Sunday, January 16, 2022

Second Sunday after the Epiphany
Isaiah 62:1-5
Psalm 128
1 Corinthians 12:1-11
John 2:1-11

As a bridegroom rejoices over his bride, so your God will rejoice over you.

We have heard much in the lectionary for the past few months from the prophet Isaiah. He was addressing the exiles that had been taken so far from home, sharing God’s promises with them so that they might have hope. They were living in a strange land with strange people far from the land of their ancestors and the throne of their God. Their life in Babylon was not bad; as a matter of fact, they prospered in Babylon, thanks to God’s grace. Yet, there was always an underlying desire to go home. They were disappointed when they finally arrived in Jerusalem because they found that the city was desolate. Those who had been left behind did not have the resources to repair all that had been broken, so it was never restored from the destruction of the battle decades earlier. It must have been disappointing to return to such a sight.

God made this promise: that which is desolate today will be restored tomorrow. The promise offered a new hope, a hope that Jerusalem would once again be the city where God’s people would worship the LORD. Its beauty would shine the glory of God to the nations once again.

We inherit that promise. God baptized us into the body of Christ, a perfect machine called the Church. We are all part of that machine, with our own gifts, vocations, and opportunities. We need to stop trying to put square pegs in round holes; we need to help one another discover exactly what God intends for our lives. We try to fill holes with the first body that comes along. We embrace the willing participants but do nothing to help the others discover their place in God’s work. When we are not aware of our own spiritual gifts, we try to do things we are not designed to do.

There are tests online that can help you discover your own spiritual gifts. The tests seem ridiculously simple. One test has sixty questions that seem almost redundant. They ask the same thing in three different ways. Those questions help us to look at the gifts from different perspectives. Do we see ourselves as a teacher? Do others see us as a teacher? Is God leading us toward being a teacher? In the end, those sixty questions help us to see whether we have the desire, the gift, and the calling to teach. These questions discover the gifts which can be used in very tangible and practical ways in the ministry that you do in your congregation or in the world. They don’t seem very spiritual, but they are gifts that God has given to be used in, though, and for the church to share God’s grace.

On this particular test, the questions are statements of actions and experiences, and you are asked to rank from consistently true to rarely true. Some people think that because they do not answer consistently true on any of the questions, that they really don’t have any gifts. Some people do not even realize the things they do in the congregation are the evidence of God’s Spirit in their lives. They do tasks that seem so ordinary, so temporal, that they could not have anything to do with God. Take the cleaning lady or the administrative assistant: how can scrubbing toilets or printing bulletins glorify God?

The idea of discovering spiritual gifts can be very unnerving for some people. After all, it is easy to think that prophecy and preaching, teaching and healing are spiritual gifts, but not so easy to say the same thing about service or administration. Too many are afraid that the results will show a pastoral gift because they don’t think they could ever be a pastor. They don’t realize that the pastoral gift does not necessarily lead to ordination. A person with the pastoral gift may simply be someone who has the confidence, capability, and compassion to provide spiritual leadership and direction for individuals and congregations. Though the most obvious way of using such a gift is to become a pastor, people with the gift of pasturing might also be a study or small group leader, a new member sponsor or a counselor. I’ve even seen the gift manifested in the life and vocation of a mother.

Those who are born by the Spirit in the name of Jesus Christ our Lord are given everything necessary to do God’s work in this world. One has wisdom, another knowledge, yet another faith. All of us are bound together by the Holy Spirit and it is by His power that we have the ability to share the Gospel and meet the needs of those who are lost and perishing in this world. He calls us to provide His Word that they might hear, to bring healing to their lives, and to share His love with all who cross His path. What are your gifts? How is God calling you to serve Him in this world? At your baptism in Jesus’ name, your Father gave you everything you need to get through this life of faith. Our work is to believe in Him, and in that faith God will use you to share His message of hope and the healing that comes from it with the world. It takes us time and encouragement from others to find our place in His Kingdom, but as we grow into discipleship, we begin to see God’s hand in our lives.

