January 18, 2026
Epiphany 2
[Note: The sermon, as preached, contained an additionalword about the distinction between despair and depression.View the service at www.youtube.com/@stjohn316.]
From today’s Collect: Redeemer of Israel, you called us from before our birth to follow in your ways…
Please be seated.
The other day, I was reading a journal article by Matthew Anderson, a friend and New Testament scholar, in which he was making the point that sometimes we lose sight of the community from which Jesus came and in which he was situated. “For instance,” he says, “the evidence is that Jesus was a disciple of John the Baptist before the latter’s murder.” Never mind Jesus and our discipleship, there was already something in place about John and Jesus’ own discipleship. After all, he’s not fresh out of trade school and looking for a job. He’s 30-some years old. And he’s been doing something with all those years.
I read Anderson’s words a week or two ago, in the daysbefore last week’s story about the baptism of Jesus by John, and in the same moment as I read this morning’s gospel about Jesus’ invitation, in the presence of John, toa couple of people to follow him. Of course, Jesus was a follower of John the Baptist. After all, he adopted John’s baptism at a time when baptism, while obviously not unknown, was not typical of Jesus’ Jewish community.Moreover, baptism would become the principal sign of discipleship among Jesus’ own followers. All Christianshold that in common. Some do it with the very young as at St. John’s. Some do it with the very old like some Reformed Mennonites who only baptize when people are on their deathbed and are unlikely to sin. Some repeat baptism every time someone in their community falls out of grace as with some Wesleyans. But Baptism, however done, whenever done, is the most distinctive and recognizable action attached to the Christian community. And Jesus chose to follow John in thatregard and Jesus’ early followers chose to follow Jesusin that regard. And there would come a point, wherein typical Christians with their own rites and religiosity, would no longer look like typical Jews. For one thing, Christians baptize. Our Jewish cousins do not.
Now, what was going through my mind, was not how much Jesus was or was not into baptism, but that at one point, Jesus didn’t lead … he followed! And I’d never thought much about that. At very least, the early Christian witness was that Jesus was reared and raised and schooled within a Jewish ethos, typical of the time, but with a particular attachment to the ministry of Johnthe Baptiser. But, as Preston emphasized last Sunday, Jesus chose to be baptized by John rather than to baptize John. He could have played his cards either way. But he chose to continue in his discipleship to John rather than to break with it.
Jesus followed at least for some time before John was murdered. And the plural “us” that Preston mentioned last week, “it is proper for us to fulfill all righteousness” may have had as much to do with the special relationship of a prophet/ teacher/ mentor –whatever it was that John was to Jesus – the special bond between a prophet/teacher/ mentor … John … and his disciple/ student/follower Jesus. Jesus is speaking to John when he says“us” however big the us may have been.
Now, this whole season — the season after the Epiphany — is about the spread of the Gospel and about people following Jesus. An emphasis on God’s mission of inclusion has often characterized this season. In any event, we are now off the festival Season and into the green season. A season of emerging discipleship … of figuring out how it is that we are to follow Jesus. God has made clear God’s mission to redeem the bruised and broken places of God’s world. Our participation in God’s mission, our ministry, represents our particular form of discipleship, our particular way of following of Jesus in and for our time and generation. Not all mission fields are the same. Ours is downtown Kitchener plus or minus. And ours is people who despair.
The other day I was reading a piece by Susan Delacourt in the Toronto Star in which she quoted from a conversation she had with Bob Rae, Canada’s much esteemed and recently retired ambassador to the United Nations. Her conversation echoed a conversation between Bruce Anderson and Chantal Hébert, two of Canada’s preeminent political observers, only a couple of days earlier. In both conversations, the word “despair” bubbled to the top. And I’ve heard it since. Despair as an aspect –perhaps the preeminent aspect — of current political life. Despair. I’d never heard that before. Not in my lifetime. Not even during Covid! But in my lifetime, it’s a blip. For some of you who are younger or much younger than I, it’s more than a blip. It’s a bloody big thing right when you’re starting out! Listen…
Rae: “As Canadians, we have to recognize that when our sovereignty and our integrity of our country is being challenged, we have to remind ourselves about what we feel and how we feel about our country and why we value our solidarity, why we value our resilience, why we value how we care for one another, and why these things are important.”
Delacourt: “I told Rae that I’ve been having conversations with people who are feeling despair, who see this past week as the world falling apart.”
Rae: “You can’t let yourself get into that frame. Despair prevents you from finding solutions. Despair stops you from thinking creatively. And it really is important for people to focus on what constructively we can do together.”
Anderson set the poles of our response to the present age at despair and hope. Rae at despair and how we care for one another and what we can do together.
What we can do together, as Christians, is, first and foremost, to embrace hope and to reject despair. I mean reject despair as a place where we would want to live or to have others live. It is hard for me to think of myself as an Easter person and to accept life lived in despair. That makes no sense. It seems to me, that the Christian witness rejects that alternative. The witness to rejoice always was precisely an affirmation of hope and a rejection of despair … of capitulation to the terrible powers and principalities of his age. And the sign of a mature Chrisian faith, it seems to me, is hope. Hope mediated in how we care for one another and by the involved discipleship of Christians who work to thwart the powers which hurt God’s creation … God’s people … God’s creatures … God’s world.
Our ministry … our participation in God’s mission …always serves as one more sign of hope … one more beacon of light when darkness might otherwise prevail.
I hunch that Jesus earned some of his ministry chops as a disciple of John the Baptiser. I hunch that Jesus’ (1) deeply caring for the people he encountered and his (2) gathering of a community of followers were informed in that same milieu. Today’s Gospel connects John, Jesus and Jesus’ future disciples. Now I cannot know exactly where Jesus learned what he knew. Not as a matter of fact. I cannot know all that went into the us and the fulfillment of all righteousness which flowed between John and Jesus. What I do know is that caring for one another and working together as disciples in God’s mission serve to stave off my despair and potentially yours and that of those with whom we minister and whom we serve. God’s mission for the sake of the worldand our ministry in the world God’s loves so much: We say “yes” to hope. We trade in hope. We deal in hope. And we say “no” to despair.
Silence for reflection.
Redeemer of Israel, you called us from before our birth to follow in your ways: meet us in our searching and turn our eyes and hearts to the one who gives his life for the world. And may the church say “Amen”. Amen.
André Lavergne CWA (Pastor)
Honourary Assistant,
Church of St. John the Evangelist, Kitchener.
Angus Sinclair was appointed Director of Music of St. John the Evangelist on February 1, 2023. Having graduated in 1981 (Honours B.Mus.) in organ performance from Wilfrid Laurier University, he went on to distinguish himself as a church musician, recitalist and accompanist touring in both Canada and the UK. For over 40 years Angus has served parishes and congregations throughout Southwestern Ontario as director of music. He experiences his present appointment to St. John’s as a welcome homecoming, both spiritually and musically.
As our parish musician, he provides both support and leadership so that a variety of parish programs can find musical expression and attract participation. When our handbell choir is in season, he is one of our ringers. At parish dinners, he provides popular piano music for the guests to dine by. For both worship services and concerts, he will rehearse and accompany vocal and instrumental soloists from our congregation on piano, organ, or even accordion.
Angus Sinclair was appointed Director of Music of St. John the Evangelist on February 1, 2023. Having graduated in 1981 (Honours B.Mus.) in organ performance from Wilfrid Laurier University, he went on to distinguish himself as a church musician, recitalist and accompanist touring in both Canada and the UK. For over 40 years Angus has served parishes and congregations throughout Southwestern Ontario as director of music. He experiences his present appointment to St. John’s as a welcome homecoming, both spiritually and musically.