The Third Sunday after the Epiphany
January 24, 2021
Sermon by the Rev. Bernadette Hartsough
“Follow me.” Jesus speaks these words. We have heard them over and over again. This is a very familiar passage. Sometimes passages are so familiar we can look past them. We interpret them from what we have heard. Let us look at the gospel passage with fresh eyes.
Jesus calls his first disciples from the Sea of Galilee. They came from Capernaum, a town along the sea of Galilee. Call stories from God throughout the Bible, in Hebrew scripture and in the New Testament, consist of a call that changes someone’s occupation. Farmers become prophets, shepherds become kings, and in this story, fishermen become disciples.
These first disciples were not naïve, poor, uneducated, young people. We know they were part of a prosperous fishing business and that they had some education. Through the years this passage has made people uncomfortable. It has been interpreted to say that the disciples in this passage gave up their occupations and their families to follow Jesus. Simon peter, Andrew, James, and John gave up their occupations but not their families. It was unusual and disrespectful for sons to give up the family business. We know that some of these disciples like Simon Peter, did not sever ties with their families. We know that because a few verses later in this chapter, Jesus heals Simon Peter’s mother-in-law. Simon Peter was married and had a family. Simon Peter gave up his occupation. Also, in this passage we hear that Jesus called brothers. This is an indication that Jesus’s ministry may have been supported by the disciples’ families and they were involved in his ministry.
Simon Peter, Andrew, James, and John were commercial fishermen. This passage indicates that they were quite successful. They fished using large nets. They would throw out the nets and trap the fish. Throughout the Bible nets were used in biblical literature to represent trapping people. Jesus’s uses the fishing metaphor to talk about saving people. The disciples would fish for people by preaching and healing. When Jesus talks about fishing for people, it is more like a life preserver than a net. Jesus catches them before they drown. Jesus caught the disciples and Jesus catches us.
Being caught by Jesus means willingly sacrifice. For the disciples in today’s passage, they gave their occupations. For us it might mean giving up habits that prevent you from being caught by Jesus. You have to hold onto the life preserver and drop the excess baggage. It might mean surrendering our will so that our lives and our will aligns with what God wants for our lives. This may be difficult but when you do it, you are given the gift of God’s peace, presence, and strength. Once we are caught, we too catch others.
Many of the lesser saints in the church are remembered for the way in which they sacrificed, persevered, and ministered to others. Today the church remembers Rev. Florence Li Tim-Oi. We do not do the readings or collects for her because her feast day falls on a Sunday. Her story is a testimony to one who surrenders her will and her life to God.
Rev. Florence Li Tim-Oi (5 May 1907 – 26 February 1992) was the first woman to be ordained to the priesthood in the Anglican Communion. This happened on 25 January 1944 in Macau.
The details of her story are taken from the website Women’s Ordination Worldwide, and the books, Lesser Feasts and Fasts, and Holy Women, Holy Men.
Florence Li Tim-Oi was born in the fishing village of Aberdeen, Hong Kong in 1907 during a time when baby boys were preferred. Her parents were determined to challenge prejudice against girls. Their chosen name for their child means much beloved daughter.
As a young student, Li Tim-Oi joined the Anglican Church. She chose the name Florence at her baptism after Florence Nightingale.
Li-Tim-Oi began studies at Union Theological College in Canton. When she attended the ordination of a woman deacon, the presiding Chinese minister asked, ‘Here is an Englishwoman who is offering herself to serve the Church. Might there also be a Chinese woman who feels called by God to serve as a deacon?’ Li-Tim-Oi prayed and asked, ‘God would you like to send me?’
Her prayer was answered. She was ordained a deacon on Ascension Day 1941. She was given charge of an Anglican congregation in the Portuguese colony of Macao which at the time was overflowing with refugees from war-torn China. Though she was not authorized to celebrate the Eucharist (a priest had to travel from Hong Kong for this) Li-Tim-Oi ministered on a full-time basis. She tended to the physical and spiritual needs of her congregation and its neighbors. She baptized, married, and buried faithful. She gave counsel and friendship to the grieving, organized food for the hungry and kept hope and faith alive among the people desperately struggling during time of war.
The Japanese occupation of Hong Kong and of parts of China and World War II made it impossible for Anglican priests to get to neutral Macau. When a priest could no longer travel to Macau to preside at periodic celebrations of the eucharist, Hong Kong Bishop Raymond Hall asked Li-Tim-Oi to meet him in an unoccupied territory in Free China where on 25 January 1944 he ordained her a priest. She was ordained out of necessity.
He knew this was a momentous and controversial step. He knew there would eventually be resistance to her service as a priest. In his mind, he resolved that he was not ordaining Florence Li Tim-Oi but instead merely confirming what he and many others witnessed – that Li-Tim-Oi had the gift of priestly ministry and that she was already ordained by God for this service. In a letter to the Archbishop of Canterbury, William Temple, Hall explained the extraordinary act he was about to do:
“I have three Chinese priests in Hong Kong, but they cannot now get permission to go to Macao. Her work has been remarkably successful. My judgment is that it is only exceptional women who can do this kind of work. Moreover, working as a minister in charge of a congregation, Deaconess Li has developed as a man-pastor develops. ‘I’m not an advocate for the ordination of women. I am, however, determined that no prejudices should prevent the congregations committed to my care having the sacraments of the Church.’ After the war, controversy erupted over her priestly ordination. A woman priest? Li-Tim-Oi was asked to relinquish her priest’s license.
Under Maoist persecution, churches in China were closed. The Red Guards made her cut up her vestments with scissors and humiliated her in other ways. She was sent for ‘re-education.’ Along with other victims of China’s Cultural Revolution, she lived in obscurity and hardship for more than 30 years. She entered what she says was a very dark period of her life. She contemplated suicide. Then, she says, she was ‘touched by the Holy Spirit.’ She heard God speak to her and say, ‘Are you a wise woman? You are a priest!’ She knew then that God was with her and would support her always, through all of her adversity. She was sent to work on a farm where part of her assignment was to care for chickens. Her home was raided several times and her possessions taken away. Many years later, she was asked how she sustained her faith during this time, and she answered, ‘I just went up the mountain and nobody knew.’ When the curtain eventually lifted, she was granted permission near the end of her life to leave China.
In 1983, arrangements were made for her to come to Canada where she was appointed as an honorary assistant at St. John’s Chinese congregation and St. Matthew’s parish in Toronto. The Anglican Church of Canada had by this time approved the ordination of women to the priesthood. In 1984 — the 40th anniversary of her ordination– Florence Li Tim-Oi was with great joy and thanksgiving reinstated as a priest. This event was celebrated not only in Canada but also at Westminster Abbey and at Sheffield in England even though the Church of England had not yet approved the ordination of women.
From that date until her death in 1992, she exercised her priesthood with faithfulness and quiet dignity.
When the Church of England began ordaining women priests in March 1994, few people appreciated that the first Anglican woman priest in the Anglican Communion had been ordained 50 years earlier on January 25, 1944 when Florence Li Tim Oi’s priesthood was recognized by Bishop Ronald Hall in war torn Macao.
Rev. Florence Li Tim-Oi is a dramatic 20th century example of what it means to be caught by Jesus. She exemplifies unselfish behavior in ministry to others. In this long dark winter, in the midst of this pandemic, many have sacrificed time with family and friends. Many have risked their own lives to serve others. Sacrifices are hard but are a part of our discipleship. We are a people caught by Jesus. Jesus does not say it will be easy. Jesus promises to walk with us giving us the strength to persevere. Hold on.