Dear friends in Christ,
Last Sunday, we celebrated the Baptism of Our Lord Jesus Christ. This is a rich and complex feast, with many fruitful ways to approach our celebration. This year, I’m struck by how this wondrous event reveals Jesus Christ as the Savior of all. The voice from heaven was heard by everyone.
That’s not all. In the reading from Acts, we heard that the apostles in Jerusalem learned that the people of Samaria had received the Good News, so they dispatch Peter and John to offer ministry. There’s a lot to unpack here.
Let’s start with the place: Samaria. This is not a land that most Judeans would want to spend time in, let alone try to convert people to following Jesus. And yet that’s just what happened. The disciples were not afraid to embark on unfamiliar, stranger, or even hostile work. And the fruit was manifest: many people responded to the invitation to follow Jesus as Lord.
We could learn some things from this. Too often, I see our church shrinking back from challenges—an unwillingness to preach where it might be tough, a fear of the unknown, a resignation to secularism, or the simple embrace of church decline as inevitable.
Perhaps this Epiphany season, we will absorb the astonishing news: the Gospel is for all. If we are willing to be Spirit-led, the impossible becomes possible. We must not commit the sin of attempting to hoard the Good News for ourselves.
Let us rejoice that God has offered salvation to us and to all people. And then let us hasten to share that gift with the world.
Yours faithfully,
Scott Gunn
Executive Director
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