John 2:1-11
On the third day there was a wedding in Cana of Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there. Jesus and his disciples had also been invited to the wedding. When the wine gave out, the mother of Jesus said to him, ‘They have no wine.’ And Jesus said to her, ‘Woman, what concern is that to you and to me? My hour has not yet come.’ His mother said to the servants, ‘Do whatever he tells you.’ Now standing there were six stone water-jars for the Jewish rites of purification, each holding twenty or thirty gallons. Jesus said to them, ‘Fill the jars with water.’ And they filled them up to the brim. He said to them, ‘Now draw some out, and take it to the chief steward.’ So they took it. When the steward tasted the water that had become wine, and did not know where it came from (though the servants who had drawn the water knew), the steward called the bridegroom and said to him, ‘Everyone serves the good wine first, and then the inferior wine after the guests have become drunk. But you have kept the good wine until now.’ Jesus did this, the first of his signs, in Cana of Galilee, and revealed his glory; and his disciples believed in him.
May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be pleasing in your sight, O LORD, my Rock and my Redeemer. Amen
Again the world is rocked with a natural disaster this week.
Haiti has been badly shaken and brings into focus the squalid conditions that much of the world lives in as we stare at a city that has been knocked down.
Death toll numbers are still being estimated but 140,000 people might not be too high.
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Isaiah 62: “For Zion’s sake I will not keep silent, and for Jerusalem’s sake I will not rest, until her vindication shines out like the dawn, and her salvation like a burning torch. The nations shall see your vindication, and all the kings your glory; and you shall be called by a new name that the mouth of the Lord will give.”
On first reading this I made the assumption that the “I” --- that is the person speaking ---was God... and this can be seen as God speaking to the people through the prophet Isaiah... and God will not keep silent while the suffering of the people persists.
But then it was pointed out by one of the commentators that the “I” here could also be the prophet himself. The prophet is the one who speaks on behalf of God but also carries the lament of the people to God - Sometimes demanding of God.
I’m reminded of Jeremiah’s plea “For how long Lord...” where Jeremiah demands an answer to suffering. Here it is clear that the prophet pleads with God for salvation - wholeness - to come.
So we are left with a conundrum... is it God who will not remain silent for the people in suffering? Or is it the prophet who will not remain silent?
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I’ve been asking myself this week “what if Haiti had better infrastructure?”
The same earthquake hitting any 'modern' city would not have done nearly the damage. And those buildings that did fall down would be quickly picked up and searched by advanced heavy duty equipment and hospitals would have received the wounded quickly and easily on solid and well developed roads.
If Haiti had even a descent airport the aid could all be flown in... and if they had advanced docks the ships with the aid that are floating off the coast right now could come in and unload their much needed cargo.
It would be a completely different story if Haiti wasn’t the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere.
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Isaiah further states: “You shall no more be termed Forsaken, and your land shall no more be termed Desolate; but you shall be called “My Delight Is in Her” and your land “Married.” For as a young man marries a young woman, so shall your builder marry you, and as the bridegroom rejoices over the bride, so shall your God rejoice over you.”
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It is wonderful to see the outpouring of money and concern that the world and the church have shown. Mennonite central committee, Canadian Lutheran World Relief, World Vision, the Red Cross... even the government of Peru has sent 100 tonnes of food. The world is reacting quickly with compassion.
This is the same way we treat medicine and health care... we wait till there is a major problem and then try to fix the symptoms without getting to the root.
But what if we took our ELCIC statement of being a church in "mission for others" to mean that we had to react quickly in times of disaster.
To quickly fundraise and give to CLWR and other aid agencies in times of disaster is good and “go team us”
but...
what if we also took our mission to mean that we had to ensure every place in the world was prepared for such eventualities. We could call it “Primary Economic and Infrastructure care” and instead of treating the symptoms when the major natural disaster hits, we also work diligently to ensure that all places in the world are ready for such occurrences.
This would surely be a prophetic role and we as a church would be joining with the prophet Isaiah in declaring to the world a new way of being, and pleading with God to help us make it so...
Joining Isaiah we would say “For Haiti’s sake we will not keep silent, and for Haiti’s sake we will not rest, until her vindication shines out like the dawn and her salvation like a burning torch”
This is prophetic imagination... to dream with people and God, and to demand of people and God an end to suffering and death caused by economic conditions and our own turning a blind eye to the ongoing suffering of the world. The voice of the prophet offers new identity and to those in Haiti, our response now, and after the news story fades and they rebuild must be that they are not forgotten, and that the church on earth remembers and will help in proclaiming a newness... demanding a newness from each other, and from God.
This new identity that we proclaim is rooted in the one who gives it... God.
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And I don’t intend for any to leave feeling condemned today. No... I hope that these challenging words can be heard in the Spirit of the Gospel... the good news that God has not and will not ever abandon us. God longs to give us the new identity, and walk with us towards a new reality of life abundantly.
I want us to look at our role in the world not with guilt, but with minds and eyes of a people that have been called by God to have prophetic imagination. Gathered by God and declared righteous by God in the signs of water and bread and wine we are instruments of God’s mission in the world.
We are a small church here in Edson. We are members of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada (the ELCIC) which is not that large church either - about 160,000 but, not on every Sunday.
If Grace Lutheran were to disappear tomorrow that number would go from 160,000 to 159,900. We’re small and the feeling of not making a difference in the world can paralyze us to do nothing in the world. Or... joining the prophetic imagination of Isaiah we can see that we are the kind of people in the kind of place that God acts... God is often found in the small things that point to a larger reality.
Israel was a tiny nation surrounded by great nations, and God chose them to be a light to all the nations.
Haiti is a tiny island just off the coast of the worlds only superpower and yet, it is the focus of all the news and the out pouring of all compassion and humanitarian effort.
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Next week, we’ll gather for our AGM and make the big decisions for the year... set the budget... elect the council... give some direction to the council as to what we think God wants us to be this coming year.
And so we are left with the task of listening and reacting this week.
Listening to the news about ways to help in Haiti as starvation and lack of water continue to cause suffering and death.
We listen to each other in conversation for our needs in this community.
We listen to God in Prayer. Seeking the direction we should go.
See the signs, look at our gifts and abilities, and then act. Repeat. See the signs, look at our gifts and abilities, and then act.
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Jesus attends a wedding in Cana. The land of of thieves and gentiles and, in this small out of the way place performs his first sign. John always calls what Jesus does “signs”. They all point to a larger reality.
In this case, in a small wedding where the wine is giving out, he is asked to help out. He states he has no particular reason to care about this where he says “what concern is that to you and to me?” that the wine is running out... but then at the insistence of his Mother he gives a sign to the wedding and too all of us who hear of this sign. 150 gallons of wine is created on the spot. That would be roughly 150 milk jugs of good wine brought to a small wedding so that the abundance of God can be shown.
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This is who God is... the one who cares deeply about the creation and the suffering in it as well as our autonomy to make our own decisions...
God is the one who motivates us to give when we see suffering in our world...
God is the one who gives promises and makes good on them...
God is the one who enters into human flesh and shows signs to a world that needs to know of God’s abundance...
God is the God who spoke through the prophets and now speaks to us through the Christ... using small places to make a big difference in the world.
May it be so with us... that we hear the Word, that we see the signs, that we respond with what has first been given to us.
Amen.
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