Monday, January 21, 2013

Jesus at the Wedding at Cana in Galilee



2nd Sunday in Ordinary Time

Gospel John 2:1-11

There was a wedding at Cana in Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there. Jesus and his disciples were also invited to the wedding. When the wine ran short, the mother of Jesus said to him, “They have no wine.”And Jesus said to her, “Woman, how does your concern affect me? My hour has not yet come.”His mother said to the servers, “Do whatever he tells you.”Now there were six stone water jars there for Jewish ceremonial washings, each holding twenty to thirty gallons. Jesus told the them, “Fill the jars with water.”So they filled them to the brim. Then he told them,“Draw some out now and take it to the headwaiter.”So they took it. And when the headwaiter tasted the water that had become wine, without knowing where it came from although the servers who had drawn the water knew, the headwaiter called the bridegroom and said to him, “Everyone serves good wine first, and then when people have drunk freely, an inferior one; but you have kept the good wine until now.” Jesus did this as the beginning of his signs at Cana in Galilee and so revealed his glory, and his disciples began to believe in him.

Although we are using the Gospel of Luke for the readings most of the year, today we switch to the Gospel of John for the story of the wedding feast at Cana. This jump to the Gospel of John is due to the fact that the Church is dealing with the inauguration of Jesus over the first weeks after Christmas. In the Eastern church this inauguration is seen over three events – the Epiphany, the Baptism, and the first miracle at Cana. Similarly, we follow this pattern as well in the third cycle of readings. We have been all about beginnings. How better to talk about inauguration than to have the first miracle of Jesus done at a wedding – a beginning of a young couple’s lives together. So now we have seen the star, the light, that points out the Savior, we have seen Jesus’ initiation and acceptance by God in his baptism and now we witness the beginning of His work of redemption. Today’s readings pick up all three of these themes.

It is not by chance that John uses the wedding at Cana to have Jesus perform his first miracle. Not only is his presence a blessing of marriage, but he adds to the festivities with his miracle. This is a rather strange miracle, though. It seems a rather insignificant way to use one’s powers. Was it really just Jesus rendering hospitality to help a bridal couple avoid embarrassment? Raymond Brown, a Scripture scholar, sees the significance of this as Jesus replacing the old with the new. What you may not realize is that the water that Jesus used to turn into wine was contained in the jugs of washing water that was used for washing the feet when one entered a house. Apparently, in each Jewish home there were six jars of wash water at the door reserved for that purpose. It was part of Jewish ritual that a person wash the dust off their feet upon entering a house. In this way, the guests made themselves ‘clean” in order to celebrate with the householder. This is the water that Jesus then changes into wine. Symbolically, of course, we know that the wine will become his blood, and for the early Christians then, this became a sign of the Eucharist – which allows each of us to marry, become one with our God. Jesus’ first miracle then, is a celebration of the marriage of God and man, the marriage of heaven and earth, the marriage of divinity with humanity.

 I would like to say a few words about the story itself, however, because of Jesus’ curt response to his mother before doing the miracle. I know that it bothered me, so I did a little research on it. John Pilch at Georgetown University sees this as very typical of a Mediterranean male in this period. Children were raised by the mothers and mostly ignored by the fathers in the Mediterranean Hebrew culture. Boys, especially first born boys, were highly valued and pampered and spoiled by their mothers and other women relatives. When the boys entered puberty they often had a rude awakening, Pilch says, and the fathers took over the discipline, often giving beatings to a child to prepare him for a harsh world. The boys, then sought to break their ties with women and demonstrate their independence, especially their mothers. Jesus’ response to his mother could be translated both as a reaction by someone who is bothered by another or just as a refusal to get involved in someone else’s business. In light of this, Jesus may have been part of his trying to gain independence from his mother or it could be that he honestly felt it was none of their business.

 In any case, Jesus caves in to his mother’s demands. He was human, remember, and it may be that his mother’s pressure was too difficult to take. Or, it may be that he came to understand what she was asking, and saw it as a way to preserve the honor of the wedding hosts, who were perhaps his relatives.

 The first miracle at Cana, then, begins Jesus career as a miracle worker. He is beginning to replace the old with the new. In our Psalm today, we sang “Sing to the Lord a new song!” This is what Jesus is beginning to do. This new song will eventually replace the Old Law and lead to our salvation. With this first miracle the disciples of Jesus see the light and begin to recognize Jesus for who he is. But it is a miracle that looks forward to God’s true marriage with us in the death of Christ and the establishment of the Eucharist. With this initiation, Jesus ‘work of his Father’ really begins.

What I would like to leave with you today then, is the reality of God’s love for us, his marriage to us, the reality of our closeness to God in the Eucharist and that we must constantly be reminded that we are the ones who continue the work of Christ. How will we do that in this coming week? What is the new song that we will sing this week? How can we begin to transform our own little world in our own little ways?

St. Valentine Faith Community
Mass: 10AM Every Sunday
2670 Chandler Avenue
Suite 7 & 8
Las Vegas, NV 89120
702-523-8963 Rev Sue Provost, Pastor

"This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. " (1 John 4:9-10)

Sunday, January 13, 2013

The Baptism of Jesus



Feast of the Baptism of the Lord



                 Gospel Luke 3:15-16, 21-22






The people were filled with expectation, and all were asking in their hearts whether John might be the Christ. John answered them all, saying, “I am baptizing you with water,
but one mightier than I is coming. I am not worthy to loosen the thongs of his sandals. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.” After all the people had been baptized and Jesus also had been baptized and was praying, heaven was opened and the Holy Spirit descended upon him in bodily form like a dove. And a voice came from heaven, “You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased.”


