feeling after knee replacement./

Tell them how adorable they look in their uniforms." ///

Today's talk from Coach Jesus is fierce. ///

"Listen up team. /

Know that your families are going to say you're losers. /

You're going to get kicked out of the house. /

You're going to be hated. /

DISOWNED by the people you thought loved you. //

I want you to dig down deep, find your courage.

Now get out there and fight the good fight."

On three, break! ///

But here's the thing. //

Since we're pretty sure this gospel —

all the gospels —

were written decades after Jesus died and rose —

what we're reading here

is most likely not a surveillance video, /

More likely a mirror — ///

More likely the scripture’s a mirror of what was going on

For the disciples 

near the turn of the first century. //

It was meant to pump up the few, / the proud, / the brave —

the maybe soon-to-be crucified. //

To give them courage to know

that if the original apostles could live through it, /

They could keep the dynasty alive. ///

—

Now, / I know some of you

want to read your Bible as literal fact. /

And that's fine. //

Maybe you DO hate your mother-in-law, /

and look, / here it says to in the Bible. Goal! ///

But even if you do read scripture like a documentary, /

you still have to apply it to your own life. /

Otherwise it's just a bestselling thriller. ///

What makes the Bible holy is you. ///

You reading it —

maybe not as literal truth — /

maybe as spiritual truth, /

truth that speaks to your soul. ///

And we all know with high certainty

that there have been, /

there will be, /

and there are now /

times when you're scared. /

Times when you feel like a loser. /

Times when family, / or your church, / 

or your friends, or coworkers

refuse to think the way you do. /

Times when they may well think

you're an ignorant nut. ///

They might be right. /

You might be wrong. //

You may be right / I may be crazy 

Why does everything sound like a Billy Joel song to me?

I don’t even like him that much.

You may be wrong, 

But you don't know

until you test the satisfactory nature

of your own ignorance. ///

Test it with experience. /

Test it with study. /

Test it with long conversations in your dorm room. /

Test it in a Women's Circle meeting, /

or a Father's Day Bible study. /

Test it with hillbillies from West Virginia (like me). /

Test it with prayer. /

Long, / heartfelt prayer

like Jesus in the garden, / sweating blood

over his decisions. ///

Let your doubt lead you to truth. /

Find what DOES work

by discovering what DOESN'T. ///

I'm reasonably sure that's how the disciples Jesus sent out —

Sent out from their comfortable homes, /

Sent out into dangerous towns —

They surely did find out what DIDN'T work. //

I'm pretty confident that's how they and Jesus

tested their faith. ///

Sometimes even disciples have to take the “L.” 

And replay it in their minds, again and again.

Learning from those failures

How not to do it next time. ///

—

Whether you're trying to understand the Bible, /

or fix your air conditioning, /

or raise a toddler – or a teenager – or your aging dad 

(see, I DID work in Father’s Day) /

Whatever you’re trying to do,

Especially if you’re trying it the first time –

Or the seventh time for some of us –

Whatever it is, 

you will find out what DOESN'T work real fast. //

Jesus says: ///

"Those who find their life will lose it, /

and those who lose their life for my sake

will find it." ///

Now, / that might mean "losing your life" as in dying. //

But in my experience, /

it can also mean losing what you think is your best life — /

losing your comfortable life — /

at the risk — / the risk — /

of enough discomfort

that you find your better life. ///

When you're bold enough to be wrong, /

well, /

maybe, /

that's when the eyes of Jesus will see you most clearly. //

Where he finds you, / and tells you: ///

Guess what, / team. /

I've been in the film room. /

I've watched the tapes. ///

I KNOW you're not perfect, /

but you're good enough for me. ///

And I'm not wrong. ///