God's Overflowing Grace

As weddings usually go there is something likely to go wrong, some mishap or other, something unexpected.  From my experience as a clergy,  I remember the wedding rings being dropped and rolling across the floor just as the groomsmen went to hand them over for the blessing, or they have been left back at the house with someone having to return to look for them, another time the groom just as he was about to repeat his vows looked like he was going to fall over and I realized he was about to faint, and of course there is always the bride who comes late and the poor groom left waiting is about to have a panic attack thinking he has been left standing at the alter.   All sorts of things go wrong at weddings, and the wedding in Cana was no different, only here it was to run short on their supply of wine. (John 2: 1 -11). 

While that would be no big deal perhaps in our culture, someone would more then likely no where they could quickly to get more if they wanted it.  But For Mary, the mother of Jesus, this seems to be of great concern and  goes to jesus telling him “they have no wine.” Jesus however doesn’t seemed to be so bothered by it has his mother, and says to her, “woman, what concern is that to you and to me?”   My hour has not yet come."

Our first inclination is to think that was not a nice way to answer his mother. However, when we hear these last words,  knowing Jesus often spoke this throughout the gospels leading up to the time of his death on the cross, “my hour has not yet come,” we think that perhaps he is referring to this here. That it is not time for him to begin his ministry of revealing who he is as God’s Son.  And perhaps this so-called crisis, of not having enough wine for the wedding festivities was not of the miracle producing nature.

Mary however is not put off by what Jesus says, instead like any mother when she expects her Son to listen to her, she says to the servants, “do whatever he tells you.”  In other words now my Son, listen to your mother and get on with it.  She wasn’t about to take no for an answer. 

And in short order it seems Jesus does just what his mother had asked of him, he produces the new wine.  Why did Jesus hesitate in the first place, and why did he change his mind?  Was his mother so convincing? or might it be that he realized what was asked of him, was not about the wine at all, but about the life of this young couple, the impact this so called inconveniece as we might consider it, would have on their lives. 

In the time and culture of Jesus day running out of wine at a wedding feast would not only have been an inconvenience for this young couple and an embarrassment they would no doubt have to live with for the rest of their lives. Wine was a sign of the harvest, of God’s abundance, hospitality and joy, and so for this young couple to run short on wine, it was to run short on blessing. 

This couple was probably from a poor family, they likely did not have much to start out with, and to run out of wine meant that their lives were off to a poor start without God’s blessing.   In providing the wine  Jesus was not only helping them save face so to speak, but showing God’s blessing toward them.   God understands our needs, and responds to them, no matter how great or how small they may be, but also no matter what importance or lack of importance they may seem to someone else. They are important to God.

Jesus saw the importance in the need for this couple.  God’s grace is like that, it shows up in the ordinary events of our lives.  The wine was a gift not only for the party, in that Jesus provided more wine for the festivities,  but a gift of blessing for their lives, a way of revealing God’s grace toward them.  

In the season of Epiphany we look for God’s revealing, how God is made known to us in the scripture, what it says about God and who God is.  The miracle of turning the water into wine at the wedding in Cana, had much to say about God, that can be a blessing to our own lives.

When Jesus told the servants to fill up the purification Jars with water, it says they filled them to the brim, they were overflowing. Jesus didn’t just provide a few extra bottles of wine, for the wedding, which likely would have been sufficient.  These jars held twenty or thirty gallons, and that amount of wine, added up to about another 1000 bottles of wine.  I read somewheres, it said, this was more wine then the crowd could have drunk not only during the three days of the wedding feast, but even over three weeks.

That’s a lot of wine, why the abundance, why not give just what was needed.  Perhaps Jesus was doing a turn around on his mother, “you asked for it, you got it.”  We know that is not the case, this is a miracle of gigantic proportions, this is how God works.  God doesn’t just give in small quantities, or qualities, but like the overflow of wine that was pouring for the people there, God pours our his love abundantly toward us, our God is a generous God.  

No wonder when Paul in one of his letters complains about the thorn in his side,  he says the Lord says to him, “my grace is sufficient for you” (2 cor 12:9).  God blesses us above and beyond any thing we can ask or imagine. 

