The Chapel of the Child Jesus

Epiphany 2                                                                              January 17, 2010

RCL, Year C                                                                           Memorial Church

 

 

“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. “ Jesus did this, the first of his signs, in Cana of Galilee, and revealed his glory; and his disciples believed in him.     John 2:10-11

 

In the name of God, Creator, Redeemer and Sustainer. AMEN.

 

 

A New Voice.

In the midst of each of our three lectionary years—Years A, B and C---we hear primarily from three gospel writers. In year A, our gospel readings come primarily from Matthew; in Year B, from Mark; and this year, Year C, since Advent One, we have been hearing from Luke.

However, in each lectionary year, no matter whether Year A, B, or C—we hear from the gospel of John at certain times of the year…generally great feast days and holy times of the year like Christmas, Holy Week and Easter…and other seemingly random Sundays.

Today is one of those Sunday.

We hear from the Gospel of John and the wedding at Cana.

The only Gospel in which this story is told.

The Gospel of John is a gospel that is in so many ways a different sort of Gospel than Matthew, Mark and Luke.

 

For instance, in Matthew, Mark and Luke, after Jesus’ baptism, he is led out into the wilderness to be tempted by Satan and ministered to by angels.

Not in the Gospel of John.

John baptizes Jesus and then Jesus immediately calls his disciples and is in the heat of ministry.

He changes water into wine at the wedding of Cana in the Second Chapter of John.

Then he turns over tables in the temple at Jerusalem in the very next section---a story that takes place near the end of his ministry in Matthew, Mark and Luke.

At the very beginning of the Gospel, Jesus is speaking to his end when he will glorify God.

 

The Gospel of John was the last gospel to be written---around 90 c.e.

John lived in Ephesus in Asia.

There is thought to be a connection of John with the Book of Revelation—which was written on the isle of Patmos, off the coast of Ephesus.

We think that John was acquainted with Polycarp and was known through Polycarp to Iranaeus—all early church historians and theologians.

In fact, Iranaeus wrote that John was “the Lord’s pupil who reclined on the Lord’s chest (at the Last Supper), himself published the gospel while stayoing at Ephesus in Asia.”

But there is also eveidence that Iranaeus was elderly and a bit muddled when he wrote his memories of John handed down to him by Polycarp.

Just as we don’t really know if Paul wrote Ephesians from prison, we don’t really know whether the gospel writer John was the close pupil and missionary of Jesus.

If he was John, the son of Zebedee.

But what we have left to us is an account of Jesus’ life told froma very different perpective.

A perspective that reveals the author’s plan “to discover the real meaning in what so far has been believed and to bring to that discovery, strange and threatening as it may sometimes seem, within the reach of the ordinary, faithful people of the church.

 

Almost a generation out from Matthew, Mark and Luke who seem to be recounting the events of Jesus’ life—get them on paper before the amazing events are forgotten-

John, in constrast, seems to have time to take a breath and ponder, wonder what these amazing events might actually mean to those of us left behind.

To those of us today.

 

John’s trademark are Jesus’ signs.

And the wedding at Cana is the first sign.

What might this sign mean? 

What might we come to expect from this man Jesus who is the Word of God?

John wants us to know that everything is turned upside down.

All the rules are changed.

The rules that we had come to expect.

The way to a renewed world—to eternal life --is by another route.

“Dreams of a world renewed are being fulfilled before our very eyes.”

The light of the world shows us how.

Our usual expectations aren’t where to look.

 

For human beings, expectations can be our Satan in the wilderness.

Particularly for Americans.

 

Given our lifestyle of mass communication, Americans are very susceptible to this form of sin.

 

With infomercials such as Tony Robbins saying “if you truly decide to, you can do almost anything.” And reality shows showcasing the lives of wealthy stars, American are swimming a sea of high material expectation.

