"Now Is The Time!" - Christ Episcopal Church

January 18, 2026: May God’s words be spoken, may God’s words be heard. Amen.

Twelve years ago tomorrow, I celebrated the Eucharist here for the first time as your Rector. It was January 19, 2014 at 10:30am. I remember it well. I knew way back then I had been called into something amazing – a new relationship with all of you. And so, twelve years ago today I stood here by God’s grace and nothing for me, and I pray for you, has been the same since. That is why the date of January 19^th at 10:30am is something I will never forget.

It’s the way it is with life altering events, right? Folks remember the day a child was born, the first date we had with our spouse (and of course the day of the wedding itself – or we better!). And, on a sadder note, the day a loved one died – their saint day, as we like to call it in the church, is a day each year that doesn’t go unnoticed.

We remember too moments that changed the country or the world – the day Pearl Harbor was attacked, WWII broke out, President Kennedy was shot, Astronaut John Glenn put his foot out onto the lunar surface, the Challenger spacecraft exploded, the 9/11 terrorist attack, and the January 6^th insurrection. And, those who were around for it remember too when the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. delivered his “Dream” speech to the thousands gathered for the March on Washington for Freedom & Jobs…and where they were when they heard the terrible news that he had been assassinated.

These moments changed us – challenged us – demanded something of us. And we were never the same from those points forward.

And so when we hear in the second part of the gospel of John read today this story of people’s first encounter with Jesus, it should not surprise us that the community that wrote this gospel noted something about it. The gospel account says “The next day John again was standing with two of his disciples, and as he watched Jesus walk by, he exclaimed, “Look, here is the Lamb of God!” The two disciples heard him say this, and they followed Jesus. When Jesus turned and saw them following, he said to them, “What are you looking for?” They said to him, “Rabbi” …where are you staying?” He said to them, “Come and see.” They came and saw where he was staying, and they remained with him that day. It was about four o’clock in the afternoon.

It was about four o’clock in the afternoon.

That’s a kinda funny thing to write down, don’t ya think? What was so special about it being 4pm? Something tells me it wasn’t the first century version of “It’s 5 o’clock somewhere.”

Clearly the community that wrote this fourth gospel knew that the lives of first disciples would be changed so much in that initial encounter with Jesus that they would never forget where they were and what time it was when it happened. That is what call does. It stops us in our tracks for a moment, and we are forever changed as we accept Christ’s invitation to come and see.

I suppose the question for each of us now is – do you recognize that moment for you and what will you do about it? Because Christ is calling us to come and see in this life altering moment for our community and in this country.

As we watch ICE agents, sent by our President only into cities that did not vote for him, terrorize people regardless of citizenship status – wounding and killing children of God as they drag them without warrants out of their homes and businesses, shatter the windows of their cars with children inside, attack those who dare to peacefully protest with tear gas, pepper spray, and flash bombs, as well as using lethal choke holds (like the one that killed George Floyd) on those they detain.

As this country fails to support those who are laying their life on the line for democracy in Ukraine, while the President imitates Putin, calling the US to invade Greenland, a sovereign territory of Denmark, and threatening NATO allies that have sent military and financial support to Greenland to prevent it.

As we read the social media comments of people who think ICE agents have a right to abuse, kill, or deport people without due process because they are “illegals,” in a land where none of us are originally from here, save those of the indigenous tribes.

As we find that our nation’s highest court, in defiance of precedent and the US Constitution, affirms the right of ICE agents to target people based on the color of their skin, their accent or the language they speak, or their place of work.

As we mourn the 32 killed by this administration ICE enforcement action in 2025, including Jean Wilson Brutus, who died while in custody at Delany Hall in Newark.

As we hear our President refer to the countries these people come from as s-hole countries, while saying that we need more people from places like Norway – translation – he wants less people of color or Asian descent and more white people.

As we continue to wait for the Department of Justice to follow the law and release the files associated with the pedophile Epstein and stop protecting anyone who was involved in this horrific human trafficking of young girls for sex.

As we hear over and over again the racist, misogynist, homophobic, and xenophobic garbage this President, his staff, and those who support him spew on a near minute by minute basis.

I could go on and on and on…it’s exhausting, isn’t it?

But in the midst of all of this – Jesus bids us to follow him as he goes to where he always stays – beside the vulnerable and afraid, alongside the oppressed and the lost. This is a pivotable moment for every one of us as we stand amid this turning point in our nation. We see, surely, what is happening. The question for us is – will be follow Jesus when he bids us to come with him?

