Walk the Talk

Third Sunday after Epiphany – Year C

January 27, 2013

Luke 4:14-21

Then Jesus, filled with the power of the Spirit, returned to Galilee, and a report about him spread through all the surrounding country. He began to teach in their synagogues and was praised by everyone.

When he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, he went to the synagogue on the sabbath day, as was his custom. He stood up to read, and the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to him. He unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written:
   "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,
     because he has anointed me 
        to bring good news to the poor.
    He has sent me to proclaim 
        release to the captives 
     and recovery of sight to the blind, 
        to let the oppressed go free, 
    to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor."

And he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant, and sat down. The eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him. Then he began to say to them, "Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing."

I’m not sure if I can handle any more quotes.  In the new internet media world we live in, it’s not uncommon to see quotes from people being used on Facebook pages, or on twitter, or as the basis for posters or other such things on Pinterest.  Last week, on Monday, it was Martin Luther King Jr. day, and I saw and read numerous quotes from him on Facebook throughout the day.   I myself went to one of the many sites on the internet, searching through the many quotes by Dr. King to find the one that I felt I wanted to put on my Facebook page.  So, if I can’t handle any more quotes I guess I’m partly to blame.

All of us know people who like to quote verses from the Bible.  They sometimes seem to have the whole of scripture memorized.  You say something about how beautiful the day is, and they come back with a quote from Psalms about the beauty of the day palling in comparison to the glory of God.  You say something about how you feel a little under the weather, and they return with a scripture about healing coming from God to those who ask.  As people of faith we turn to our scriptures for help and guidance.  We turn to pastors and theologians for guidance in how we look and understand the Bible, how we can understand what it is that God desires of us, what it is that God has done for us.

One of the pastors that our country tends to look to for wisdom and guidance is Rick Warren, who is the pastor of Saddleback Church in Orange County, California; one of the most influential churches in America.  He has spoken and prayed with presidents and many leaders throughout our country.  In his extremely popular book A Purpose Driven Life, there are literally hundreds of scripture citations.  Multiple times on each page Pastor Warren cites scripture as the basis for how he advises his reader to live their lives according to the precepts and desires of God.  Yet, nowhere in the book does the passage we heard from Luke this morning ever get quoted.  This powerful, self-revelatory statement by Jesus about what his life and ministry were to be about is apparently not relevant (at least to Pastor Warren) in guiding his readers to have a “purpose driven life.”

Yet, it is this passage that Jesus chooses to read and interpret when he visits the synagogue on his hometown.  Jesus could have read from any place in the Hebrew Bible, he chose to read from this one.  He could have read any number of passages about salvation or sin, or the greatness of God, or the acts of God in the past.  He chose to read this one.  Jesus here states what it is he came to do.

This last week as a nation we watched as President Obama was sworn in for his second term as president.  We may have spent some time on Monday watching or listening to the day-long festivities and happenings on inauguration day.  We may have listened to his inauguration speech.  As citizens of the United States, we look to the President, and the Presidents words to guide us (whether we voted for him or not).  His words and actions are to be a vision for the country, the ideals of the country, the defense of our liberty and union.  As Christians we look to Jesus’ words to guide us.    

This was Jesus’ inaugural address in Luke, the first time Jesus spoke and shared his vision and intent for his coming ministry.  Yet, how often do we as a church think about Jesus’ ministry in his own words?  How often do we think about how we respond and mirror Jesus’ life and calling in our own lives and churches?  Jesus spoke of salvation in real world terms.  In the modern world, and church, we tend to focus very often on salvation in “other-world” terms.  Why?  Is it because we feel that there is so much to do that we feel we can’t ever succeed?  Is it because we feel somehow not up to the task?  Is it because to act to solve the real world problems would mean we actually had to get dirty?  Jesus focused his ministry on saving the people here and now, so that they may have life – life now.  The church seems to focus on saving the people here and now, so that they may have life later in eternity.