 

As Alain de Botton writes in Status Anxiety, “the price we have paid for expecting to be so much more than our ancestors is a perpetual anxiety that we are far from being all we might be.” (p. 44)

 

This is not only true of 21^st century America.

The wedding at Cana was a sea of anxiety.

The expectation that the wine would last through the party was broken.

The wine had run out.

What to do.

Jesus provides more wine---a good wine.

Against the social expectation.

The unexpected. 

Mental tables were turned.

 

If you think about Jesus’ ministry, it was a ministry grounded in his own vocational being.

Jesus went day to day glorifying God.

He ministered by what the day brought.

He wasn’t thinking of some grand plan or goal.

 

In Forgetting Ourselves on Purpose, Brian Mahan writes:

What we’d most like to do is chuck the whole project of improving ourselves and with it our incessant and obsessive monitoring of our “progress” toward whoever it is we think we ought to be. That is to say, we long for a kind of self-forgetful yet fully engaged sense of immediacy, for a more graced and gracious way of being in the world, one that cuts deeper than the surface imagery sketched by our infernal preoccupation with some soon-to-be success or failure.”

 

Thomas Merton wrote on this topic a great deal and said “The more we persist in misunderstanding the phenomena of life, the more we analyze them out into strange finalities and complex purposes of our own, the more we involve ourselves in sadness, absurdity, and despair. The fact remains that we are invited to forget ourselves on purpose, cast our awful solemnity to the winds and join the general dance.” (quoted in Mahan)

 

 

The Gospel of Matthew says that: Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

 

Expectations are tricky for humans.

We can get so focused on what WE think the answer is—what the progress should be—that we forget that each and every day God brings delightful directive answers—if we can just get back to the basics, live in the present and listen.

 

A great example of this happened at the first 5 pm Sunday Eucharist of the year a couple of Sunday afternoons ago.

For many years, probably decades, Memorial has struggled in various ways with its expectations of its Christian formation of children and youth—our Sunday School program.

It seems to be an important marker—an expectation—that a “successful” church have a large Sunday School and youth ministry.

That magically there will be great program and space for our children.

We’ve been wondering and pondering and trying new curriculum in our Sunday School this year.

One place we have been particularly pondering is how to keep the richness of our 10:30 service for adults—which means a good deal of music and sermon---while still engaging our young children.

We’ve talked with parents. We’ve talked with one another on the staff and teacher volunteers.

One place we didn’t talk too much was with our Sunday School children and youth themselves.

One day an idea appeared about making our historical chapel also a place for our children.

So two Sunday afternoons ago, we tried the idea out on the children.

Stacey McGhee and I met with the parents in the Upper Parish Hall.

John Seeley met with the children. Well, in fact, the idea was to keep the children occupied so the parents and adults could talk…but what happened was truly amazing.

 

John presented the idea of a children’s chapel to the children.

Great excitement filled the air.

The first question was “Is there a budget for this?”

And what erupted was children telling John how much they loved the church.

After a great amount of ideas—including providing message chairs in the chapel---the conversation took an unexpected turn.

One child said: “Don’t do anything for us—use the money to fix the organ”                     

And then the children launched into how they could help the church by—in no particular order—doing fundraising activities by 30 minute performaces to raise money for the church, make things to sell at the Festival, make dolls to donate to children in hospitals, make special cloths for vestments.

Plant native plants in the Rectory garden like the Rite 13ers, collect canned goods for Samaritan Community, do activities with the Bishop.

So, now we have decided to call our children’s chapel—the Chapel of the Child Jesus and make it a place to honor our children during our worship…and place right up front.

 

A New Voice.

Listen today. Be present today.

Forget self in a way that allows you to see God in the world beyond self-imposed and societal expectations.

Let go of analyzing ourselves into “strange finalities and complex purposes and futures which only lead to sadness, absurdity and despair.” (Merton)

Let us cast our solemnity to the wind and dream of a world renewed and happening right before our very eyes. AMEN.