Second Sunday After Epiphany
John 2:1-11 and 10:10 I came that they may have life and that they might have it abundantly Dear Friends in Christ, This is going to be a really good story someday. (Story of Noah and Jenna’s wedding day, late start going from Siesta Key Beach to church, traffic, needing to locate and stop at Walmart for wine and beer, competing GPS voices, getting lost, and at the peak of feeling lost and late, I reached over and took Debi’s hand, urged her to stay calm, and said, “This is going to be a really good story some day!” At that point we were sort of kind of hopeful that we would find a Walmart, that we could get some not so expensive wine and middle of the road beer for the wedding and be there on time, but our hope was far from abundant. Hope Abundant is the theme of our sermon today, as we continue in our five part sermon series focused on distinctively Christian hope – what it is, what it feels like, what it looks and sounds like, what it does. The world defines hope as wishful thinking, but the church defines it as confident expectation. Even as people of faith we can stumble into what has been called a theology of scarcity, as opposed to a theology of abundance. There is hope that sort of comes and goes, some days pretty strong and other days hardly there, and then there is hope abundant, a hope that is given is in the waters of Baptism and grows the older we get and the more of life we live and especially the more time we spend with Jesus Christ, who is the very reason for the hope that is within. In today’s sermon, the first part will focus on Hope Abundant is a matter of moving from the lesser to the greater, and in the second part it’s a matter of moving from the greater to the lesser. In Part #1, we focus on what Jesus changing 120 gallons of water into wine reveals about Jesus, what it revealed about Mary, we imagine how it may have changed forever the hearts of that wedding couple, and we learn what this, the first of His signs did to the hearts of the disciples. So what do we learn about Jesus in this story. Jesus took a social blunder and turned it into a (sneak peek) of greater things to come! In Jewish custom, the formal betrothal was the legally binding act of marriage, even though the couple would still live separately for a time, often for a whole year. Then the bridegroom and his friends would go in joyful procession to the bride’s home. She and her friends would accompany them back to his home for the wedding celebration. They would party for up to a week, and then they would live together, often in the home of his parents. Running out of wine would have left the family and newlyweds embarrassed for years to come. And so Mary takes Jesus aside, tells him there is no wine, and let’s Jesus make the next move. He gently reminds her that his hour had not yet arrived, and perhaps with a twinkle in her eyes, she tells her helpers, “Just do whatever he says.” Mary knew what others would know by faith, some sooner and some later, that Jesus was the Messiah. She knew what the Old Testament prophets had predicted was coming to pass, that the day was coming when the blind would see, the deaf would hear, the mute would speak, the paralyzed would walk, the lepers would heal, and the dead would live. One could imagine her saying to those same servants later that night, “you ain’t seen nothing yet!” No doubt Mary’s confidence in her Son was (contagious). Yes, a sword would be piercing her soul, but when all the dust had settled, the salvation of souls will have been accomplished. Yes, Jesus would have to be ridiculed and yes he would have to be rejected and yes he would have to be beaten bloody and yes he would have to be crucified until he was dead and buried, but when as soon as the third day came to be, there would be a resurrection. Yes, Mary knew that it would seem to many that the forces of darkness had prevailed and there was no hope worth hanging onto, but in fact a great light had come into this world. No doubt Mary had her moments, and no doubt she had to wonder some days, but in the stillness of the night she kept on expecting that the best was yet to come. One can imagine her saying to friends and family and anybody who would listen to a woman, “you just wait, you just wait, don’t be giving up hope, you just wait and see.” And then there was the wedding couple. We don’t really know their story, but they sure had a story to tell! No doubt this wedding couple told their story (again and again) A story of how Jesus took their social blunder and turned it into a rousing success. A story of how one of their invited guests took their stone water jars set aside for Jewish rites of ceremonial washing and turned them into jars of expensive wine that has the neighbors talking 2000 years later. A story how Jesus of Nazareth had taken care of them in close up and personal kind of a way. One can imagine them telling anybody who would listen, “Let me tell you, this Jesus is like no one else, ever since He came into our marriage life hasn’t been quite the same, you keep your eyes on him, this changing of water into wine has to be a sign of greater things to come. At least six of the disciples already had their eyes on Jesus. Jesus had invited them to follow Him, and they had. They heard Him preach and they paid attention to Him teaching, and they were believing in Him. John summarizes this story in this way, “This, the first of Jesus signs, Jesus did at Cana in Galilee, and manifested his glory. And his disciples believed in him.” A better translation might be that they put their faith in him. No doubt the disciples’ faith was growing (by leaps and bounds). No doubt their faith grew when John the Baptist cried out Behold the Lamb of God who taketh away the sins of the world. No doubt their faith grew when they saw healing a man possessed by a