One of the truths that we must recognize is Jesus’ words only ring true when we admit and recognize that there are those that hear his words from places of poverty, captivity, blindness, and oppression.  That was his audience.  Do we count ourselves amongst these groups?  If we’re honest, there may be some of us, but for most of us we are blessed to live lives that are free from much that Jesus listed.  So we seek to find other ways to make Jesus words applicable to “us.”  If we can’t find a way in this world, then the next will do just fine.  Besides, we’re already Christian, so Jesus has already delivered us, “we’re doing just fine, thank you Jesus!”

But, the words of Jesus, the ministry of Jesus was all about freeing people from the things that bound, oppressed, controlled and hindered them in this world.  And, our calling to speak words of good news and relief is also in this world.  Yes, without a question there is an eternal aspect to the good news that we have heard and are called to share, but there is a real world aspect as well.

What would happen if the words of Jesus’ inaugural address were to be as engraven on our hearts in the same depth of meaning as John 3:16?  What if our guiding words were to bring release, sight, freedom?  What if we took seriously the call to set people free from the things of this world that limit and control them; from the powers of this world that treat them as less than human?  Hard words, and as we’ll hear next week, the response of the crowd in the synagogue was not that kind to Jesus’ words. 

What scandalized the people in Nazareth that day was the way in which Jesus offered God’s grace to everyone.  Sure, he spoke of the poor, the sick, the oppressed, the imprisoned.  But what made Jesus’ proclamation so shocking was the fact that he offered the blessings of God’s Kingdom not just to the “righteous,” but also to “sinners.”  The religious people of Jesus’ day expected God’s blessings for themselves. They believed they had earned them by their good lives.  And besides, they were God’s people after all, children of the covenant.  They were convinced that they deserved God’s grace, while the “sinners” (or at least people that were not like them, or as blessed as them, or as religious as them, or who didn’t go to their synagogue, or listen to the right teachers) deserved punishment. But Jesus came along offering God’s blessings indiscriminately to everyone. It’s hard to imagine anything more scandalous in Jesus’ day.

And if we are honest about it, it’s pretty scandalous and hard to hear in our day as well.  After all, we are the church.  We are the forgiven people of God.  We are the ones who have been in washed in the blood of the Lamb, sealed by the Holy Spirit.  We gather together knowing our place as the children of God.  It’s shocking how I have heard people throughout my life, good God-fearing people, people who grew up in the church, who go to church every Sunday become shocked, almost angry when they discover that the hope and goal of the Bible is that all people be saved.  The response that sometimes comes with this realization is, “If everyone is going to be saved, then why go to church?”

First, this is not about universal salvation.  But, it is about salvation.  It is about the way we understand salvation.  You see, the response they had was because they viewed salvation as something they took part in (you see, they went to church.)  But, salvation isn't primarily about us making the right choices or believing the right things. Salvation really isn't about us at all! It’s about God. It’s about God’s love for all creation. It’s about God’s plan to draw everything and everyone he has made into his love and into his life through his grace.

What this means for us is that we cannot view, the church, we cannot view ourselves as God’s “favorites” who receive “special” blessing over and above others.  It means that we all receive the gift of God’s grace that extends to everyone equally.  It means that no one can be viewed as outside God’s grace—no one is excluded; all are welcome.  And, as Jesus quote made clear, this is about here-and-now, not just in the age to come, in the Kingdom to come.  Quotes can be powerful things.  May God’s Spirit free us to be guided and empowered by the inaugural words of Jesus in our own lives.  You can quote me on that.  Amen.

L'Chaim - To Life

Second Sunday after Epiphany – Year C

January 20, 2013

John 2:1-11

On the third day there was a wedding in Cana of Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there. Jesus and his disciples had also been invited to the wedding. When the wine gave out, the mother of Jesus said to him, "They have no wine." And Jesus said to her, "Woman, what concern is that to you and to me? My hour has not yet come." His mother said to the servants, "Do whatever he tells you." Now standing there were six stone water jars for the Jewish rites of purification, each holding twenty or thirty gallons. Jesus said to them, "Fill the jars with water." And they filled them up to the brim. He said to them, "Now draw some out, and take it to the chief steward." So they took it. When the steward tasted the water that had become wine, and did not know where it came from (though the servants who had drawn the water knew), the steward called the bridegroom and said to him, "Everyone serves the good wine first, and then the inferior wine after the guests have become drunk. But you have kept the good wine until now." Jesus did this, the first of his signs, in Cana of Galilee, and revealed his glory; and his disciples believed in him.

