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The
Second Sunday after the Epiphany
January 17,
2010 The Rev. William Van Oss, Rector
Readings
Last Tuesday, I thought I had a good start on today’s sermon. Someone in the morning Bible study group made the comment that one of the things she heard in today’s Gospel, the story of the water turned into wine at the wedding feast in Cana, is that “sometimes the wine runs out”. I was struck by that insight, “sometimes the wine runs out”, and asked what this meant for her. The woman said, “Sometimes life is hard; it’s difficult. Things are going along just fine, there is plenty of wine, times are good and then the wine runs out, something bad happens”.
Inspired by her insight, I was going to build a sermon about how God steps in to our lives when the wine runs out, how God is with us in good times and bad, and how God has the power to transform the bad stuff. How we so often learn and grow through the difficult times, so that mere water becomes wine. It wouldn’t have been a bad sermon. I was reflecting on how to flesh it out when, suddenly, the earth shook in Haiti and I knew I had to say something about that.
Haiti, the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere, almost 70% of the people live in abject poverty. This is desperate, grinding poverty, people living on less than two dollars-a-day poverty. A seven point zero earthquake right in the middle of Port-a-Prince, which is filled with cardboard slums.
Why? Why God? Haven’t they suffered enough?
Then, I heard Pat Robertson’s answer, God sent the earthquake as punishment for Haiti making a pact with the devil 200 years ago, and I wanted to scream “No!” This is why so many people detest organized religion, idiots like Pat Robertson speaking awful things in the name of God. And so I turned to the Gospel this week, John, and I remembered how John’s Gospel is so very different from the other three. For John time is not linear like it is in Matthew, Mark and Luke. For them time is linear, we make our way along in this life, marching ahead toward the kingdom of God. For them, the kingdom of God is out there, down the road. We make our way through this life and enter the kingdom of God in the next life, to greatly oversimplify. But not for John, for John time is more circular. For John the kingdom of God is a canopy that surrounds us, a canopy over our heads; isn’t that good?
John’s Gospel is a compilation of nine signs of the kingdom to God breaking in. Today’s story of the wedding feast at Cana is the first sign of the inbreaking kingdom of God. Water turned into wine; wine, the ancient symbol of the Messianic age. Isaiah 25 says, “On this mountain the Lord of hosts will make for all peoples a feast of rich food, a feast of well matured wines, of rich food filled with marrow, of well matured wines strained clear.” Wine, abundant, flowing wine, is a sign of God’s breaking in, a sign of the kingdom of God in our midst here and now, not some pie in the sky when you die, but God’s presence revealed to us in our lives here on earth. Feasting at a wedding here and now. It’s as if a hole is poked in the canopy above us and the goodness and grace of God pours into our lives to give us a taste, a taste of what’s in store for us, life with God.
Now, what in the world does that have to do with Haiti? Maybe I should have stuck with “sometimes the wine runs out”, but maybe not. For there are signs of the kingdom breaking through in Haiti, so many signs: money pouring into relief agencies; workers on the ground, digging through the rubble; Haitians reaching out to each other; governments offering assistance and equipment; Doctors without Borders and the Red Cross and Episcopal Relief and Development and dioceses and churches, synods, conferences, faith communities of every stripe. I could list them all day, the outpouring of compassion and concern, the outpouring of love, people doing something about it.
Imagine how many prayers are being said this weekend by Jews, Muslins, Buddhists, Hindus and Christians for the people of Haiti. Imagine the prayers, imagine the people counting their blessings, being grateful, hugging their children. Holes are poked in the canopy, so many holes, and the kingdom of God is raining down on the people of Haiti and on us, privileged to have the resources to help.
This is not God’s punishment, God’s heart breaks over human suffering, just as our hearts break. God stands with those who suffer, and God inspires those of us who can do something to reach out to write a check, to offer services, to say a prayer. The kingdom of God breaks in to the depths of human pain and suffering and to call us to be close to each other, especially those who are suffering.
I will leave you with some words of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. this day:
“We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly.”
Amen