First Lesson: Isaiah 62: 1-5 Responsive Reading: Psalm 36: 5-10 Second Lesson: 1 Corinthians 12: 1-11 Gospel Lesson: John 2: 1-11 Grace and Peace from Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ,
Last Sunday afternoon, I was sitting in Minneapolis in six below weather for upwards of three hours. Twenty- some seconds left in the game, and it looked like everything would soon come to fruition as Vikings kicker Blair Walsh lined up to probably win the game. Disaster soon strikes as Walsh misses a kick that kickers make 99% percent of the time. The Lord’s name was invoked last Sunday in my presence, only the words spoken were not words of praise. Leaving the stadium and walking back to the car, I heard a barrage of cuss words that will not be topped in the next year no matter where I go or who I see. Hope and celebration had quickly turned to nastiest of pessimism. This week, at confirmation, I had kids who have grown up in Minnesota tell me how they knew that he was going to miss that kick because they were the Vikings. Was the outcome disappointing? Yes. Did I sit at my seat with my hands held on my head in silence for several minutes? Sure. But in the midst of a mere Football game came a sign of hope[1]. The hope came from a room of 1st graders at Northpoint Elementary in Blaine. The teacher saw a mortal man who cried after the game on Sunday struggling before the world. So she assigned her student’s letters as a way to teach about empathy and forgiveness. One student wrote “Dear Blair Walsh, I know that it can be hard to get through things that are sad. But you have to try and try again. Everyone makes mistakes sometimes. One time I made a mistake when I was doing a cartwheel. I felt embarrassed. You can still help the Vikings win the Super Bowl next year. Your Fan, Sophia Doffin.” PS. You are the best kicker that I know[2]. The rest of the story is Blair Walsh this week visited that classroom of first graders, because they were will sticking by him in not only the ups, but also the downs of life. Whenever we proclaim grace whether we are in first grade or nearing one-hundred, we ultimately bring people hope. The tale of Blair Walsh and the first-graders brings us to Today’s Gospel. Today’s Gospel lesson is another story about bringing grace and hope in a time of despair. Our lesson comes to us from the very beginning of Jesus’ ministry as he performs his first miracle at the Wedding at Cana[3]. I want everyone this morning to reflect upon a few different things regarding this story. Point One: Where Jesus performed his first miracle. Cana was a small village. Archaeologists even today debate Cana’s location because of its puny size. Galilee the part of Israel where the miracle was performed would have been known as a backwoods/hick outpost. There was nothing extraordinary about this wedding. The wedding probably took place at a non-extraordinary venue like the Reunion Hall. We don’t even know the names of the people getting married because they weren’t in all probability either rich or powerful. The crowd at this wedding was made up of normal people. The people gathered on this day had seen God act only a certain way in the previous generations. They assume God was doing big things somewhere other then a wedding in their rinky-dink little town of Cana. They assumed God was only going to act in a far, away glamorous place like Jerusalem. They assumed that God might only act in the lives of the rich, the young, and the powerful. God had different ideas though as he went to the wedding on this day. The thing about weddings in Jesus’ day is that food and wine were served by a pecking order[4]. The best guests got the best wine. And on this day, the wine ran out. The people assumed that it was time to go home. Jesus had different plans though as he asked for ordinary jars of water so that he may turn them into the finest wine that these guests were ever going to receive. Point two: Jesus didn’t want to initially act. Jesus proclaims “My time has not yet come”. My belief is that Jesus had every intention of acting. He waited for someone to set the process in motion. Mary refuses to sit ideally by on the sidelines. The role Mary plays in this story is quite important. Mary was bold in this story. Mary stepped out. Mary risked rejection. Mary risked getting nowhere. Mary risked failure. Mary risked frustration. Mary risked banging her head against the wall. Mary realized something important about outreach though that it has the potential to change not only your life, but the lives of those around you. I have a friend from seminary named that I’ll call Ted. People didn’t always know what to make of Ted. Ted would get a bit rowdy from time to time. Ted was no stranger to getting embarrassed. People would often talk about Ted because of it. Ted goes through life not caring what other people think about him. Ted believes that what he has was worth selling. Eventually a girl comes to Luther Seminary that I’ll call Rebecca. Every guy at Luther Seminary wanted to date Rebecca. Rebecca was the total package: pretty, smart, and personable. Ted initially asks Rebecca out and gets nowhere. People would tell Rebecca all sorts of reasons to stay away from Ted. Ted remained calm because he believed himself to be a great catch. Rebecca eventually says “yes” to Ted. They get married and are both pastors in SW