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18 January 1998
As we take up today's story and learn, let us adopt the attitude of wonder of a little unnamed girl sitting in the lap of her grandmother. The little girl is sitting and listening as the older woman reads the story of creation from the Book of Genesis. As she reads, the grandmother notices how still and quiet the child has become, so she asks, "Well, what do you think of it dear?" The little girl answers with sheer joy: "Oh, I love it, you never know what God is going to do next!" (1)
With wonder we attend to the wedding feast in Cana of Galilee and we let three simple but profound truths find a home in us today: Jesus meets us where we live, when Jesus speaks things happen, and we are to "do whatever he tells [us]."
Jesus meets us where we live. In today's story he comes to the party. He comes into the midst of the joy of two families celebrating the marriage of their children. Jesus comes into the joy of the whole village celebrating this marriage. He comes into the midst of aunts and uncles, cousins, and grandparents friends and neighbors. He comes to the laughter and the dancing and the food shared. God's glory, revealed in Jesus, isn't reserved for the Temple or the synagogue or the devotions done quietly and alone. God's glory in Jesus is revealed at the party.
In days to come, as our story unfolds in this new church year, Jesus will meet our brothers and sisters on the road between villages, he will meet them on the country hillside, he will meet them in the marketplace, in the synagogue, and in the Temple. Jesus will meet our brothers and sisters while they work tending sheep, or fishing. Indeed, he will join them in the boat as they work. He will meet them over dinner in their homes. He will meet them in joy (as in today's story) and in pain as he goes among the outcast, as he encounters them in their weakness and infirmity, and he will even meet them at the deathbed and tomb.
All of this is to say, Jesus will meet us where we live. Ready or not Jesus will meet us on the road between appointments, or on our way to work, or on our way to play. Jesus will meet us where we work, where we shop, where we gather to share a meal. Jesus will meet us in our joy, and he will meet us in our pain and our suffering. He will meet us where we live. It is in the ordinary places that we will see the glory of God, in Jesus, shine out. We can count on that.
A second truth entrusted to us today is that when Jesus speaks things happen. In today's story, water is turned into wine. As we travel with Jesus in the Gospel this year, he will speak and the blind will see, he will speak a word and the deaf will hear and the dumb speak. Jesus will command and the storm will be calmed, and demons will be expelled. In the presence of death, Jesus will give a word and the dead will be restored to life. When Jesus speaks, things happen.
Jesus will speak a word and those who are outcast, downcast, forgotten, or despised, will be welcomed back into community. Those thought to be useless and worthless will be entrusted with ministry by the command of Jesus. Jesus will even speak a word of compassion and gentleness and sins will be forgiven and sinners restored to right relationship with God. When he speaks, things happen.
This is as true today as it was in Cana of Galilee. It would be extraordinary to hear Jesus speaks as you hear me speak this morning. It is my experience that you will have to listen with a different kind of ear, an inner or spiritual ear, as it were. The listening will seem to come from your heart. The listening and hearing you do will have the quality of profound wonder and joy as shared with us by the little girl in her grandmother's lap.
You may have to put into words what you have "heard." But what will be unmistakable is that Jesus has spoken to you. And when Jesus speaks things happen. Perhaps you will find peace replacing fear or anxiety. Perhaps you will find healing in place of illness. Perhaps you will find a compelling certainty in a particular course of action relating to job or relationship or place of living. Maybe you will find yourself lifting your own voice in prayer for a loved one, though you know not why. Stories abound about hearing Jesus, and the wonder of watching his word work powerfully, here and now.
Which is to say that today, things happen when Jesus speaks because you and I meet Jesus where we live, we hear him, and then we do whatever he tells us. The brothers of the Society of St. Paul (Barnabas and Andrew) shared this key with me just yesterday. Encounter and hearing are not enough, we must also act, then God's glory is made known. At one time there was a community of nuns associated with the Society of St. Paul. In their chapel, over the niche containing a statue of the Madonna and child, the words of Mary were gilded: "Do whatever he tells you to do." These nuns had ordered and focused their lives around this wisdom spoken by Mary, "Do whatever he tells you to do." They encountered Jesus where they lived, in their convent, they listened and heard, then they worked to do whatever he told them. And God's glory was made known.
At our best, we do this, too. Jesus meets us where we live. He speaks a word. As we strive to do his will, things happen. The hungry are fed, those who grieve are comforted, those who are ill are healed, children are nurtured and nourished in the faith, God is worshipped and glorified in our assembly in word and song, sinners are restored to right relationship with God, and all of us are fed at the Lord's Table.
Does God speak today? Is it possible? Of course. Let me revisit a rather dramatic story to illustrate what I have been saying. In this story Jesus shows up at the workplace. He speaks. He speaks again. His speaking becomes compelling. When Jesus' friend acts, good happens, indeed God's glory is revealed.
Dr. Peter Wagner, in his book Signs and Wonders Today, seeks to find some explanation for the amazing growth of the church in China during the Cultural Revolution which began in 1949 after Chairman Mao Tse-tung had expelled all missionaries and liquidated (or exiled to labor camps) all the national church leadership. It was a difficult situation. There were many martyrs, only limited fellowship, and no Bibles. And yet, the church grew. Wagner believed that "signs and wonders" played a major role in this church growth. He relates the case of a woman who had worked at a quarry in charge of the work shifts. When she blew a whistle, the workers would come up out of the mines.
One day she was working in her office when she heard a voice calling her by name, telling her that she should blow the whistle to let the workers come up out of the mines. There was still another hour before she was supposed to do this, but she repeatedly heard the voice telling her to blow her whistle now. Finally, without checking with the other members of the office because she feared they would stop her, she blew the whistle. The miners started coming out. No sooner had the last one left the mines than an earthquake caved in several of the shafts. If the workers had been in the mines, the death toll would have been staggering.
The miners gathered around this girl and asked why she had blown the whistle early. She had to admit that she was a Christian and that she had just obeyed the voice of God. Hundreds accepted the Lord that day. Then, at an official enquiry, she gave a powerful testimony, and many more families accepted Christ. (2) Of course God speaks today. Perhaps the good that God will work through us will be less dramatic, or perhaps more dramatic, but you can count on this: God desires to make good things happen through you and me.
May we have the grace to meet Jesus where we live. May we have the grace to hear him clearly. May the Glory of God in Jesus shine through the love in our hearts, the works of our hands and the power of our words. Amen.
The Rev. Daniel Rondeau
drondeau@stmargarets.org
18 January 1998