3 Epiphany, 26-A & Annual Meeting: In the embrace of God

Lectionary: Isaiah 9:1-4; Psalm 27:1, 5-13; 1 Corinthians 1:10-18; Matthew 4:12-23

Today we will gather at our Annual Meeting to celebrate 159 years of loving God and serving neighbors in the name of Christ at Emmanuel. It’s an honor and a privilege to be the current stewards of this great legacy.

Our Collect is perfect for this day: “Give us grace, O Lord, to answer readily the call of our Savior Jesus Christ and proclaim to all people the Good News of his salvation, that we and the whole world may perceive the glory of his marvelous works...”

I want to emphasize here that salvation is not a prize we get at our death for being good during our life. Salvation is God’s promise of rescue, safety, and provision for our welfare while we live – a promised fulfilled in Jesus. Our good news is that in Jesus we are rescued and set free from everyone and everything in the world that would destroy us or hinder our freedom.

What an important message that is in our world today. I think of the people being ravaged by war or those illegally arrested, detained, and assaulted by government agents. I think of those so broken they think that power and money will fill their vacant souls and give meaning to their lives.

The path our world is currently on is a path of destruction. There is a better way to go – God’s way, a way that honors God’s creation, and Jesus shows us that way in our gospel.

Today, we read Matthew’s account of the call of Peter and Andrew which differs from the version of this same story we read last week in John’s gospel. In John’s gospel, Andrew spends time with Jesus and becomes so convinced that he is the Messiah, that the first thing he does is run to get his brother Simon to come and see. In Matthew’s version, Peter and Andrew are at work (fishing) when Jesus walks by and calls both of them at the same time; and both immediately leave their jobs and follow Jesus.

So which version is the true account? The answer is both.

Remembering that these are not historical accounts but narratives of the experiences of those who followed Jesus, we can look at the variation in these stories not as discrepancies, but as gifts for our learning. John’s gospel affirms for us that taking time to be with Jesus, to listen and learn “where he stands” on things can fill us with such enthusiasm that we are compelled to run to those we love to share this amazing news. Matthew’s account affirms for us that sometimes, the transformation of our hearts is so immediate and so complete, that we are willing to change everything – to repent as Jesus says - in order to readily answer his call.

Each of us hears and responds to God’s call differently, and Scripture affirms that that is “meet and right” by presenting to us the same event from differing perspectives. Diversity of thought and perspective is a gift to be honored, not squashed into coerced uniformity.

When St. Paul says: “I appeal to you, that all of you be in agreement and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be united in the same mind and the same purpose” he isn’t asking them to give up their diversity but to focus on their divine purpose. Paul’s whole ministry was about incorporating the diversity of those to whom he proclaimed the good news into the unity of the body of Christ.

There is always a temptation to limit or put boundaries around God’s grace. Understandably, we want to be living right, but the temptation to be right, or more accurately, the temptation not to be wrong, can lead to a rigidness that is counter to the freedom won for us by our Lord. As Paul says in his second letter to the church in Corinth, “where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.”

Christians and Christian institutions have a history of limiting who could read Scripture and how it should be understood – seriously constraining the free movement of the Spirit in their day. Thankfully this sort of thing never happens anymore (sarcasm alert!).

We know, however, that in the end, the Spirit of God moves freely despite our efforts to constrain it. The Spirit blows where it wills, and thank God for that.

In Isaiah, the light of God’s Spirit breaks into the darkness of the world and the people on whom the light shines are freed from all that constrains them. Their yokes and the rod of their oppressor are broken, and they praise God with exultation because of it.

Anyone who has been imprisoned by any kind of darkness knows the overwhelming joy that freedom brings. In today’s reading, Isaiah proclaims that God has released the Israelite people from their burden just like when Gideon battled the Midianites and won their freedom from oppression.

Note: This is the northernmost area in the northern kingdom of Israel and it was historically indefensible, experiencing 800 years of war and oppression. They couldn’t even imagine anymore what it would be like to live in freedom. And this is the place, the gospel writer tell us, that Jesus made his home – the city of Capernaum, in the territory of Zebulun and Naphtali. This is where Jesus spoke the first word of his public ministry: repent – turn around and live another way – God’s way.

Oppression exists in many forms. There is actual war happening or being threatened in ways we haven’t seen in decades. In addition, people right here among us are battling the oppressions of addiction and disease, or suffering the ravages and indignities of poverty, hunger, unemployment, and homelessness. Rev. Susanna preached powerfully last Sunday about many immigrants who live with the terror of separation from family and detention in remote centers in the US. 

To this, one of my besties in the company of heaven, Julian of Norwich, responds: “The ground of mercy is love, and the working of mercy is our being kept in love... For mercy works in keeping us. Mercy works by turning all things to good… Mercy works by keeping, suffering, quickening, and healing, all from tenderness of love… All this comes from the abundance of [God’s] love.” (John Skinner, ed., Revelation of Love, Julian of Norwich, 94, 95) 

The good news found throughout our Scriptures, Old and New, in all of its diverse stories and perspectives, is that it is the light of God that breaks into and dispels every darkness and sets us free from whoever or whatever oppresses us. As the psalmist says, “The Lord is my light and my salvation...” This light, manifest most completely in Jesus, is what we are called to witness and manifest in our world in his name, and it requires us to repent.

The gospel writer tells us that after his best friend and cousin is arrested and executed, Jesus moves to Capernaum and begins to proclaim his message, which takes John the Baptist’s message and expands it: Repent (change your attitude and the direction of your life) because the kingdom of God has come near.

Then the gospel writer describes how that change is manifested. After gathering his new disciples, Jesus begins his public ministry by going out into the multi-ethnic region of Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, proclaiming the good news, and curing every disease and sickness among the people. This is the glory of his marvelous works, as our Collect says.

We are called to do the same – to go out to the people among whom God has placed us to teach and proclaim by word and example, the good news of God’s promise of rescue, safety, and provision for our welfare, and to shine the light of God’s powerful, healing love upon any who suffer. Then, if anyone “shall see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living,” maybe they’ll see it in us. 

After our service, we will gather in all of our diversity as a parish. Together, we will commit to heed Jesus’ call to repent, to go a new way - God’s way for us. We will recount our many blessings and witness how God’s gift economy covers our earthly budget and ministries with grace. We’ll celebrate the gifts we have and pledge to steward them all for the glory of God, as we respond readily to God’s call to us, making space for the Spirit of God to move freely in, among, and through us in 2026.

But first, we will give our thanks, share the holy food of Communion, sing and make music to the Lord with all we are, and all we have, in the persistent, merciful, incandescent, joyful embrace of God’s love. Amen.