And that is just it we can’t imagine it, but we can know it through our experience.  Can you imagine the thoughts of the bridegroom when the steward called him over after tasting the wine.  This poor young fellow was probably expecting to hear the servant say the wine barrel was gone dry, and instead he says to him, “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”  (2:10).

The Bridegroom must have been as we would say, blowin’ away by this, astonished, flabbergasted, call it what you like, but he knew then what it was to be truly amazed by God’s grace.  Even if he didn’t know where it had come from at the moment, for it says the steward didn’t know, maybe the servants who had drawn the water told him about it later, as it says they knew.   In whatever case it is no doubt he would have accepted it graciously, thanking God for not small miracles in this case but for a big one, because God didn't just give him more wine, and not only an abundant amount but gave his best. Now that is a awesome God.  A God who loves beyond all measure.

And we can testify to that in our own lives. We all know things that have happened perhaps in our own lives that have revealed God to us in a way that we cannot deny, we cannot let it go because we know something out of the ordianary, or extraordianary has happened.  That young couple would no doubt have remembered the miracle at their wedding perhaps going back to it many times over, throughout their lifetime, remembering God’s goodness towards them, and if so, it is likely their lives were ever more lived out in gratitude toward God.

That is what grace does, it doesn’t end with the event, or what happened, how God revealed himself to us, it is extended, shared, throughout our  lives in our response to it .  This was the first of Jesus signs, it says, in Cana of Galilee, revealing his glory,  and the disciples believed in him. 

Jesus gives us all we need to know his glory, the disciples were his followers they saw, and they believed, we too see and believe, because we know God is made present to us in the Eucharist, in our gathering together, in our baptisms, in our lives, wherever we are, and it is there we are to expect him to show up, and be present to us, just as Jesus was at the wedding in Cana. 

He was there, not all who were there knew who he was, not all, perhaps only a few there knew a miracle had taken place right in their midst,  but for those who did, God’s grace was made known in a powerful way.

 It is expecting God to be in all of our lives, in all places, and in all that we do,  that we  learn to discern his presence and goodness towards us and in the world, and know we are never away from him. God’s grace overflows freely toward us. 

Amen. God bless.

Baptism an Epiphany of God's Grace

Yesterday, Jan 10th, we celebrated the Baptism of Jesus in our church, and as we are also in the season of Epiphany I started thinking about these two together and how in Jesus baptism there is an Epiphany of who God is that gives much meaning to our own.


Jesus came to John to be baptized, and in Luke's gospel it says "when all the people were baptized, and when Jesus also had been baptized and was praying, the heaven was opened, and the Holy Spirit descend upon him in form like a dove.  And the voice came from heaven, "You are my Son, the beloved; with you I am well pleased." (Luke 3:21-22) Jesus was baptized in the same water as all others who came to John, and while that is significant in that Jesus although he was without sin, identifies with us as one who walked in the flesh with us.  What happened in and after Jesus baptism was quite significant in that it tells us much about Jesus but also about the father.  In Mark's gospel he doesn't just say that the heavens were opened but that they were torn apart (Mark 1:10),  telling us that something pretty dramatic happened there.  It is very likely that something very dramatic did indeed happen because it is not just spoken about in this way in one gospel, but in all three. The heavens were opened, the Spirit defended in bodily form of the dove, and the Father spoke saying, 'You are my Son, the beloved, in whom I am will please."   Revealing all three persons of the Trinity, active and present in Jesus baptism. In the tradition of our faith believing God to be present in all three forms in our own baptisms and continues to be so throughout our lives, we baptize too with water as the cleansing sign of God's presence, in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.

