02/08/2026 ~ Fifth Sunday after the Epiphany ~ Isaiah 58:1-9a (9b-12); Psalm 112:1-9 (10); 1 Corinthians 2:1-12 (13-16); Matthew 5:13-20 — EKC VIDEO: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L2WR8GQCd6U ~ HARPSWELL TV VIDEO: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mMjxoHx6GNM

Your Light

“Is not this the fast I choose, / the fast that pleases me: / that the bonds of injustice / be removed, / undo the thongs, / the rope of the yoke! / Let those who are oppressed go free, / and break every yoke you encounter! / Share your bread / with those who are hungry,…” — Isaiah 58:6-7a.

I have said this here before: I think of the Rev. Carol Anderson, one of the first women ordained in the Episcopal Church, as one of my mentors in ministry. In a newspaper interview she was asked how people might address her: Reverend? Mother? Father? Her response: “My name is Carol.”

The interviewer pressed: shouldn’t there be some title? She said nothing has changed with who I am, what I do. I have been working in ministry for years before ordination. And I’m just a woman from New Jersey. My name is Carol. (Slight pause.)

Carol was always clear she understood ministry is simply someone is doing things to help. What had Carol already done? She had gone to the South in the 60s and worked on voter registration. Carol would be the first to say she made a small contribution to a larger effort, registered maybe a little more than a hundred people.

Carol also understood that not for centuries but for millennia many women felt called to ordained ministry while not afforded that recognition. She felt called to ordination but realized she was privileged to live in an era that allowed for it. I might add the first Congregational ordination of a woman was 1858 in Upstate New York.

Carol also felt ministry is about doing just one thing at a time, taking one step at a time. Most importantly, she understood she was… simply and just… Carol— no… big… deal. (Slight pause.)

And so it came to pass that Carol served as Rector— Rector being Episcopal talk for Settled Pastor— Rector at All Angels’ Episcopal Church on the Upper West Side of Manhattan where I was a member. And when I say Carol was a mentor, I tried to take to heart the concept that ministry is about doing one thing at a time, taking one step at a time.

And so it came to pass at that church we began to have a Sunday afternoon hearty soup luncheon for anyone who showed up. That was mostly people who lived on the street. But others came, people who lived alone and simply wanted companionship, social contact.

And so it came to pass I would arrive at church around 8:00 a.m. on a Sunday, grab a push cart, go around the corner to the world famous Zabar’s Deli and pick up their day old bread— boxes and boxes of it. They would no longer sell day old bread to the public but they let the church have it. It was good bread and we served with those Sunday soup meals.

Usually I could not hang out to help with those meals. But I could get the bread at 8:00 a.m. before the deli opened, a time when no one else was available to do it.

And so it came to pass that every Sunday afternoon members of the church fed hundreds. And so I came to pass that I understood ministry is about doing one thing at a time, taking one step at a time, a part of something larger. (Slight pause.)

We hear these words in the Scroll of the Prophet Isaiah: “Is not this the fast I choose, / the fast that pleases me: / that the bonds of injustice / be removed, / undo the thongs, / the rope of the yoke! / Let those who are oppressed go free, / and break every yoke you encounter! / Share your bread / with those who are hungry,…” (Slight pause.)

In my comments a couple of weeks ago I said we are a society that likes big. After all, our baseball championships are called a World Series. And the American football championship game is a Super Bowl. These sound like they may encompass the globe. They don’t. As I also said in those comments a couple of weeks ago, our society is used to big, thinks big, is uncomfortable with small. (Slight pause.)

In the reading from Matthew Jesus says, “You are the light of the world. No one, after lighting a lamp, puts it under the bushel basket but on the lamp-stand,….”

I suspect we moderns think of artificial illumination when we hear those words— a bright, large, intense light. So we think big about that light. But Jesus did not say, “Your light is like the Sun which breaks forth from the clouds on a dreary day.”

Jesus talks about lighting a lamp and putting it on a stand and maybe under a basket. Given that era, even without the basket, how bright would that light have been?

It would not have been bright, large or intense. But it could have been a light to the world because, as dim as it might have been compared to the Sun that small, that tiny light would help people see in the night. (Slight pause.)

To reiterate, we are addicted to big. But I think ministry is often small, one person doing what they can, where they can, when they can, as well as they can, to shine just a little bit of light.

Equally, let me address what ministry is not. Ministry is not hiding in the shadows. Ministry is not avoiding, being afraid or even embracing the night. Ministry means tackling problems.

The problems may be big. Indeed, problems may be and often are systemic, ingrained problems, so ingrained we may not even recognize them as problems— problems like not ordaining women. To be clear, ingrained problems are, by definition, big problems. And the only way to tackle something big is to start small, one step at a time. (Slight pause.)

So guess what we are doing today? We are helping out, doing ministry one can of soup at a time with our Souper Bowl Sunday soup collection. And what’s the problem we’re tackling? The big $8 million for thirty seconds problem. (Slight pause.)

Carol may have helped a little more than hundred people register to vote in her time in the South. And as those things go, that’s not a lot of people. But Carol did her part.

When I scooted around the corner from the church to Zabar’s I picked up 8 or 10 boxes of bread. It took, maybe, half an hour. As those things go, that’s not a lot of time, not a lot of effort. But the church fed hundreds every week. So yes, in the words of Isaiah, I helped, the church helped, share bread with the hungry. All I did or all I tried to do was my small part.

Ministry, you see, happens in small steps. And therefore ministry requires humility— the humility to say I am willing to do something small and not worry if it is or is not a part of something larger. It’s just ministry.

And yes, when ministry is done it is very often done in small steps. It is, hence, often not valued by our society, a society which is used to big, likes big, thinks big and is uncomfortable with small. (Slight pause.)

Confession: I may not know a lot but I know this— every time I’m tempted to think ministry is about big I remind myself of a basic truth. Ministry happens one step at a time. After all, I’m just a guy from Brooklyn so I’ve come to understand I’m just… Joe— no… big… deal. Amen.

02/08/2026
Elijah Kellogg Church, Harpswell, Maine

ENDPIECE: It is the practice of the Pastor to speak after the Closing Hymn, but before the Choral Response and Benediction. This is a précis of what was said: “There is no question about this: there are systemic problems, big problems. But I do not care who you are or how important you think you are, you cannot fix the system from the top/down. But you can help things work when you help from the bottom/up. And bottom/up is the basic definition of two things. Bottom/up is the basic definition of who we are as a church: Congregational. And bottom/up is the basic definition of ministry.”

BENEDICTION: We are commissioned by God to carry the peace of God into the world. Our words and our deeds will be used by God, for we become messengers of the Word of God in our actions. Let us recognize that the transforming power of God is forever among us. And may we love God so much, that we love nothing else too much. May we be so in awe of God that we are in awe of no one and nothing else. Amen.