Sermon January 20, 2013
Please pray with me.
Gracious Lord, bless the speaking and bless the hearing, that your Word may take root in our hearts and bear fruit in our lives, for the healing of the world you so loved, and to the glory of your holy name. Amen.
A few summers ago, I drove down to a friend’s house in rural southern Ohio. She had invited a number of her friends over for dinner. Cathy lives on hundreds of acres of land, mostly woods, with a small house and yard by the road. I came down from the city of Columbus after a day of work as a chaplain at the hospital. I was wearing my best, slightly uncomfortable business attire, and the air was sticky, hot and humid as I left the parking lot of the hospital. When I got to her house, though, the breeze was blowing just right over the crest of the hill, and we sat together under the shade of a big oak tree and shared stories. We walked, we talked, and as the sun set, Cathy brought out food for the group of her friends whom she had invited. She had gathered mushrooms from the woods, Chanterelles that people buy for $25/lb, she had made the pasta from scratch, and she baked a pie with fresh blackberries from her land. As the night descended, we ate by candlelight and the occasional firefly’s spark. There was so much love in that food. Cathy was a gracious host. I felt welcome; I felt satiated. She had given us her very best.
On the other hand, whenever I invite people over to my house for dinner, I am always worried, “will there be enough?” When I hosted a dinner party in my first apartment, I made some dip and bought some bread, but I kept worrying there wouldn’t be enough, so I went back to the grocery store several times. My fear compelled me to find more, more, more. When the guests arrived that night, one of them brought a big bag of bread, which would have been plenty. :sigh: Often, I find myself unable to trust that God will provide, that I don’t have to control everything, that others will bring things to the table. Maybe you’ve felt this before at a potluck. Convinced there might not be enough, you bring more than anyone really needs, or it turns out someone brought that anyway. I guess it’s the worry of all who provide for others: will there be enough to eat? Will people be satisfied? It’s a very human thing, I think, to be worried there won’t be enough.
Jesus and his mother attend a wedding party in today’s Gospel lesson where there in fact isn’t enough. In this passage, Jesus finds his first occasion to give a sign to the people that the kingdom has come, and turns water into wine. There are two amazing things about this: first, that Jesus is able to turn water into wine, and second that it’s not just any wine, but the best wine. The people are amazed that someone would be that gracious to serve good wine at the end of the party, when the guests have already had their fair share to drink. My friend Cathy’s gracious hospitality was a lot like Jesus’ wine in this case: not just any dinner, but fresh mushrooms and handmade pasta and warm blackberry pie. Not just any wine, but well-aged, fine, “gourmet” wine.
What amazes me the most, though, about Jesus’ miracle here is the sheer lavishness in the amount of wine. Each of the jugs of water holds 20-30 gallons, and there are six jugs, which is something like 150 gallons of wine. That’s certainly bigger than any keg I’ve ever seen; we’re talking bathtubs full of wine. There is an abundance. It seems that when God shows up in Jesus, there is an abundance, enough for all. When Jesus hosts the meal, there is no need to worry about whether there is enough. Jesus’ graciousness is abundant.
Jesus is a gracious host who sets the table with the best food and who provides more than enough for our needs. Every week, we are welcomed to the communion table, where Christ is both host and meal. The thing about Jesus as host is that all are welcome to the table, providing the best of the best to everyone, regardless of whether they can pay for it or not. Like Isaiah 55, the invitation stands open: “Come, you that have no money, eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without price.” And in Proverbs, “Wisdom has set her table, she has mixed her wine.” The wisdom of God welcomes us to the table and provides for us abundantly. When Jesus is our host, we know there will be enough, and we can be confident that Jesus is gracious, just as God the Father and the Holy Spirit are gracious.
The beginning of Paul’s letter to the Corinthians assures the people that they are not lacking in any spiritual gift, and in the twelfth chapter that we heard today, he tells them that the Spirit has gifted them abundantly, too, with different gifts, different allotments of Spirit. Some are gifted with miracles, some can discern where the Spirit is leading, and some are gifted with words. “Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit; and there are varieties of services, but the same Lord; and there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who activates all of them in everyone.”
I remember watching this abundance happen at a Lutheran camp last summer, when there were enough gifted musicians in the next generation of campers to take up their guitars at the end of the week and play along with the older musicians. I know this abundance happens when we discover that we can draw and paint after having never done so, and this abundance happens when people learn to sing, learn to build, learn to trust our creative potential. All of these seeds are within us, waiting to be activated by the Spirit for the sake of the community, for the sake of a world that longs for hope, for belonging, and for salvation.
To trust in God’s abundant grace means also to trust that God has given us all the gifts we need to do God’s work in this place. Marcus Lohrmann, Bishop in Northwest Ohio, wisely says, “God has given us everything we need to do mission.” Rather than ask in fear, “will there be enough?” Jesus frees us to say with confidence, “God has gifted us abundantly.” Rather than living in fear, we are free to use our gifts in unique ways to the glory of God and in service to our neighbor. God’s grace frees us to receive life as a gift, rather than living in fear.
Here at Luther Memorial, all of us have been allotted a bit of the Spirit, all of us are expressions of God’s love and wisdom, each with something to bring to the table. Some of us are artists, giving expression to the beauty of life, some of us are musicians, leading the assembly in praise, some of us are good with children, leading the next generation in the faith; some of us are adept with finances, some of us can provide darn good food for the potluck, and some of us can even turn water into wine, though it certainly takes us longer than it did Jesus. We are guests at Jesus’ abundant table, we are gifted in ways that complement each other, we are expressions of the Spirit that find harmony together in community.
The reality is, there are voices that will always try to convince us that we are not enough. We are not smart enough, beautiful enough, strong enough, rich enough, popular enough, insert your own word here enough. Every commercial tries to convince us that we need something else in order to be fulfilled. But these are not God’s voices. As people who belong to Christ, we trust that God has already given us everything that we need. Jesus has welcomed us to his table, provided for us abundantly, and the Spirit of Wisdom has placed gifts in all of us to be used for the common good. Our world tells us there is not enough, but God in Christ tells us otherwise. As we go about our work to be God’s hands and feet and ears and heart in the world, may we trust that God has already given us all that we need. Amen.
0 Comments