Sermon 2nd Sunday of Epiphany, 2013

Sermon:

Text: John 2:1-11

Grace and Peace to you from God our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ who helps us step forward filled with Christ’s good wine.

            So, I want to give you a little mental challenge. Pretend you have never read Matthew, Mark or Luke, you have only read John. You therefore know none of the birth narratives, and in fact you don’t even know Mary’s name from the text. She is always referred to as Jesus’ mother, the mother of Jesus, or by Jesus, Woman, an equivalent of Ma’am in our terminology.

            If you have only read John this is the first appearance of the Mother of Jesus, ok, I’m going to refer to her as Mary. In the gospel of John Mary’s first words are not in response to an angel telling her she will give birth to the son of God, or to Shepherds coming to worship her newborn son. They are at a Wedding Party, “They have no wine.” It’s a strange introduction to Mary. She’s not a teenage virgin giving birth to the Son of God, she’s a late middle aged women, perhaps widow, we don’t really know what happens to Joseph, he just doesn't show up in the later sections of our gospels. She is attending a wedding party along with Jesus and his disciples, and when she sees they have no wine she asks her son to do something about it.

            The party they are at is typical of a marriage feast at that time, it would probably spread over many days if not the whole week, with that long of a time the Bride and Groom are responsible for having enough for everyone the entire time. Who knows how long they still have, but the wine is out. Did they not order enough? Or did they not have enough money to get enough? Most likely they couldn’t afford it. Running out of wine is not just this little faux pas. Wine is seen not just a social lubricant in those times, it was a sign of the harvest, a sign of God’s abundance, joy and gladness. To run out before the wedding is finished is a catastrophe.

So, here we see Mary, it’s not her responsibility to be in charge of the wine, if it were us, we might just comment or whisper amongst ourselves, but she can’t stand by and let this injustice occur. So, she works to fix it, and to do so she turns to Jesus. If we take what she sings in Luke, she does what she sang she would do. She asks the Lord to fill the hungry with good things. She works to feed the needy, to care for those less privileged, to bring about justice.

Tomorrow is Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, his birthday was last week. When I think about Mary’s story in this way I am reminded of a quote of Dr. King’s. “Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.” Too often we don’t speak up when injustice is before us. It’s a lot easier to sit back, than it is to stand up. Especially in a world where most of us enjoy a large amount of privilege compared to many others.

Now, Are we going to end up in a situation like Mary’s where we can talk to Jesus and have him turn water into wine? Probably not. Or are we going to find ourselves in the situation of Martin Luther King, Jr.? He did not set out to become so involved in the Civil Rights movement. He was a new pastor in Montgomery, Alabama at Dexter Avenue Baptist Church when Rosa Parks got on a bus one day. When she refused to leave, Dr. King and a colleague E.D. Nixon formed a boycott of the busses in town. The rest went the course of History. Are we going to find ourselves in such a situation? Again probably not.

           

            But, we are all going to face a situation at some point in our lives where we witness an injustice. And it’s going to interrupt our day. Mary came to that feast to celebrate, she didn’t come there to initiate a miracle. Jesus also came to give thanks for this couple, at first he doesn’t want to help saying it’s not time. Rosa Parks was just sitting on a bus. Dr. King was just the new pastor in town put in charge of the area clergy. But, then God interrupted their lives with a call to step up against injustice. So, Mary talked, Rosa stayed seated, and Dr. King marched and spoke, and Jesus turned water into wine.

            God takes our gifts, our vocation, our daily calling, and interrupts us. Throws us situations where we cannot ignore the injustice and need in this world. And calls us to step up. And when we do, Christ turns water into wine.

            In our story, the wedding couple has nothing left, all their wine, abundance, and blessing is gone, and Jesus fills them, and not just with enough, but more than enough of the best wine. Where blessing and abundance was seemingly almost lost, Christ gives even more.

            We are called to speak up, to stand for those who cannot stand, to be the voice for the voiceless, to respond to the interruptions of our lives. And we do because God fills with abundance.

            The miracle is water to wine, but the grace is the abundance that Christ showers upon this couple, and upon us.

            Dr. King said that “Faith is taking the first step even when you can't see the whole staircase.” When we take that step to speak up when injustice is surrounding it is Christ that walks with us. It can be scary, but we do so with the knowledge that Christ watches over us. Knowing that the faith we need to overcome such injustice is given to us through Christ, who sends the Spirit to us. We can take that first step because of what Christ has done for us. We take that step towards ending injustice because in our baptism we are filled with that new, good wine of Christ’s.