The Episcopal Diocese of Tennessee



The First Sunday after the Epiphany, Year B, January 8, 2012, The Church of the Epiphany, Sherwood

“When Paul had laid his hands on them, the Holy Spirit came upon them” (Acts 19:6).

It’s the Feast of the Baptism of Christ, the First Sunday after the Epiphany, beginning a season which bundles together both the manifestation of Christ as Savior of the nations and the commencement of his earthly ministry. Interwoven with these themes are stories of the call of the first disciples, the embryonic beginning of the Church’s mission, as Jesus gathers his followers around him and equips them for their ministry. At his baptism Jesus is revealed as the Father’s beloved Son, in whom he is well pleased (as we’ve just heard); and in the coming weeks we will hear how Jesus chooses the Twelve and forms them for their work.

Our second reading has already cycled forward to the Church’s mission, in fact, suggesting on the way that there is some connection between Jesus’ baptism in the Jordan and the baptism that St Paul bestows upon these folks in Ephesus. You might say that this is the point: Jesus’ baptism and his ministry are not an isolated event in the history of salvation, but part of a continuum that eventually brings us with Paul to Ephesus. Don’t misunderstand me: Jesus is unique, and his ministry is crucial and irreplaceable when it comes to our salvation. Still, there is connection between the manifestation of Jesus’ identity at the Jordan and what happens in Ephesus, when Paul baptizes in Jesus’ name. There is continuity between Jesus’ baptism, the beginning of his ministry, and the ministry which Paul exercises in Ephesus, when he lays hands upon the twelve folks there and they receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. There is even continuity and connection between what happens there and the ministry that is exercised here today, at the Church of the Epiphany in Sherwood.

The Church carries forward the ministry of Jesus Christ, and it does so through particular people in particular times and places. Take the story of the baptisms in Ephesus as a case in point. One of the peculiar things about this story is that Christian faith (of a sort) seems to have preceded Paul to Ephesus: not too surprising, as it was an important port city on the crossroad between East and West, and we can well imagine someone else getting there first. But the story of St. Paul’s arrival serves to affirm a strong connection between his ministry and the Ephesian Church, a connection which is then reinforced by the Letter to the Ephesians that is attributed to Paul. The Ephesian Church receives the Holy Spirit through the laying on of Paul’s hands, suggesting through this detail the importance of this strong personal connection to the Church in that city.

So it was then, and so it is now. We value the particular people that God has put in our way, in particular places and particular times. That’s how the Gospel is shared and spread, from one to another, and there is no substitute for it. I hope that you are already thinking about those folks who have been crucial for you, in the same way that Paul was crucial for the Church in Ephesus. The Church of the Epiphany has been blessed in being a community of faith in which families have been active over several generations, carrying on and passing on the faith to those who follow. It’s a multi-generational project. It’s also been fortunate in having just a few priests in a goodly number of years, people who have been willing to invest themselves in the community and in the lives of the people. Fr. Jones, Fr. Huske, Fr. Kirby, Sr. Lucy: what a pattern of apostolic life you’ve experienced here. You all know the importance of particular people in particular times and places: you could write the book (and actually, I think you have). The Holy Spirit has been present and active here, and the signs of that activity are manifest all around us. Jesus Christ was here in Sherwood before the Church of the Epiphany, but it’s inarguable that he has been manifested and honored in this part of Tennessee because of the ministry of this Church.

So now is the time to celebrate, but also to peer forward into the future. St. Paul’s ministry called him ever forward in service to his Lord; how is God calling us to move forward in our mission? Ephesus was a crossroad, and God is continually bringing us to the same critical junctures where we are challenged to move forward in obedience to Jesus’ command. Eventually Jesus himself will get moving to Jerusalem, to give himself for our salvation, and to rise again from the dead. This season of Epiphany will give way to Lent and Easter, and the climax of our Faith. God has given life to this Church and he will continue to give us all new life through the ministry that takes place here, where God takes particular people at a particular time and place and uses them to make his power known.

- The Rt Rev’d John Bauerschmidt, Bishop of Tennessee

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