The heavens being torn apart signify what God was doing in giving his Son for the sins of the world, no longer kept at a distance by our sin, but free to come and be with us in Jesus who was without sin.  Now in that there is an Epiphany, I know.  God came into this sinful world to reclaim  us as his own.  "You are my Son, the beloved in whom I am well pleased."  The Father didn't just claim Jesus as his Son, but affirmed him to be His Son.  Jesus was the Son of God, fully in flesh but also fully divine.  Jesus after his baptism was driven by the Spirit into the desert, the wilderness, for forty days where he was tempted by the devil.  Jesus claiming his identity as God's Son didn't fall for the temptations Satan threw at him, but walked out of the desert ready and able to begin his ministry in the world, teaching, preaching, and healing, proclaiming the kingdom of God in the world. If we were ever so faithful to God's teaching, to the promises we make in our own baptism might we too be ever more able to resist the temptations of this world. Temptations that destroy the creatures of God.

Baptism is not so much about what happens in the ritual practice we perform at our baptisms, the pouring of water, the blessing, the giving of light, or being marked with the cross.  Even though all that has great significance for us in what it all stands for and the meaning it brings to our own baptism, in that it signifies for us that God is present in our baptisms as he was in Jesus baptism.  Baptism however is more about all that comes after, being a baptized persons means we intend to live and grow in the faith traditions of our church, keeping the promises we make and were made for us in our baptism. Believing and trusting that God is with us in the world as he was and is with us in baptism.  If we believe and trust in that promise for our lives, as baptized persons we can become confident individuals knowing and experiencing God's presence in and throughout our lives.

Will we see the skies open, the spirit descending in bodily form or God's voice speaking audibly to us as he did in Jesus baptism, perhaps not, but if we are open to his revealing we can live in and through his grace and find God in places and things and become persons and do things perhaps we never thought possible, if we trust in God's Grace and Mercy to help us.

All you have to do is ask someone who have overcome a tremendous battle with Cancer, or someone who has fought the demons of some addiction and overcome it, and the Majority of people will say that  "without God I would never have made it." In that we know there are mountains that can be moved, because God has been a vivid and powerful reality in it.

God comes to us in powerful and profound ways,  perhaps we won't literally move mountains as Jesus seems to say we will do in scripture.  Although we know he is speaking metaphorically,  we know also that it is being open to God's revealing, that you will indeed come to know and recognize his presence in and for your own lives and in the lives of others, because you will know God, and God's ways.

Remembering our baptism, holding onto the promise we are given in it, that united with Christ in our baptism, we are never away from him, we may go our own way in the world, but God doesn't leave us. Our baptisms are indissoluble, binding, in that being united with Christ and his Church, we are joined to him forever. We are never alone in the world.  In that there is an Epiphany too, that God will never leave us but also we have been baptized into the same family of the church as all others who were baptized before us and since Christ. Now that is a real Epiphany, that we are a part of something that has been around for almost 2000 years, and that is something worth celebrating and giving thanks for.

In that there is real gift and promise in that God is always with us.  Holding onto that promise and carrying it throughout our lives,  we will come to depend on him in the difficult times for the strength we need, rely on him in the desperate times knowing we can do nothing without him, and in the times of joy and abundance we will come to know him too in our rejoicing. In and through it all, we know, that God is.

Baptism for us is an Epiphany, an Epiphany of God's revealing. As Jesus walked into the dirty waters of the Jordan with all the others who were being baptized, he signified the significance of what he was doing, in becoming the cleansing body for the forgiveness of our sin in the world. Now in that there is an Epiphany for sure, that God cared enough to give his only Son for the sake of us all. God's Grace revealed!

Amen, God Bless.

Epiphany, "God's Revealing"

It's been a while since I have been here, for many reasons really.  But hopefully now having gotten settled into a new parish over the past year I can get back to posting more regular reflections, giving light to the word.

It's the beginning of the New Year, January 6th being the Feast day of the Epiphany, I thought it time I start writing again.  Epiphany, meaning 'revelation', 'showing', 'manifestation' of God's appearing. The reading from Isaiah for this day begin with "Arise Shine, for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord has risen upon you."(Isaiah 60:1)  The prophet is calling to the people to look to a new day, when the darkness they are feeling will be eradicated, there will be no darkness only light for them.  In the gospel for this day from Matthew, (matt 2:1-12) we have the arrival of the Wisemen from the East to Jerusalem. They have come  looking for "the child who has been born king of the Jews," because as they say they have seen "his star at its rising."

