Sermon for the Third Sunday after the Epiphany (January 25, 2026)
Transcript
This transcript was generated by YouTube AI and edited for clarity.
There's a prayer in our prayer book that we often pray on the 4th of July—the prayer for heroic service.
In this prayer we thank God for the brave men and women of this country who, in the day of decision, laid down their lives and ventured much for the liberties we now enjoy.
And in this prayer, we ask God to give us the grace and the power to continue their legacy and to live according to their example.
When we speak of brave men and women—brave human beings, brave people who ventured much for the liberties we now enjoy—we are not speaking only of our armed forces. We are also speaking of patriots, protesters, resistors, teachers, parents, nurses, and clergy.
Human beings everywhere who find themselves in a day of decision, and who, by the grace of God, are willing—or, if not ready, are feeling the power of God within them even now, making them ready to venture whatever must be ventured for the liberties their children ought to enjoy.
Jesus said, “There is no greater love than this, that a human being lay down their life for their friends.”
And then he looked at his disciples at the table and said, “I call you friends.”
When we hear Jesus say this, we learn what love really looks like: offering ourselves—whoever we are and whoever God made us to be.
What love truly requires is that we give whatever is within us and whatever it is that we are, knowing that it is a gift from God, so that others might live and have life abundantly.
And when Jesus speaks of laying down our lives for our friends, remember this is the Jesus who, when asked, “Who is my neighbor?” told the story of a man who helped those the world told him were his enemies—the Good Samaritan. Who was a neighbor to the wounded man? The one who acted like a neighbor.
So who are my friends? Whoever God has given into my care.
Jesus calls the whole world friends. And as his body, we do too.
This prayer speaks of a day of decision.
In today’s gospel, Jesus has such a day. His ministry—begun at his baptism, nurtured in the wilderness as he wrestled with temptation—enters its public phase when he hears that John the Baptist has been arrested.
He has a day of decision.
St. Matthew tells us that it is in this darkness—John’s arrest—that Jesus begins. And I believe it is in such darkness for many people in this country today, when we see a United States citizen killed in the streets of our cities, and we know it is wrong. We know it is evil. We know it ought not to be, because these are children of God, and they are our friends.
Alex Pretti laid down his life for a stranger who became a friend because he chose to make her one—standing up to protect her in the street. He did not know that he would lay down his life.
But Saturday, January 24th, 2026, was his day of decision.
We do not know what ours will be.
But remember this: it is worth being everything you are, and it is worth giving everything you have, for the sake of love.
Let me say that again.
Your purpose as a member of the body of Christ is to be everything that you are and to offer everything that you have for your friends.
And Jesus has called us his friends.
I ask that God bless us and keep us, protect us, strengthen us, and love us.
“Greater love has no one than this, that they lay down their lives for their friends.”
Love one another as I have loved you.
In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.
Amen.