God’s grace was given for you; God’s lovingkindness was manifest in Jesus Christ for each individual child of God. This gift is truly life changing. And while this gift is personal, it was given to make you part of the body of Christ. He came to make you one with Him. He sent the Holy Spirit so that we would be joined together in faith. We share in His Spirit not for our own sakes but for the sake of others. And we need one another. We can’t do it all alone. Paul writes, “Now there are diversities of gifts.” He lists nine: wisdom, knowledge, faith, healing, working of miracles, prophecy, discernment, tongues and interpretation of tongues. We are each given a portion of these gifts, a part of the whole, in good measure, to be used in acts of mercy and grace. When we combine our gifts with those of our brothers and sisters in Christ, the machine that is the Church will work as a single body. God is glorified in all our actions, no matter how inconsequential and hidden they seem. Our spiritual gifts are often given for very mundane and material purposes.

Jesus was in Cana, a place that was probably near to Nazareth. It was the home of Nathanael. Based on the information we have, we can assume that disciples that attended the wedding with Jesus were Andrew, Peter, Philip and Nathanael and possibly a fifth, perhaps the author of the gospel.

It is thought that John was the youngest of all the disciples, that he may have been little more than a boy when he began following Jesus. This is why Leonardo DaVinci painted him with such a young face and no facial hair. John was the only disciple who was at the cross with the women; perhaps his young age made him less vulnerable to arrest or suspicion. At the foot of the cross Jesus named Mary as John’s mother and John as Mary’s son. I wonder if this was just a continuation of a relationship that had been built over the three years of Jesus’ ministry. Perhaps as a young man John looked to Mary as a mother figure. When I was growing up my friends referred to each other’s mothers in such a familiar way.

That might explain why Mary is not named in the Gospel. She is only appears twice in the Gospel of John: once in the beginning and once at the end, both times as simply “the mother of Jesus.” She was there in the beginning and at the end. She was there for the first sign and the last. John made sure she bookends the story, indicating her presence throughout. The writer also never names himself, a sign of humility, and he possibly leaves Mary unnamed for the same reason. It would have diminished their close relationship just as calling my own mother by her name would devalue our mother/child relationship.

Our Gospel lesson is set at a wedding. That is another time when a person’s life changes dramatically. It isn’t quite as true for modern marriages since so many people live with their spouse for a time before the wedding, but in ages past the wedding was the moment when everything became different. The bride left her home and began living with her groom. The husband took his wife into his home, and they began a new life together. They had to learn to rely on one another, to work together, to deal with all the surprises that come as they discover all those habits and attitudes that were never revealed during the courtship. Modern couples believe that the test period will make the marriage stronger, although I’m not sure that’s proven to be true. Unfortunately, the best outcome is often that those couples realize that they can’t handle living together and they never get around to the marriage.

There’s a meme that I see regularly on the Internet. It is a photo taken in a liquor store of shelves full of wine. The sign above says “Water” and the caption says, “Jesus was here.” I’ve worked retail so I know that it is most likely that the staff was in the middle of reorganizing the store and the signs had just not yet been moved. It is funny because it reminds us of today’s Gospel lesson.

We don’t know anything about the marriage in today’s Gospel lesson; we only hear about the party. We don’t know much about the family or the couple; we don’t know why Mary was so interested in their problems. Weddings were large, festive affairs that lasted for seven days and as in all things, hospitality was extremely important. The success of the marriage feast was a matter of honor for any family. Empty wine casks would have been disastrous, and Mary knew that it would be a disappointment for both the couple and their families.

