Homily
Question for collaboration: How can we help make our community better reflect God’s abundant love?
 
We are at a wedding out in the country, on a beautiful evening. Glasses are clinking, candles are flickering, music is playing, and wine is flowing. But then suddenly, it’s not—whispers circulate that the bartender has run out of wine. The bride’s parents are looking a little frantic, the bride is starting to cry, the groom is doing everything he can to reassure her.

Many of you have had the honor of hosting weddings over the years, as Jeff and I have, or you have been married, or been to weddings. You know how uncomfortable this moment would have been.
This reading is situated in the 2nd chapter of John’s Gospel, and says that the action Jesus took here was the first of his “signs.” It heralds the beginning of his ministry, the beginning of his mission to invite all to participation as the people of God, to a new way of life based on love, and on working for justice for everyone. This seems like a trivial story, but if we look with a wider lens we can see the scope that John is trying to project.
One image that can give us an idea of this larger significance is the amount of wine. If there were six jars, and each held 20-30 gallons, that was around 150 gallons of wine! Plenty for many weddings! Plenty to convey the extravagant generosity of the God Jesus was starting to teach about, of the limitless love Jesus was inviting the people to be a part of.

I love that Mary was the one who really saved the day here. Though Jesus actually performed the “sign,” Mary is the one who moved him to figure out how to help these people out, and to start to fulfill his future at the same time. “This could be the moment!” she seems to be telling Jesus, “The moment that we as the people of God have been waiting for, the moment when God’s commitment and fidelity begin to be revealed and renewed!”
Tomorrow we celebrate again the life and example of another prophetic example, Dr. Martin Luther King. Dr. King’s voice, as in the passage we read from his speech today, projected the aspirations of all those who long for justice and equality, and dared to envision humanity’s capacity for love and unity. Over and over, in his sermons, speeches, and writings, he described the Beloved Community, the goal we all reach for as believers in God’s love, and in our potential as lovers of one another, if we only can reach beyond our own insecurities and tribal self-limitations.
Taken together, these readings tell us that God’s love exceeds the depth and commitment of the best of marriages. We have the capacity to reflect this love to one another, if only we will take the risk of breaking out of own our complacent, insulated existences to begin to recognize God in everyone, no holds barred. And the moment to do it is now, while the candles are still glowing and the music plays and hope is still alive. Mary, the prophet encourages us,

“Do whatever Jesus tells you!”

​So what do you think- what can we do to help make our community better reflect God’s abundant love?
 
My suggestion- read Waking Up White by Debbie Irving. It’s about recognizing the degree of privilege you and I have as members of the dominant racial group here in the US, how to avoid being even unconsciously complicit in keeping other groups down, and how to learn to progress toward making some authentic contributions toward justice for all groups.
 

Let’s imagine that we are the Magi, and that we are entering the structure in Bethlehem where Mary and Joseph are taking care of their son, Jesus. There are no lanterns, but by the bright starlight from outside we can see clearly. This is more of a barn than a house, and the little family is surrounded by animals. In fact, the infant is actually sleeping in a corn crib, an animal feeding trough. He is lying on straw, wrapped in linen and cotton woven from local fields. We can hear the noises the animals make, stamping and bleating. When we come close to them, we can feel the animals’ warm breath and their thick, furry winter coats. This place smells like a barn, like wet fur, and alfalfa, and animals. Pretty soon the smell permeates our clothes—when we leave, we will smell like sheep and cows as well.

Jesus is a beautiful child, and his parents are clearly devoted to him. We can see by their simple clothes and scarcity of belongings that they are far from wealthy. Our encounter with Herod has made us more acutely aware of the family’s disadvantaged political situation, being of Judean heritage in this Roman-occupied territory. We have been searching for a long time for the new spiritual leader of the Judeans, hoping to find in him one sent by God to establish a new world order, the fulfillment of the Jewish prophets’ visions of a more just, compassionate world. And we realize that we have found him, and we honor him with gifts as a representative of God should be honored. But we realize a new enlightenment as well—that this newborn leader is of one being with his physical surroundings, as we all are, organically unified with the plants and animals around him, and with the poor shepherds taking care of them. He is sent by God, but of humble estate, and threatened by empire. He is one of us. Though we are not Judeans, and live far away, we were born of mothers like this young woman, we are nourished by the same foods and drink the same water. We have families like this one, and are similarly subject to social pressures and conflicts. We all smell the same here. And we are all searching, hoping for a better, more loving world in the future, and for people to stop fighting and to work together to become more spiritually united with the Source of Being and with one another.

Now let’s imagine that we are here together in 2019 in Indianapolis, at St. Mary of Magdala. Through our contemplation of the Christmas and Epiphany stories we have read throughout this season, we realize a little more each time that we are made up of the same molecules as these stories’ characters were, and have the same feelings and aspirations and longings. We are still trying to reform our faith community, to help our human family evolve in understanding of God’s purposes and authentic personification of God’s love. Sometimes it seems we have made a lot of progress over the centuries, but at other times, it seems like there is still a lot of work to do. So, we need to mount up, Magi. We need to keep searching, studying, praying, and uniting, the best we can. But at least we know where the star stopped, over whose house it hovered, and whose teachings and example can guide us. Before I ask for your reflections,

I like to share a poem, called Song for the Feast of the Epiphany, by Christine Rodgers.  

Be bold like the Magi.
Do not tarry, settling into your comfort, but rather
set out keeping the star in your vision.
It will lead you to the place you are most in need of the place where God is.
And if an angel warns you in a dream
not to return by the old way,
please
listen.  

​ So, what do you see by the light of Epiphany?