Sermon for the 3rd Sunday of Epiphany – 22nd January 2023:: Isaiah 9, 1-4; 1 Cor 1, 10-18; Matthew 4, 12-23.

Fr Leonard Doolan – St Paul’s Athens & the Congregation in Thessaloniki.

Unity is best – division is worst. This is the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity. The ecumenical movement (loved by some loathed by others) has been motivated over the last few decades with the conviction that the gospel life, our life of faith in Christ, is best delivered for the good of the world through unity – through Christ’s church not being at loggerheads with herself. The prayer is, with Christ’s own words, ‘That they may all be one.’

The air has a strong stench of division in our current times. The United Kingdom Royal Family knows all too well the consequences of division, for example; a family broken, and very publicly; not only a family damaged by division, but truth is also a victim.

For a time there were two Popes living in the Vatican. It was apparent to everyone that these two men were, to a large degree, opposites, with each appealing to Catholics of very different outlooks. A very good film was made, called the Two Popes, and it is worth watching.

With the death of Pope Benedict it did not take long for divisions that may have been simmering to be voiced very publicly. A book has emerged by an Archbishop venting his anger against Pope Francis for dismissing him from high office and personal service. Another conservative Cardinal has emerged as a champion of conservative Catholics.

Unity is best – division worst. I have given only two current examples of division. Each of us could think of dozens of examples.

The early church in Corinth had experience of this and St. Paul has clear words – urging the believers to be ‘knit together’. His challenge to the Corinthian believers is one that resonates in every generation, and in our local churches – ‘Has Christ been divided?’

For us there is no option to follow Paul, to follow Apollos, to follow Cephas (who is Peter). We do not follow this or that Patriarch; nor this or that bishop because he or she says what we want to hear; we do not follow the Archbishop of Canterbury, nor John Wesley, nor Martin Luther, nor John Calvin. Despite all the differences between them, with things we like and dislike, we are in danger of setting up  false leaders, but there is only one who is pre-eminent.

We can only follow Christ for he, and he alone is our Lord and the foundation stone of our faith. He is God’s Word made flesh and it is his crucified and risen life into which we are baptized, and through which we participate in his divine life. Christ calls us to follow and we either respond or not – or we may more likely find some sort of compromised discipleship.

There is no compromise in our Gospel reading this morning. He who shall not be mentioned again for a while (John the Baptist – who incidentally directed people away from himself to point to Jesus , the Lamb of God), this John has been arrested. Immediately we are told that Jesus leaves his home town of Nazareth and makes his home in the fishing village of Capernaum on the shores of the Sea of Galilee.

It is a buzzing little village with all its focus on catching fish – we can imagine any fishing village on the Greek islands, or in Cornwall, or any area noted for the fishing industry.

It is here that we read of Christ calling the fishermen to follow him. Firstly we hear of Andrew and his brother Simon leaving their nets and following Christ; two strapping fishermen from the same family; to be two down would make a massive difference to their fishing business – who was left behind?

We get to know a little more about the sacrifice made by Simon (whom we know as Peter, but he is also referred to in scripture as Cephas, such as in the 1^st Letter to the Corinthians). We are told elsewhere that Jesus heals Simon’s mother-in-law from her fever. So Simon is a married man – and we might imagine that he has children who have also gathered round their sick granny’s bed.

Simon leaves all this behind – his job, his wife, and his whole family – in order to respond to the call ‘Follow me and I will make you fishers of people’. I wonder what his wife thinks of this?

Simon’s brother Andrew, the first to be called by Christ (see John 1, 40) also leaves everything behind, and not long after Jesus sees the two sons of the fisherman Zebedee, who are helping their dad to repair the nets before the next day’s fishing trip in the waters of the Sea of Galilee. They simply drop their nets, leave Zebedee to do the work alone, and follow Jesus. His boys, James and John have gone. I wonder what Zebedee thought of this?

There is not much room for compromise in the response of each of these four fishermen. It is fairly drastic commitment, just to abandon everything that is valued – home, work, family, familiarity and security.

Of course these are exemplary and outstanding people in the whole gospel story, but there is one thing that is common to the four of them, to all the 12 disciples, and to St. Paul, and to all faithful  people since. They are called into life with Christ.

It is Christ who is our unity and it is Christ who calls peoples everyone to be united in him. The moment we say, we are following this one or that one, or I’m on this side or that side, then the Christ who is one with his Father ceases to be recognized within us, and we forfeit our authentic self- identity with our Christ; for when we are divided we not only separate ourselves from others, but because it is not natural for Christians to be divided, then we separate within ourselves, and we are not at ease within ourselves – we are at a disease.  Unity in Christ is so essential to our own integrity and well-being – individually and throughout Christ’s church.

This is why this Week of Prayer for Christian Unity cannot just be left to those who are enthusiastic ecumenists. Unity must be a constant search by all of us – it touches all of us – recognizing different traditions, opinions, perceptions, but recognizing that our common point of unity is Christ himself, the pioneer and perfector of our faith (Hebrews 12, 2)

It is Christ’s prayer to the Father, ‘that they may be one, as we are one.’ (John 17, 11).

Amen.