Will we have enough food? It’s a common worry. At one funeral, in which twice as many people came as were expected, I found myself talking with the caterer – can you go get more if you run out? She shook head no. And then she smiled and said, “this is what we have… and I think there will be enough”. I promised to pray for plenty and then went back to my office. Later, someone came to the office door and said, “Pastor, have you eaten? There are so many leftovers… come and eat!”
When I went downstairs, the caterer looked at me and smiled and said, “Don’t you have a Bible story about this?”
I think she was referring to the story of Jesus on a remote hillside feeding 5,000 people from two loaves and 5 fish. Today’s Gospel story today is about another anticipated shortfall – this time at a wedding. Jesus’ mother puts it bluntly, “They have run out of wine.”
Running out of wine would have been a disgrace – a crisis of honor for the family of this newly married couple. But it wasn’t a crisis for the whole world – Jesus even asks his mother, “What does that have to do with us?”
And yet Mary seems to know, somehow, that Jesus can help. And so she doesn’t argue with Jesus. She simply tells the servants, “Do what he says.” She knows that he has the power to change this situation from being disgraceful to full of grace. And he does.
The wine steward doesn’t know where this wine came from and so he was amazed and puzzled. But the servants knew – and so did the disciples -- and they had a different response. They believed in Jesus.
Perhaps that is why John doesn’t call this a miracle – he calls it a sign. As wonderful the wine must have tasted, it’s simply a sign, pointing to Jesus and revealing something of who Jesus is.
This story reveals Jesus as one who not only listened to his mother but also as one who, using ordinary water, creates an abundance of the finest wine – a symbol of joy and delight - in the midst of perceived scarcity and shame. And he engages ordinary people to make this happen.
Jesus did this quite openly. But only the disciples, those who were paying attention, were able to see the sign. They saw God. The other guests simply enjoyed the wine.
Where do you see God? What signs point to Jesus in our community?
This is a question that we ask our youth when we go on mission trips. But it is a question that should not be reserved for the times in which we are away doing God’s work. This is a question for us – all of us -- every day. Because God is at work, in our world, every day right where we are.
But do not despair if you sometimes find it hard to see God. It’s easy to get distracted by “to do” lists or schedules or routines. Or maybe you get sucked in by social media or by trying to figure out how to keep yourself and your family safe in this crazy pandemic politically divisive world. Or, for those of you with kids – how to navigate school online especially when the rules keep changing. Or maybe you are filled with grief, loneliness or despair And…or… maybe you are just weary.
And yet… it is at times like this… a crisis of scarcity or a crisis of faith, that God invites you to simply stop… just for a moment… and pay attention.
For God is still at work in our world. One of the places that you can see God is in nature. In fact, everywhere that you look in nature, you can see God’s fingerprints.
I have found that on those days that I pay attention, I see the God who created heaven and earth revealed in the beauty of two spectacular light shows – one at sunrise and the other at sunset. They happen every day – even when I’m not paying attention.
God is also at work in the God’s people -- however God finds us. For
when we do pay attention, we can see that God delights in taking those things that are empty and filling them to the brim. This is true for empty jars in Cana suddenly holding the finest wine, ready to gladden the hearts of those who are celebrating the joining of two people in marriage. And this is true for empty hearts and lives who are mourning the loss of a loved one or a hope and a dream - these Jesus wants to fill to the brim with new love, new hope, new dreams.
There are signs all around us – in nature, in people and in the world around us. It is our job to pay attention so that we can see – and taste and live into the grace of God.
In closing, I would like to read a passage from one of Martin Luther King Jr.’s sermons, “The Death of Evil Upon the Seashore.” King speaks about the power of God who is at work in the universe, A God who, in King’s words, . . . “is not outside the world looking on with a sort of cold indifference. Here on all the roads of life, He is striving in our striving. . . . As we struggle to defeat the forces of evil, the God of the universe struggles with us. Evil dies on the seashore, not merely because of man’s endless struggle against it, but because of God’s power to defeat it. . . . When our days become dreary with low-hovering clouds and our nights become darker than a thousand midnights, let us remember that there is a great benign Power in the universe whose name is God, and He is able to make a way out of no way, and transform dark yesterdays into bright tomorrows.”
Thanks be to God who makes it so. And all God’s people said, Amen.
January 16, 2022 Pastor Pam Stalheim Lane
1 Martin Luther King Jr.“The Death of Evil Upon the Seashore https://kinginstitute.stanford.edu/king-papers/documents/death-evil-upon-seashore-sermon-delivered-service-prayer-and-thanksgiving