February 21, 2016

The Second Sunday in Lent

In a world of run by foxes, who would want to be a chicken? Yet this is how Jesus refers to himself. Perhaps with good intention, some Pharisees warn Jesus about Herod (a son of the Herod the great who tried to kill him years ago.) There were some religious leaders who listened to Jesus and wanted to hear more. Instead of gratitude or fear, Jesus is defiant and then a little sad. Herod is a mere fox - a shifty and calculating animal that snatches what it can. Jesus is like a mother hen, who wants to gather her brood around her.

Jesus could be anything. He could have strength or speed. He could imagine himself an enormous or noble animal - immune to anything Herod could do. Jesus chooses the common hen and he chooses to appeal to love and mercy. Even though Jerusalem is the city that kills the prophets, and the city that will one day kill him, Jesus wants to love and embrace that city. He wants to reach every person. He wants to bring all the people together in a relationship of love with God.

It is easy for us to lose sight of God's intention for us. We are so worried. We have so many problems that are beyond our power to solve. No wonder we want to run and hide. Even when we can hear the words of assurance from God, we have trouble believing. God is love, but our bills are real. The dangers of this world are real. People still get sick. The news never gets better.

Abram is promised a family and a land to live in. He is old. He is making a living in a foreign land, encountering enemies and famine. Even with material success, he still grieves that he has no son. God appears to Abram again and makes an agreement. This ancient ritual binds the agreement in that the participants would swear that they would be killed just like the sacrificed animals. What is unique is that God alone passes through the midst of the sacrifice. God alone agrees to abide by the covenant. Abram must only believe.

God promises that Abram's descendants would be as numerous as the stars of heaven. That's a lot of stars. As Abram looks up at the night sky, he is reminded that whatever God is doing, it is much bigger than Abram. This is difficult for us to do. We try to apply God's promises so locally, so personally. Of course, God wants us to prosper and live well. More fundamentally, God wants us to become new people, growing in new life.

We are invited into a relationship of eternal love. God wants to gather us and draw us into a place of life and love. It is a form of safety and a kind of protection. God's desire is not merely our comfort and care. God's deep desire is for our transformation so that we can live joyfully in awareness of God's love. The sign of this change is how we are able to live together as God's people. Are we jockeying for position or quarreling over resources? Or are we serving each other so that we can become our best selves? Paul is concerned that members are comparing each other, and some are proud of their devotion to sets of rules. In lent, we do well to remember that we are not better or worse in how we follow a particular devotion. We are better if, in the end, we are better able to love.

Perhaps this is the best way for us to show our trust in God. We are promised so much. We are asked to believe so many impossible things. It is not easy to believe the promises when all the particulars of our life together are difficult and unclear. The work of faith is not to ignore these worries. We are asked to act on what we believe in the midst of all our worries.

Faith is not holding onto an unassailable argument, nor is it living with a kind of logical certainty. Faith is a choice to live in love despite all the noise and confusion around us. We are not called to somehow make ourselves better or to improve our souls through hard work and sacrifice. God calls us to follow. We are called to follow into the promises. We are called to live as if God's love is true. We are called to lift up those beside us and keep on the path of new life and salvation. God's love is as numberless as the stars. Even when we cannot see, we can look up and know it’s there.

Herod is the fox. He is always calculating the best way to snatch up anything he can find. Jesus is the mother hen. He does not seek the easy path. Jesus loves us and gathers us. Somehow, this is ultimately more powerful than all our calculating and planning. God doesn’t need us to fix everything or to force anything. God wants us to live into the power of love. As God gathers us, God also urges us to reach our arms around a hurting world – and seek something better.

February 14, the first Sunday in Lent

Valentines day is today. We are surrounded by images of pink hearts and chocolate and flowers. We remember love and seek to show expressions of love to our partners. We may hope to begin some new relationship or we are already lucky enough to have someone who is our beloved. Whatever we do will be a grateful response to love we have known.

Perhaps this doesn’t have much to do with Lent. Even if we consider that St. Valentine was a martyr who died for the faith and because helped soldiers get married who did not have an official right to be married – what does this have to do with our Lenten disciplines? A rule-breaker for the sake of love doesn’t seem like a Lenten inspiration.

In Lent, we do consider our motivation and our purpose. Why do we do what we do? In this season, what should we do instead? This is just the sort of thing that is going on as Jesus is tempted by the devil. The devil asks questions. The temptation is to do something good for the wrong reason, or to do some good thing that isn’t at the right time.

