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June 23, 2002
Sermon "140,000 Hairs and Counting"
Matthew 10:24-39
Reverend Larry Gerber

Special cameras in airports scan 15 people at a time, focusing on the 80 landmarks of the human face. Not that precise recognition of individual faces is really anything new - God has been making positive identifications for years.

He knows every hair on your head. He knows every sparrow..... As a child, and even now,as an adult, when I see a flock of sparrows, thousands of them, that eat the cows grain, and think of the millions that I do not see, I wonder why God keeps track of those pests.And I have always wondered what might happen to me, because I have caused many a sparrow to fall. If God knows every sparrow that falls, he just might know who caused that to happen.... Of course I know that the story is there to bring emphasis on how much God watches over me and cares for me. But, just think...we humans know the number of hairs on an average head. Today, with technology, we can know things that used to seem impossible to ever figure out. So, why can't God know even more than we do?

140,000. That's the number of hairs on a blonde woman's head.

110,000? That's the number that a black-haired woman has.

So you can forget about "blonde jokes," unless they are about unnatural blonds. A hair-counting German scientist has discovered that the fair-haired among us have much fuller heads!

But what about other distinguishing characteristics? Researchers have found that the human face has 80 so-called "landmarks" - including the bridge and tip of the nose, the size of the mouth and eyes, and the cheekbones. These landmarks are used in an increasingly important area of investigation called "biometrics," the process of identifying people by unique physical characteristics. For years, investigators have used fingerprints as a biometric, and of course DNA has been frequently employed for purposes of identification. But now, with powerful computer technology, biometrics can even include identification by retina or iris, using "eye prints."

But what's the point of all this? In a word: security.

The hottest branch of biometrics is face recognition, a field that many experts hope will enhance airline safety. As airports scramble to beef up security in the wake of the September 11 attacks, aviation insiders say that face recognition technology could become a major weapon in the war against terrorism.

CNN reports that Iceland is already using the technology to screen passengers, and others may follow its lead. Special cameras in airports scan 15 people at a time, focusing on the 80 landmarks of the human face, and computers compare these pictures to a database of images at the rate of a million faces a second. Apparently, matches can be made rather easily - face recognition technology needs only 14 to 20 of those 80 landmarks in order to spot a face that authorities are seeking.

As Jesus says in today's lesson from Matthew, "nothing is covered up that will not be uncovered, and nothing [is] secret that will not become known" (v. 26).

But are these face recognition revelations always a good thing? When this technology was used for the first time to spot known criminals at the Super Bowl last year, civil liberties groups objected. The installation of a similar system in Tampa soon afterward led to street protests.

But this criticism has faded since the terrorist attacks, and airport authorities are now rushing to test and deploy the systems. Face recognition is being promoted as a technological leap beyond passwords and personal identification numbers, an innovation that promises to fight terrorism, identity theft and many other kinds of crimes.

Not that precise recognition of individual human faces is really anything new. God has been making positive identifications for years.

In Jesus' baccalaureate speech to the disciples, a group of 12 anxious apostles who are being prepped for a dangerous mission part of what Jesus says is a warning: "Do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul; rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell" (v. 28). But some of it contains words of comfort and solace, such as the reassuring reminder that God the Father knows the disciples and is always watching over them. A sparrow falls. God knows it. The hairs on their heads are numbered. Their value far surpasses that of the many sparrows sold in the marketplace.

One of the greatest needs of human beings is to be known. We want to be noticed, to be remembered, to know that we are important to someone. Maslow, Tournier and Nouwen have done some valuable work in this area. We have this insatiable need to feel we belong.

Here Jesus reminds us that we are noticed. God has this face recognition thing down cold. God will not forget us, promises Jesus, or fail to recognize us and acknowledge our service. And Christ himself promises to be involved in this process, saying, "Everyone therefore who acknowledges me before others, I also will acknowledge before my Father in heaven" (v. 32).

In other words, if we recognize Jesus in public, then Jesus will recognize us in the presence of God.
All these words are spoken in the context of danger, a situation as familiar to 21st-century disciples as to the first followers of Jesus. They faced the Roman military, and we face militant terrorists. They were maligned by the religious opponents of Jesus, and we are misrepresented by secular pundits who distort the Christian faith. They found foes in members of their own households, while we, too, discover that strong convictions can create conflict and tension with persons closest to us (vv. 35-36).

