Worship Sunday at 10:30

Bethany Evangelical
Lutheran Church

Ishpeming, Michigan † Est. 1870

Epiphany 01/20/2019

Sermon by Pastor Chrys Levesque Hendrick at Bethany Lutheran Church, Ishpeming, MI

January 20, 2019, 10:30, 2nd Sunday after Epiphany

The Joy of God-With-Us

Isaiah 62:1-5 / Psalm 36:5-10 / 1 Corinthians 12:1-11 / John 2:1-11

Jump to Children's sermon

There is a lot of wedding imagery … in our texts for today … imagery meant to evoke the deep joy … we humans tend to experience … at the celebration of the joining of lives. So it is that Isaiah and John both use wedding language to provide a metaphorical image … of the joy for God … and … for humankind … of God’s self-revelation … of God’s abundant presence in human life. Like Isaiah … John is making vivid … the intimate relationship of mutual love … that God chooses to have with each … and all … of us. Like Isaiah … John invites us to enter the celebration of God’s presence with us … for us … and in us.

As I thought about the occasion of Jesus turning water into wine at the wedding in Cana … the movie Fiddler on the Roof came to mind … specifically the scene of the wedding of Tevya’s eldest daughter. Even in the midst of hardship … poverty … and persecution … there was joy … celebration … shared food … wine … the wedding canopy … words of divine blessing … and other already old traditions of Jewish weddings. Yes … the hard facts of life loomed in the background … but they did not overwhelm this joy. For just a few hours … joy gave them respite from fear and anxiety … joy gave them a moment to catch their breath … joy gave them a chance to strengthen their spiritual muscles. The Cana gathering might well have looked … and felt … pretty much like that.

This sense of joy … at God’s presence in our human midst … is at the heart of this morning’s texts. And it is the very specific joy … of the sign of God’s presence in Jesus … turning the freshly drawn water in six huge … stone jars … into some hundred and fifty gallons of superb wine … that makes the wedding at Cana more joyful … more hopeful … more full of God’s abundant grace … than any imaginable human celebration of any kind. At Cana, Jesus meets the need with his compassion. But the superabundance provides a sign of God’s overflowing grace … a window through which we catch a glimpse … of that Godly grace.

So …please … for the moment … let us put aside our modern skepticism … and enter into the occasion … where something incredible … happened … that caused the disciples of Jesus to believe in him … in a new way … to make a leap of faith.

Remember …they were already his disciples … [as we are told at the end of chapter 1] … drawn to him by the witness of John the Baptist … who … by the Fourth Gospel account … had seen the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove … upon Jesus … and had testified that Jesus was indeed the Son of God … the Lamb of God! … These words of witness … caused two of the Baptist’s own disciples … to follow after Jesus. One was Andrew … who told his brother Simon Peter. Next into the fold was Philip … who found Nathanael. Three days later … these … and perhaps others … were at the wedding feast with Jesus. What did they see? What did they hear? How did they know?

I don’t know. Very few … of those present that day … were able to recognize Jesus … for who he was … in the changing of water into wine. But those few … by the grace of the Spirit of God … were able … to make the leap … from seeing Jesus simply as “him about whom Moses in the law and also the prophets wrote”… to seeing Jesus … as the very presence of God among them.

So … let us celebrate … my friends … the joy of the disciples making that leap …[even though the wine story is so far beyond our reach] … because we are richly blessed by their belief.

John gives us few details about the wedding … except that the wine had run out … Jesus’ mother makes the point to her son … and he responds with a verbal shrug of the shoulders … telling her “my hour has not yet come.” Frankly … we don’t know how to reconcile … this apparent lack of intention … to act … with the fact that … after what appears the briefest of delays … Jesus does indeed act … rather spectacularly! Was his mother inspired by the Spirit of God to instruct the servants? And was that (?) … the perfect Spiritual nudge (?) … which told Jesus … it was indeed … time to begin … to show the world the gracious power of God (?) … that the first minutes … of “his hour” … had now come? John does not explain. He simply leaves us to wrestle with the story … with the issue of belief … and with ne necessity of deciding … how we will … or will not … allow this fleeting glimpse of God-with-us … through the sign of the wine … to shape the living of our lives.

What will we do with the abundant talents and gifts of the Spirit that God has poured into us (?) … that God reminds us of … whenever we share the bread of life … and the cup of salvation … that Jesus offered to his earliest disciples … in the closing moments … of “his hour”?

Growing up in a lily-white community … I did not become aware of the vision and courage of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. … until my high school history teacher played a recording of King’s 1963 “I have a dream” speech … in our history club meeting … in the spring of 1964 … my senior year. By then I was old enough to appreciate the implications … and I still recall how moved I was then … and now … by King’s vision. It gave me joy … then … to realize I was hearing a prophetic voice in my own historical time. It still gives me joy … whenever I see signs that people of many races recognize the Spiritual gifts of courage … faith … and belief in something more powerful than the forces of darkness that threaten the human community.