The shorthand understanding of the temptation of Jesus would be, “Don’t eat the rocks. Don’t worship the devil. Don’t jump off a building.” The temptation isn’t towards something we would normally reject. We are only tempted by what is attractive to us. We are tempted to do the right thing the wrong way.

We are tempted with the desire to change our purpose. We don’t eat rocks, but we are tempted to take things into our own hands. We are tempted to speed things along and use our sense instead of following what we know to be God’s timing. Think about how we would fail to show our love with the gift of a vacuum cleaner or a free oil change. We have to consider what the one we love truly desires. The sin is in misdirection. Instead of doing the hard work of listening and discerning, we want to rush off and do what we already know how to do. The sin is in letting go of the possibility that God may have something else in mind. The sin is the assumption that we know best – instead of admitting we don’t know at all. We want the mediocre we know rather than the mystery we must wait for.

Unlike Jesus, we have not been offered all the riches and powers of this world. We are not in a position to rule the world. We are tempted to have power over others instead of submitting to God. What would happen to our gift giving if we tried to control the one we loved? So many relationships are unhappy because one of the partners seeks to change their beloved. When we are always waiting for someone else to change, we lose the opportunity to change ourselves. We lose sight of the gifts the other person has that attracted us in the first place. Whenever we seek to push or dominate without cooperation – we are creating a world for our convenience.

Instead, God invites us into communion. God invites us to recognize how we are all in this together. Consider the words Paul writes to the Romans, “there is no distinction, there is neither Jew nor Greek, the same Lord is Lord of all and generous to all.” Instead of controlling and ruling, God invites us to sharing and working together.

We are not tempted to jump off a building. Yet sometimes we are tempted to excess. If we are tempted to do anything to impress the one we love, perhaps it is not a true relationship. Do we need to prove love? We are tempted to make our little side agreements with God. We participate as long as we get something out of it. The truth is, God isn’t putting on a show for our entertainment or our satisfaction. God calls us into new life – but life on God’s terms. We think we know what we need. We think we know what will work (if only God would listen!) Except we are learning that the big show and fancy advertising don’t work anymore. People don’t need to be distracted. We need to be saved. We need to know the love of God and we need to know the way of life.

We know love when we see it. It’s not something we can buy. When we find real love, there’s nothing we can add except ourselves. In fact, this is what we must do – give ourselves completely to the ones we love.

The temptations we face are different from Jesus in magnitude. We are always being tempted to give up the way of life and salvation for some sort of easy and cheap substitute. Let’s have none of that. Let’s keep to the path we know God calls us to. For now we may find ourselves in a wilderness. We may be discouraged. We also know that if we keep faith, God will help us along the way.

Ash Wednesday, 2016

What are we going to do for lent? We don't have these questions with other holidays. We know what to do and how to celebrate. We have a vague idea that we ought to do something penitential - if we can remember what that means. We think about giving something up. Maybe we think about taking on some sort of discipline - we will pray more or give more. It used to be quite popular to give up chocolate (or wine or TV). I have friends who give up Facebook or plastic bottles. What are we trying to accomplish? What end are we seeking.

The discipline of giving up or taking on begins with discernment. What part of us is in need of revision? What burden are we tired of carrying? How can we most effectively make room for God in our lives?

We know that it is useless to try and improve ourselves in order to impress God. The harder work is letting go of impressing ourselves. We try to be humble and there is also a little part of ourselves that is secretly proud of our success. If we can make through all of lent! Aren't we cool to give up Twitter! Maybe some of us should try it for forty days!

Maybe we recognize our little pride in the midst of humility and we can laugh at ourselves. Maybe we have more earnest concerns. We find ourselves in the grip of some difficult habit or addiction. Maybe we have lost an important relationship. Maybe we don't even know what we have to do. Lent is a time to let go and make space. We fast to feel hunger. We give up to make room in our day in our over scheduled lives. We may have the ability to turn these disciplines into resources we can give away. Even as we turn inward we remember our neighbor as well.

Lent can be private and personal. We are not alone on our journey. This is not another way that we are forced to create our own personal religion, tailored to our tastes and needs. Jesus reminds us to fast and pray, and to extend our hand to the poor. God wants us to practice a religion of devotion, which is never complete without love for others.

We may be tempted to create for ourselves a perfect expression of love towards God. We may have deep and rewarding feelings of intimacy with God. We may feel ready to experience the joy of resurrection. Then we gather together as the people of God and we find ourselves stuck in the midst of a bunch of imperfect people.