These are dangerous times. Times in which it is especially important for us to know God, and to be known by God.

Fortunately, our Lord sees us infinitely more accurately than even the most top-of-the-line technology.

When God spots us, bells are bound to ring. The Lord searches us and knows us. God sees when we sit down and rise up; he discerns our thoughts from far away. The Lord searches out our paths and our places of rest and is acquainted with all our ways. God hems us in, says Psalm 139, behind and before, and lays his hand upon us (vv. 1-5).

God simply cannot keep his eyes off us - but this is not because he's concerned about suspicious, seditious activity. No, it's because he loves us.

The constant surveillance of our Lord is based on steadfast love, not on suspicion. He follows us to the ends of the earth because he wants to protect us, not prosecute us.

God sees us, knows us and protects us ... because he adores us. We are not doomed to be nameless, faceless souls, caught in the crushing grind of historical events or the anonymous oblivion of contemporary corporate culture. Instead, we are always going to be precious children of the Lord, created, redeemed and sustained in every difficult time and place by the Creator of all that exists.

Our ritual of baptism this morning is for that reason alone. We know that God recognizes us, and that God wants us to feel his love and assurance. We baptize with water, in order that He can baptize with the Holy Spirit. Ours is an act of recognition, His is an act of love and adoration.

There is nothing we can do to make God love us any more. There is nothing we can do to make God love us any less. In the eyes of God, we always have 100 percent face recognition.

But that's not all. Although it is clear that we are known by God, it is not so clear that God is known by us. Would we recognize God if we saw him? In particular, our challenge is to recognize that God has taken human form in the 80 identifiable landmarks of the face of Jesus Christ, and to point this out in public. Everyone who acknowledges me, promises Jesus in Matthew, I will acknowledge before my Father in heaven (v. 32).

God notices us, but how should we notice God?

In the church, we notice God in the faces of children who need instruction, nurturing and affirming. We notice God in the faces of married couples who need a safe place for their faith in each other and in God to grow. We notice God in the faces of single adults, the elderly, the disabled - all who bring their own gifts to the table, and who look to the church for a place where everyone knows their name, where they are noticed by others, where they are noticed by God as mediated by those around them.

In the world, we notice God in the marginalized, oppressed, misunderstood, the poor, the illiterate, the diseased, the bored, the multitasking minivan mom, the alienated, body-piercing, tattooed youth on the streets.

In creation, we notice God in the rivers, lakes and oceans; in the meadow, forest and mountains; in the air, sky, atmosphere and stars above us. And we notice God in the people, such as our own United Methodist Men, who periodically clean a two mile stretch of Riggs Road. When we see those orange garbage bags along the road, we know that someone recognizes the beauty of God's nature.

And when we notice God in the church, the world and in creation, we also cannot fail to notice how much we have neglected God by neglecting our children and youth in the church, by ignoring the single person, by dismissing the elderly, by turning a deaf ear to the cries of the oppressed, by polluting our rivers and streams, not to speak of the air we breathe, and then we remember that while God notices us, we have so miserably failed to notice God.

Perhaps, as a congregation, it would be helpful to create an 80-point face recognition chart for what God looks like in the church, the world and creation. Or a 40-point facial map. Or 20. 10. ... Five?

We have a God of love and compassion. What the world needs now, is a people of love and compassion.

We have a people-noticing God; it's time now to have a God-noticing people.

We have a church-noticing God; it's time now to have a God-noticing church.

May the act of baptism this morning, be a reminder of what we have in the church, as symbols, as acts of a God -loving and God -fearing people. Acts of a mutual relationship between Creator and created.
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Let us pray............

Sources:
"Hair," Children's Bible Ministry.
Bibleline.org. Retrieved December 3,
2001.
O'Harrow, Robert Jr. "In the face of terror:
Recognition technology spreads quickly."
The Washington Post, November 1, 2001,
E1.

Let me know what you think. The church Email is: SLUMC@att.net, Phone: 480.895.8766