First Lutheran Church, Detroit Lakes, MN
Epiphany 3 | 01.22.2023 | Matthew 4:12-23
Epiphany is a season of beginnings and in it we get Bible passages that track the wheels starting to turn in Jesus’ life and ministry.
So I want to emphasize in this season of beginnings that in every one of the gospels, the beginning of Jesus’ ministry is set with the same sequence of THREE events:
- Jesus is baptized by John the Baptist
- Then he goes into the wilderness for his trial and temptation
- From there, Jesus still doesn’t begin his ministry without first doing one more thing: he calls disciples to join him in the work he’s about to do.
So, he was affirmed in identity and inaugurated for his work in the world with his baptism. His temptation experience prepared him for his ministry, and before he did anything else!—he called people to join him in his work.
The third part of that sequence is our emphasis today – Jesus calling disciples before his work even begins – this biblical sequence means that when it comes to the work Jesus came to do…he’s not going to do it alone. Serving and loving the neighbor is not going to happen in this world without us.
Jesus chooses, in every gospel, to enact his loving work in the world with and through his disciples. If we get nothing else from today, I hope it is that – that the work of the kingdom, the movement Jesus came to activate, is clearly not a private or solo mission for the Son of God – he calls disciples.
His followers are SO important to enacting the mission, that, again, he doesn’t begin until he’s called people to join him. This means each and every one of you, every one of us, is vital to the work of God’s mission.
On that note, I want to quickly dispel a common myth about this work of God. All too often people are misled to believe or assume that doing God’s work is reserved for a select few. In other words, it is a common misunderstanding that doing God’s work is something only clergy do, that only pastors, church staff, or bishops do.
For instance, people have literally said the following things to me about being a pastor.
I remember one message I received after my I began to serve my first parish, “Congrats on becoming a man of God!,” they wrote.
And here’s what a family friend often asks me: “How’s the Lord’s work, reverend?”
These are all really well-intentioned things that people say to me, and I cherish the love behind them, and…and…they’re grounded in a narrow view of who Jesus calls to join him in his work.
I didn’t become ‘a man of God’ after joining the ministry (my family and friends will assure you of that!). I was always a representative of God wherever and whoever I was, whether I like it or not. You are all always representatives/people of God.
Likewise, I didn’t begin ‘the Lord’s work’ once I became a pastor. I was always called to do the Lord’s work wherever and whoever I was, whether I like it or not. You are always called to the Lord’s work.
Joining Jesus in his work is not only reserved for those in the ministry and church work. Look at the text today! Jesus didn’t only choose to work with rabbis and prophets; rather, he called ordinary everyday people, like random fishermen on the Sea of Galilee (Matthew 4:18). So, dispel any myth that ‘God’s work’ is only done by clergy and church workers. We’re all called to it wherever and whoever we are.
To really hammer that point home, this all is an emphasis our Lutheran tradition has tried to make for 500 years. It was one of THE reasons for The Reformation!
Martin Luther spent much of his life trying to dispel the myth that God’s work is performed only by priests, and bishops, and popes. In fact, he even spent much of his life dispelling the myth that God’s work is only done within church walls.
Luther did so, particularly, in a 1520 landmark writing titled, To the Christian Nobility of the German Nation. In that writing Luther emphasized a biblical idea called ‘the priesthood of all believers.’ In unpacking that idea, Luther argued that leaders in the church are not any more special or sacred, or responsible for God’s work than any of God’s children; in fact, he maintained, each and every one of us, each and every one of you, should be called “priests.”[1] And “if we are all priests,” says Luther, “it is the duty of every [one of us] to espouse the cause of faith,”[2] wherever we are.
It is also written in a core Lutheran document that the pastoral life is “no more” a sacred calling “than the life of a farmer or an artisan.”[3]
From the Bible to Luther, and the Lutheran tradition, there is an expansive view of who is called to and responsible for God’s work in the world. That view is this: every single one of you is empowered by the Holy Spirit and created in the image of God with gifts and callings to take ownership over what God wants to do here in this world.
We are to do this wherever we are – in our homes, in our relationships and families; we are to see ourselves as agents of God’s work in our citizenship, in our schools, on our sports teams, in our careers, in our daily life – to be loving, to be kind, to tell the truth, to think of the neighbor with our every action, to be reliable, to be just.
God gives you each gifts of the Holy Spirit – things you’re good at, skills you’ve developed or that come naturally to you, and like these fishermen, God calls each of you to enact love in the world and in whatever ‘priesthoods’ you might have.
As a pastor, I am not distinctly a holy man. Called by God, as God’s beloved, we are all God’s holy people, through whom God’s work is done in the serving and loving of our neighbor – whoever and wherever we are.
…and you and I will do this imperfectly, and we will fail along the way. God knows those first disciples did throughout the rest of the gospel. But may our strength always be that God meets these mistakes and failings with mercy, raises us back up in grace, and sends us right back out there into our priesthoods. So, my friends, blessings to each of you as you are sent with all that God made you to be, to do God’s work this week, every day, wherever you are, and beyond. Amen.
[1] Martin Luther, “To the Christian Nobility of the German Nation,” in Martin Luther: Three Treatises, ed. James Atkinson, trans. Charles M. Jacobs (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1966), 21-22.
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