Epiphany V 2022 – Ted Hackett
Today is the fifth Sunday after the Epiphany.
Epiphany is the season of the revelation of Jesus as the Son of God, so it is fitting that we should move from the immediate revelation of who Jesus is…
You know…His baptism, water into wine at the wedding and so forth…
To stories of people who are “sent” by God. Sent…Sent to tell of God’s saving action.
Now I must warn you…this sermon is going to trace some sometimes complicated theology…and I hope you aren’t bored…
And if you are, there is a centuries-old custom during boring Sermons…going to sleep…
I won’t be offended.
In today’s readings we began with the “call” of the Prophet Isaiah…about 700 b.c….
And then we read a section of Paul’s Epistle to the Corinthians…which ends with: “so we proclaim and so you have come to believe.”
And finally, the call of Simon Peter…Jesus told him: “from now on you will be catching people.”
Peter and Paul were Apostles…and Isaiah was too….
Because “Apostle”…from the Greek “apostello” means: “One who is sent”
Isaiah, Paul and Peter were all sent by God to say what was God’s will.
Of course we know about the Apostles….
They all went around the Mediterranean world and preached the “Good News” of Jesus’ Resurrection and His return. And they invited all who heard them to be initiated into Jesus’ Church by baptism.
But…from that point on, things get a bit muddier. Jesus did not come back immediately and the apostles, one by one, died off…many martyred.
In response…the church elected leaders…“Shepherds” for the people…we call them “Bishops.”
Now in Greek episcopos can mean shepherd…or overseer…as Paul was an overseer to many congregations…
A bishop was in the line of Peter and Paul…who had known Jesus personally…
He (and they were all men then)…he was the guardian of that Good News, and had responsibility for spreading it and keeping it faithful…
In addition, as the leader of the congregation, each Bishop Presided at the weekly celebrations of the Eucharist. Furthermore, each successive Bishop was supposed to guard and teach that original Good News.
It was the Same Good News that they had heard from other Bishops who heard it from Bishops who had heard it from Jesus
They were ordained by several other Bishops to guarantee that would be so…
That is what we call Apostolic Succession
And Bishop Wright is in that “line.” So when he visits us he presides at the altar.
He embodies the identity of the Church From Jesus through Peter through history to now. He is supposed to guard the Faith and preside at the Eucharist for the Church.
Yes, preside at the Eucharist for the whole Church!
Well by the early 4th century there were 8 churches in Rome alone…and the Bishop was not going to be able to be at all of them every Sunday and Feast Day…He did preside in each of them in rotation…but that was not the same.
So the Church decided to add help…
First by ordaining Priests who would “fill in” for the Bishop as pastors and Presiders at the Altar….so that every time the Rector or another Priest presides at the Eucharist, we are really “standing in” for the Bishop…
And the Bishop is standing in for Jesus and all the Apostles.
I said “Presider” at the altar…Because really all of us are the celebrants when we have Eucharist. The Presider…Bishop or Priest, speaks for all of us.
O.K. you may be saying… “Interesting…maybe…but so what?”
Lets go back to the Apostles…
When Jesus called Peter and the other eleven, he often sent them out to preach and to heal the sick as a sign of the Kingdom.
“One who is sent” in Greek is apostelos…
Thus the original 12 were Apostles.
Now interestingly, the Aramaic for this sort of person was Schaliach. A Schaliach is a person sent by a ruler on a mission to direct some activity…taxation or some such…in a provincial town. He carries with him a sign or an icon of the King to prove he’s the real thing. On this mission he speaks for the King…he actually embodies the king. Custom says he should be seen and treated as the King…
A schaliach embodies…re-presents the King. To deal with the Schaliach is to actually deal with the King!
In Collosians (1:15) Paul calls Jesus the “Icon of God.” He means that when you look at Jesus you see…mysteriously…the invisible God. Jesus is the ultimate Schaliach.
Another way to put that is to say that Jesus is the Sacrament of God.
St. Augustine said that a Sacrament is: “The visible sign of invisible grace.”
