SECOND SUNDAY AFTER EPIPHANY – 14 January 2007

St Paul Lutheran Church, ABQ NM – The Rev. P. L. Holman

Isaiah 62:1-5, 1 Corinthians 12:1-11; John 2:1-11

“Gladden our Hearts”

Most of us have been in charge of hosting a special celebration at one time or another: a Christmas family meal, perhaps, or a birthday party or an overnight with friends.  Maybe you have a wedding coming up that occupies your time with details and logistics, or, like me, you spent a lot of time doing that in 2006.  So many things to think about, people to contact, plans to make.  And then, within say 24 hours or so, the event itself is over.

Not so for weddings like the one in Cana that Jesus attended.  Those weddings often lasted for days.  Some folks would walk for miles to come together, bringing food and drink to contribute to the festivities; yet it was up to the host to make them feel welcomed and attend to the details so that supplies were sufficient for the event. 

This time, John’s gospel tells us, the wine ran out.  Mary tells her son, who reminds her they are the guests not the hosts; then he responds anyway. 

And in these Epiphany days, the days of God-revealing light, we see Jesus responding in a marvelously spirit-filled way.  Six stone jars,

each holding enough water to fill a bathtub,

this water used for the rite of purification

becomes

through the response of Jesus

the holy gift of abundant and fine-tasting wine,

the new wine of God’s abundant grace.

Throughout the Scriptures wine, oil and grain in abundance are used as signs of God’s generosity.  The guests at Cana’s wedding are familiar with these signs.  In the blessing of wine restored, filing holy jars with beautiful wine, God meets a deeper need of the people: God reveals the sacred work being done through Jesus.  And Jesus’ “disciples believed.”  Jesus brings to the wedding a marvelous gift, a gift that lives on long after the days of this wedding celebration end: it is the gift of community created by his presence.

The Lutheran Book of Worship prayer for weddings reminds us of this marvelous gift: "Eternal God, as you gladdened the wedding in Cana of Galilee by the presence of your Son, so by his presence now bring your joy…” Weave these, your people, along with this couple whose vows you bless, weave us by your spirit and feed us by your word and strengthen us through this meal of bread and the Cana-wine we’re still drinking, to bear your light and be your body in the world even now. 

When Isaiah spoke to the people for God, he used marriage as an image for God’s covenant relationship with them.  As a young man marries, “so shall your builder marry you.”  The “you” is plural.  Our God is the One who enters into relationship not just with individuals but also with the whole community of God’s people.  In Baptism, we are called by name – first and middle only – then given a new surname: Christian.  This is not some private individual event -- that is why we celebrate baptisms in the context of worship.  We are washed into the community, the family of all God’s children and, as sisters and brothers together, are called to shine the light of Christ in the world.  As you cherish the blessings of any covenant-making celebration, daily remember your Baptism and cherish the community of the faithful with all its blessings and challenges.

In this day when abuse of alcohol is a serious societal problem that ruins property and lives, we do well to remember: it’s not about the wine.  This word from God is a story not primarily about water becoming wine but about God’s sacred abundance poured out for the world in Jesus. 

The hype of Christmas gift-giving is over for another year; the wrappings recycled and gifts stowed, put to use, or exchanged for something useful.  It’s a good time for the apostle Paul to remind us we are gifted everyday with abilities and talents to use for the common good.  These gifts are not simply for our own gain but for the building up of faith and community.  In the MESSAGE, Eugene Peterson translates the gifts of 1 Corinthians this way: “Each person is given something to do that shows who God is; everyone gets in on it, everyone benefits.”  Everyone benefits.  When we use our gifts in God-pleasing ways, when we share what gladdens our hearts, then others are gladdened and everyone benefits.

I don’t know how carefully you read the weekly bulletin, but often before the appointed readings and on page one under the name of the day, italicized comments explaining the reading or the day are offered.  Regarding the Second Day after Epiphany, our bulletin offers this: “Scenes from familiar life and landscapes of disappointment become the setting where God intends to perform miracles…” Ah yes, even among the landscapes of disappointment we are so familiar with God IS “joining the predictable with the extraordinary.”

Sometimes the occasions that reveal who God is, that reveal God’s abundance come upon us when we aren’t looking for them.  Stories you and others have shared in the aftermath of our area’s record snowstorm tell of discerning needs and offering gifts in ways that are heart-warming and show the spirit of caring that is of God.  The almost miraculous account of a teen-age boy found unharmed after being missing for years, found because some public servants were doing their job, seems almost unreal in this time when we’ve become hardened against such good news.  Paige McKenzie decided to share what a tire iron can do in the hands of an angry person to an unsuspecting individual, to share the images of her brutally beaten face in order that others might see and be motivated to become more safety-conscious; it is a decision that comes from her own faith conviction that God has given her the strength of surviving this horrid experience to work for good.  These are God-glimpses that even through the pain gladden our hearts; these are glimpses of God’s new creation happening even now in our midst. 

The witness of Martin Luther King, commemorated tomorrow, is another glimpse of God’s new creation.  King’s words are many and will continue to live long beyond the end of his earthly life, yet it’s his walk and the relationships he formed while he lived that shape how he is remembered and how he influenced our world.  He wasn’t perfect, but he had a firm foundation in faith and gifts God used at the right time to begin to dismantle the racism that cripples our nation.  There is much left to do.  King once observed, “There is a power in love that our world has not discovered yet.”  Indeed, we seem to be going the wrong direction, pursuing instead the power of weapons and war – chased by fear, perhaps, or chasing after idols that cannot speak? 

There is a power in love revealed in the opening of hands and hearts and minds…revealed in the cross and the compassion of Jesus.

One of the celebrations that I prepared for this past Christmas season was baptism of 4 year-old Indigo Gail Benton on Christmas Eve morning.  The joy with which she anticipated her baptism, her intensity as I marked her forehead with oil and declared her “sealed with the Holy Spirit and marked with the cross of Christ forever” – these were as memorable as the sight of her boldly holding her candle high for everyone to see as we welcomed her into the Lord’s family.  The other day Indigo’s godmother told me that several times in the week that followed Indigo came to her, lifted up her bangs and asked, “Can you see my cross? I can!”

Theologian Paul Tillich wrote that Christian are called to show the world God’s sacred abundance in this way: “We want to show you something we have seen and to tell you something we have heard…that here and there in the world and now and then in ourselves, lies the new creation.” 

Here and there in the world, and in us, a glimpse of the new creation can indeed be found.  Can you see it?  Will you show it?

Let us pray:

Lord Christ, as you gladdened the wedding at Cana by your presence, so gladden our hearts this day by your presence with us.  Shape us by the cross that marks us as yours, and help us shine with the light of your abundant love.  Amen