"The Best Is Yet To Come"
Isaiah 62:1-4a; John 2:1-11
January 14, 2007
In the Bible, there are so many stories of extravagance and abundance...within God’s timing.
There was a time when a whole crowd was fed….(with basket)
All I had was a basket with a fish or two and some fresh bread….enough to feed my family, and no more. He asked me to share. And before my eyes, and the eyes of several thousand others, there was more than enough as we feasted together…on a blessing…made real in us. An abundance of heaven from the meagerness of earth. In God’s timing, just in time really!, came faith’s abundance…there is enough. We shared and we were fed!
The story is told of a woman who, with amazing timing, recognizes Jesus as God’s greatest living gift and give thanks
One day, there was a wedding feast in the town of Cana
The wedding at Cana. All fairy tales end at the wedding…leaving you, the reader, to hope in fairy tale endings without a clue about how that could happen in the real world. Jesus ministry begins where fairy tales leave off.
It’s our real lives Jesus wants us to believe in! And here’s how we can begin to do it….
At the wedding, Jesus wasn’t so sure initially that the time was right for him to share his true identity. In our lives, it is hard for us to know what to do when, too! But even being unsure, he stayed in the midst of the party, the confusion, the demands made of him, the grumblings…he stays and something comes to him that allows him to know the time is right for him to react differently….a model of staying along side.
And what is that comes to him? Mother. With Mom’s nudging him…we might say nagging him…but actually helping him…..sometimes we all need some a nudge to be accountable with our gifts…..Jesus knew the time was right. When he simply realizes the need at hand…not his need, the people’s need…the common good as Paul refers to it, he knew to act! Perhaps he knew the time was right for things to be different because things needed to be different! No dah! They do!
Now let’s not be ridiculous to equate wine needed at a wedding with what is needed for the common good in your world or the greater world. It’s a metaphor! ….one in which the usual rites of passage and the religious rituals were turned upside down…the unexpected happened! The unexpected happened because Jesus made it happen! You have to DO something for things to be different…often something unexpected! And you have already been given all that you need to be able to do it…and abundantly so!
This is the first of Jesus’ signs…his first miracle…as told in the book of John. For the first time, Jesus sees himself against a bigger back drop. He gets the bigger picture and sees his call is to the greater good. He sees he can make choices that yield a different result! He took a social faux pas and made it work. He took the time to try another way to move through the situation, do something else instead of responding the same old ways which lead to the same old results.
Imagine if we would say…The plan wasn’t working out, so it was time we tried doing something else.…for a different result and so we did it differently this time. Imagine if we would say…
~Arguing just didn’t work out, so we’re going to try negotiating.
~Yelling and screaming didn’t work out, so we’re going to sit down
and actually eat dinner together….or separately.
~Being enemies didn’t work out, so we’re going to serve on the same ministry team.
~Holding a grudge didn’t work out, so we’re going to get over it.
~Spanking didn’t work out, so we’re going to try spending more time together.
~Gossiping just didn’t work out, so we’re going to ask her what really happened.
~Making threats just didn’t work out, so we’re going to try it their way first
and then see what happens.
~Temper tantrums just didn’t work out, so we’re going to tell each other
what we really want.
-Warring just didn’t work out, so we’re going to try peacing.
~Not using our gifts didn’t work out, so we’re going to try using them.
We can find all kinds of grounds for divorce or staying too long, for family strife, war, hatred, bigotry, arguments, being enemies, staying unhappy, leaving. But this is not what God intends…this is no kind of party! God intends us to find grounds for love, right relationship, peace….unexpected love through a new kind of relationship that brings peace. And the time is now! We can do things differently. The best is yet to come!
God creates us with gifts for right relationship…and gives us abundant love before we’re even born. Children chose to love right away…with adults…wow, it seems harder and harder to love without judgment as we get older, doesn’t it? But you can change that! And the time to begin is…..yours to choose....just like it was Jesus’ choice! And we can come to know the time is right for us to use our gifts, our treasure of love inside that enables us to do the unexpected….the time has come when we realize we can touch the realities of those around us for good.…not our good alone…but the good of all…the common good.
What a great benchmark for us to know when the time is right to try something new, that it’s time for you to act in an unexpected way. The benchmark? Tthe lack of action on anyone’s part to address thereal suffering that is happening around you. This is when you are to act and affect the greater good…of your life, your family, your church, you work, our world! Act and touch the reality of those around you for good…the greater good.
You chose: share an unexpected expression of hopeful love…..or continue without a plan, without a clue and so continue to make a foolish or stubborn or routine choices that empty you out and hold everyone stuck….denying God’s deepest desires for your abundant joy! Striving for the greater, the common good…can be the beginning of something new coming forward in you!
In your life, it’s time for Jesus to help you turn stubbornness into self-awareness, anger into energy, facts into wisdom, blame into accountability, loneliness into church community, self-doubt into good questions to ask… It’s your choice. Your timing. Isn’t it your time yet?
Enough already! It’s time! The best is indeed yet to come! Let Jesus in, release your deep longing to love yourself as you love others, do the unexpected and find yourself joy-filled serving in the common good!
…(with earthen pitcher)All we had left were the empty pitchers. The smell of the wine was rich from them, but they were empty, the wine partied away. We wondered if somehow we stewards would catch the wrath of the host even though the wine was not our responsibility to provide. But then, glasses were filled with new wine from the water jars, rich and mature wine. The complaining about thirst grew into congratulations about quality. The wine was good, and plentiful, and the taste….it was a taste of heaven. It was a feast of abundance, of blessing…no, not the wine! The blessing? Jesus taking the time to care, share his gifts… The real blessing? Seeing what is possible in any one of us…imagining what is possible if we would all notice the needs around us and be generous with our time and caring…oh that we too would respond in time! What might happen then…what would pour out of us?….(with perfume jar)
All I had was a single bottle of perfume. Expensive? Certainly. And I poured it and poured it, as mouths fell open and a hush filled the room, the aroma of the perfume taunting those gathered with him there. They had a hard time seeing what it was I was really doing, their attention on the cost of the perfume. The value of doing the thing most needed always outweighs any financial cost. No cost really, rather an extravagant moment from heaven…for him and for me. The true meaning and value of that moment? It was a moment of abundant grace…and I was in the middle of it! Such timing!
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