Second Epiphany: January 14, 2007

     Over breakfast one morning, the wife said to her husband, “I bet you don’t know what day this is?”

     “Of course I do,” he indignantly answered, going out the door to the office. 

     At 10:00 AM, the doorbell rang, and when the woman opened the door, she was handed a box containing a dozen long-stemmed red roses.  At 1:00 PM, a foiled-wrapped, two-pound box of her favorite chocolates arrived.

     Later, around 3:00 PM, a boutique delivered a designer dress.  The woman couldn’t wait for her husband to come home.

     “First the flowers, then the chocolates, and then the designer dress,” she said.  “I’ve never had a more wonderful ‘Columbus Day’ in all my life!”

     Remembering anniversaries, birthdays, and other events is important to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.  Weddings are special times in the lives of more than just the two people who bind themselves together in the voluntary covenant called marriage.  I have always counseled couples to remember that the church does not marry people.  People marry each other.  All I can do, as the representative person standing in for all of us, is to add the blessing of the church to what two people have done, and to join in the celebration.  If the wedding day arrives and the couple has not “married” each other, there is little I can about it. 

     The joining together of man and woman in marriage is a joyous time and every time marriage happens God’s ideal intention is reconfirmed.  Most of the time we like being part of the lives of the couple who, through family connection or because of friendship, include us in the list of those to be in attendance at the celebration and blessing of their marriage.

     John 2:1-11 describes the story of the time Jesus was included on the guest list at a wedding.  We are not told what connection Jesus had to the bride or groom.  We are told simply that Mary was invited and Jesus and some of his disciples were there, also.  All the others in attendance were lucky enough to have been invited to this particular wedding, precisely because Jesus had been invited.  In a strikingly similar way our lives can be blessed by that same presence.  The potential for such a blessing is always there.   Such blessings come three ways:

     First, we are blessed by an abiding presence.  Jesus was an invited guest.  He did not manipulate his way into the wedding festivities.  He did not bribe, argue, or threaten his way in.  The party was not crashed, nor was the personalities of the bride or groom violated by an unwelcome guest.  He was there because he had been invited to be there.  Because he was invited, the stage was set for him to work.  So it must be with each one of us.  Jesus will not offend by being pushy.  He will not transgress against the sanctity of personal freedom.  Jesus will never negate our freedom of choice.  Life and the random event that a part of creation may well shatter our hearts and no human superglue can put them together again.  It is the one called Jesus the Christ, who operates on the basis of invitation only, who can and does bathe our hearts in his healing goodness and put us back in working order.  It is as he is invited into our hearts that the stage is set for his to do mighty works.

     We may also be blessed by Christ’s power.  At Cana, in the middle of the feast, the wine failed.  It was expected that adequate provision be made for the wedding feast.  The bridegroom and his family must have faced a moment of sheer terror when the steward of the feast informed them that he had not planned well.  A man’s efforts to bring joy to himself and others were found to be inadequate.  That will always be the case.  It is the Christ who brings true happiness, for Christ alone gives us access to that needed relationship with the Father.  Inviting him into the very center of our hearts, minds, and souls gives us access to a power that will not fail because it is not ours.  It is the Lord’s!

     Finally, we can be blessed by Christ’s purpose.  God’s effort to reconcile us to himself in only partially revealed at Cana in Galilee.  Turning 150 gallons of water into wine is intended to show that God’s grace, love, forgiveness, and mercy is more than sufficient to meet any need we may have.  God’s ultimate purpose for becoming one of us is revealed in totality on Calvary, where the Lord Jesus died a substitutionary death in our place.  That eternal purpose and victory is revealed first to some faithful women who tiptoe in the predawn darkness to a tomb and are confronted with the best Good News ever to be given.  The tomb is empty!  We do not have a shrine to which we might make a pilgrimage.  We do not have a grave on which to place flowers and other tokens of love.  We have a living Lord.  That makes the need for us to issue an invitation to him to come dwell within us so very crucial. 

     Jesus the Christ was invited to a wedding.  He can be invited into our hearts and bless our daily lives with his presence, his power, and his purpose.  Such blessings are given to those who will ask, for this Lord of life operates on the basis of invitation only.