Just as to see Jesus is to see the Invisible God, to see a Sacrament…
To participate in a Sacrament…is to be joined to the invisible God…
So…when we are baptized…we are joined to the Invisible God…we are baptized into the Church…
Which, as Paul explains in Corinthians…is the Body of Christ.
This is not just a metaphor…Paul isn’t saying that being baptized is like joining Christ…
He says it is becoming part of Christ…
And Paul further says in Corinthians that he hears there are members of the Church who treat each other badly…
Who don’t honor the less honorable…who don’t share with the less fortunate. Who actually over-eat and drink too much at the dinner which was Eucharist.
He says these people sin because they “don’t discern the Body” of Christ…
That is, they don’t discern Christ in the Church as it celebrates Eucharist and re-calls from eternity into the present…the whole Jesus Christ…Crucified and Risen…who was and is and will be forever…
The Icon, the image…the very Sacrament of God.
Now…what I am saying is a rather startling claim.
Paul, and the Church ever since has said: “To be baptized is to be joined to the Church…”
and the Church is the very Body of Christ…
So to be initiated into the Church is to be joined to Jesus as fingers are to a hand.
And since Jesus is the Sacrament of God…
All who are joined to Him…
Share in that Sacramentality!
So…Every one of us…is a walking, talking, living, breathing Sacrament of Jesus…
And so…a living, breathing Sacrament of God!
Can you imagine, as you look around this room,
That all these people…every one of us…
Is a sacrament of Jesus?
Many of us have known one another for years…
And we know that others can be ornery…can be mean-spirited…can be, in fact are,…sinners…
Well…at least I speak for myself…
I know I am a sinner…
Often not able to treat my neighbor as myself…
Often turning my back on someone who is in need of something…
Often something I could provide…a moment of kindness, of really listening…of feeling sympathy.
Or maybe really sharing something wonderful…
A recovery from sickness…
A grandchild born healthy…
Even an exciting vacation trip… (Yes, they will come again after COVID)
And in each of these moments of sin…
I have forgotten that person…or those people…Are Icons of Christ…who is the Icon of the Invisible God.
Maybe..more important…
I have conveniently forgotten…
That I am a walking, talking Sacrament…
A Sacrament of Jesus…
And to see me…
God help me! To see me…
In my humanity
Is to see God!
Which…to say the least intimidates me…
And I often deal with that…by ignoring it…
But I forget Augustine’s definition of a Sacrament…
“A visible sign of an invisible grace”
Being a sign comes with empowering grace…
And part of that grace is God’s loving, never-failing understanding of our human sinfulness.
Some years ago the late, wonderful Archbishop Desmond Tutu was a visiting professor on the Theology School faculty at Emory.
He was there for several years and his office was next door to mine…so I got to know him pretty well.
One day, after he had taught a class dealing with third-world poverty, an earnest young man caught up with him in our hallway.
He was noticeably agitated and sort of stammered as he talked. It may have been that he was intimidated by talking face-to-face with a famous Archbishop.
He made a kind of confession: “Bishop…Sir…after your class today I felt really bad…I still do. I feel like I should do something about all those poor people but I don’t know what. I’m married and have two kids. We have very little income and I’m in debt for school…I feel so guilty…I don’t know what to do! I’m not doing anything to help!”
The Archbishop listened quietly and with sympathetic patience…and then he laid his hand on the guy’s shoulder and broke out in that absolutely wonderful smile of his…a smile that lit up a room and sang: “Love and Joy”…and he said: “Don’t worry my son…you have no idea of how low God’s standards are!”
He smiled again, patted the young man on the shoulder and said softly: “Go in peace!”
The student smiled back and just stood there.
Bishop Tutu went into his office.
I was witnessing a moment of Sacramental Grace…
I was looking at God’s Grace of Forgiveness.
I was looking at two Sacramental
Icons of God…
I was looking at what I…
And each of us…
Are…and can be!
Walking Sacraments!
Giving God’s Grace and love…
And accepting it!