Isaiah 62:1-5
Psalm 36:5-10
1 Corinthians 12:1-11
John 2:1-11
May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts
be acceptable to you, O Lord, our rock and our redeemer. Amen.
Beginning on Christmas Eve we
celebrated the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. As I said that evening,
Christmas just isn’t Christmas unless somebody reads Luke’s Christmas Story. It’s
just not Christmas without the annunciation of the angelic host to the shepherd
boys singing, “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will
toward men.”
The Epiphany story of the Magi
coming from Mark’s gospel is also one of the great narratives of scripture. The
Wise Men came guided by the star in the east. They came to worship the Lord.
They didn’t quite know where they were going so they violated “guy code” and
stopped to ask for directions. Then again King Herod didn’t know either, so he
consulted his people and got them the directions.
There is something startling about
these stories. I mentioned this about the shepherds, but I missed this point
about the Magi—neither of these parties was particularly welcome in the world
of the babe who is Jesus of Nazareth.
The shepherd boys were all but
expendable. They were supposed to stand in the gateway of the sheep pens to
fend off predators. If the wolf or the lion got to the boy it was a shame, it
they got to the sheep it was worse. They were dirty little boys. They were the
bottom of the society’s structure. They were the least in the community.
At least the shepherd boys were a
part of the community, the Magi didn’t have that. They were gentiles. You know,
the folks Paul called “the pagans who were led astray to mute idols.” This
sentence, this fact, this truth didn’t even cross my mind until a pastor friend
from St. Mark’s United Methodist here in Marshall shared those very words with
me. The Magi were gentiles. So as far as social standing goes, as low as the
boys were in the social structure, at least they were in the social structure.
These Magi, these wise men, these unclean foreigners who came to worship the
King of the Jews were not just outsiders; they were the representatives of the ultimate
outsiders.
Whether by the angelic host or the
star in the skies, it is the outsiders who receive the revelation that God is
doing something new. It is the least amongst the people of the world, the
children and the gentiles, who respond when the call is made. It is the
outsiders who come to worship Jesus. It is those who receive the call, respond
to the call and worship him that Jesus welcomes.
The events of our gospel reading
happen on the third day, or as we would call it, about thirty years after
Epiphany. Everybody is heading to a wedding in Cana .
Jesus was invited and so were his disciples. Jesus’ mother was there too.
Weddings, the industry behind
weddings is huge. I don’t know about you, but my in my family we planned our
own weddings, all eleven of them. Marie did most (alright, all) of the planning
for our wedding. There hasn’t been a wedding here in the past two years that
has used a wedding planner either. They have all been wonderful and glorious
too. They’ve been about God and the couple and the covenant of marriage, not
the spectacle of the wedding.
Then we end up seeing the festivals
and fiascoes of weddings on television. I like to watch those shows from time
to time just to say “there but for the grace of God…” They focus on the circus
that is the event, not on the true focus of the marriage celebration. Then
again, there are real crime shows for some of these marriages. The sixty-five
year marriage is only celebrated on TV by Willard Scott and Smucker’s Jams on
The Today Show.
Weddings in these ancient of days
were spectacular events! They were glorious celebrations with a holy ceremony
as the focus. And as with many weddings in our time, the party that followed
was generally more memorable than the ceremony itself. In that way, they aren’t
so different from our weddings. There was one thing that was different, in
Jesus’ day; if you ran out of food and wine at your wedding is was a sign that
you did not know how to take care of your family, your friends, and your
community.
In our time, it would be like
getting drunk at the company picnic and making a pass at the boss’ wife,
daughter, son or worse-a combination. It’s a sign that you don’t know how to
take care of your business. You wouldn’t be able to be trusted at work anymore.
Any hope of promotion is completely out the window. You’re the shame of the
company and a laughingstock in the community.
The only real difference is back in
the day you didn’t have enough where today it’s about having too much. The
effects are the same though, you’re shunned by the people you need and care
about the most.
Everybody knew this back in the
day, so when Jesus’ mother discovered the wedding party was out of wine she
knew there was trouble in River
City
This is when the miracle story
springs to life. Jesus has the servants bring the jugs used to hold water for
the family’s ritual cleansing. He told them to fill them with water so they
filled them to the brim. He told them to take some to the banquet master and
again they did as they were told. And when the banquet master tasted the wine,
his reaction was a rave. Wine Spectator magazine would have given it a 101. It
was so good the banquet master either complemented or complained that the host
held out on the good wine serving it when nobody could appreciate it.
