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John 2:1-11 Preached at Christ the King on January 14, 2007
Panic! Everyone knows what it is like to experience panic. Early on in my ministry at Hope, I had one of those moments where your heart just sinks and you kind of go into fight or flight mode. When I first arrived at Hope Lutheran about 2 ½ years ago, I was fresh out of seminary and the senior pastor who I was supposed to be working with resigned the day before I started. I managed to bungle my way through the first few months, just trying to survive when I got a call that someone in the congregation had passed away suddenly. He wasn’t actually a member, but his parents were and he had died the night before in a car accident. Kevin was about 40 years old – much too young – and his death was entirely unexpected. This was my first funeral at Hope and I wanted desperately to do everything right, mostly because this family was in so much pain and the grief they were feeling was enormous. One of the things that they asked me to do was to make sure that the funeral was videotaped – they had family that weren’t going to be able to make it to the service and they wanted to have a memory of it. We have those capabilities at Hope and all I had to do was flip the camera on just before the service started and everything would be okay. Well, with everything on my mind that day – with all the little details, the grief of the family, the fact that this was my first funeral – well, I realized as we were processing out of the sanctuary that I had forgotten to tape the service. My heart just sunk. How was I going to tell this already heartbroken family that I had failed to do the one thing they really wanted me to do and that they weren’t going to have a permanent memory of this service? Fighting it wasn’t an option – I couldn’t redo service or lie about having taped it. Flight wasn’t an option either – I couldn’t run home – I still had a graveside service to do and I’d have to see these people again sooner or later. In all of my panic, there really was only one option – tell the truth. Be honest about the situation and pray for forgiveness. I know many of you must have had similar feelings of panic when you realized that Pastor Ed was leaving. I know that I was panicked for you when he shared the news with me because Ed is a good friend of mine. And the normal reaction to any panicked situation is to go into fight or flight mode. What do we do now? Do we fight it? Do we leave and never come back? Or are there some other options available? Often it is those unexpected things that cause us the most panic or pain or even embarrassment and we don’t always know the best way to react. Our gospel lesson this morning tells of a similar crisis story. There’s a huge wedding and everyone’s having a great time when all of the sudden, they realize that they have run out of wine. If you’ve ever put on a wedding or been the mother of the bride or the bride herself, every little detail in a wedding has the potential for crisis – and running out of wine would classify as a major crisis. What do we do now? How Mary & Jesus decide to handle this crisis can give us some great insight into how we can handle the crises in our lives – both as a congregation and in our daily life as well. The first thing that Mary does when she notices the crisis is that she gets involved. She sticks her nose in where it may or may not be wanted. She noticed that there was a problem and she decided she would do whatever she could do to help. This reminds me of the story that Jesus tells of the Good Samaritan. A man is attacked by robbers and is left for dead. A priest walks by but chooses not to get involved. A Levite walks by but also chooses not to get involved. And finally, the Samaritan recognizes the crisis and decides to get involved, and helps the man out. Mary plays the role of Good Samaritan in this story and she sets a good example for all of us. Whenever we see a crisis, one of those places where someone is panicking or in pain, the biblical mandate seems to tell us that as Christians, we have to get involved. We have to stick our nose in, whether it is wanted or not. As Christians, we can’t just sit by on the sideline hoping somebody else figures it out for us. Had Mary not spoken up, the wedding would’ve been ruined. But since she did speak up and get involved, the crisis was resolved. You know better than I do that this congregation is at one of those places where people need to get involved. We certainly doesn’t need people to look the other way, to avoid the current situation, and start looking for other churches to worship at. To do that, to abandon ship, is not what God calls us to do. He calls us to get involved and to share our gifts so that the body of Christ may be built up. Each of you will have a wonderful opportunity to imitate Mary and get involved as Christ the King goes through the Healthy Congregations Workshops, which start in just a couple of weeks. Now, our gospel lesson tells us more than just “Get involved.” By watching Jesus, we can learn an important way for HOW to get involved. If you look closely at this story, Jesus didn’t go up on the stage, command the attention of the crowd and then perform his magic trick – change the water into wine and cause everyone to cheer and be amazed at his powers, stealing the show from the bride and groom. No, Jesus got involved, but the way that he got involved was very humble and very subtle. He knew what needed to be done, he talked to the right people, and it was all very behind-the-scenes. In fact, by doing this miracle the way he did it, rather than causing the bridegroom embarrassment, it actually made him look good. Jesus’ involvement was for the sake of someone else and it didn’t draw attention to himself. This is also a very important principle for us as Christians because we want to make others look good. Martin Luther writes in the Small Catechism in his explanation of the 8th Commandment that “We are to fear and love God, so that we do not tell lies about our neighbors, betray or slander them, or destroy their reputations. Instead we are to come to their defense, speak well of them, and interpret everything they do in the best possible light.” The work of Christ and the work of Christians is always humble. It always puts other people and their needs first. Its amazing how much better a crisis can seem when you have people who are all on the same team and constantly worried about each other rather than themselves. I finally got up the courage a couple days ago to watch the movie “World Trade Center.” There are countless stories of courage and humility throughout the 9-11 crisis, but the movie highlights the story of an off-duty Marine. He was living and working in Connecticut when he saw the planes hit the towers. He left everything he was doing and went to church and prayed. After that he put on his uniform and went down to Ground Zero to start helping. He wasn’t in it for the glory. He wasn’t in it because someone told him to. He got involved because of who he was and what he felt God calling him to do and lives were saved because of his humble actions. Now, I know I seem to be preaching a lot of law this morning: Get involved! Be humble! But I also think that there is a lot of grace in this passage. We have a Tuesday Bible study at Hope and one of the things I always try to ask everyone is, “Where do you see yourself in this story?” One of the answers this week surprised me. Someone said, “I see myself as one of the jars. Often I feel spiritually empty, useless, standing on the sideline, longing to have meaning. And then, along comes Jesus. When he gets a hold of me, I become full of amazing things, abundant life, incredible power. When Jesus gets a hold of me, I become full of the best wine that was saved for last.” What a great image for all of us also. We often feel empty & longing to be filled with someone special. And it is Jesus who comes along and fills us up, uses us to do miraculous things. We are the vessels through which Jesus saves people and fills them up with life-giving joy. Life with Jesus is full of grace, mercy, love, and forgiveness. Yet this requires us to first be honest about our current situation and honest about who we are. Without Jesus, we are nothing but empty jars. At the funeral that I mentioned at the beginning of the sermon, I was forced to be honest about who I was and the reality of the situation. Amidst my panic, I had to confess to them that I had messed up. Thankfully, Jesus had already filled up their jars with grace, mercy, and forgiveness because that is exactly what they gave to me that day. With Jesus at the center of that relationship, they were able to forgive me and now I am closer to them than just about anyone in the congregation. With Jesus at the center, filled with his new wine, we can experience a joy like no other. We can receive forgiveness when we need it, we can offer grace to those who have wronged us, we can show love when it is the last thing we thought we’d be able to do. The good news is that Jesus has gotten involved in our lives. He has filled up our empty jars and he continues to do so when we run low. He uses the ordinariness of our lives to do the miraculous. In moments of crisis and panic, it is Jesus who saves us and fills us to the brim with the joy of his new wine. St. Jerome was teaching a class on this passage one time when one of his students asked him if the people at the wedding ended up drinking all of the new wine and Jerome replied, “No, we are still drinking it today.” Amen.
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