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. ///