In my private place of prayer I may be quite ignorant of how far we all have to go. Jesus gives us to one another to help us set aside all these illusions of perfection. I can see how far my friend has to go. My friend can help me find my way as well. I am not so perfect. I have my blind spots. I cannot see what I never experience. I need my broken friends to help me bear my own brokenness.

I often think that people who say that they are spiritual but nit religious are like people who say that they are athletic but never exercise. I'm not so sure it will last. I know why many people claim to be spiritual but not religious. They want to be rid of the hypocrisy and narrow mindedness of the outspoken devout. we need to be rid of this noisy and judgmental religion as well. Jesus doesn't want us to make a show. He does want us to do the work. This doesn't make us better than others, but it may make us better than we were.

This is the purpose. God always loves us. There is nothing we can add to this. We are also invited to live differently. Since we are loved, let us live ever closer into this love. It is time to let go of the things that are in the way. It is time to be open to what else may be possible. God loves us always. It is time to learn even more how we can love.

The last Sunday after Epiphany, February 7, 2016

Epiphany is the season when we celebrate how Jesus is made known to the world. What a wealth of examples we have! The face of Moses shines when ho comes away from conversation with God. Saint Paul reminds us that the veil (of Moses) is not for us! We who know Jesus do not need any barrier between us. Peter and James and John are on the Mountain with Moses and Elijah. They get it all wrong, yet they see Jesus as he is and they see what he can do.

We have a tendency to not take these manifestations seriously, as if they were written for someone else. We assume that we are hearing a selection of the bible intended to make us feel superior. Those silly Israelites! - Too afraid to look at Moses! The silly church at Corinth! - Too easily erecting barriers to God and a veil over the gospel! Those silly disciples! - Sleepy and stupid - talking about tents and unable to heal a boy!

We have these words not to make us proud but to humble us. These stories are about us. We fear true intimacy with God. We don't see faces shining, but we are a little afraid of those who can spend many hours in prayer and contemplation. Perhaps we are even a little ashamed that we can't.

We are quite ready to create our own barriers between God and us. We make our own veils that keep us from experiencing the freedom of the gospel. We are quick to write our own list of rules or requirements to be a good person - or to be a good citizen or to pursue the good life. We often substitute this pale copy for the true gospel.

We are the tired disciples. We follow Jesus up the long and steep climb to get to some mountaintop. We are not sure where we are going and we have no idea what will happen when we get there.

Once in a while, we find ourselves in an unfamiliar landscape. We discern who Jesus is and we know we are loved. We want to preserve the experience and keep it safe. This is why we argue over liturgy and hymns. We want to re-create some precious moment. We want to hold it and remember it forever. This is not possible. We hold our memory silent and go back down the mountain. There we find the same old problems that we don't know how to fix.

To our surprise, Jesus is not sympathetic. He is mad! How long will he have to put up with us! He calls us faithless - perverse! Who, us? The truth about us is that we find it very hard to live what we believe. We have spent the last month celebrating the many ways that Jesus is made known to the world. We act as if it were not true. We have forgotten what we were told. "Listen to him!"

The voice does not tell us to do or make or try. The voice tells us to listen. What does Jesus say? Jesus tells us to love. Jesus tells us not to worry. Jesus tells us to follow him - even into places we would rather not go. We have trouble believing because we keep on trying to tell Jesus what we want to do instead. We keep replacing the good news with our own plans and desires. We keep busy doing many good things instead of the few that Jesus asks us to do that would give us life.

To follow Jesus, we have to give up our own path. We have to let go of all the ways we perfect ourselves and have pride in ourselves. It is not wealth or success or status or power that will help us follow more faithfully. We have to embrace what Jesus offers. We are free to grow in love. We are free to grow in faith and trust in God - this means believing the truth about God and believing with the same trust as Jesus. We can grow in hope that God's promises will come true even if we can't see when. We can grow in generosity, in openness, in wonder and in joy.

This requires that we first be listeners. We keep our ears open to the right words and the right message. We have some choice in what we mediate upon. Maybe we can turn off the noise of the media and the noise of the cultural messages that surround us. We can ignore the pleas of resentment and fear. We can choose to listen to the voice of love and reconciliation. When we hear the voice of Jesus, then we can begin to follow.