All four gospels begin Jesus' entry into public life with John the Baptist's emergence from the desert; so it is clear that John the Baptist's mission was essential to Jesus' own mission. Indeed, the Gospel of John says of the Baptist: "There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. This man came as a witness, to give testimony to the Light, that all might believe through Him." And Jesus Himself, later says of the Baptist, "Amongst those that are born of women, there is not a greater prophet than John the Baptist." (Luke 7:28). So the Light of the World, the Light which of all lights can never be hidden, needed someone to give testimony to Him, needed this holy, radical, ascetic John to give testimony to Him, the Son of God! Although known as the Baptizer by all his contemporaries (including even Herod), John did not invent baptism.

All religions have practiced some form of ritualistic washing of the body. In John's own day, a Jew who had been defiled by contact with a Gentile would have to wash to cleanse themselves of the defilement; and in the 16th chapter of Leviticus we find that the high priest must "confess all the iniquities of the children of Israel and shall wash his flesh in the holy place." But this was a generalized confession. John's baptism was unique in that it demanded that the individual confess their own sinfulness. Repent! The Kingdom of God is at hand! John's word for 'repent is 'metanoe-ite' which means a complete change of mind, heart and soul to a life of holiness and openness to God and he was telling the Jewish people that they needed to make a profound spiritual change within themselves (from the high priests on down) to make that Kingdom possible. This in the end is what caused the rulers of his people to turn against him, and today we see Jesus, having come upon a turning point in His own life, having arrived at the threshold from whence he would leave the carpenter's life to embrace the Cross of being the Savior of nations, He insists on being baptized, to make a public statement about His life and His beliefs, to reveal the triune nature of God and to depict the beautiful work of the Trinitarian God in human salvation, to affirm John's preaching and teaching, to respond as a human being to God's inner call to live as the Chosen, Suffering Servant of God--in bringing forth justice, mercy, healing and freedom to those in darkness and bondage.

Luke's description of the baptismal scene is striking in the way he underplays the actual water event at the hand of John, choosing instead to highlight the prayer of Jesus, the descent of the Holy Spirit, and the heavenly voice proclaiming Jesus as God's beloved. These emphases are deliberate, revealing Jesus as a model for all believers. Jesus requested baptism of John not because He was sinful, but because He wished to join Himself to sinful humanity to show us that God wants to save us and empower us. It is most important to note that the descent and empowerment of the Spirit occurred when Jesus was praying! Likewise for us.... it is in prayer and through prayer that we are empowered by the Holy Spirit to join in Jesus' mission.

Deacon Mary Wagner
                                      
St. Valentine Faith Community
Mass: 10AM Every Sunday
2670 Chandler Avenue
Suite 7 & 8
Las Vegas, NV 89120
702-523-8963 Rev Sue Provost, Pastor

"This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. " (1 John 4:9-10)

Sunday, January 6, 2013

The Feast of the Epiphany


Feast of the Epiphany

Gospel: Matthew 2: 1-12

When Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea, in the days of King Herod, behold, magi from the east arrived in Jerusalem, saying, “Where is the newborn king of the Jews? We saw his star at its rising and have come to do him homage.” When King Herod heard this, he was greatly troubled, and all Jerusalem with him. Assembling all the chief priests and the scribes of the people, he inquired of them where the Christ was to be born. They said to him, “In Bethlehem of Judea, for thus it has been written through the prophet:And you, Bethlehem, land of Judah, are by no means least among the rulers of Judah; since from you shall come a ruler, who is to shepherd my people Israel.”Then Herod called the magi secretly and ascertained from them the time of the star’s appearance. He sent them to Bethlehem and said, “Go and search diligently for the child. When you have found him, bring me word, that I too may go and do him homage.” After their audience with the king they set out.
And behold, the star that they had seen at its rising preceded them, until it came and stopped over the place where the child was. They were overjoyed at seeing the star, and on entering the house they saw the child with Mary his mother. They prostrated themselves and did him homage. Then they opened their treasures and offered him gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh. And having been warned in a dream not to return to Herod, they departed for their country by another way.


Today is the twelfth day of Christmas, and the Feast of the Epiphany - that great festival on which Christians, for at least fifteen hundred years, have celebrated the manifestation, or showing forth, of the glory of God in Jesus Christ, the Eternal Word of God made flesh.

Just as the showing forth of the glory of God in Christ takes many different forms, so our season of Epiphany commemorates many different things. First, the coming of the wise men from the East to worship at the cradle of the Infant Christ; then, the Baptism of Jesus in the river Jordan by John the Baptist, with the voice from heaven declaring that this Jesus is the beloved son of God; then the visit of Jesus, at twelve years old, to the Temple at Jerusalem, where the learned doctors were astonished by his understanding and his answers; and then, a series of Jesus' miracles: the changing of water into wine at the marriage feast at Cana; the healing of a leper, and the centurion's palsied servant; and the calming of the troubled sea. Then, at the end of the season of Epiphany, we have prophetic lessons about the final coming of the Son of God, in power and great glory.

Many different things - a great diversity of commemorations; yet they are tied together by one common theme. They are all aspects of the showing forth, the shining forth, the "Epiphany" of the divine glory of Jesus Christ, the Eternal Son of God, the Eternal Word of God, made flesh. Thus these many commemorations of Epiphany make up a continuing meditation upon the meaning of the Christmas miracle - the miracle of God with us, God in our flesh, Emmanuel, God visible to human eyes, God audible to human ears, God tangible to human touch, God manifest in human life, judging, restoring, and transforming it by the grace and truth he brings. "The Word was made flesh and dwelt among us (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only-begotten of God), full of grace and truth".                                

St. Valentine Faith Community
Mass: 10AM Every Sunday
2670 Chandler Avenue
Suite 7 & 8
Las Vegas, NV 89120
702-523-8963 Rev Sue Provost, Pastor

"This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. " (1 John 4:9-10)