Plymouth Congregational Church of Fort Wayne, UCC
January 17, 2010
Second Sunday after Epiphany

Scripture Lesson:  John 2:1-12

 www/ucc.org/disaster

"... Jesus did ... the first of his signs, in Cana of Galilee,
and revealed his glory; and his disciples believed in him."
 (John 2:11)

Prelude

There are three items I'd like to address this morning.

In order they include: 

(1) the earthquake that struck Haiti earlier this past week;

(2) the continuing significance of the life/teaching

of Martin Luther King, Jr.

(3) the lesson from John, the episode at Cana in Galilee,

where upon attending a wedding feast, Jesus

performed "the first of his signs,"

turning water into good wine.

This is a tall order;

we have but a few minutes,

so let's have at it.

          *****                   *****                   *****                   *****

I missed the initial reports of the earthquake that hit Haiti

late on Tuesday afternoon.  I woke up to the headlines in

the paper, and upon coming to work, found a series of

email reports being issued from the church. 

Within hours of the disaster, there was a posting

on the UCC national website: www.ucc.org/disaster. 

If you go to that link, you find a litany of disaster alerts from 2009,

joined now by the first such episode in 2010.

It is, by all accounts, a terribly tragedy

that has befallen the people of Haiti,

the poorest of the poor in our western hemisphere,

a people whose history is long on material poverty

and corrupt, despotic, repressive rule.

The scale of the disaster is, quite simply,

beyond our comprehension.

The estimated numbers of the dead,

the buried and maimed,

the lost and those left homeless:

staggering.

One report from the international Red Cross indicated

upwards to 3 million Haitians will require aid (food, shelter, water)

well into this year. That's about 1/3 of the nation's people.   

The Global Ministries of the UCC/DOC

has two mission partners in Haiti,

CONASPEH - which is an umbrella ecumenical group

(National Spiritual Council of Haitian Churches)

and House of Hope (a lending cooperative working

with impoverished women).  Reports have been received

from mission workers. One letter, forwarded from

Kim, Patrick, and Solomon (child) Bentrotts,

closed with this word: 

"Please pray for Haiti.  In a minute's time, buildings crumbled

and life was lost.  So much life.  And even with that, I think

the hardest times are still coming as people try to figure out

how to put their lives together again."

So - prayers and donations are encouraged

for the people of the land; and we remember

the Haitian neighbors in the Dominican Republic;

for the United Nations, whose "Peace Keeping" headquarters is gone, collapsed;

for the Red Cross, the Red Crescent; for relief workers

that have delivered or who are on their way with offered aid,

including people from

Brazil, the European Union, the United Kingdom,

Germany, Israel, France, S. Korea, Canada, and China.

China suffered an earthquake in 2008 which claimed upwards to 90,000.

They were quick to dispatch a chartered plane

carrying 10 tons of tents, food, medical equipment,

a 60-member earthquake relief team,

assisted by sniffer dogs.  And, of course, we additionally

remember our own aid workers from the US,

along with US military personnel.

Coordinating the logistics of those determined to help

presents its own unique challenge, so we need pray

for those engaged in that work also.

Not all possess a sympathetic heart for a people in dire need.

I've saved an article published a few months ago that mentioned

a study by a German psychologist, conducted at the very time

the Final Solution was being implemented in Germany during WWII.

The findings of the study indicated that 69% of those interviewed

displayed what the psychologist (Michael Muller-Coaudius) called

"indifference of conscience."  This attitude represented a range of

response, from those who simply were resigned to the powers in play,

to those who were callously disinterested. 

Well, not all possess an "indifference of conscience."

I heard (indirectly) that the Rev. Pat Robertson

pronounced judgment, indicating the earthquake was

an act of God, and Haiti was being

cursed for its revolutionary past.

Even more incredible was the radio talk show host

who voiced a complaint that the earthquake was

politically expedient for the President,

a photo opportunity for Obama to look compassionate

(Rush Limbaugh). 

There are dark, indifferent sides to the soul.

Yet isn't it true that there exists

another side to our nature?

And isn't it remarkable, in hours of tremendous upheaval,

in the aftermath of natural calamity and human crisis,

so many are eager, anxious, wanting, and searching

for ways to help and assist? 

There is something in our spiritual DNA, in the soul,

that yearns to rise and comfort and encourage

the afflicted, not simply for the afflicted,

but for soul satisfaction, the spirit within. 

Deep calls to deep. 

And out of sorrow,

from the ashes,

life wills life. 

I can report, within hours, not days,

but hours of the earthquake,

emergency funds from OGHS were dispatched

to our Haitian church partners.  

I can further report, a spring expedition from

Fort Wayne is already being planned through

Associated Churches of Fort Wayne/Allen County.

As details are forthcoming, I'll make every effort to report. 

          *****                   *****                   *****                  

Lesson one this morning:

the grace of God is a compassionate heart that

stretches far/wide, that is

not limited to a particular people or place.

When we grow in Christian faith,

we grow in our capacity to be engaged,

involved, and understanding of others.

A devotion was distributed this week through the UCC;

the author was Anthony Robinson, and in his reflection

upon MLK day, he opined there exists today a lack of

acknowledgement that King was religiously grounded

in life as a Christian.  Robinson's assessment:

"King is remembered as a generic great

person, not as a follower of Jesus."

I tend to agree, but with this proviso:

the condition of faith in which the Rev. King started

was not the same when his life came to its violent end. 