Jesus asks the disciples to climb the mountain right after he tells them that he must suffer and die - and that we might have to as well. It's not easy climbing the mountain. Sometimes we catch a breathtaking sight. Sometimes we get to the top only to find another mountain to climb. God puts before us many difficult paths to follow. We will always be tempted to find our own short cuts. We always have the freedom to choose the path we are given. We can listen and follow and trust. We will find God in those difficult places. God will work in us and make us into the people who are able to live in freedom and climb every peak. We will become the people Jesus hopes we will be. We will be free and able to love. We will do the work set before us. We will be transformed for the sake of others.

January 31, 2016

I remember the first time I returned to my home parish after I was ordained. I was very nervous and I have no idea how bad my sermon was. Mr. Brown (whose lawn I used to cut in the summer) slept and snored through the whole thing. People were polite and they thanked me at the door. I don’t know what we all expected, but I was young and I didn’t have much to say.

There was a certain amount of pride in the congregation. They were proud to see the success of one of their own. They saw me as a reflection of who they were. They had a hand in raising me. Whatever I said about God had its source in them. I got over my anxiety. No one was offended. It was nice to meet old friends. But I had begun to loose my connection with them. I had already made a home somewhere else. I served another church. I belonged to a different community and did not have the same connection with the church of my past.

I can imagine some of the feelings in the congregation when Jesus comes home to preach. He is given a seat of honor. He has already enjoyed a little fame, and the people are wondering what he might do with them. He starts off well. He reflects on a passage from Isaiah, "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor." Better still, he proclaims, “Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.” The crowd can’t wait to hear what’s next. Is this Joseph’s son? What miracle will he do? What great words will he share? Will he challenge the powers that oppress them? Will he work some miracle to free them?

Jesus surprises them, but not in a pleasant way. Instead of comfort and solutions, Jesus reminds them that God seeks out strangers and aliens. When there was a drought, God sent Elijah to a widow in Sidon – not one of the chosen people. God sends Elisha to cure Naaman the Syrian, not one of the faithful.

No one likes what Jesus is saying, so they attempt to throw Jesus off a cliff. I wonder what else Jesus said to make everyone mad. I know from my own experience of preaching in my home parish that I cannot imagine what I could have said to make everyone mad at me. I can’t think of anything to say right now that would make you want to throw me out the window.

It wasn’t just the words of Jesus. He didn’t fit into the established order. Jesus didn’t accept their system of obedience and shame they used to keep order and define their identity. They had accepted the truth that they were God’s special people. They defined suffering as some sort of deserved punishment for past sins (and held a hope that God would punish their afflicters.) Jesus suggests that God loves everyone. God intends to bless and not to punish. God even works miracles not found among the chosen people.

In the middle of what everyone thought would be a feel good moment, Jesus didn’t tell everyone, “It’s great to be here! You’re all wonderful people!” Instead, Jesus reminds them that God loves everyone, especially those who are now outside on the outside.

We gather in this place because we expect something. We hope to find comfort and support. We hope to experience God’s love. We look for this in word and sacrament. We look for love in the gifts shared in this community.

Love is difficult. The hymn to love that Saint Paul writes for the church in Corinth reminds us how far we have to go. It’s not about how we look or how successful we think we are. The Corinthians thought they had everything figured out. They had charismatic and miraculous gifts. They looked good and everyone spoke well of them. Paul reminds them and us that without love, it’s all just a bunch of noise.

This passage is often read at weddings. I find this ironic. Do they know that Paul is writing about love to a bunch of people who don’t know how to love? Often, the dress and the wedding party and the reception all crowd out what is important. Everyone looks good in the pictures but they are all stressed out. The passage on love is romantic to hear on a wedding day but it takes a lifetime to live into it.

The hard message we need to learn is that the church is all about love. It’s not here for our comfort or to help us feel better about ourselves. God creates the church to help the world know that God loves everyone. Whenever we become a comfortable little club of friends, we risk forcing out the people who don’t know us. We are blind to all of the people whom God loves. We become a peculiar family that our neighbors wonder about.

Jesus was invited to his hometown and he wouldn’t bless their arrangements. I don’t think he really wants to set us aside as a special gathering either. Of course God loves us. We are set aside as God’s beloved people. It’s not enough to keep it to ourselves. The hard part for us is that as we open the doors and our hearts to those outside, we can’t expect things to stay the same. The stranger will change us. We will begin to care what happens outside these doors.

This is the risk of love. It is not easy or comfortable. God’s love is not just about this place or this time or this collection of people. As we are open to what God wants, God’s love changes us. We cannot control what will happen to us. That unknown, foreign, outsider place is where God wants us to be. As we trust God, we can trust how God will use us for others, and how God will use unknown friends to remake us.

