When You Just Can t Keep Quiet! + Second Sunday After the Epiphany + January 14, 2007 Isaiah 62:1-5, 1 Corinthians 12:1-11, John 2:1-11 Grace, mercy, and peace from God our Father and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ! Amen. The texts for this morning s message are the lessons for this day particularly these words from Isaiah, For Zion s sake I will not keep silent, and for Jerusalem s sake I will not rest, until it s vindication shines out like the dawn, and its salvation like a burning torch and the Gospel for this day. Those of you who have come to know me well as your pastor in these past four years can probably imagine how many times in my life I ve been told to keep quiet. It was our dear Congregational Chair, Charlie Avoles, who noticed that the best way to keep my comments under control in a meeting is to have me take the minutes. So often as a child I would hear a teacher say, Bobby, you have really wonderful ideas you just have so many of them! Ever the curious child I could always see new things that I felt deserved attention or a vision would pop into my head of how to do something different or I would see a situation that needed intervention and resolution and For Zion s sake I just couldn t keep silent! Tomorrow the nation remembers the work of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. a man who could not keep silent about the racial inequality in our nation and throughout the world. He would not rest until vindication was in evidence here in this land that promises freedom. Now one doesn t usually think of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and his work for Civil Rights when you look at this text about the Wedding of Cana and six water jars but let s look deeper you see, these weren t just any old stone jars and they hold some inalienable truths about the freedoms we celebrate. Now, at first glance these were just six stone jars for the ritual washing of this proper Jewish bride before her wedding night as well as holding wash water for the household of sweaty guests who would be celebrating with her family for a WHOLE WEEK! Everyone who passed them knew what these particular jars were made for the keeping of the law. These jars, in their way, are a symbol of all the rites and rituals the laws that bound up the everyday lives of God s people. The Pharisees had amassed 610 commandments from the 10 God had given and they were Page 1 of 5
absolutely sure each person was supposed to keep them perfectly. They even had a goal if the whole nation kept them perfectly for one day the Messiah would come. These 610 commandments included ritual washings several times a day particularly dealing with mealtimes. In ancient Israel you pretty much invited the whole community to the wedding feast. Imagine how many people were using those stone jars in a seven day span! Not that these were little jars - they each held 20-30 gallons of water. Now they were made of stone because stone, unlike pottery, was impervious to contamination well, more impervious. Still, it must have raised a few bushy eyebrows to see the servants taking the stone jars the ones you went to for hand washing or to cool your brow after whatever dance they danced at weddings that was like the Hokey Pokey and going with those particular jars up to the wine steward. I m sure the people didn t keep silent about what was going on it must have been the talk of the party. Especially since this wedding feast was the first public appearance of Jesus and his disciples. We take it as a matter of course that Jesus was a teacher traveling with his disciples but no wonder Mary was getting involved her son the carpenter is suddenly her son, the Rabbi, with a full company of 12 disciples (like Israel who had 12 sons). He should make the most of this opportunity - make a splash if you will. Which, in His own way and at His own time he does with these crazy water-washing jars. Though she is the most favored of all women Jesus quiets his mother saying, Gottes Zeit ist die aller beste Zeit well, he said it in Aramaic, not German, God s time is the best time. This was quite a Shushing on Jesus part as he says to her, in essence, What does this have to do with you, anyway? My work is my work and I ll do it when it needs to be done! Interestingly, Mary is addressed again by Jesus until she stands before the cross at the crucifixion. The time comes, however, the right time and suddenly the jars are filled, not with the ritual washing water the water to keep the commandments, On No! They are filled with wine the best wine, the expensive kind that you give to the people for their first taste before their senses are dulled and it doesn t matter anymore how good the wine is. Wash-water into wine? Law keeping water into the stuff that feasts are fueled with? What is this Rabbi thinking? Ah, but this is the Rabbi who came to fulfill the Law all of it, and perfectly so that the Law might be abolished as a means of salvation this Law that only God could keep perfectly anyway! This Law that was so Page 2 of 5