One of the jokes about weddings that has a lot of truth in it is, “something always goes wrong.” It’s true. Sometimes it’s something that’s controllable in some way. Something that should have been planned for and arranged that somehow ended up being missed. But, most of the time it’s something no one could have foreseen or planned for. Someone sneezes at exactly the wrong time. Someone trips when walking up or down the aisle. The flower girl runs for the hills. The pastor flubs a line. Things happen. That’s life.

I actually find that those little mistakes in life are actually very relieving in moments of high stress like weddings. Once something has happened, you tend to relax a little, laugh a little, enjoy the moment a bit more. Everyone is nervously waiting for the shoe to drop, and breathes a bit of a sigh of relief when something finally happens.

Anyone who has ever been in a wedding, or helped to arrange a wedding knows that as much as we try to say it’s a joyous event, there’s a lot of stress and worry that goes along with it. You have the ceremony, the location of all the things happening over the day or two; who will take pictures? Who will preside? What about the bride’s dress? the grooms tux? Then there are all the arrangements for the rehearsal dinner, and the reception following the ceremony. Who is going to sit next to who? Are you going to serve the chicken, beef, or fish? Who makes the final decision on the wine used for the toast?

Every wedding that I’ve been to has had something in common: more than enough food. It seems as if they plan for about 20% more people than they know are coming, and perhaps they do. It would make sense. Could you imagine the mood of the reception if halfway through an announcement had to be made that the roast was done, the chicken was gone, and they were down to just a few servings of pasta. I think people would be mortified. I can just see the parents of the bride and groom huddled in the corner trying to decide which pizza delivery place to call. It would be a very uncomfortable position to be in, whether you were one of the guests or one of the hosts.

Yet, that was the situation Jesus and his mother, Mary found themselves in our text from today. They were guests at a wedding, when the wine ran out. Now, if we think wedding celebrations here are big events. In ancient Israel, they were huge. Wedding celebrations went on for a week! They were a huge community celebration. People came and ate and drank for days on end. The overflowing of food and drink was a sign of the overflowing blessings that were hoped to be experienced by the newly married couple. And the wine runs out! Talk about a disaster. Talk about a bad omen for the poor couple’s marriage. Not only was running out of wine a hugely disastrous event for the host, it was really bad karma for the bride and groom. And what was Jesus’ response to his learning of this terrible thing happening? “What concern is that to you and to me? My hour has not yet come."

Well, that’s disappointing. What about Jesus’ empathy? What about Jesus’ love and caring? Who is this person? I wonder if there was a fair amount of unspoken, unrecorded information between Jesus’ statement and the next verse: “His mother said to the servants, "Do whatever he tells you."” I can see Mary looked with a shocked and disappointing look at her son, who she knows is so much better than how he just responded. Jesus looking back, with a “What?” sort of expression on his face. Then Mary, transforming her face into the one that all children know, and all mothers have mastered: that look of disapproval that demands that you change your behavior and mood. Then Jesus, seeing his mother’s disappointment lowers his face with resignation and nods slowly. His mother turns to the servants, “Do whatever he tells you.” I know the text doesn’t say it, I know that it’s a bit uncomfortable to think of in this way, but Jesus was fully human, and that means he was just as prone to being in a not-so-good mood as the rest of us, just ask that poor fig tree he was upset with along the road later on.

In the end, Jesus performs the miraculous, and 6 huge clay jars of water are transformed into the highest quality vintage. The wedding is saved. The bride and groom retain their honor, and Jesus gets his ministry off to a good starts. John says that this was the first sign Jesus did. It’s important to note that in John’s gospel, Jesus doesn’t perform miracles, her performs signs.

A miracle is an in-breaking of God’s grace into our lives, while a sign points to something that we are looking for, or are about to experience. Each of Jesus’ miraculous signs in John’s gospel point to something of importance, something about Jesus, something about the in-breaking Kingdom of God.