January 24, 2016

How far we are from what was promised! Part of life is living with disappointment. Nothing seems to live up to its hype. We buy products that wear out. We work in a career that changes and fails us. Our children make bad choices (much as we chose when we were young.) We plan and arrange and work towards some end and something gets in the way. The final insult is that our bodies fail us and we grow old.

Even so, every once in a while, we hear a promise. Something happens, or a wise person speaks, and we catch a glimpse of what might be possible. We believe again. We hope again. We hold a grandchild in our arms, and all we see is joy and promise. We watch a movie or read an inspiring book - not some thriller or blockbuster - a work of art. Our trust in the goodness and possibilities of people is renewed. We begin to see again the good things all around us.

We can hold these things together. We can be honest about our disappointments and still hope for something different. When the people of God returned from exile, Nehemiah gathered them all together to hear the law - the Torah; some of them for the first time. They were grateful and they were sad. They regretted all that they lost by not living up to the law. They grieved for all the years that they did not live with a deep connection to God. Nehemiah sent them home and commanded them not to be sad. The hearing of the law was a gift. They were to feast and rejoice - and share the feast with those who had nothing. They were not to wallow in what could have been. They were to rejoice because God was showing them what could be.

We often find ourselves in situations that we cannot control; yet we can always choose how we will respond. This week, we are obsessed with weather. Is it a problem to overcome? The psalm suggests that it could also be a reminder of the power and glory of God. Can we make it snow or not? The power of a storm that shuts down all our modern movement and commerce is an inconvenience. It can also remind us we live by trust and not by control.

Jesus returns home to teach in local synagogue. There is quite a bit of talk about him. He is well thought of, and people are eager to see what he will do and hear what he has to say. In the tradition of the day, everyone stands throughout the service. It is the teacher alone who sits to teach (the opposite of what we do on Sunday!) 

"The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor." Then he tells everyone, "Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing."

Really? The poor are still poor. The prisons are still full. I know several people who are losing their eyesight. Fulfilled? How? 

We know how Jesus works to free us. Through his death and resurrection we are now free from sin and free from death. We know that we are free to live eternal life in this moment. We are also disappointed that everything isn't all worked out just yet. There's more to come. There's more freedom to see. What do we do with this?

We are reminded that we live by faith. We trust that God will work more in this world and the next. We keep ourselves moving towards whatever salvation and freedom looks like. We also know that we are not separate individuals on solitary journeys. Jesus invites us in to the work.

The apostle Paul writes about the work of community. We are one body with many members. All of the old divisions and differences no longer apply to us. There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free. What gives us our value and place is no longer our race or our culture. Our place is given by our common life in Jesus. This whole body is Christ to the world. We are together, the voice of Jesus when he says, "Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing." We are the voice and the hands and the feet and the heart that proclaim freedom and act to bring it about.

 If we read between the lines in the letters of Paul to the Corinthians, we wonder why he has to remind them of the importance of each member. Paul tells them not to play favorites because that is exactly what they are doing. They praised members who were wealthy and powerful. That was the convention of the day. They looked down on those who were poor or powerless, for they were without honor in that world. Paul reminds them that they are part of a new reality. In this new community, everyone is valued. Everyone has been given gifts to share in community. No one is rich except in Christ. No one is powerful except as they display God's power in the exercise of their gifts.

If we are not careful, we will treasure only certain gifts and we will seek only talents that we are used to seeing around us. We worry about the future, so we think about money. Perhaps we value people with professional capabilities - to help us fix things and perhaps pay some bills. We seek new members so that there will be people around who can do things and pay for things. Of course, we welcome all gifts, but this is not perhaps the best way to value the gifts of others.

Instead of looking for someone to take up our chores, we should seek to discover what others have to offer. It might be that no one wants to continue some sort of ministry that is dear to our hearts. We need to mourn our loss and admit our disappointment. Then we can be open to what others can truly offer. There is more that is possible than the few things we remember doing. New people, with new ideas, and a new sense of call - they might lead us in directions that we never expected. Our purpose here is not merely to keep the church going. We are here to participate in God's work of reconciling the world in love. Who really knows where that can lead us?

We have worked hard to listen to one another and respect each other. We have experimented with different ways of doing things. We given up old ways and tried new ones. We are not doing all of this to reach some end place where we don't have to ever change again. We are living into a new community, where we are open and curious. We are trying to discover what God is up to, and how we can participate. This work is not easy. The end result is not at all certain. The work is reconciliation and love and it is worth the effort. Not because we are certain it will succeed- but because we know it is God's work.

