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“Claiming our Voices: Signs”
John 2:1-11
A sermon preached by the
Rev. Douglas M. Donley
We
have arrived at our second week of the Season of Justice sermon series
entitled, “Claiming our Voices.” Last
week we looked at prophets, their work and vital presence among us. We need prophets to say what needs to be said
in scorn of the consequences. But how do
we know what needs to be said? That’s
what I want to look at today. This week
we’re looking at signs. I want us to
explore what signs we might see around us, how we interpret those signs and how
we use our voices because of those signs.
In
John’s gospel, Jesus performs seven signs throughout the book. There is the changing of the water into wine,
the healing of a son of a royal official, the healing on the Sabbath, the
feeding of the multitude, walking on water, healing of a blind man, and raising
Lazarus from the dead. Each sign is said
to symbolically point us toward a larger truth.
They explain who Jesus is and they remind us of whom we are. They help us to make sense of the world. So let’s take a look at the sign at Cana.
Jesus
is at a week-long wedding feast. The
wine runs out after many days of consumption. Jesus reluctantly changes some
water into wine and everyone is happy, except for the father of the bride who
would have preferred that the replacement wine were the cheap stuff instead of
the good stuff. That’s the surface
story. But let’s look deeper at the
symbolism. What signs does this story
give us?
Traditional
wedding liturgies state that Jesus’ presence at this wedding confirms his
blessing of marriage. That’s certainly not
explicit in the scripture. In fact do
you notice that not even the gender of the couple is mentioned? While we have long forgotten who was getting
married in that wedding in
Weddings
back then and their parties were long affairs.
They started out with a procession in which the bridegroom’s friends
brought the bride to the groom’s house and then a wedding supper. The
festivities would then last seven says.
Today’s scripture says that Jesus arrived on the third day, so the party
was either half over or just beginning depending upon whether you are an
optimist or a pessimist.
Either they didn’t buy enough wine or they thought there
would be more tea-tottlers amongst the guests.
What to do? Buy
more wine? If so, who would pay for
it? I can just imagine the indebted
families arguing over that one.
Well, we all know what happened, Jesus turned water into
wine and it was very good wine to say the least.
But it was no ordinary water to begin with. It was holy water. It was water that was reserved for the Jewish
rites of purification. There are all
sorts of restrictive laws in the Hebrew Bible stating who can be clean and who
can’t.
A
woman is unclean if she is in her menstrual cycle.
A
man is unclean if he touches one who is unclean.
You
are unclean if you are wearing mixed fabrics.
Food
is unclean if it has a mixture of dairy and meat products and so forth.
And
many of them require washing with holy water and then being declared clean by a
Rabbi. They probably had this
purification water hanging around so that their guests could become and stay
clean. They must have also had a Rabbi
nearby, as well, to perform the rituals.
So for Jesus to take this water, which was reserved for the Rabbis and
change it into wine meant that Jesus was beginning to turn the way of looking
at the world upside down.
Come to think of it, that’s what a wedding is, too.
Alice Walker in her book, The Temple of My Familiar said that “a wedding is like turning
water into wine when you prefer water to wine and anyway you ain’t Christ.” It is
extremely difficult to make public what you already know in private. But what a gift it is to witness it when it
happens, because it causes us to reexamine our own lives. It causes us to reevaluate our own vows. It causes us to refocus our lives upon what
is most important.
In
the typical manner of John’s gospel, the sign has a number of meanings. Does
the wine refer to the new wine of a new life in Christ? Is it a snub of the
Jewish practice of purification? Does it
refer to communion? Is Jesus’ concern
about it not being his “time” referring to his crucifixion? Whose wedding is it and why does that matter?
Amidst all of these questions, Jesus begins his ministry and begins to perform
his signs.
The
signs of John’s Gospel point us toward larger realities that demand our
attention. We have plenty of signs these
days, don’t we?
Look
at the escalation of troops in
Look
at the people taking to the streets.
Look
at the signs of unrest around the world.
What
is it going to take to bring us toward peace?
Look
at the continued failed policies of FEMA that are still victimizing the people
of
Look
at the fact of climate change and the long catch-up that we need to do in order
to address any of it.
Look
at the rise in prejudice toward our Muslim sisters and brothers.
Look
at the loss of Habeas Corpus and the rule of law in interrogation and
detention.
Look
at the fact that a growing number of evangelicals are rediscovering that Jesus
said a whole lot more about poverty than he did about human sexuality.
The
signs of our time are plentiful.
I
got the Grisham novel An Innocent Man
for Christmas from my lawyer brother-in-law.
It is a case study of the flaws in the system of Law and Order. As I was reading the first few chapters, I
heard the news of the death of Gerald Ford and the execution of Saddam
Hussein. This caused a reflection in my
mind about law, order and the death penalty.