Minnesota. Think of how much Ted would have missed out on, if he embraced the defeatist attitude that everyone thought that he should embrace. Think how much we might miss out on in life if only assume things will go like they’ve gone before. Mary had never seen Jesus turn water into wine before this wedding, but this wasn’t going to stop her from asking. How might God be acting? What can we possibly do? These are the questions that come before us on this day? I’ve been in the news a bit as of late. Let me tell you what happened. Peggi Potter upon hearing about the idle at Northshore Mining wanted to act. The reality of mining is that it affects everyone who lives here even beyond those who work down there, it affects those who contract with the mine, it affects those who work with the city or the school, and it affects those who try to earn a living all over town. We all benefit from Taconite Tax. Peggi wanted to put on meals for the whole community during these uncertain times. My initial reaction was to try to say “no” because the challenge seemed way too large. I then realized that we cannot embrace the mindset of God necessarily acting like he’s always acted before. In the past few weeks, I’ve heard plenty of objections: how it’s never been done that way before, how people don’t need our help, how we much run out of food. The thing is every one of these critics might be right. The thing is the cost of inaction is often greater than the cost of action. You can go through life free of risk never saying anything to which people may object or even leaving the house. Big changes in life, only begin with big risks. Big changes only begin when we realize that God might not always act in our lives like he has before[5]. What the Wedding at Cana shows us is that wine doesn’t necessarily run out. How God’s grace is never going to be ordinary or occur by any sort of book. If a congregation is not creating new ways to reach the community around it, it will soon cease to influence the community in which it serves. Today we begin a new year of ministry as a congregation[6]. The mindset that I want us to adopt as a congregation that we need to think of what we can possibly be, rather than what we can’t be. Each of us is getting older, many of us have longed for change that we have been unable to witness. Yet what our story reminds us is that our God will respond to the needs of his people. As we look out to the community before us, there are all sorts of people on this day longing for connection. They are longing to hear a person say that I want to be a part of “your life”. They are longing for friendship, they are longing for grace, they are longing for forgiveness. There is not one person waking up in Silver Bay this morning that doesn’t want to see their life change for the better because they encounter the Christian Gospel. There is not one person on this day that does not yearn for resurrection. There is not one person on this day who does not desire to see God turn water into wine before their very eyes. What our community needs to hear on this day is that you do not go through life alone. Our God shall work in ways that might not always be evident based on what you see on the nightly news. In our lesson for today, Jesus hour had not yet come. I do believe that our hour has not yet come. There are two ways that we can look towards the future of the congregation on this day. We can look at it through our ages, we can look at it by how many of our friends have dyed off, we can look it at through decades of decline. I know my friend Ted from Seminary wouldn’t look at it this way though. Instead we could possibly see something different. We could see a God who attends weddings. A God who creates hope in the midst of despair. It is this God who stands alongside us on this day as we receive his heavenly supper. It is this God who creates miracles every day as sinners are embraced by the power of forgiveness. It is this God who brings us hope perhaps when we least expect it like those attending that Wedding in Cana on this day. Our God is bringing about all sorts of mini-resurrections as we wait the day of final resurrection. The great hope guiding us into the year ahead is that chances to impact lives will stand before us. Think of the one person you know who longs for people to support them as they go through life. I believe that miracles will take place among us as a people in the years ahead. We cannot even begin to imagine what these miracles might look like on this day. As long as we’re breathing, we will have the chance just like Blair Walsh to “kick it again”. Our God will keep pouring out upon us “grace” upon “grace”. Water will be turned into Wine. Amen [1] Sawkar, Vinetta. “First-graders offer Vikings Kicker Blair Walsh words of encouragement”. Minneapolis Star Tribune. 13.Jan.2016. Web. Jan.14.2016 [2] Sawkar, Vinetta. “First-graders offer Vikings Kicker Blair Walsh words of encouragement.” [3] John 2:1-11 [4] Perez, Alvarez, Eliseo. “Commentary on John 2:1-11”. Working Preacher. Luther Seminary. Saint Paul, MN. 17.Jan.2016. Web. Jan.13.2016. [5] Lewis, Karoline. “Embodied Ephanies”. Working Preacher. Luther Seminary. Saint Paul, MN. 17.Jan.2016. Web. Jan.13.2016. [6] This comes from the date of the 2016 Sychar Annual Meeting. Comments are closed.
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