Second Sunday after the Epiphany (C),
January 20, 2019

O God of the servants, grant us the strength, the wisdom and the courage to seek always and everywhere after truth, come when it may, and cost what it will.

This morning we have before us a scripture passage from the first testament, that lies at the very heart of the part of Isaiah that gets called “third Isaiah.” Your land shall be married – so shall your God rejoice in you. The land shall be called Beulah – the Hebrew word for “married to” means “properly governed” or “valued and cared about” (they all mean the same – here is a Biblical definition of marriage for you to cite if that ever comes up in your conversations about heteronormative monogamy! Or does that only come up in my conversations?) Beulah Land or properly governed land, or valued and cared about land, here, is about encouraging people to rebuild what has been utterly devastated – in this case, the devastated city of Jerusalem, the city of peace. The people are crying out in fear and pain, feeling utterly forsaken. Isaiah’s message to them is about rebuilding hope and about creating signs or signals of hope for others. And it lies at the very heart of a part of scripture that contains radical proposals for an inclusive community – it’s a treatise written to defend an inclusive and expansive group against the actions of those who wanted to strictly limit the access and benefits of the community. Every three years, when this passage gets read in church, I think, “oh we need to hear this now more than ever.”

We also have before us the Apostle Paul’s reminder to the Corinthians, that everybody’s different –everyone has gifts and services and activities given by the spirit. The people in the church in Corinth must have been arguing about who had bonafide spiritual gifts, services and activities and who did not. (Can you imagine??) Paul essentially says we are all “clothed with the garments of salvation and arrayed with robes of righteousness, adorned and bejeweled like those who are valued and cared about,” which is to say “married” in the biblical sense. (Perhaps you recognize those words from our motet this morning, also from the end of Isaiah.) The real test of gifts from God, according to the Apostle Paul, is whether our gifts and services and activities are used for the common good. That’s how you know if a gift is from God – you know not by its beauty or extravagance or even its timing – you know by whether it is being offered for the common good. Whatever gift, whatever service, whatever activity used for the common good is from God.

And then we have the story from the Gospel of John. Jesus and his mother and friends at a marriage feast that has run out of one of the principal ingredients of a celebration! But before we look at what is before us, I want to mention what is not before us. For starters, whatever happened on the first and second days is not before us. According to the Gospel of John, the first day of Jesus’ ministry began the day after he was baptized, Jesus invited Andrew and Peter to follow him. On the second day of Jesus’ ministry, he recruited Philip and Philip recruited Nathanael and they all headed to Galilee. We are now at the third day. What does “on the third day” remind you of? Yes. It’s curious because the Gospel of John never uses “on the third day” again in his Gospel.[1]

What else is not here? The name of Jesus’ mother. John the Evangelist never refers to her name. Not at the wedding, not when his family tries to fetch him out of concern for his wellbeing, not at the cross. Also, the word, “woman” could be translated, “ma’am” and it would sound a lot nicer. I know Jesus was often cranky, but I don’t necessarily think he was being so rude to his mother. On the other hand, he isn’t calling her “Mom” here. And another thing: why was it okay for Jesus’ mother to be giving directions to the servants at this wedding? And wait: where is the bride? Finally, all kidding aside, what is not here is the word for miracle. In the second testament, the word for miracle has to do with power and ability. The word for sign has to do with signal, indication, distinguishing mark, even warning. Whatever Jesus did here was a sign and not a miracle according to John.

You should know that many of my colleagues poke fun at preachers like me, comparing and contrasting conflicting biblical narratives and mining for bits of gold in the ancient languages of scripture during my sermons. In fairness, I can see why – they’re trying to tighten things up and I’m pulling on all the loose threads to see where they lead. I’m just not as invested in Christian tidiness when it comes to dogma. I don’t think it has served the common good. Here’s where some of the loose threads lead me (in this reading anyway).

The first thing Jesus did after he was baptized, according to the Gospel of John, was not to head into the desert alone for 40 days to be tempted by Satan, but to gather at least four people who wanted to learn from him and they all went to a wedding celebration (to Beulah Land). They didn’t first go on a planning retreat to wordsmith a mission statement or a creed; they went to a party. This is the extroverted Jesus! Maybe they expected to get to work after that. When Jesus’ mother pointed out that the party was about to come to a premature end, Jesus responded that his “hour had not yet come.” That means, this is not good or right timing; he’s not ready. His mother turns to the servants and instructs them, as if to say, “well, ready or not, step up to the plate, Jesus.” And he does! Maybe that’s the first miracle: Son of God listens to his mother! Mary, and many other women in the Gospel of John, displayed the power and ability (the dunamis, the chutzpah) to challenge Jesus and to expand and increase the effectiveness and the reach of his ministry.

What happened next was wryly described by someone at our early Tuesday morning bible study this past week as “an excessive solution.” Jesus told the servants to fill six large stone jars used for washing with water. That must have taken a while. These were jars that held what we would measure as 20-30 gallons a piece. Who knows how long it took to retrieve and haul 120-180 gallons of water. When the jars were filled up to the brim, Jesus told the servants to draw some out and take it to the head of the dining area (aka the chief steward). When she tasted it (why not she?), she went to the bridegroom to remark about the breach of wine-serving protocol, wondering where the good wine had come from. John the Evangelist adds an aside. Only the servants knew where the good wine had come from. Then, practically in passing, the story ends with: Jesus did this, the first of his signs, in Cana of Galilee, and revealed his glory, and his disciples placed their confidence in him, or gave him credit.  

The loose threads lead me to some Gospel lesson takeaways and maybe they can become sermon takeaways: 1) With God’s help, and our cooperation, scarcity can be turned into abundance, whether or not it is a good time for us, whether or not we are ready. 2) Honor your mother by listening to her, even if you think she’s wrong. In fact, honor women by listening to them in general. 3) If you’re not sure how mysterious wonderful things happen, ask the folks who are serving. At the end of John’s Gospel, Jesus’ tells his disciples that he no longer calls them servants, but friends. 4) When you see signs (gifts, services, activities) that are pointing to the common good, give credit (and thanks) to Jesus or to the Holy One.

Order of St. Benedict Sister, Joan Chittister, has a new book coming out this spring called, The Time is Now: A Call to Uncommon Courage. In it, she writes, “It is that steadfast, unyielding, courageous commitment to the eternal Word of God while the world spins around it, making God’s Word – Love—the center, the axle, the standard of everything the faithful do in the midst of the storm of change that engulfs us as we go.” As we navigate this anxious, angering, exhausting time of failing government and widespread devastation, we are being called to step up our response as Jesus’ body in the world, ready or not, because there is much work to be done. As a church, as a community, we are being pressed to action in areas that, at first glance, do not seem like our concern or for which we are not ready. We are being called to demonstrate vision and compassion, using our gifts, services, and activities for the common good and having confidence in and giving credit to Jesus for signaling or pointing the Way. We are the servants – the friends – called to participate in excessive solutions in the face of scarcity, called to bring an abundance of Love.

1. Thanks to D. Mark Davis for pointing this out in his blog www.leftbehindandlovingit.blogspot.com. “On the third day” is a sign, a signal for something spectacular and real!
2. Joan Chittister, OSB, The Time is Now: A Call to Uncommon Courage (New York: Convergent Books, 2019), p.20.

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