The star, a light in the night sky, was what told them where to find this child.  They however didn't go directly to Bethlehem to where the child was, but stopped in Jerusalem, presumably it is there they thought the child would be found. After their conversation there with Herod and finding out the child was to be born in Bethlehem, they set out again, and this time with directions from Herod to return and let him know where the child was so he too could go and pay him homage.  We know however Herod's intent was to get information from them so he could destroy the child, not to bring him gifts as the wisemen did.  For only a few days later, Mary and Joseph after being warned in a dream, flee to Egypt with the child, to escape what we know as the 'slaughter of the Innocents' when Herod ordered every male child under two in and around Jerusalem to be killed. The Wisemen after finding the child with Mary his mother, did not however go back to Herod, but it says, they too after having been warned in a dream went home by another way.

Going by another way may have meant taking a different route back to where they had come from, for a number of reasons, perhaps they realized what Herod was up to, and perhaps wanted to avoid been entangled in Herod's conspiracy to kill the child, or perhaps they just chose to go a more direct route rather then going back through Jerusalem.  Whatever the reason, these Wisemen play an important part in the Christmas Story, even though they come to it much later then the shepherds, they too were witnesses to the Christ Childs' Birth.  The Wisemen came believing what they had seen in the star, and it was that which brought them to Jesus, not Herod or his chief priest and scribes.  When they got back on the route to Bethlehem after leaving Jerusalem, it says, "they saw going ahead of them, the star they had seen at its rising" and when the star stopped over the place where the child was with his mother, they were filled with Joy. They knew they were at their destination's end. They had found the child.

How do we know we are at the right place in our lives, what directs us in the way we should go.  For the Wisemen it was the star they had seen at its rising, pointing the way for them to go to where the child was.  It was when they stopped in Jerusalem they seem to have lost their way, they inquire as to where the child is, expecting those whom they thought would know the whereabouts of the child to direct them, only to discover when they left they had all they needed it was right there in front of them.

What signs might we overlook in our life when God is calling us to go in a certain direction, might we too follow our own instincts as the Wisemen did going to Jerusalem looking for the child, might we too think we know our way, rather then listening to what God is saying to us through his word.  It is so easy to think that we have it right, when all the time we may be listening to voices, like Herod's was in trying to get the Wisemen fall in with his plot, it is when we get on track with God's Word that we hear him more clearly as the wisemen did when they got back on the route to Bethlehem.

In John's gospel, John speaks of Jesus coming into our World as the Light that gives life to the world, "the light shines in the darkness, but the darkness did not overcome it"(John 1:5).  Jesus is that light and it is shining the light on God's word that we too are enlightened to his truth, as the Wisemen were in following the star, seeing the child, and listening to the warning they were given in a dream.   Epiphany, God's revealing, showing, calls us to be more observant to the signs that God is giving to us in our own time, our own day, that we might get on the right track as to where we should be going, what we should be doing. Epiphany calls us to be ever more observant of the light that shines and continues to shine even in the midst of the darkness in our own world, so that we too will be on the right paths in our own lives and to where God is calling us.

God's Blessing,
Hannah+

"Come away....and rest awhile"

“Come away… all by yourselves and rest awhile” (Mark 6:31)

