Abundance....

1/16

Monkey Cup art...

Today it is FREEZING cold.  When I go out for my Sunday Times and coffee at my favorite Venezuelan cafe, the Monkey Cup, it's only 11 degrees F. (Celsius -12). Today I am preaching to a bilingual (English-Korean) joint service of the Good Shepherd -Faith congregation before taking the long journey out to St.Alban's, Queens for my first official act as Moderator, a much anticipated and long awaited ordination and installation service. Here is my reflection  for the Good Shepherd- Faith people....

Well, sad to say, we are still in it. In the midst of the first year of coronavirus world, I got my covid collection.  My Grateful Dead dancing bear “Grateful Distancing” t-shirt. My “We will get by, we will survive” shirt.  For last year’s  spring training I got my shirt with the Pirates’ logo man wearing his head bandana as a mask. And last summer I gave them all away thinking they would be just a bad memory. Little did I think..

During Covid I produced 62 virtual open mics and 10 showcase concerts on the great “Stay at home” tour of 20-21. Making my way back to live performance has been difficult. SO I was every excited to have three big performances coming up this winter. And by Friday, all three had been cancelled or postponed until fall. Yes, we’re still in it.

Later today is my first “official” act as Presbytery moderator. In a live in person service, I will ordain and install Eric Toodles as Pastor of St. Alban’s church. But in order to do that, to be a responsible moderator, I had to ask all these questions…how many people will be there? What are you protocols? Do you have ventilation? And then, how do we do the traditional laying on of hands?  I mean we’re all used to the ecclesiastical liturgical mosh pit.  Can’t do that in covid.  I asked my colleagues.  One suggested we just stand at a distance and hold up an out stretched hand. Until someone pointed out that it would look like a Nazi salute. Can’t you see that viral video….yes, we’re still in it…

Everyone seems to be making up their own rules. Younger friends just carry on and folks my age are battening down the hatches.  We’re still in it.

SO in the midst of Covid, we’re invited to a wedding.  At Cana of Galilee. With Jesus, his mom and disciples. So let’s see what’s going on there. 

This is one of my favorite stories. And only John tells it.  You know how it goes…The wine is running low. Mary points this out to Jesus. Who responds rather rudely, to be honest. And Mary doesn’t argue or engage, she just tells the servants to “do as he tells you”  and low and behold six stone jars are filled to overflowing and the steward says the best wine was saved for last…By the way, you can get a kit to do this for only $8.95, though it says, warning: do not consume, for entertainment purposes only..

Okay then, what do we make of this?

From the literary criticism side, lots of parallels between this story and John’s Easter story. Three days, Mary’s presence, stone jars, stone tomb…intentional …

Jesus is concerned about revealing his identity. Mary on the other hand, is simply concerned about what running out of wine will do to the host. It is a potentially embarrassing situation. A real social faux pas. She is sensitive to and  aware of this and intervenes to help someone without  their even knowing it. 

So let’s see what Easter eggs are here…

There are six stone jars…the number of almost, not quite, imperfection…and the jars are empty…since these are for purification rites, it’s a not so subtle critique of tradition. The religious establishment was imperfect, more than imperfect, empty. It would take Jesus to fill them to overflowing…We make a serious mistake if we see this as a comparison between Judaism and Christianity. To feel this as John’s readers first felt it, we need to read it as  a criticism of our own institution. To what extent are we coming up short? To what extent are our jars empty?  Over 40 of our 88 Presbytery congregations have no ordained and called pastoral leadership. Our seminaries are preparing young people for jobs that no longer exist. How do we fill these jars to overflowing again?

What we have here is a story of God’s abundance, God’s overflowing abundance. Meeting a need right where it is. Some have said we Presbyterians fall into two categories…one, those who hear  Jesus say pick up your cross and follow me..and two, this who hear, I have come so that you might have life and have it abundantly …Honestly, our dour Scots DNA puts more of us in the first camp. This is a good reminder that we  need both. Jesus’ first miracle, Jesus’ first sign…keeps the party going….we need joy, my friends…that spirit Desmond Tutu shared with us even in the darkest days of apartheid. Abundant life.

But look deeper. Nobody sees this “sign” except the servants who draw the water. (Though one of my Bible study companion has a day job as a server who says the servants always know where the good stuff is stashed. Just a nod from Jesus and…) Who are we at this wedding? If we are the privileged guests, what are we missing?

I’m building up to a point here…we might well ask, if our God is a font of overflowing abundance, how can so many of us, Gods creatures, be in such  crushing need? How many of us are stuck outside in freezing cold weather? Hungry? Having our votes taken away? Living in the  deadly oppressive chaos allowed  to reign on Rikers’ Island? And what does any of this have to do with Martin Luther King, Jr. Weekend? 

God’s abundance, summoned by Jesus, needs the servants to fill the jars. God’s abundance needs us to flow through…we are the servants, we are the jars, God needs us for the abundance to reach others…..and that’s what I want you to take what you on this cold January morning…abundant life flows through us…let those with ears to hear, hear…

Amen.

Gospel John 2:1-11

1On the third day there was a wedding in Cana of Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there. 2Jesus and his disciples had also been invited to the wedding. 3When the wine gave out, the mother of Jesus said to him, "They have no wine." 4And Jesus said to her, "Woman, what concern is that to you and to me? My hour has not yet come" 5His mother said to the servants, "Do whatever he tells you." 6Now standing there were six stone water jars for the Jewish rites of purification, each holding twenty or thirty gallons. 7Jesus said to them, "Fill the jars with water." And they filled them up to the brim. 8He said to them, "Now draw some out, and take it to the chief steward." So they took it. 9When 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 10and 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." 11Jesus did this, the first of his signs, in Cana of Galilee, and revealed his glory; and his disciples believed in him.