demon and no doubt and their faith grew when he healed Peter’s mother in law, and their faith grew when he healed all kinds of sick people one evening, and no doubt their faith grew when He first forgave the paralyzed man and then made him walk, and no doubt their faith grew the day he raised from the dead the son of a widow from Nain and then He walked on water and then He raised from the dead the daughter of Jairus and then he raised from the dead Lazarus. Every one of these sneak peaks was getting them ready for that dark Friday when Jesus emptied Himself, that we might be full. That day when human hope seemed to be draining away, when in fact, this was the very hour the Triune God had been planning for. This was the hour Jesus came for. This was the hour He gave hope, and he gave it abundantly. In the hours and days and weeks and months leading up to that appointed hour, Jesus kept on giving them sneak peaks. As He did so, Mary’s confidence just kept on being contagious, the wedding couple just kept on telling their story again and again, disciples just kept on seeing the signs, hearing the truth, and believing the best was yet to come. Hope Abundant first is a matter of moving from the lesser to the greater, and in the second part it’s a matter of moving from the greater to the lesser things of life. If Jesus has already done the greater things for us, why wouldn’t we trust Him for the (lesser things?) Paul writes to the Romans about these greater things, “What then, shall we say to these things. If God is for us who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also graciously give us all things? Jesus identifies Himself in John 10 first as the door of the sheep and declares, “I have come that you may have life and have it abundantly.” Then as the Good Shepherd who lays down his life for the sheep. Christian hope is something so much greater than wishful thinking, it is expecting the promises of God to be fulfilled one day at a time and even into the future, based on historical fact. Worldly hope vs. Christian hope is the difference between just sort of surviving life and spilling over with life. The difference between a hope that sort of flickers on and off depending on the circumstances and a hope that shines bright most days and every once in a while people have to almost shade their eyes it’s so bright. The difference between hope that we pretty much keep to ourselves and a hope that just keeps showing up in our conversations and attitudes. Three lessons about the hope that keeps on showing up in way that we think and the way that we talk and the habits that we form. The first lesson comes from Mary. We know that hope has shown up and it’s spilling over when we urge one another to (“do whatever He tells you.”). Hope sounds like a dad telling his son to keep on laying down his life for his bride, even though she doesn’t seem to be appreciating anything he does. Hope looks like a mom telling her married daughter to keep on appreciating her husband, even though he falls short on a regular basis. You’ll know that Christian hope has shown up and is happening when groups of young moms of young children come together and cry together and laugh together and together they find strength to endure. Secondly, we take our cue from the couple from Cana. Hope happens when we tell the story of Jesus (again and again). Hope happens when older Christians tell younger Christians again and again how God has brought them through depressions years, has brought them through World War II years, has brought them through the 60’s, has brought them through all kinds of trouble. Christian hope has shown up when recovering alcoholics and drug addicts go to meeting after meeting and say it again and again, “Hi, my name is so and so, and I’m an alcoholic, let me tell you my story.” Hope happens when one messed up but forgiven sinner tells another messed up but forgiven sinner again and again how sweet it is that his sins have been paid for at the cross, how sweet it is that heaven is his, how sweet it is that our God specializes in new beginnings and second chances. Third, we take our cue from the master of the feast tasted the water now wine and couldn’t stop raving about it. Hope happens when we believe that the (really good wine is yet to come). Hope showed up in the flesh when Jesus Christ rose up from the dead on a bright sunny Sunday morning. Hope shows up on our lips as often as we get a taste of the forgiveness of sins at our Lord’s Table and look forward to the feast that is to come. As often as we hear that our sins are forgiven and go looking for someone to forgive, as well. As often as we are loved by God in the preaching and teaching of His Word, and go out looking for some troubled neighbor to help and befriend. As often as we make it through a day that threatened to overwhelm us, but by God’s grace, it didn’t, and then we go looking for some stressed out neighbor to encourage. Hope happens as often as we realize the good old days have not passed us by, but are yet to come. The rest of the story in Bradenton, Florida, is that we found the Walmart. By this time it was 2:30 or so, and the wedding would start in a half hour. We zipped into the store, and I found a clerk and with all kinds of urgency I asked where the liquor department was. She said, “We don’t have liquor here.” Before I could cry out or say anything, she said, “only beer and wine!” The rest of the story is that we got to the wedding in time, the ceremony was lovely, the reception was beautiful, there was plenty of wine, the loneliness of the single life was vanished by the joys of a Christian marriage, and as much as is possible here and now, they are living happily ever after. I came that they might have life, and that they might have it abundantly! Amen.
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