2nd Sunday after the Epiphany
January 17, 2016
Isaiah 62:1-5; Psalm 36:5-10; 1 Corinthians 12:1-11;
John 2:1-11
This week’s big news, and what just about everyone was
talking about, was the $1.6 billion Powerball drawing. I’d even venture a guess that many of us here
this morning bought a ticket, although I’m not going to ask for a show of
hands. The official United Methodist
stance on the lottery is gambling is deadly to the spiritual life, because it
implies that you don’t trust God to provide.[1] However, I realize that many people thought
this was all in good, harmless fun, and, hey, you can’t win if you don’t buy a
ticket. Then it got even more exciting
because three of the winners were from Maryland! And yet the good news from the Scriptures
this morning is that God does provide, and not only provides, but offers us the
abundance of his house, as we read in Psalm 36.
The beginning of the Gospel of John is often called a prologue, kind of
an introduction to the book, and you may remember how it starts by saying, “In
the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He
was in the beginning with God.”[2] The
Word, of course, is Jesus Christ. A few
verses later it says that “From God’s abundance we have all received grace upon
grace, one gracious blessing after another, gift after gift.”[3] God offers us blessings, offers us gifts,
most importantly, of course, the gift of his Son, and it’s up to us whether or
not to receive these gifts. There is no
buying a ticket here, you’re offered it free of charge, but you can’t win, you
can’t receive the blessings, if you don’t first take the ticket. There’s another place in John’s Gospel that
also talks about God offering us abundance, and it’s later on, in chapter
10. This is the part, or one of the
parts, about sheep, where Jesus says, “I am the good shepherd. The good
shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.”[4] Jesus also says, “The thief comes only to
steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life, and have it
abundantly.”[5] Jesus came that we might have abundant
life. That’s the promise, and that’s the
promise that we see evidence of in our readings this morning.
Our Gospel lesson, also from the Gospel of John, was the
story of Jesus’ first miracle. And if
you’d had to guess, what would pick his first miracle to be about? I would guess some kind of dramatic healing,
right? Maybe even resurrection, like
when Jesus brought Lazarus back from the dead after he’d even been buried for
two days. Something big, something
powerful, like showing off his control over life and death, that’s what I’d
expect as Jesus’ first miracle. But that’s
not what it was, was it? Instead, Jesus
does some sort of trick with water and wine, a fancier version of what I did
with the kids this morning. He turns
water into wine, not all that hard if you’ve got grapes and a wine press and
the proper equipment. Except this
miracle isn’t about being fancy. It’s
not about “look what I can do.” Jesus’
first miracle is about abundance. He
doesn’t just turn one pitcher of water into wine; he turns six large stone jars of water into wine. Each of those jars would have held between 20
and 30 gallons, so we’re talking about, as the wedding reception is winding
down, pulling out somewhere between 120
and 180 gallons of really good wine.
We’re talking about generosity.
We’re talking about abundance. We’re
talking about “grace upon grace,” extravagant abundance. Jesus shares, and he doesn’t just share a
little, he shares profusely, elaborately, excessively, blessing upon blessing
upon blessing. That’s the first sign
that Jesus did, and John says Jesus “revealed his glory, and his disciples
believed in him.”[6] Jesus revealed his glory at a celebration, at
a time of happiness and laughing and smiling and joy, and he added to the good
feelings.
Jesus shared at the wedding out of the abundance of God’s
house, as we read in our psalm this morning.
That middle two verses of what we read says, “How precious is your
steadfast love, O God! All people may
take refuge in the shadow of your wings.
They feast on the abundance of your house, and you give them drink from
the river of your delights.”[7] All
people may take refuge, that includes us, and one Bible translation puts it
from our perspective: “We find protection under the shadow of your wings. We
feast on the abundant food you provide; you let us drink from the river of your
goodness.”[8] And yet this truly is abundance, because it’s
offered to all people, everyone is
invited to God’s banquet table, and there is enough for everyone to eat and drink and be satisfied. Now, some people may eat more than others, because
they start off hungrier, or in general like to eat, but that doesn’t mean the
food will run out for others. Everyone,
the hungry and the well-fed, rich and poor, middle class, upper class, and
lower class, all will get enough to
eat. That’s the abundance of God’s
house. Everyone eats until they are full, if not even stuffed, since
sometimes when there’s lots of good food, it’s hard to eat only a normal
portion.
