2 Epiphany C January 17, 2016
Luther Memorial Church Seattle, WA
The Rev. Julie G. Hutson
Isaiah 62: 1-5 + Psalm 36: 5-10 + 1 Cor. 12: 1-11 + John 2: 1-11
Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God who creates us, Jesus who saves us, and the Holy Spirit who is our advocate and guide. Amen.
Have you ever noticed how the wedding scenes in movies and on television are usually much less complicated than weddings are in real life? I’m thinking of the sweet scenes in Father of the Bride (both the original and the remake) and The Sound of Music and My Big Fat Greek Wedding. Well, come to think of it, even those wedding scenes are complicated by things like running from the Nazis.
It’s also true that, as the presiding pastor at weddings I am often witness to the last minute, panic inducing, behind the scenes moments. Someone forgets to the bring the rings. The flower girl is throwing up in the bathroom. The electricity in the church has been out all day and is still out. The caterers got the date wrong. The flowers were delivered to the wrong church. It’s thundering and lightning and raining buckets all over the outdoor venue that looked so lovely just moments before.
In today’s Gospel reading from John we have the story of Jesus and his mother and his disciples at a wedding feast in Cana. This is one of my favorite stories in the life of Jesus and one we hear on this Sunday in the church year, in the season of Epiphany.
The stories about Jesus in this season are designed to reveal who he is…to make known to the reader and hearer of the stories the truth of Jesus’ identity as both fully human AND fully divine. He is the Messiah. Last week, as Jesus was baptized, the Spirit descended and a voice from above said “You and my Son the Beloved. With you I am well pleased.” Jesus was revealed as Son of God, Beloved One.
And today, Jesus is wedding guest. Maybe just hanging out on the fringes of the party that followed the wedding, chatting with the disciples. And his mother approaches them. “Uh, oh….here comes your mom.” Mary breaks the news that the wine has run out.
It’s helpful for us to put some context around this wedding scene, just like it’s helpful to watch the whole movie instead of just Maria walking up the aisle toward Col. Von Trapp.
In Jesus’ day, the celebration that followed a wedding was almost as important as the wedding itself. Who was there, what was served, and the wine….the wine was critical to the celebration. There are reports of friends and neighbors providing the wine for the wedding celebrations in this time in history. So, if they had run out so soon, it could also point to an unfortunate sign of a scarcity of relationship. Or it could have just looked to all the guests like very poor planning on behalf of the families of the new couple. Or it could indicate a scarcity of resources….were they too poor to have enough wine?
Up until now, this has all been the set up for the punch line, if you will. All of this….the wedding, Mary, Jesus, the wine….it all falls into place so that eventually Jesus will be revealed as Messiah, Lord, Savior.
So it’s a little bit confusing when Jesus tells Mary that the problem of the wine is not his. He’s not going to do anything about it, he says, because, his hour has not yet come. The time is just not right.
How many of us have felt just this way? That we would do something or say something but the time is just not right.
As we celebrate the life and ministry of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. this weekend, I am reminded of a phrase he used in an essay entitled “Pilgrimage to Non Violence”. Dr. King writes about the power of God to transform the fatigue of despair into the buoyancy of hope. [1]
The power of God to transform the fatigue of despair into the buoyancy of hope.
We despair about many things. We despair over acts of terrible violence in Paris and Charleston and Umpqua and Newtown. We despair over poverty so crippling that wise elders are forced to choose between medication and meals. We despair over oppression that still pushes others to the margins because of their gender or their race or their sexuality.
Sometimes, too often, our despair is deeply personal. I can quickly scan my own community of friends this week and find the death of a child to addiction, a new cancer diagnosis, the death of a beloved grandmother, the fracture of family relationships, and the loss of a job.
In the reading from Isaiah this morning, the people of God are still grappling with their own despair. Their temple remains in ruins….all of the signs and symbols of God’s presence with them are gone…destroyed at the hands of their enemies. They feel abandoned by the very One who had promised never to forsake them. And the prophet Isaiah speaks of the promise of what will come….that the integrity of Jerusalem will shine like the dawn. The imagery in this poem is stunning in its beauty and because of the promise it holds. “You will be a garland of beauty in God’s hands, a solemn crown worn by your God. Never again will you be called Forsaken. Never again will your land be called Desolate. But you will be called My Delight Is In Her, and your Land will be called Married.”
The prophet is promising the people of Israel, of Zion, so mired in despair, that God will restore them. That God will make something new of them.
Like Dr. King, Isaiah’s words speak to the power of God to transform the fatigue of despair into the buoyancy of hope.
Beloved community, Hope is God’s default.[2]
Hope is God’s default.
God will not leave us in the ruins of our lives. God will walk with us and re-name us, so that we are no longer Forsaken or Desolate.
This is the message of the prophet Isaiah to the people of Israel. It is the message of the Psalm for this day. “Your love, O Lord, reaches to the heavens, and your faithfulness to the clouds.”[3]
And it is this promise of God’s presence with us that moves us, in the great traditions of the prophetic voices that have gone before us, to be present in the world in ways that bring light, that promote peace, and that make a way for us to move forward as a world wide community from places of despair into places of hope.
This is the story of the prophets from the Hebrew Bible….this is the story of the prophets from modernity….this is our story. A story of a God who is not about hate, who is not about keeping out the other, who is not about fear. This is the story of a God whose default is Hope. A God who transforms the fatigue of despair into the buoyancy of hope.
And this God requires that we recognize that these promises do not just magically break into the world….transformation happens because the people of God hear the word of God, believe it, and act upon it.
Dr. King lived in just this way.
Martin Luther lived in just this way.
Mother Theresa lived in just this way.
Ghandi lived in just this way.
Mary lived in just this way.
And we begin at the simplest, every day places…..by speaking truth and hope at home and at work and in our neighborhoods and by living those truths as well. By welcoming the stranger. By speaking words of hope against all of the words of fear that are flying about.
That’s when Jesus shows up at those same places – places where the despair over the lack of wine turns into the buoyancy of jars full of the finest wine. Places where the despair of the words of our time are transformed into the hopefulness that Jesus brings, this One who is fully human and yet….our Savior, our Redeemer….this One, the Divine Hope of the world.
Thanks be to God. Amen.
[1] King, Martin Luther Jr. “Pilgrimage to Nonviolence” in Strength to Love. Harper & Row. NY 1963
[2] My gratitude to The Rev. Amy Epp of Seattle Mennonite Church for this beautiful reminder.
[3] Psalm 36: 5