Rector's Sermon - Sunday, January 18, 2004

First Reading	Psalm	Epistle	Gospel
Isaiah 62:1-5	36:5-10	I Corinthians 12:1-11	John 2:1-11

    The story of Jesus turning ordinary water into fine wine was not told by Jesus, Mary, any of the disciples, or even by the steward of the feast. It is John the Gospel writer's story. John was not trying to prove that by changing water into wine, Jesus was therefore sent from God. Rather, that in the changing of water into wine, God was working through Jesus to change our lives, too, into something far fuller and more enjoyable than what we had before.

    In the story, Jesus seems distant, preoccupied and a tad rude to his mother. I suspect that is not an integral part of the story at all; rather it just reflects how in the translation of the story to a vastly different culture and millennium, we can no longer hear the story the way the disciples did. The great preacher Herbert O'Driscoll has suggested that Mary is a pivotal person in this story. Like many mothers, Mary saw in Jesus something Jesus himself was only beginning to be aware of. Mary realized Jesus' potential to reveal a great sign of God’s goodwill towards humanity and was the first to encourage Jesus to trust himself.

    Every parent remembers encouraging their child to go from crawling on all fours, to standing up and trying to walk. Toddlers are at first hesitant and don't think they can do it, but their parents hold out their arms, and say, “Come on, just a step. You can do it,” and at some point the children do and break out in a great smile of satisfaction and joy over their accomplishments. Of course, they don't walk on the first try. There are many attempts and falls, and periods of hesitation, but it happens, not necessarily when parent or child expect it, but in good time.

    I don't think we will ever know all the nuances of John's intention, except to say that John always has Jesus reveal God’s grace on God's initiative, not on request of family, friends, or foe. (That is the meaning behind Jesus’ words “my time is not yet come.”) The epiphanies or windows into God's heart are strictly God's gracious and free gifts.

    It is helpful that Epiphany Season, the New Year and annual parish meetings are all at the same time. While we cannot control or manipulate God’s future for us, we can anticipate discovery, growth, and a far fuller future than the past. In one sense the mission God entrusts to us always involves helping one another and our neighbors to discover how God seeks to change and enrich our lives. The grace of God changes the very way we understand our world, and that can be both a frightening and wonderfully liberating process.

    In one sense the ministry God gives us is a lot like mining. Mining is a messy business. You dig and dig and bring out of the ground mounds of dirt and rock. There are these piles of tailings all around you and you must move, sort, or sift through tons of rocks for an ounce of gold or a few carets of diamonds or even a truck full of coal. Yet God isn't in the business of becoming discouraged because of the time it takes or at the piles of dirt that need to be sifted. God isn't in the business of racing against the clock or weighing piles of dirt, but wants to uncover and reveal to us our true selves and what great potential humanity has. God asks us to help free the gold from the mud, to uncover the diamonds trapped in tombs and to unleash the energy from within a shell of rocks. We are like geologists who look at the ground differently in the light of Jesus’ birth and revelation.

    At our annual meeting we will present to you a pamphlet of printed reports. Yet unless we look carefully, we won't readily discover God's epiphanies throughout them. It is hard to put in a report, the face of a child as she learns a new Bible story or sings a song that touches her heart. It hard to show the expression of those in our class for specially challenged adults who learn that indeed they too are loved and valued in the family of God. Sometimes after an EFM session, an insight helps answer a long standing question or unties a troubling knot. Sometimes the real revelation happens after you deliver a casserole or cookies and the door closes.

    Like the miracle at the wedding feast, God’s signs may be all around us, but we don't perceive them. Just as mines produce gold, diamonds or coal, or with our encouragement and smiles, toddlers in the faith learn to walk, you never know precisely, but God's Epiphanies, signs of God's miracles changing our lives, will be present among us.

    And I offer this to you in the name of the Living God, Amen.