Mary wanted to help. God was an intimate and abiding part of Jesus’ life, and she had no doubt that Jesus could do something. She had seen the hand of God at work from the beginning: angels announced His coming and warned His parents of danger. She saw the miraculous signs that accompanied Him. He was knowledgeable and wise about the things of God. She remembered all these things and treasured them in her heart. She knew that He was kind and generous and that He would not allow the family to be shamed. Did she think He might produce a miracle? Perhaps she was concerned because the presence of Jesus and his disciples contributed to the shortage. Whatever her thoughts, Mary had faith. “Do whatever He tells you to do.”

She didn’t push Him; He didn’t need to answer the call. As we think about all the problems around the world, it seems very odd that this was important enough to get Jesus involved. Wine at a wedding seems so frivolous when you think about all the other miracles of Jesus. The honor of a family seems unimportant when there are people who are sick and oppressed by demons. He knew it was not yet His time. This was not His problem, and He could have simply ignored the request, but He told the servants to fill the jars. Water was not enough. Jesus knew that the problem was about something more than thirst. Mary was asking Jesus to protect the honor of the hosts.

Once the jars were filled, Jesus told them to take some to the steward. The steward was very surprised because the wine he tasted was better than anything they’d offered to that point, down to the bottom of the barrel. The party had already lasted some time and the guests were already drunk; they would not have known the difference. The gift was exceedingly generous; it may have been excessive. At least we would think so. In our day, good guests know when it is time to leave. Imagine how hard it would be to get them to go if a hundred and twenty gallons of the finest wine is flowing so freely!

Even though John does not share the Nativity story, Mary was there at the beginning in his Gospel. This story reports the first of Jesus’ signs, the first time the power of God was exhibited in His life. It is a strange sign. It is such an earthly sign; it answered a mundane and material problem. Does God really care whether we run out of wine at a wedding? In this story we see that God does indeed care about the unspiritual aspects of our lives. He cares about our reputation, about our finances, and about our happiness. We also see that Jesus cares about His mother and is willing to reveal Himself before it is time for her sake and for the sake of the family holding the wedding. We see in this story that God does not simply love us, but that He cares about us in very tangible and everyday ways.

Our scriptures this week speak of God’s abundant love and how it is manifest in our lives. The Gospel lesson seems so frivolous, the gift so outrageous. Why would God care that the host of a wedding ran out of wine, and why would He create such a fine wine? For us, the last drop of wine means it is time for the party to end, that it is time for the guests to go home. But Jesus created hundreds of gallons of wine that could last for days, a wine so fine it should have been served when the guests could still appreciate the taste. What might have been disastrous turned out to be an incredible blessing.

This was a sign of God’s abundant love for His people. He does care about the mundane needs of those who believe in Him. He cares about our financial problems. He cares about our reputation. He cares about what the world thinks of us. We see that also in the Old Testament lesson. The exiles returned to Jerusalem to find that it was desolate, destroyed. But God promised that it would be rebuilt so that the world would see that Israel had not been abandoned. For many people, life’s difficulties are proof that the God of our faith is not real or true. The nations looked at Israel with distain because they believed in a God who would abandon them. God delights in us, and He has promised that the world will see His abundant love and mercy and grace through our lives.

It is not that God wants to gift us with a bunch of material possessions to ensure our reputation, finances, or happiness. He doesn’t do it to make us appear prosperous. A lack of material possessions is not a sign that someone has fallen out of God’s grace, for there is mercy in our suffering and hope in our troubles. We see in our scriptures that God knows us so deeply that He blesses us with an extravagant generosity that honors the very core of our being. He doesn’t give us what we think we want but fills our desires with good things. He is so intimately bonded with us that He reaches our very spirits with His love and manifests it in the most miraculous and ordinary ways. He does this for the sake of the world, that they might see His grace and believe.

It is interesting that the Gospel of John uses the setting of a wedding for Jesus’ first sign. God used marriage as a parallel to His relationship with the Church. He marries us, binds us with Him in a way that is eternal, never to be separated. We are His bride and will be forever. Sadly, we try to define our relationship with God in other ways. We call Him friend, teacher, Father. These are words to can and should be used to define our relationship with Him, but they represent relationships that in this life are temporary. Friends can be separated. Students move on they often surpass their teachers’ knowledge. Even the parent/child relationship is temporary. Eventually every child must leave home to follow their own life. But the relationship as husband and wife has been defined as “until death do us part.”

