In our creeds we claim to be an apostolic church, that is, a church founded on the apostles. This matters because Jesus left us no writings or no sermons except as remembered by the apostles. In other words, if it weren’t for the apostles we wouldn’t know Jesus. The apostles were called by Jesus. He appointed Twelve, whom he also named Apostles, that they might be with him and he might send them forth to preach and to have authority to drive out demons. We tend to focus on the preaching part of their ministry but the gospel is clear that they had two other roles: accompaniment with Jesus and driving out demons. Since we are an apostolic church we also share all three roles. We are certainly to proclaim the good news of Jesus but we are also to accompany him which he told us would be by seeing him in “the least of the brothers and sisters.” We also must drive the demons of injustice, hatred, inequality, racism, division to be apostles in truth.