If
you go back to that prologue at the beginning of John and keep reading, it says,
“All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came
into being. What has come into being in him was life, and the life was the
light of all people.”[9] Here’s the thing about light, it shines on
everything equally. You can’t turn a light
on in a room and say only these people over here can use it. [Cowenton: This new track lighting was
initially for the choir. However, both
the liturgist and I can see better, as well as Ms. Edie, our acolytes, our
kids, our ushers. If we were to turn off
all the other lights, y’all would still be able to see the light up here.] Everyone in the room sees the light. And Jesus, again in the Gospel of John, says,
“I am the light of the world.”[10] Talk again about abundance, light for the
whole world. A feast for the whole
world. All people may come. Talk about an open table.
This
section of Psalm 36 that we read is “the joyful response of a people who
experience the results of God's promise in Isaiah.”[11] If you remember that passage from Isaiah that
began with not keeping quiet and not sitting still until Jerusalem’s salvation
shines like a burning torch, and then “Nations will see your righteousness, all
kings your glory. You will be called by a new name.”[12] Jesus says he is the light of the world, in
John, but over in Matthew’s Gospel he says “You
are the light of the world… Let your light shine before others, so that they
may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven.”[13] Talk about a new name. “You will no longer be called Abandoned,”
Forsaken, Deserted, Desolate… “Instead you will be called My Delight Is in Her,
Married,” Light of the World, “because the Lord delights in you and your land
will be cared for once again.”[14] This is a promise, a promise of abundance, of
grace upon grace, blessing after blessing, gift after gift… if we’re willing to
receive it. I almost didn’t include the
Isaiah passage in this sermon, because we don’t really need it, there’s enough
abundance in the other readings, except that this beautiful promise needs
stating and needs claiming. “For Zion’s
sake I won’t keep silent, and for Jerusalem’s sake I won’t sit still.”[15] Well, for your
sake, I will not keep silent and I will not sit still, until your righteousness shines out like a
light, and your salvation blazes like
a torch, and we know, for ourselves, the abundance of God. Promise.
Now,
we do have to talk about one problem that comes in with abundance, and it’s not
the fear of scarcity, that there won’t be enough, but the fear of gifts that
are different from ours. Our reading
from 1 Corinthians talks about an abundance of gifts. Paul emphasizes that these all come from the
same Spirit, and yet there are many different gifts, from wisdom to faith to
healing to miracles to prophecy to speaking in tongues to interpretation of
tongues, and often what happens among God’s people is that we don’t know what
to do with people who have different gifts than the ones we were given. And that’s often how we self-select into
denominations. You won’t find many
Methodists, at least in the U.S., who speak in tongues, or who are even
comfortable around someone speaking in tongues.
People with different gifts out of God’s abundance, other than the ones
we’re used to being around, make us uncomfortable, make us question if those
gifts are also from God, may make us jealous of how God blessed them and didn’t
bless us, just as how you may feel jealous of those who won last week’s lottery
jackpot. We have received gift upon
gift, and yet so did others. And others
may receive different gifts. That’s why
Paul emphasizes “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. The
Spirit's presence is shown in some
way in each person for the good of
all.”[16] Not the same
way, but in some way. That’s why we’re not all called to do all the
same things. That’s why not all churches
engage in the exact same ministries. We
have to know which gifts God’s offering to us and which ministries God’s
calling us to and it’s not going to look the same as the church next door, and that’s okay. It’s not even going to look the same as it
did here twenty years ago, or ten
years ago, and that’s okay, too. We’re a
different church now than we were then, I’m not going to judge better or worse,
because it doesn’t matter. What matters is discerning which gifts are
here now, which gifts are being offered to us if we but claim them, and which
ministries God is calling us to engage in today.
God’s abundance isn’t like a zero-sum budget, where
everything gets divided up. And it’s not
like the lottery, where different winners get different amounts of the
prize. God’s abundance means there is
plenty for everyone. It means gallons
upon gallons of good wine is being brought out toward the end of the party. It means receiving his gifts after gifts
after gifts, and sharing them. We’re
blessed to be a blessing, just like Abraham back in Genesis. And God’s abundance blessings mean we can
claim all of God’s prize, and so can everyone else. His abundance isn’t split, his love isn’t
split, his grace isn’t split. It’s all
for you, and for you, and for you, and for me.
Thanks be to God.
[1] BOD, 2012, p. 131
[2] John 1:1-2
[3] John 1:16, NLT, NRSV, MSG
[4] John 10:11
[5] John 10:10
[6] John 2:11
[7] Psalm 36:7-8
[8] Ibid., GNT
[9] John 1:3-4
[10] John 8:12
[12] Isaiah 62:1-2
[13] Matthew 5:14a, 16
[14] Isaiah 62:4
[15] Isaiah 62:1
[16] 1 Corinthians 12:4-6,
NRSV, v. 7, GNT, emphasis mine
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