There are spiritually gifted people all around us … though we know them as teachers in our schools … leaders in our towns … workers in our offices … fields … and factories … and … yes … even young students in our schools. Some witness consciously to the joy of God in Christ Jesus in our midst … as they teach Sunday school … bring Holy Communion to the home-bound … provide a listening ear and assurance of God’s love to a hurting neighbor. Others act without awareness that they are bearing witness to the abundant grace of God … when they volunteer in non-profit organizations to provide for the needs of the poor and homeless … or simply conduct their lives and their businesses with honesty … integrity … and compassion.

Some people just radiate one or more of the specific spiritual gifts that Paul writes about … wisdom … knowledge … faith … healing … and so on. Others demonstrate courage in the face of morally outrageous conduct on the part of others … speaking out against actions … or inactions … which cause harm to others. Some have the gift of seeing the giftedness of others … and nudging them to recognize their own “hour.”

So … my friends … don’t let your intellects … overwhelm your hearts. Rejoice … in the sign of the water turned to wine … reminding us of the abundant grace of God. Hold gently the signs that God has shown to you … the spiritual gifts God has entrusted to you.

And be open … to what God says to you … something like this: My precious child, I have equipped you for life … to be a blessing to others … as long ago I blessed my ancient chosen people. I know what I have put into you … and I cannot wait … to see how you will use your gifts … for your own joy … and for mine. So … surprise me!” Amen.

Children's Sermon

2019 – Children’s message – Jan 20 – Bethany – Ishpeming.

In today’s second reading … the one from First Corinthians … St. Paul writes to people about Spiritual gifts. As I thought about his words … I thought also about all the talents and interests we are given … and about how these connect with Spiritual gifts … especially when we are trying to decide what we will do with our lives … what work we will do to earn a living … what careers we might follow.

That made me think of a sermon I heard from another seminary student back when I was studying to become a pastor. One day a fellow seminarian preached in the chapel of the Episcopal Seminary in Austin, Texas, where I was one of the Lutheran students.

In his sermon, my fellow seminarian was describing the struggle of a young woman who was trying to decide what to do with her life. I don’t remember the story exactly, but it went something like this. She was in college and it was time to choose a major. She couldn’t decide whether to study science and go into medicine as a career … or maybe political science and become a lawyer. She was also a fine athlete, a talented musician, and was also thinking about joining the Peace Corps someday.

One day, she wrote about her dilemma to a favorite aunt … a woman who had become a nun and had lived for many years in a community of sisters devoted to prayer. The answer from the girl’s Aunt Lydia read something like this:

“Dearest Caroline, my precious niece,

“Your letter brought joy to my heart … first … because of the personal joy that you thought of me at this pivotal time in your young life. I suppose this is because your note reminded me of my own time of discernment so many years ago. Like you, I had many wonderful options.

“But more than that, your letter told me that you know that you are God’s beloved child … and that you desire to live out the faith in which you have been raised … to honor God by the way you use the talents God has given you. You see them as divine gifts … and I am proud of you for that!

“Because you have asked for my advice, I will share with you the answer I received … to my own prayer much like yours … full of similar anxieties … and the fear of not measuring up to the expectations of others … or of choosing the wrong thing.

“Now, before I continue, let me remind you that all the gifts and talents God has given are … in truth … spiritual gifts … when they are used for the sake of others … for building community … for showing the love of God. A theologian I know of, named Fredrick Beuchner has a great take on vocation … the work we choose to do. He writes: ‘The place God calls you to be … is where your deep gladness … and the world’s deep need … meet’ … where these two connect with each other. Now, you know the choice I made … years ago … when I received God’s answer … to my prayer … But you … are not me. So you must receive the message I pass on to you for your own special life.

“So … here is the message I felt … in my whole self … the message I am absolutely certain God has always intended for me to pass on to you. I felt God say to me: My precious child, I have equipped you for life … to be a blessing to others … as long ago I blessed my ancient chosen people. I know what I have put into you … and I cannot wait … to see … how you will use your gifts … for your own joy … and for mine. So … surprise me!”

All these years later … I am still blessed by that message. You are way younger than I was when I heard those words … the idea of “surprising God” by the way we live out our faith and our lives … but I hope they will come to your minds … or that someone here will remind you of them … when you get a bit older and have decisions to make.

Let’s pray: Thank you God for your love. Help us to love you back … and use all that you have put into us for others and for you. Amen.

Pastor Chrys Levesque Hendrick

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