We seem to be living in a more and more rest and sleep deprived society all the time.  We have ever more advancing technology to help us do our work but yet there still seems never to be enough hours in our day to get the things done we need to do, or we keep adding more and more things to our already too full, to-do lists.  In the gospels we hear often that Jesus would after a busy day go of to a deserted place to rest, or get up early in the morning to be alone to pray, he was very intentional about this, but he also invited the disciples to do the same.  In Mark’s gospel after the disciples had gathered around Jesus telling him all they had done and taught, he said to them, “Come away to a deserted place all by yourselves and rest a while, for many were coming and going and they had no leisure to eat.”(6:31). Now I don’t know about you but that sounds to me very much like the society we live in today, in the door, grab a bite to eat if you got the time, or grab something to go and out the door again. The part however about coming away to rest awhile we seem to omit, or think we don’t need to pay attention to; and usually if we do go of somewhere, for what we call getting away for a time, we fill it with so many activities that we come back more harried and tired then when we left.  Recently I had the opportunity to do just that, to go away to a quiet place to rest. I took some personal retreat time and stayed for a few days at St. John’s convent in Toronto, and while there my days took on the rhythm of the sisters at the convent, which meant it was mostly silent, even the meals were eaten in silence.  Coming from a very busy parish life, at first the silence felt uncomfortable almost overwhelming, but I soon realized how much I needed this time of rest and quiet, and the feeling was soon replaced with one of gratitude for this time of solitude. “Come away and rest a while.”  Jesus understood the disciples need for rest and replenishment in their busy lives, and he understands our need too. Oh, I know not everyone can just go of to a convent somewhere to have that place of solitude, but we don’t have to. It could be as simple as closing a door to the outside world for a short time, shutting down our social media sites, or turning of the phone for a few hours.  Doing that regularly enough, and soon you will realize just how much you too need that time of rest and feel better for it.  Yes, Jesus was very much aware of the demands on life, after all there was no one ever more in demand then he was, and if he could take time out of his busy schedule, then surely we ought to be able to do so.  “Very early in the morning when it was still dark, Jesus withdrew to a solitary place to be alone with God” (Mark 1:35). “He went to the mountain alone and spent the night in prayer” (Luke 6:12).  And he taught his followers to do the same. “Come away by yourselves to a quiet place and rest a while” (Mark 6:31).

What are you looking for?

What are you looking for?  It's a given in life that we are all looking for something. Some are looking for a better life, better health, more money, a better job, more peace, and I can go on and on. But just what is it you are looking for? For the most part, we all can come up with something or some idea of some thing that we believe we are looking for that will squelch that yearning or longing for something more, only to find out that when we have discovered what we think it is, the longing just doesn't go a way.  In the gospel of John, John the Baptist giving witness to who Jesus was went out and testified to what he saw, saying, "I did not know him, but the one who sent me to baptize with water said to me! he on whom you see the Spirit descent and remain is the one who baptized with the Holy Spirit. And I have seen and have testified that this is the Son of God."  The next day when he saw Jesus coming, John says, "look, here is the Lamb of God," and it says two of his disciples left and followed Jesus. Did they know what John was saying when he called Jesus "the Lamb of God", did they know even exactly why they followed after Jesus, probably not.  But there was something so convincing in What John had said about Jesus, that they had to go and find out for themselves just who Jesus was, they wanted to know.   When Jesus turned and saw them following him, he said to them, "what are you looking for". The disciple perhaps unsure, or uncertain as to what it was they were looking for, simply respond saying, "where are you staying." A simple request indeed to ask, where are you staying and one that usually brings just as simple an answer, I am staying at such and such a place, or with someone, or a general street address, but Jesus gives none of these. Instead he answers 'come and see'. Come and see, words that not only express an invitation but also words of welcome? You are welcome to come and see for yourselves, I don't have to tell you, you are welcome to come and see where I live, and make up your own minds as to what it is you are looking for. I think that is how Jesus relates to all of us, with an invitation to "Come and see". Jesus doesn't tell us what it is we should be looking for but allows us to discover what it is for ourselves. The disciples went with Jesus, stayed with him for the whole day, one of them even noted that it was 4:00 0' Clock in the afternoon. What they discovered made such an impact on their lives that the exact time of day it occurred was never forgotten.  Jesus words, his teaching no doubt revealed all that they were looking for, longing for in the Messiah, and they  had no need to go back, to return to John for what they were looking for was found in Jesus. We too will find what it is we are searching for, seeking in our lives if we respond to his invitation to 'Come and See'.  "Andrew went out and found his brother Simon and told him, 'we have found the Messiah and he brought  him to Jesus. Jesus seeing him says, "you are Simon son of John. You are to be called Cephas, which means Peter." Like the new name He gave to Peter, signifying the new life he would have as a disciple of Jesus, so too are we changed, made over, given new life through accepting Jesus' invitation to us to 'Come and See'.