Much of the remembrances of Gerald Ford focus around his
pardoning of Richard Nixon. The pundits
said that this was an act of courage which helped to heal a nation. Pardon is a great and humanitarian privilege
of the executive office. It is a
corrective for politically motivated or unjust prosecution. It closes the door on further prosecution,
perhaps leaving wounds untended and festering for their lack of closure.
Saddam Hussein, on the other hand, was legally executed
for crimes against the Iraqi people. The
death penalty is an act of vengeance that is purported to bring healing. But does it?
It didn’t take long for Hussein to be deemed a martyr. The Kurds were denied their day in
court. Reconciliation is not an option,
only retribution.
It seems to me that these two incidents represent a
flawed mask of reconciliation.
Reconciliation requires an honest detailing of the facts, an airing of
grievances and finding a third way that will lead to a renewed
relationship. They are both signs of a
system based upon denial of the process of healing. Neither bring true
reconciliation.
I’m
reminded of an episode of The West Wing episodes. Jed Bartlett is agonizing
over whether to grant an 11th-hour pardon to a convict about to be executed. He
has been lobbied by a Quaker anti-death-penalty activist. One of his top advisors, Toby, was sermonized by a rabbi.
Jed
is a devout Catholic deeply opposed to the death penalty, but he feels that his
duty to a pro-death penalty public outweighs those beliefs. He even takes a
phone call from the Pope, and deflects the Pontiff's entreaties. Jed will let
the execution go forward.
At
the end of the episode, he unburdens his conscience to his priest, Father
Cavanaugh, who has been flown in from Jed's
“You know, you remind me of the man that lived by the
river. He heard a radio report that the river was going to rush up and flood
the town. And that all the residents should evacuate their homes. But the man
said, 'I'm religious. I pray. God loves me. God will save me.' The waters rose
up. A guy in a rowboat came along and he shouted, 'Hey, hey you! You in there. The town is flooding. Let me take you to
safety.' But the man shouted back, 'I'm religious. I pray. God loves me. God
will save me.' A helicopter was hovering overhead. And a guy with a megaphone
shouted, 'Hey you, you down there. The town is flooding. Let me drop this
ladder and I'll take you to safety.' But the man shouted back that he was
religious, that he prayed, that God loved him and that God will take him to
safety. Well... the man drowned. And standing at the gates of St. Peter, he
demanded an audience with God. 'Lord,' he said, 'I'm a religious man, I pray. I
thought you loved me. Why did this happen?' God said, 'I sent you a radio
report, a helicopter, and a guy in a rowboat. What the hell are you doing
here?'
Jed... Mr. President, God sent you a Rabbi, a Quaker
and the Pope, and you are still looking for a sign?” (Thanks to the Oscar Madison Blogspot entitled "The Columnist Manifesto")
Do
we recognize the signs that are happening in our day and time?
Think
about our world with all of its wars and disputes about wars. Is this a sign?
If so, of what?
What
is God’s perspective on all of this?
What
would God have us recognize as the signs of our times?
Jesus
came and performed a miracle—doing the impossible, changing water into
wine. It was a miracle not so much
because of the act of changing the water, but because when it happened, the
people changed the way they looked at the world. They changed the way they looked at
Jesus. But most importantly, they
changed the way they looked at themselves.
I think of the salty water of tears which so many people shed
in our day and age. What if those tears
are the purification waters we need? What
if we joined Jesus in changing those watery tears into the wine of hope,
The wine of possibility,
The wine of justice
The wine of mercy
The wine of compassion
The wine of accountability and inspiration to live as God
intends, spurring us on to building a beloved community instead of a
fear-filled and fear-driven encampment?
What signs do you see?
Remember, Jesus came in large part to set you free, and
each day, Christ changes water into wine, if we only recognize it. Maybe we can join in that miraculous work and
do some of our own water and wine transformation. Shat a sign that would be!
As you reflect upon this, let me close with a poem by
Hebrew Biblical scholar Walter Brueggemann, entitled
“Yes.”
You are the God who is simple, direct, clear with us and for us.
You have committed yourself to us.
You have said yes to us in creation,
yes to us in our birth,
yes to us in our baptism,
yes to us in our awakening this day.
But we are of another kind,
more accustomed to “perhaps, maybe, we’ll see,”
left in wonderment and ambiguity.
We live our lives not back to your yes,
but out of our endless “perhaps.”
So we pray for your mercy this day that we may live
yes back to you,
yes with our time,
yes with our money,
yes with our sexuality,
yes with our strength and with our weakness,
yes to our neighbor,
yes and no longer “perhaps.”
In the name of your enfleshed yes to us,
even Jesus who is our yes into your Future. Amen.