The psalmist shows us what life is like when our relationships are strong. “For you will eat the labor of your hands. You will be happy, and it will be well with you. Your wife will be as a fruitful vine, in the innermost parts of your house; your children like olive plants, around your table.” This blessed life begins by loving God. “Behold, this is how the man who fears Yahweh is blessed.” Life lived in faith in the kingdom of the world is meant to mirror the life God has planned for us in kingdom of heaven. We are His wife, and we are blessed to be fruitful, to provide God’s grace to the world. We are meant to use the gifts we’ve been given to meet the needs of our neighbors. I might be given one gift, and you another, but together God will use us to bring peace and joy to the world. God’s Spirit works in and through each of us, together as one whole body.

Jesus could have done nothing for the host at the wedding banquet, but instead He was exceedingly generous. We don’t have to do anything, either, but when we’ve been given such a great gift, when we have been forgiven everything and blessed with more than we could possibly expect, how can we not let God’s generosity flow through our own lives? It might seem unimportant. It might not seem like the right time. But we never know how God might use us in a miraculous way, turning water into wine for someone, perhaps even for their honor.

Why does honor matter when there are so many in the world who are suffering? Why did God put so much importance on the honor of the family at the wedding in Cana? To honor someone is to value them and God values His people. He also values His creation, all men including those who reject God’s Word today. God gives us gifts because He wants everyone to be restored to Him. He loves the whole world enough to be merciful, to bring the exiles home, to make their world beautiful again. He values all and wants us to know peace. He has promised to make what is desolate into something beautiful. So, He calls us to use our gifts in a way that will reveal His grace so that all might turn back to Him.

There was a movie in the mid-eighties called “Brewster's Millions.” Richard Pryor played Montgomery Brewster; he was a man set to inherit $300,000,000 from his great uncle. The will had a complicated set of conditions that Brewster had to abide to receive the inheritance. He had to spend $30,000,000 in thirty days. He could not donate too much to charity or retain any assets; at the end of the thirty days, he had to be exactly where he started. The trouble was that he could not tell anyone the conditions. He had to spend foolishly while they tried to help him be responsible. He had to waste it while they tried to keep him in check. They even tried to earn him money, and in the end took up a collection to help him pay his bills. He almost lost it all because the lawyers cheated and hid some of the money so that Brewster would still have a few dollars at the last minute. They would then handle the estate and claim a hefty fee for their work. The point of the game was so that Brewster would learn how to handle his money. By the end of the thirty days, his uncle reasoned, Brewster would be so sick of money that he would be responsible with it. It worked. Brewster, who was a failed minor league baseball player before the inheritance, realized the value of the gift and began his new life with a good attitude.

Israel was exiled because their relationship with God had been broken. God used their time in Babylon to remind them of His grace, to turn them back to Him. The Church has not been much different than the people of God in the Old Testament. We have failed to live up to His expectations. Israel was a type of what was to come. We were like exiles, separated from our God by our sin, but God restored our relationship with Him through Jesus Christ and made us new. Yet, even when we are returned home, things are still desolate. Though I am forgiven, I’m still a sinner. Though I am cleansed, I am still imperfect. God is able to use our failure for His glory. What might have been disastrous turns out to be an incredible blessing.

You’ve probably seen the saying, “God at work. Please be patient, God isn’t finished with me yet!” As God’s people the Church, we are home but there’s still work to do. We are cleansed and changed and restored and made beautiful. We are built into a temple in which God is dwelling. He does this because He is delighted in us. He loves us. He wants us to be part of Him and His Kingdom. And the world sees the glory of God because He dwells in our midst.