One of the images of the Kingdom, and of Heaven itself that we find throughout scripture is the feast. Isaiah’s 25th chapter has a beautiful image of God’s victory: “On this mountain the LORD of hosts will make for all peoples a feast of fat things, a feast of wine on the lees, of fat things full of marrow, of wine on the lees well refined.” (Isaiah 25:6 RSV) In Revelation, we read that those who are invited to the final marriage feast of the Lamb are blessed. Throughout his ministry, Jesus used parables with feasts to teach, and used a feast on the evening of his betrayal to share with his disciples the deepest truths and purposes of his coming. A feast, a table full of good things, is a sign of the Kingdom of God, of the Reign of God breaking in.

It’s a rather unfortunate thing that for many people church is viewed as boring, as being blah, as something you go to out of duty rather than the party you want to go to. Without doubt, there are times for deep thought and solemnity in the life of the church, but we gather before an altar that also serves as a table, we break bread together, we share in the feast of Christ. The in-breaking of God in our midst, of which the church is a sign, is portrayed as a joyous feast, a party. What’s boring, or solemn, or lifeless about that?

The first sign that John presents of Jesus is the changing of water into wine that the feast, the celebration, the party may continue. It’s a sign that Jesus is the Messiah who has come to fulfill the promises of old. The One who has come to bring on the feasting. Is that the image of Jesus you have? The life of the party? The one who provides the best food and drink, the one who stands and tells the best stories and jokes, the one who gives the best toasts?

If you ever go to a Jewish wedding or celebration, there is a toast that you will most likely hear, “L’chaim!”, “To life!” I’m sure that at the wedding in Cana, as the glasses full of wine were raised for seven days of celebration, you heard it many times, “L’Chaim!” And I’m sure that on that third day, after the first wine had run out, and Jesus provided the new wine, the shouts of “L’chaim” were probably even louder. The party has begun, the feast is in full swing, and then out of nowhere the wine improves, the quality of the feast takes a step up. Jesus steps in and takes the celebration to the next level. To life!

There are many different ways to think about the life which we have been blessed with. We may think of it is a journey. We may think of it as a burden we must bear. We may think of it as a blessing. We may even think of it as a party. A party where the guests come and go, yet the party continues. A party where there is laughter and joy, yet also moments of sadness and pain. A party where we may at times feel alone, a wallflower left to look with longing at the fun being had by others. A party where we never know what is going to happen next, who is going to engage us in conversation next. A party that as good as it is, can only be improved by the one whose coming, whose first sign, enabled the party to continue. The one who makes the party even better. The one whose presence brings with it the abundance of life, the blessings of life, the joy of the Kingdom, the feast of God. Jesus, the life of the party, the reason the celebration may continue, the one in whom we find our joy and the strength to shout, “L’chaim!”

I want to close with a few words from one of the most memorable songs in Fiddler on the Roof, “To Life” sung by Tevye and the men in the village in celebration of the betrothal of one of Tevye’s daughters to the butcher Lazar Wolf. In the midst of the hard life they led, in the midst of the presence of Russain soldiers who made their lives difficult, in the middle of a party that was far from being a party, they shouted out, “L’chaim!” How much more then can we, who have been graced with the presence of the life of the party himself, shout out, “L’chaim!” ourselves, giving praise to our God that gives us the sweetest of wine to drink?

To us and our good fortune
Be happy be healthy, long life!
And if our good fortune never comes
Here's to whatever comes,
Drink l'chaim, to life!

To life, to life, l'chai-im,!
L'chai-im, l'chai-im, to life!
Life has a way of confusing us
Blessing and bruising us,
Drink l'chaim, to life,

To life, l'chaim!
L'chaim, l'chaim, to life!
A gift we seldom are wise enough
Ever to prize enough,
Drink l'chaim, to life!

God would like us to be joyful
Even though our hearts lie panting on the floor;
How much more can we be joyful,
When there's really something
To be joyful for.

To life, to life, L'chai-im!
L'chai-im, l'chai-im, to life!
It gives you something to think about,
Something to drink about,
Drink l'chai-im, to life! l'chai-im!