Now let’s look at the facts. The
banquet master didn’t know where the wine came from. Scripture tells us that. If
the banquet master didn’t know the groom sure didn’t know, he hired the banquet
master to take care of that. The guests sure didn’t know; they were just glad
to sample the best, the finest wine. So who knew? The house slaves knew.
It was the house slaves who drew
water. It was the house slaves who drew wine. It was the house slaves who knew
that everything that happened in between had nothing to do with them. They were
the only ones who knew the source of the miracle. The fullest revelation of the
miracle was made not to the groom, not to the banquet master, not even to Mary. The fullest revelation of the miracle of changing water to
wine was made to the weak and powerless house servants.
On Christmas Eve during the
children’s time I said,
Another sign that he loves children is that
as soon as he was born, the angels went and told the shepherd boys. The angel
didn’t tell the President, or Caesar the Ruler of Rome
On Epiphany I could have said something similar. Instead of
saying “the angels went and told the shepherd boys” I would have said, “only the
Wise Men responded to the sign in the skies.” Other than that it’s the same
point. Today I make that point again.
During the wedding in Cana Jesus
himself made it clear to the servants that he was doing something new in the
world. He didn’t tell the President, or Caesar. He didn’t tell the leaders of
the temple or the Session of the church. He didn’t tell the groom or the
banquet master or even his mother. He didn’t go
to anyone who most people would think is important.
With what is tantamount to a wink
and a nod he tells the slaves, the lowest, that something new is happening.
It’s the lowest of the household who know God is doing something new.
There’s one more thing that’s
important about these three bible stories; there is in each of these stories someone
with greater church status in the neighborhood when these events happen. The
people who were supposed to be getting the message either didn’t get the
message or the message they got was lost in the mail.
We don’t know if the angels made their
call to others before the shepherd boys answered. Scripture doesn’t say who
didn’t answer the call, it only says who did. As for Epiphany and the Wise Men,
guided by the most unusual star in the heavens, only these magi decided to
follow. Thousands of thousands of other folks would have seen it and said,
“Golly, that’s different” but only one group of folks decided to see what it
was all about.
Even Herod’s advisors who knew the
scripture thought nothing of it. They knew what it was all about, they even
told Herod, but they didn’t respond to the Word of the prophets they had just
read.
Today, Jesus isn’t volunteering any
information, but nobody asks either. The groom doesn’t ask the banquet master
where he got the wine and he doesn’t ask the slaves. Did Jesus have to close
their inquisitive minds miraculously or did he just figure their minds would
close on their own? Who ever looks a gift horse in the mouth? Well, if these
guys had then they would have seen something new and different and the one who
makes it new and different. Then again, it wasn’t his time yet, so for Jesus
this was just as well.
I titled this gospel interpretation
“The Scandal of the Gospel.” There are several scandals happening that we need
to be aware. The first is that Jesus makes his appearances to the poor and
oppressed. We have three examples of this truth in scripture since Christmas
Eve. Jesus appeared to the weak and poor and the humiliated. Slaves and boys
and gentiles meet the Lord. Jesus shows himself to the people who need the Lord
the most.
This first truth lines us up for
the second even harder truth, often people who are supposed to see Jesus first
don’t. It may be for any number of a million reasons, but here is the best: The
people who are doing just fine have often quit looking for Jesus. It’s human
nature that when things are going good we quit looking. People begin to think
they can do it on their own.
Some people quit looking for God
because they’re doing fine on their own. Isaiah knows and understands this. He
also warns us in 30:1,
Woe
to those who go down to Egypt
who rely on horses,
who
trust in the multitude of their chariots
and in the great strength of their horsemen,
but
do not look to the Holy One of Israel ,
or seek help from the Lord.
Woe to those who rely on themselves and their stuff. Instead
we are called to respond to the Lord our God, and when we do we will see the
first verse from our Old Testament reading:
For
Zion
for Jerusalem
till
her vindication shines out like the dawn,
her salvation like a blazing torch.
Only when we rely on God for our vindication, only when for the
world’s sake we cry out to the Lord, only when we do these things will our
salvation burn like the dawn, like a blazing torch.
Still, there is one more scandal we
need to remember; a scandal so ripe that it was the greatest controversy of the
ancient church. Jesus came, fully human and fully divine-these qualities
distinct yet inseparable from one another-he came to show us the way. It is up
to us to know just how poor we are. Only then might we stop relying on
ourselves and rely on the Lord our God. It’s not our boot straps; it’s the
thong of the sandal we are not worthy to untie. Now that’s a scandal.
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