It is a good question to consider as we celebrate the life of a man who did follow Jesus – followed him all the way to the cross – the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

King’s final Sunday sermon was at our own Episcopal cathedral in DC. In that grand pulpit of Washington National Cathedral, King said this:

“…Our experience [is] that the nation doesn’t move around questions of genuine equality […] until it is confronted massively, dramatically in terms of direct action […] I submit that nothing will be done until people of goodwill put their bodies and their souls in motion and it will be the kind, the sole force brought into being as a result of this confrontation that I believe will make the difference […] On some positions, cowardice asks the question: is it expedient? And then expedience comes along and asks the question, is it politic? Vanity asks the question, is it popular? Conscience asks the question, is it right? And there comes a time when one must take a position that is neither safe nor politic nor popular. But [one] must do it because conscience tells [them] it is right.” (https://cathedral.org/blog/today-in-cathedral-history-mlks-final-sunday-sermon/)

Folks, that time is now. Jesus’ call to us is now.

And here’s the thing – the passage in Isaiah about the prophet we heard this morning was telling us something perhaps we need to hear as we consider what Christ is asking of us. Because in no less a way as was said about the prophet Isaiah, God is saying this to each of you now: “I formed you in the womb to be my servant, and I give you as a light to the nations, that my salvation may reach to the end of the earth.” And that salvation, my friends, is the hope God has in mind for all of us – that beloved community where all are welcome, and no one is harmed.

This is who you were formed in the womb to be – God’s transformative agent, following Christ to where he abides – with the least, the last, the lonely, and the lost. This is our faith, what we committed to in baptism. And this is how we should honor the saints, like King, too.

Because if we truly want to honor people like the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., then we have to do more than attend breakfasts and recall his sermons/speeches – we must live as he lived, and be willing to die as he did.

And if we truly want to follow Jesus, we must do more than go to church, pray, and read scripture – we must live as he lived and be willing to die as he did.

This past week, the Rt. Rev. A. Robert Hirschfeld, Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of New Hampshire, put it this way:

“We are now engaged in a horrible battle that is eternal, that has gone on for millennia. […] and we are now, I believe, entering a time, a new era of martyrdom. Renee Good being the last of note of those martyrs.

New Hampshire’s own Jonathan Daniels, a man also of white privilege, stood in front of the blast of a sheriff in Haynesville, Alabama, to protect a young black teenager from a shotgun blast. He died and was martyred.

We know of the women, the Maryknoll sisters, who stood alongside the poor and the oppressed in El Salvador and were brutally raped and murdered in the name of Jesus.

[Archbishop] Oscar Romero, in a mass, called upon the death squads of El Salvador to lay down their arms or risk excommunication [and ] was martyred the next Sunday at the altar.

I have told the clergy of the Episcopal Diocese of New Hampshire that we may be entering into that same witness. And I’ve asked them to get their affairs in order—to make sure they have their wills written, because it may be that now is no longer the time for statements, but for us with our bodies to stand between the powers of this world and the most vulnerable.

And it may mean that we are going to have to act in a new way that we have never seen perhaps in our lifetime, except for these remote stories that I’ve just cited, to put our faith in the God of life, of resurrection, of a love that is stronger than death itself.” (https://www.nhepiscopal.org/blog)

Amen Bishop! Amen. “Now is no longer the time for statements, but for us with our bodies to stand between the powers of this world and the most vulnerable.”

Not everyone can do this to be sure. Those who care for others, like young children or aging parents, those who face physical, mental, or emotional challenges, and of course – the vulnerable themselves. The rest of us though – we must make a choice and it is by no means easy. Neither was it for Jesus, for Dr. King, or for any of the other martyrs of the church.

This does not mean we recklessly engage in violence, but it does mean we act not only on social media, but with our voices, our feet, our very bodies in the streets, in the halls of government, anywhere that children of God suffer – anywhere Jesus calls us to come and see.

If we do this, if we follow Jesus, then King’s words will come to be. In the end of that sermon at Washington National Cathedral, he said:

“So, however dark it is, however deep the angry feelings and the violent explosions are, I can still sing “We Shall Overcome.”

We shall overcome because the arc of the moral universe is long but it bends toward justice.

We shall overcome because Thomas Carlyle is right: “No lie can live forever.”

We shall overcome because William Cullen Bryant is right: “Truth, crushed to earth, will rise again.”

[…] With this faith, we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair the stone of hope.

With this faith, we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood.

[…] God grant that we would be participants in this newness and this magnificent development if we will, but do it. We will bring about a new day of justice and brotherhood and peace. And that day, the morning stars will sing together and the [people] of God will shout for joy.”

And so, as we enter into our thirteenth year together amid these deeply troubling times, as we consider in our hearts the path that lay before us, I leave you with this from the epistle of St. Paul we heard this morning – that you may know my deep gratitude for all that you do in the name of Jesus, and be reminded of all that you have been given by God for the work that lay ahead.:

St. Paul wrote: “I give thanks to my God always for you because of the grace of God that has been given you in Christ Jesus, for in every way you have been enriched in him, in speech and knowledge of every kind […and] He will also strengthen you to the end.”

Amen.

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