His love and teaching was expansive (this is a good word!).

He modeled that for which we continue to strive: 

a broader expression of Christian faith;

not confined, choked, narrowed, restricted.

"The great new problem of humanity (?) 

We have inherited a large house, a "world house,"

in which we have to live together - black and white,

Easterner and Westerner, Gentile and Jew,

Catholic and Protestant, Moslem and Hindu -

a family unduly separated in ideas, culture and interest,

who, because we can never again live apart,

must learn somehow to live with each other in peace."

Often we fail to credit King with this

identification of our condition,

this articulation of what fundamentally challenges,

not our citizenship, but our humanity.

His perception of the world was more

than drinking fountains and lunch counters in a

segregated southern America.

He started as an integrationist,

addressing the question of race. 

He never ceased integrating others

in the love that was his faith

and outlook on life. 

In this regard King's teachings remain

not only relevant, but necessary for the church. 

Though the world is filled with complexity,

near the end of his life he spoke of

overwhelming desire that is quite simple:

"I'd like it mentioned that I tried to give my life,

serving others ... that I tried to love and serve humanity ...

I just want to leave a committed life behind"

(paraphrase, "The Drum Major Instinct").

Life committed to the love of God, in communion

with Jesus, is never lived in vain. 

It is full, rewarding, redemptive.

Indeed, it is eternal.

          *****                   *****                   *****

Now, don't become unsettled,

but I'd like to begin preaching.

You may be wondering, what has any of this to do

with the 12 verses from chapter 2 in the gospel of John.

In chapter 2 we find a different time is laid before us.

A pattern was in place in chapter one, we might call it

normal time and expectation. 

Our author has given us three sections,

each prefaced with "the next day" (v. 29, 35, 43). 

Day one featured John the Baptist

identifying Jesus as the Lamb of God;

the next day, Jesus called his first disciples,

Peter and Andrew;

the next day he called Philip and Nathanael. 

With Chapter Two we encounter a change in the pattern well laid.

"On the third day ..." This language should tingle our ears.  

Things happen, do they not, on the third day? 

Is there more here than a chronological reference point? 

Third days, third years, fill the story of Joseph,

when he was down in Egypt land. 

In Exodus, was it not the third day when Moses went up,

and God came down for meeting upon the mountain top,

and the making of covenant. (Exodus 19:16)?

In Hosea, do we not read:  "After two days I will heal you,

on the third day I will raise you up."

In Paul, do we not hear:

 "He has been raised on the third day,

according to the scriptures" (I Corinthians 15:4). 

And does not Jesus speak,

"Tear down this sanctuary (bodily temple),

and in three days I shall raise it up" (John 2:19).

On the third day ... we best be alert to

something wonderful happening. 

Where was it happening?  Cana in Galilee. 

Do you realize:  Cana in Galilee has little or no

biblical or historical significance. 

What was it Gertrude Stein said of Oakland, California?

There is no there, there. 

Biblical scholar Herman Waetjen has called Cana,

"A so-called no place!"

Yet in Chapter 2, this is where we find Jesus working wonders,

in a no-place where there was a wedding feast,

where there was a crisis.

My goodness, a social disaster in the making. 

We have guests, but the house is dry. 

The supply of wine has been exhausted. 

Following an exchange between mother and Son,

mother instructs the servants at this wedding feast: 

Do what he tells you. 

We have six stone water jars,

quite large, each capable of holding between 20-30 gallons of water. 

Jesus order these filled, to the brim.  To the top.

Once full there is direction to draw some water out,

and deliver it to the festival steward.  The steward

performs a taste test, and then becomes a wine critic,

commenting this is great. He speaks with awe

to the bridegroom, You have kept the good wine unto now!

There is quantitative dimension to this story.  My computations:

Jesus produces a minimum of 50 cases of wine, well enough to

stock a store for quite some time.

But more than abundance is being displayed here.

More importantly there is appetite being satisfied. 

The steward commends what is good in the now,

in the moment of need; Jesus brings into being

nothing inferior, nothing of secondary value or merit,

but goodness now, and what Jesus brings into being

is worthy to be praised by a people with

glad and grateful hearts. 

On the third day,

in the midst of crisis,

there is good ... it is not postponed, it is not

projected into some distant day that follows

cosmic conflagration.  The good wine comes now. 

The good wine signals the messianic age of

blessing and wonder and favor in a new moral age.

The changing of water into wine is not a sign, it was

"the first sign" that occurred in "on the third day."

As such, it is more than inaugural act; it is a

comprehensive act that interprets

what was, and is, and what will be.

And Jesus made it possible.

And the disciples believed.

Their hearts were open to

goodness and blessing and joy

in the land of the living.

          *****                   *****                   *****

The church long has preserved this memory

and sought to maintain the reality. 

With Jesus, on the third day,

there is abundance;

and likewise a hunger and thirst for God,

an appetite that is satisfied by good in

the age, the great day when God

is here and now to dwell and abide.

John signals this with the wedding feast, 

inviting us to partake of the blessing God

intends for all people.  Out of our singleness,

there is a wedding. 

We become wedded

to the will of God,

we become married to

justice and mercy and compassion;

we are united in covenant and we dwell secure;

in this union, two become one,

one mind, one heart, with great joy.

 (see Hosea 2:16-20)

So may it be for us,

a people keeping the feast,

committed to proclaiming the love

and glory of God.