The diocese used to have regular clergy days where
priests and deacons and bishops would gather and
have some sort of speaker or training and some
lunch. The very first one I attended as a transitional
deacon the speaker was The Most Reverend
Katharine Jefferts Schori when she was the new
presiding bishop. The reason I thought of this is
because she told us as clergy that we were to be
“hypocrites for Christ”-meaning we were not to live
our lives in secret but openly as an example to the
congregations we serve. In today’s gospel Jesus is
calling his followers to “let your light shine before
others, so that they may see your good works and
give glory to your father in heaven.”
Of course, this event preceded Facebook where we
often present ourselves in our best light-though I
hope by sharing my often mundane activities that
people see that I am quite ordinary and
approachable. It still surprises me every timesomeone tells me they like to read my posts.
Although my daughter checks them to see if I’m alive.
Imagine if the folks depicted in Isaiah had access to
Facebook! Maybe they would expect likes and hearts
from God-and from many in the community.
Sometimes our rituals lose their meaning for us.
Fasting, worship, and even charitable acts can lose
their saltiness.
As in Isaiah: “Yet day after day they seek me and
delight to know my ways, as if they were a nation
that practiced righteousness and did not forsake the
ordinance of their God; they ask of me righteous
judgments, they delight to draw near to God. … Look,
you serve your own interest on your fast day, and
oppress all your workers. Look, you fast only to
quarrel and to fight and to strike with a wicked fist.”
And then God states what God wants from them, “Is
not this the fast that I choose: to loose the bonds of
injustice, to undo the thongs of the yoke, to let theEpiphany 5A 2026
Isaiah 58:1-12, Ps. 112:1-9, I Cor. 2:1-10, Matt. 5:13-20 3
oppressed go free, and to break every yoke? Is it not
to share your bread with the hungry, and bring the
homeless poor into your house; when you see the
naked, to cover them, and not to hide yourself from
your own kind? Then your light shall break forth like
the dawn, and your healing shall spring up quickly; …
the glory of the Lord shall be your rear guard. Then
you shall call and the Lord will answer; … you shall
be called the repairer of the breach, the restorer of
streets to live in.”
In our Camp Victory volunteer work we often speak
of “heart work” and I believe that is what Paul is
talking about in his letter to the church at Corinth. He
speaks of work and words expressed not from our
formal education, not from the wisdom that might
come with age, and not from our own talents and
abilities-but from the guiding of the Holy Spirit-heart
work. Of course, Paul had that Road to Damascus
moment where he was knocked off his horse and Godtold him all his education under Rabbi Gamaliel was
sending him down the wrong track so he had learned
to set that aside and listen until he could see again.
And, that is what Jesus is telling us-we must learn to
see and listen to things we might rather ignore. Break
the yokes, free the oppressed, and right injustice.
And, we can’t do these things alone.
Cedar put out a notice on Substack on Friday that
expressed a concern that many of us, especially
young people, have a sense of gloom and doom about
the future-and, it looks grim. And, he floats the idea
that perhaps we should start imagining something
different-what if we combine our numbers and work
for a future that is for the common good?
Then I got this post from The Reverend Cameron
Trimble-also from Substack. He quoted Thich Nhat
Hanh from Friends on the Path. “It is possible that
the next Buddha,…, will not take on any individual
form. Maybe he will take the form of a Sangha, aEpiphany 5A 2026
Isaiah 58:1-12, Ps. 112:1-9, I Cor. 2:1-10, Matt. 5:13-20 5
community practicing understanding and loving
kindness, a Sangha which practices the art of mindful
living.” I’m thinking such a community would be like
God’s ideal community described in Isaiah where “…
you shall be called the repairer of the breach, the
restorer of streets to live in.”
Cameron’s idea is that we should stop looking for
that one charismatic leader and start gathering
together to achieve one purpose-to make a society
that works for the common good rather than for the
good of a few oligarchs. This society that Cedar
envisions, that Thich Nhat Hanh envisioned, would
not center on a hierarchy set up by one leader who
would dictate how and what we would do. As
Cameron wrote, “Instead, I see ordinary people
stepping toward one another around shared values:
dignity, safety, accountability, care. I see neighbors
feeding one another. I see people protecting one
another. I see courage multiplying rather thanconcentrating. This is not chaos. It is coordination
born from relationship.
I recognize this pattern. I saw it at Standing Rock,
where people organized themselves around shared
responsibility rather than authority, I saw it in the
Women’s March, when millions showed up without a
central command and discovered their collective
power. … Again and again, when people stop waiting
for permission and start trusting one another,
something ancient wakes up.
And now, in Minneapolis and other cities, that
awakening has found its voice in song.
Powerful protest songs are rising from these streets
…
We are not afraid, we are not afraid.
We will live for liberation
Cuz we know why we were made.
That is not performance. That is testimony.”Epiphany 5A 2026
Isaiah 58:1-12, Ps. 112:1-9, I Cor. 2:1-10, Matt. 5:13-20 7
Cameron continues, “Songs like these do something
speeches cannot. They move through the body. They
remind people of who they are when fear tries to
shrink them. They bind strangers together in rhythm
and breath. When people sing in moments like this,
they are not expressing hope. They are practicing it.
… the language of resurrection begins to feel less
symbolic.
Resurrection is not primarily about a body returning
from death. It is about life refusing to end where
power declares it should. It is about continuity that
survives violence.”
When one thinks of those original followers of Jesus
and how they carried on the light after Jesus’s death
and resurrection-they refused to bow down to power
that told them Jesus’s ministry should end. They
were guided by the Holy Spirit and Christ’s example
to shine their lights in the world. They fed the
hungry, bound up the wounds of the sick, housed thepoor, and became a community that cared for one
another and the world around them.
Anne Grimm was my friend and she always had this
tag on her emails:
For the cause that lacks assistance
For the future in the distance
For the wrong that needs resistance
And the good that I can do.
We don’t have to hide what we do. We can be
hypocrites for Christ.
We can be that community, that light in the world.