The Rev. Brad Sullivan
Emmanuel Episcopal Church
January 26, 2020
3 Epiphany, A
Isaiah 9:1-4
1 Corinthians 1:10-18
Matthew 4:12-23
Baptized In the Name of Conservative? Liberal? Any Particular Ideology or Political Belief?
Jesus prayed for his disciples, for his church, for all of us, that we would be one, united together in love. Paul then appealed to the church in Corinth that they would stop having division among them. They were dividing over which preacher they liked better, which church leader had baptized them. That may seem a little familiar to us when we think in terms of denomination. I’ve heard folks say, “I was baptized Episcopalian…or Baptist, Roman, Lutheran, Methodist, and on and on. We were of course baptized into Jesus, not into any particular denomination.
Jesus is our unity and love binds us together, and yet we still let things divide us. Issues, arguments, labels. We weren’t baptized in the name of conservative. We weren’t baptized in the name of liberal? We weren’t baptized in the name of any particular stance on any particular issue. We were baptized in the name of Jesus, and our faith and reliance on him is what unites us. No issue is greater than our faith and reliance on Jesus. He is our way, for his is the way of love, the way of grace, the way of seeking God’s will before our own and surrendering our wills to the will of God. There is peace and freedom in that surrender, trusting in one so much greater than ourselves, trusting in a God of love who is everywhere around, among, and within us.
God is completely present to every one of us, and that is another aspect of our unity. No one of us is closer to God than any other of us. Some may be more habitual in prayer, more practiced in turning our wills over to God, but our access to God is absolutely the same for all of us. There is no division or distinction within the church over who has greater access. God doesn’t have a bandwidth problem.
Still, when someone asks me to pray for them, I often hear, “You’ve got the direct line to God.” I think some of y’all know this and for some this might be news, but we’ve all got the direct line to God, or were Lance and I baptized in the name of “priest” rather than Jesus? Clergy have no more direct line to God than anyone else. There is no division of distinction or position within the church.
See, Lance and I were privileged to get to study for three years at Seminary. It was a privilege, a joy. We love this stuff. The scriptures, church history, theology, ethics, music, liturgy, prayers, partying like the guys in Animal House. We had a privilege to get to spend time studying and learning about our faith. None of that makes us any closer to God than anyone else. Nor does it make us particularly better at ministry than anyone else. The study and the priesthood gives us a particular role within the structure of the church, namely, “minister to the ministers.” All of everyone in the church are the ministers.
Who did Jesus choose for his disciples and first ministers in the church? It wasn’t the folks who were privileged enough to spend years studying religion. He chose regular people, fisherman, a tax collector. They were Jesus’ ministers, folks just like every single person here. Our ministries and gifts vary, but every one of us is a minister of Jesus.
Who here has ever comforted a friend, family member, classmate, colleague when that person was hurting. If you ever have comforted someone else, you have been doing ministry. If you’ve ever prayed with someone or eased someone’s burdens, you’ve been doing ministry. If you have ever shared the fact that you find strength and hope in your faith and surrender to God, you’ve been doing ministry.
There is unity in the church because we are all ministers in the church. We are ministers of Jesus, and our ministry is to help set each other free from all of the things which bind us. Freedom from that which binds us is what Jesus gives us. “For the yoke of their burden, and the bar across their shoulders, the rod of their oppressor, you have broken as on the day of Midian.” That’s from Isaiah 9:4.
About 2700 years ago, Israel had made an alliance with Assyria, and things did not go well for Israel under this alliance as they became dependent upon Assyria and alliance became more like oppression. So, Isaiah is telling the people that this alliance will not continue and they would be freed from the oppression of the Assyrians. The people sought God, surrendering again to God’s will, trusting in God, and freed them from the rather poor decision their leaders had made in turning their will and their lives over to the Assyrians rather than God. That was salvation. They were a people no longer oppressed. They were freed. That freedom from what binds us is the freedom Jesus gives us, and we find unity in Jesus because we all need freedom from something.
Sadness, not as a passing emotion over a particular situation, but sadness so deep that we are plagued by it daily, hourly. Sadness which began with some event or situation but which has taken over and now holds us captive, our minds and emotions no longer able to move past whatever event or situation began the sadness. Jesus would free us from that oppressive sadness, offering to take the burden from us, as we let go, turn our will back over to God, and trust that God will heal our hearts, even if we can’t imagine being healed.
Hopeless, as we see a world around us not as we would have it be, and the problems are too great for us to do much of anything about them. Jesus would free us from that hopelessness, offering to take the burden from us, as we let go, turn our will back over to God, and trust that this is God’s world, not ours, and while we cannot change the whole world, God has given each of us ways to bring healing into the world.
God makes each of us his ministers. Noticing those around us, choosing to care, to bear one another’s burdens, we are all ministers of God, and God has no bandwidth problem. We all have that same direct line to God.
We’re united, one in God, one in Jesus, one in love. We are all one in our need to be set free from burdens that oppress us, and we are all one in finding salvation, finding freedom from those burdens through Jesus, casting our burdens upon him and turning our wills and our lives over to him. No other issue or belief is greater than that.
The freedom that Jesus gives, freedom from whatever binds us? No other belief or issue should cause us to be divided into camps or factions, not when we all get to be ministers of Jesus’ freedom from bondage. We’re a diverse bunch of folks, with all sorts of political beliefs and backgrounds, cultures, and ideologies, and that’s just within Emmanuel. Worldwide, we’re an extremely varied group of people, but we’re not baptized into any of those political beliefs, backgrounds, cultures, or ideologies. We’re baptized into Jesus, into the freedom from bondage that he gives, and we are all ministers of that freedom, all ministers of Jesus.