January 17, 2016, the Wedding at Cana

Last week we had a baptism and this week we have a wedding. As much as people try to personalize a wedding, there is still a pattern and a ritual to each wedding. Sometimes weddings are great fun. Sometimes they are a little strange. Sometimes family and friends get along and sometimes it can be a little stressful. I've seen many weddings. Usually, they are fun and the people gather to celebrate love and to have a good time.

Weddings in our time are very costly and they require a lot of planning. People take years to save money and get everything arranged. The day of the wedding, there might be some gatherings of the wedding party and a series of opportunities for pictures. Eventually, everyone gathers at the place of the wedding. The wedding party processes in, with the bride arriving last, usually on the arm of her father. The service consists of an exchange of vows and rings. There might be prayers, and there might be musical offerings. The bride and groom leave - perhaps to a reception line or straight to pictures. Then everyone goes to the reception. There might be several types of snacks to keep everyone busy until the meal. Then there is dancing and the formal end of everything is the wedding cake.

There are variations, but most weddings are a one-day event. People travel great distances. Everyone spends an awful lot of money. Why do we do weddings this way? We want to express love. We want to gather as witnesses to this important event. The couple seeks support from family and friends. They seek to express their love. They seek to share joy.

Weddings are a time of great change. Much of the ritual involves giving away. There are exchanges of gifts. Parents give away their child to another. The couple gives themselves to each other. This is the beginning of a new relationship. To make room, old relationships are being re-negotiated. This is where we get the stress. We don't really know what will happen. We trust and hope. We try to help a new couple begin a new life.

In Cana, Jesus is at a wedding. The rituals are quite different. There is the same fundamental change in relationships. Two people leave their childhood home and begin a new household. The gathering is different. It is likely that the whole village is in attendance. Jesus, and his mother Mary, are probably related to the couple in some way. The celebration lasts for days. People recline on couches and feast and converse for hours. Then the wine gives out. How can the celebration continue without wine? There is a little exchange between Jesus and Mary, and Jesus orders servants to fill some purification jugs with water. When the servants draw the water out, it has become wine - the best wine. The chief steward (literally, the master of the three couches! - this is one of my favorite Greek words) is surprised that the host has saved the best wine for last.

Why does Jesus become a bartender? Why is this his first miracle in the gospel of John? Jesus will become known for his power and his mercy. He starts his ministry by keeping the party going. We think of Jesus the miracle worker. We remember his acts of compassion and healing. He casts our demons. We silences the religious authorities. He even walks on water! Do we stop then to wonder why? We assume it's all about showing us his strength or his difference from us. Maybe Jesus isn't proving anything. Maybe he's just doing what he came to do.

The purpose of miracles isn't a proof. This is the work. Jesus is always acting to restore people to right relationships. He is healing what is broken. He is putting back together what is divided. Even when he argues with authorities, he is really trying to bring them together. He doesn't want to cast anyone out. He wants to bring us together. Even at a wedding. The wine is a small thing but the party is important. Jesus wants the good thing to keep on going. The village is gathered to celebrate love and to participate in a couple's intention to create a new life together. That's why Jesus is here.

In a way, that is why we are here. Every gathering is not a wedding. Every Sunday is a kind of feast. In this feast too, Jesus changes wine and bread and makes it something that unites us. We are invited to commit to common work. We are invited to work together, using our God-given gifts, to create something better than what we make on our own.

For the next few weeks, we will hear familiar passages from Paul's letter to Corinth. We will even hear a favorite wedding passage in the poetry about love. But first we hear the set up. We start with what we have. The Holy Spirit has given each of us gifts. These gifts are not all the same, and we don't always recognize them. Nonetheless, these gifts are given for a reason. God intends that we help each other and support each other. We do God's work together. We are not alone. There is no personal quest or private faith. We are called for each other and we are meant to serve together.

This should not surprise us. The church isn't here simply for our personal benefit. We are called here so that we can be empowered to go out. Jesus saves the world and Jesus wants us to join in the work of reconciling the world. The work may begin here, but the direction and end of all our work is out there.

It sounds hard, may be even daunting. It is not at all clear that the world wants our help or would even appreciate it. But remember, Jesus didn't just show off. Jesus made wine. He meant for us to enjoy the work. What we do isn't simply toil. Jesus invites us into a celebration. The change we seek is to create something new. We are called to proclaim love and to help everyone else commit to acts of love and mercy. It is great news. It is joyful work. Like a good marriage, it keeps getting better with time.