By Carolyn Purden

Bishop Gene Robinson, the first openly gay priest to be ordained a bishop in the Anglican Communion, speaks to people at St. James Cathedral on Jan. 9. He spoke to a gathering of about 100 people on Jan. 9, then gave the homily at the cathedral's Sunday service on Jan. 10. Photo by Michael Hudson

As the church moved into the season of Epiphany, celebrating Christ’s baptism in the River Jordan by John the Baptist, Bishop Gene Robinson of New Hampshire talked to Toronto Anglicans about ministry.

Guest preacher at St. James’ Cathedral on the first Sunday in Epiphany (Jan. 10), Bishop Robinson said this season of the church is a time when we try to understand more clearly God’s “showing up” in our lives through the birth of Jesus.

He recalled the Gospel story of the baptism, when God spoke of Jesus as his beloved son. Immediately after, the spirit drove Jesus into the wilderness, where he engaged in an inner struggle to determine what his ministry should be.

That ministry became clear when Jesus appeared in a synagogue in Nazareth and read a scroll of the prophet Isaiah, saying that he had been anointed to bring good news to the poor, to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, and to let the oppressed go free.

In that context, Bishop Robinson asked what baptism should mean to us. Baptism is ordination, and every person baptized has an ordained ministry, he pointed out. “We must ask, ‘What are we going to do? What shape is this going to have?’”

Jesus’ ministry was to preach the good news of God and the love of God for everyone, even those on the margins of society, “the little ones,” Bishop Robinson said. But after Jesus told people this, they became angry and tried to throw him off a cliff.

Preaching the Gospel always got Jesus into trouble, Bishop Robinson said, and this should be a sign in our own lives. If we are not in trouble for preaching the Gospel, then are we really preaching the Gospel?

“We need to spend time in the wilderness and ask what our ministry is, and if it’s not getting us into trouble, why not?” he said.

God asks the church if it is going to spend time in beautiful buildings, or with the poor and marginalized, who have been told that God does not love them. “Are we going to get into trouble by advocating for them?” Bishop Robinson asked.

The greatest danger for the church, he added, is that people become admirers of Jesus, but not disciples of Jesus. Jesus has no need of admirers, but he needs disciples who will get into trouble in his name, he said. “At the end of the day, you and I need to decide whether or not we are going to be lovely middle-class admirers of Jesus, or his disciples. Which will it be?”