carefully protected and enumerated with thought given to every jot and tittle but was largely taught by the women in the Jewish home. Girls from the age of 9 or 10 were kept hidden in the home, not just to assure their purity for marriage, but to learn all the laws and rituals they would need to perform in their homes as wives and teach the children God would bless them with so another generation would know when to wash, what prayer to say at what time, what foods you could mix, what foods you were never to eat the list went on and on. Six stone jars that had been used for the ritual washing of a beautiful bride and her grimy guests are now filled to the brim not with more water for washing but with wine for celebration. This man, Jesus, this God-madeflesh to dwell among us to keep the law perfectly for us takes six stone jars and makes them decanters for the festival wine the glorious feast of celebration as he shows Himself to be the Son of God, come to set us free free to live in freedom free to love one another free to share His love, share the Good News that in Christ all oppression is ended and all distinctions cease. As Paul wrote, As many of you as were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus. (Galatians 3:27,28) Six stone jars that tell us we have the Freedom to Celebrate. Bogged down by a particular sin in your life turn to Christ He ll set you free! Torn about by self-doubt, not sure who you are or what you want to do next in your life? Come to the feast and celebrate you are clothed in Christ - a royal heir of all the good gifts of God s kingdom! God has a plan and a purpose for you your life. Paul tells us in our Epistle lesson that God has gifts to grant us that God can do miracles through you, through me, and proclaim His Word. You have been set free from the sin and the power of the Law to do good works so that all may give glory to God. Celebrate the freedom that is yours in Christ Jesus. Live in God s joy and in the power, the freedom, the love of the Holy Spirit. But what does that look like? What does that look like in a Christian s life and since I ve been talking globally let s look at an example from the other side of the world: In Cheffe Jila, Ethiopia in the past weeks a woman named Medina was divorced by her Muslim husband because she became a Christian. He left her in the city to work to care for herself and their eight children. Jens Page 3 of 5
Ipsen, a retired Swedish Lutheran missionary and his pastor friend drove through her town and she stopped them and insisted that she be baptized right then. He suggested she wait for a proper gathering and for the pastor of the area to come back later. The pastor in the car explained that her family would probably not interfere if she did the baptism right then but that there was no way that they would allow it once the word got out. So, after a few questions to see if she knew what she was doing and who Jesus is she was baptized. Some villagers came running shouting that when she dies her body will not be buried, but thrown on the town dump for the birds to eat. She replied courageously, "I no longer fear what happens to my body. The birds can have it. I know that I will be with Jesus forever." Medina is celebrating she s been set free from the laws that bound her. So, living in the sweet freedom of knowing Jesus how can we keep silent silent about the oppression that surrounds us? How can we look at others pressed down in poverty, denied a voice because of their gender or social status or because they have yet to draw breath how can we see the great oppression of those who surround us and keep our mouths shut? The overwhelming command of Scripture is to seek out those who are being denied freedom and make ways to set them free to open our hearts and our homes to the displaced, the forgotten, those whom others consider to be nothing and worthless. From the earliest days of the church Christians have stood with the oppressed and worked for their freedom. Babies of the wrong sex, the physically and mentally challenged, twins (whom they thought were mistakes from the gods), or those unwanted for any reason were left out to die by the ancient Romans. It was the Christians who took them in, baptized them, raised them in the faith, and loved them in the name of Jesus gave them a name, dignity, purpose, a place, a home, and a family where they belonged. The witness of love for the oppressed, for those without a voice brought many to faith in Christ and souls were saved, eternal freedom shared. That freedom the freedom to celebrate oh, I suppose it began when the angels broke through the heavens to sing to the shepherds, it was evident in the voice from the heavens and the descending dove at the baptism of our Lord, but it was made miraculously evident in those six stone jars who found a new purpose going from containers of everyday wash-water to wine skins for celebration. Page 4 of 5
Tomorrow is just another day off for many people but for those who remember the deeper oppression of people before the era of Civil Rights it is a time to celebrate and to focus on the work that lies ahead. The Wedding at Cana where the Law Keeper who kept the Law first showed His awesome power calls us to celebrate Jesus for Who He Is and What He s Done and to focus on sharing that freedom with all who will listen as we work together for true freedom for all who are politically, socially, and spiritually oppressed all who need to hear how very much God loves them. That s love that You Just Can t Keep Quiet About! Page 5 of 5