Second Sunday after the Epiphany Yr C Jan 16 2022

Second Sunday after the Epiphany Yr C Jan 16 2022

Isaiah 62:1-5, 1 Corinthians 12:1-11, John 2:1-11, Psalm 36:5-10

 

I want you parents, or grandparents, to think back to the day you sent your babies off to school. They had their brand-new backpacks stuffed with everything they needed for the day. You checked the list, you made sure. You put them on the bus, or you sent them out the door to walk to school like I did, not without a little trepidation, anxiousness, and excitement. And you said to them, “you can do it! You’re going to have a great day! I love you.” We do all we can to make sure that they know we trust them, we have confidence in them, and this is the beginning of a new part of their lives. 

 

Now imagine that’s what is happening in this story. This is the first time Jesus is out there, the very beginning of the work he is called to do, and his mother is there saying to him, “go on, I know you can do this.” She sees something in her son, and it takes her initiative to move Jesus into his ministry. She trusts him and knows this is a new part of his life. 

 

Running out of wine at weddings, and in ancient Palestine weddings went on for a week, is a major hospitality blunder. And with all that trust in him, Jesus’ mother approaches him to tell him the hosts ran out of wine. What did she see in that moment, what had she seen in her life with him thus far, what had Jesus revealed to her that would cause her to believe such a miracle was possible? How did she know that this was the time for revelation? Clearly this was a time when Mary knew. We can’t look past the humor in this story as well. His response to her, “well mom, that’s not my problem, they should have hired a better wedding planner,” or words to that effect. 

 

What is happening in this story that follows closely after John’s beginning, the Word became flesh, the light shines, and the identification of Jesus as the Lamb of God, is this: God is revealing God’s whole self, God becoming flesh, the fullness of God into humanity. And when God gets revealed, sometimes we hear joy, delight, surprise. What you see is not always what you get. The full glory of God continues to be revealed. And we might ask, what is God going to do next?

 

So what does this story show to us about this first sign in John’s gospel? John doesn’t call these miracles, very intentionally they are signs that John uses to point us to something about Jesus, a critical revelation of Jesus. There are seven of them, this, the Wedding at Cana, Healing of the Official’s Son, Healing of a Man Ill for Thirty-eight Years, Feeding of the Five Thousand, Walking on Water, Healing of the Man Blind from Birth, and Raising of Lazarus. Numbers 2-6 are followed by a dialogue in which observers try to make sense of what happened and ending with Jesus’ own interpretation of the sign. However, this first sign, and the Raising of Lazarus are just a bit different. Instead of waiting until after the sign, Jesus talks to them before the sign happens, so that they will not misconstrue the meaning. 

 

So for this sign, Jesus’ mother calling Jesus to change water into wine, John has already told us about the importance of grace, and shows us grace upon grace. This is a miracle of abundance, and it signals resurrection, and new and abundant life. And in the gospel of John, grace upon grace, abundance, new life, is about abiding in the relationship that bears fruit. Jesus’ mother abides with Jesus, witnessing Jesus’ life and death, and we are to do the same. 

 

Also, as the mother of Jesus calls out to Jesus to do something about this breach of hospitality, she pushes Jesus out into public, into his public ministry. In so doing, she pushes him out into the course of events that will end in Jesus’ crucifixion. Imagine what that costs her. We see the pain of parenting right here. She could have kept him at home, wrapped him in bubble wrap and denied a hostile world. But she didn’t. Her heart would break over and over again, and now we see the cost of following Jesus, right here. Following Jesus is filled with joy, grace, abundance, pain, heartache… these are the risks of love, this is the cost of love. Love in the flesh. Relationship is revealed in the flesh, lived out in the flesh. The next time we see Jesus’ mother in John’s gospel is at the foot of the cross. 

 

This is the kind of God we have. Once God starts doing something wonderful, God doesn’t know when to stop. Providing enough wine not for just one toast, but enough to fill six thirty-gallon jars. Enough wine to get everybody in serious trouble. In Mark the first thing Jesus does is to cast out a demon, something rather useful. But here in John, there is nothing useful about this. It is purely and simply grace, joy, and abundance. And this abundance is available to everyone, and it just keeps on getting better. That’s what John has to show us, each story shows God’s grace available to all, each story shows us God’s love and joy, available to all, and that continues on.

 

Tomorrow we turn to the celebration of Martin Luther King Jr., a faithful witness who points us to the arc of God’s kingdom. Dr. King believed that the justice, equality and freedom of the kingdom was yet to come when he said, “the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.”

 

You see, John’s gospel shows us that God’s grace just keeps going, and with Jesus, the best is yet to come. God’s kingdom would become real when God’s people participate with Jesus and do their part. For the justice of God comes when God’s people notice and speak up when there is a crisis, like Jesus’s mother did at this wedding. The equality of God comes when God’s people who know Jesus speak up that there’s another way, like Jesus’s mother did at this wedding. The freedom of God comes when God’s people get to work and gather their resources. The abundance of God comes when God’s people do what Jesus says—love your neighbor as yourself, bind up the broken-hearted, free the captive, feed the hungry, clothe the naked, and set at liberty those who are oppressed. This is what being a faithful witness looks like. 

 

With Jesus the best is yet to come—it was true at the Wedding at Cana, it was true during the Civil Rights movement, and it’s true today as we participate in bringing about God’s reign of peace and love. God calls us to pay attention to the underlying issues of justice in our community and the world, to listen to the lowly rather than powerful, and to trust in God’s abundance for all, knowing that with Jesus the best is yet to come. and that God is not done with us yet, that God still has surprises in store for us, and that God is still empowering us to know and learn and develop and create all manner of things to make this life better. God still wants joy and abundance for us. 

 

Let us go forth as faithful witness to this sign of grace, abundance, and joy, as partners in the kingdom that is, and the kingdom that is to come. Amen.