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Karen Hollis | Jan 18, 2026 Epiphany 2
Truth 5:8-12 [Jesus] became a guide, at rest and at leisure. He came into their midst and spoke a teacher’s words in places of learning. Those thinking themselves wise tested him, but he reproaches them because they were empty and hated him for they were not truly wise. After all these, the little children came – those to whom knowledge of the Father belongs. When they had been strengthened, they learned about the Father’s face. They knew and they were known, they were glorified and they glorified.
Matthew 4:18-23 One day as Jesus was walking along the shore of the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers—Simon, also called Peter, and Andrew—throwing a net into the water, for they fished for a living.
Jesus called out to them, “Come, follow me, and I will show you how to fish for people!” And they left their nets at once and followed him.
A little farther up the shore he saw two other brothers, James and John, sitting in a boat with their father, Zebedee, repairing their nets. And he called them to come, too. They immediately followed him, leaving the boat and their father behind. Jesus traveled throughout the region of Galilee, teaching in the synagogues and announcing the Good News about the Kingdom.
And he healed every kind of disease and illness.
May the words of my mouth and the meditations of all our hearts be reflections of your word to us today, in Christ’s name we pray. Amen
Right away, we can see clear differences in these two gospels. Matthew presents the familiar story of Jesus’ life from a Jewish perspective, with the earliest manuscript written in Greek. Truth offers more of a summary of Jesus’ story with interpretation of his impact on others. The English version has been translated from the Coptic language, from Egypt, and is thought to be a later text than Matthew. Truth, as a whole, seems to be more of a sermon than the kind of gospels we’re familiar with. We can allow it to be what it is and engage with it.
When we looked at this text in Queer Bible Study, I noticed a cycle of thought that repeated: people have forgotten about from God, they are behaving poorly, Jesus shined a light to those in the darkness of forgetfulness, and through him, the people remembered. Throughout the gospel this pattern appears again and again in different forms and through different metaphors. According to Truth, Jesus came into their midst and spoke a teacher’s words. The words were not easy ones, so some people responded with a challenge, some were perplexed by him, and some were ready for his teaching.
Those who were ready, says the passage, came like little children – children don’t have social status and aren’t concerned about it – so these are people who have left that world behind. The text says “when they had been strengthened,” they learned about the Father’s face. That’s an interesting word, “strengthened” . . . strengthened how? Because texts like this are so new to us, there aren’t resources where I can just look up the corresponding word in Coptic. I can only look up “strengthen” in a Biblical Coptic dictionary (which luckily are available on line) and guess which Coptic word was used. Until someone gives a grad student the task of cataloguing all these words, we’ll have to do our best. Based on my research and best guess, strengthen is meant to communicate that one has been firmly set on a path, such that they can be relied upon.1 Perhaps Jesus did have a kind of curriculum or progression of teachings and practices that provided a foundation for new disciples. According to Truth, one can’t learn about the Father’s face right away, rather it’s something that one works toward, as they learn and come to embrace the path, or it could be the fruit of one’s practice.
For example, at our first centering prayer gathering, we talked through the practice of centering prayer. Seasoned and new practitioners alike begin by letting go of thoughts, one after the next, without judgement or a fuss. The busy monkey mind is met with the practice of releasing attachment to our thoughts. Sometimes, through that practice, a space where God resides simply opens before us and we can rest in God’s presence. I practiced centering prayer for 10 years before I even learned that resting in God’s presence was a possibility. In a sense, it is through practice over time that more layers, deeper layers of prayer become available to us. While the practice of centering prayer is simple, it is through this discipline of letting go and releasing attachment, that we learn about this space where we can encounter God. It’s something that no human can truly teach us, it is learning we can only deepen through practice. According to the gospel of Truth, only after we are grounded in our practice, can we learn about the Father’s face or encounter God.
Turning to Matthew’s gospel, we are introduced to Jesus’ ministry through a totally different lens, though not an inconsistent one. Rather than sermonizing, Matthew tells stories we know well. In this morning’s reading, Jesus appears on the beach, where the fishermen are fishing and mending their nets. He finds two sets of brothers and tells them to follow him. It is, of course, an honour for someone to be called by a Rabbi to follow. Most people don’t get that opportunity, so perhaps they all jump at the chance.
I also wonder why Jesus calls these particular guys. Why does he call fishermen as his first disciples. They obviously know the sea, are comfortable on the water, and have boats as a means of transportation, which are useful for a traveling ministry. A friend of mine observed once that perhaps he chose fishermen, because they were big strong guys. Jesus comes with a teaching that was going to draw crowds and crowds of people, while threatening those in power, so from the beginning perhaps he had kind of a security team . . . even if the cross was inevitable.
When I bring these texts together, it seems every moment with Jesus is a kind of teaching. As those first disciples follow him to different communities, he models for them a way of being that is different from what they’re used to. When he meets individuals, he looks beyond status and cares for them as fellow humans. He invites the disciples to leave behind their lens of social positions and try on one that sees people. They watch as Jesus is present with each individual who comes to him; they watch as each life is transformed. The disciples learn by observation – they take it all in with their senses. While some get it more easily than others, they are all on the path. They are all deconstructing the life they knew and are building a new foundation. Perhaps this simple practice of observing and processing the reality Jesus creates around him is one of the first lessons to strengthen them on the way.
While Jesus models this practice for them with other people, Jesus also fully sees the disciples, themselves. He sees beyond the muscle to their particular gifts and woundings. He welcomes their questions and their fears. He invites them to become like little children and engages them in dialogue when they bring rules and limitations from their old context to their new one. As his disciples increase in numbers and diversity, he challenges them to see beyond gender and roles, and look for the holy in each person and their call to serve.
Jesus welcomes his followers around the world and throughout time . . . to come and follow in our fullness, in our complexity, and in our process of becoming. He welcomes our stories, our identities, our longing, our deep wounds, our gifts. He invites us to come exactly as we are on a journey, that is both internal and external, and takes us deeply into our own humanity, where we find our God, who loves us beyond our wildest dreams.
1 http://www.stshenouda.org/language/bohairic-coptic-dictionary, ⲧⲁϫⲣⲟ, ⲧⲁϫⲣⲉ-, ⲧⲁϫⲣⲟ=, ⲧⲁϫⲣⲏⲟⲩⲧ