Blessings, 
Rev. Hannah+

New beginnings!

It's the beginning of a whole new year and so along with that comes a lot of new possibilities and hopes and dreams, but as always with the beginning of anything, we look back reflecting on the past as to how it might make way for the future, it can be positive in taking from it what was good and learning from what was not so good that it might make way for better times and opportunities ahead, or we can allow the past to impact the future in a way that is not positive, not good. And so looking back I reflect on the past year in a way that I hope it brings nothing but good to the new. In the past year, at the beginning of the year in my ministry having to deal with so much death, and sadness, it felt almost as if there was no opportunity for joy, with the darkness feeling so overwhelming at times that it felt there was no getting away from it.  Yet reflecting back on it now I can see very well the light of Christ shining forth in the darkness, strong and vibrant even though the light at times seemed only a glimmer it was there pulsating, shimmering, bringing hope even in the darkest times. In the strength and courage of those experiencing such darkness hope was revealed, and in my efforts to support and uphold that hope in ministering to the families going through such difficult times, I too experienced God’s presence in very powerful ways.  John in the first chapter of his gospel says, “the light shines in the darkness and the darkness did not overcome it.”  Darkness can very will overcome the light if we give into it, if we allow the darkness to overtake us, but it is hanging on to that last sliver of hope, even when it doesn’t make sense to do so at times that the light takes hold and the darkness eventually must dissipates because the light makes more sense to hold onto.  When I think about hope as Christ light shining forth in the darkness, I often think about entering a totally darkened room and striking a match to light a candle and watching the flame as it ignites to reveal the objects in the room, in the shadows.  The light doesn’t have to be very big but still it overcomes the darkness, and the darkness no longer feels so threatening.  The soft glow of the candle flame not only makes a way to move through the darkness but provides warmth and comfort along the way, and I think hope in the same way acts as a light, dispelling the darkness of the moment but also giving way for new opportunities to grow in the experience of God’s love revealed to us in Christ Jesus. And so I pray this year will bring new hope, new possibilities, new beginnings that will reveal the light of Christ breaking forth in our world in new and powerful ways.   

Blessings for the New Year!
Rev. Hannah+

The Miracle of Christmas

The Miracle of Christmas:

To reflect on the Christmas story is not only to recognize the miracle in the birth of God’s own Son, Jesus, our Saviour born of a virgin mother, but to recognize in it the miracle for our selves, that God, Immanuel, came to be with us.  Christmas is about God making his way into our world. Christmas is not about the commercialism, not about the celebrations we make of it today, with all the lights and trimmings, or the gift-giving even, but the willingness of our God to step out of the glories of heaven to make his home amongst us. Jesus, Our Immanuel, ‘God with us’.

The real gift of Christmas is that God chose to be with us, not only as the child in the manger we sentimentalize over at Christmas time, but as the God who comes to us in the reality of our everyday life.  Summoned by a decree from the governor of Rome ordering the whole world to be registered in a census, Mary in full-term pregnancy along with her husband Joseph travelled to Bethlehem to be registered. It was in the midst of that Chaotic, and uncertain time, not so unlike the world we live in today,  that Christ was born. Christmas is a reminder for us to not only look for Christ in the celebrations, in the quiet moments, or in the peace and joy filled moments  of the season, but to expect him to come, in the times when we least expect, in the places we least likely would look, and in the persons we least likely think to find him.  Jesus was born in a secluded out of the way place, to a nondescript couple of no regal bearings, his birth announcement was given by the angels to poor lowly shepherds on the hillside tending their sheep, and yet it was made known the world over.  “Going to Bethlehem to see what the angels had told them, “To you is born this day in the city of David, a Saviour, who is the Messiah, the Lord… Finding Mary, Joseph and the child lying in a manger, they went and told all that had been made known to them about the child (Luke 2:11,12).”

In the most unlikely circumstances, under the most unlikely conditions, to the most unlikely people, yet God came, and still keeps coming in our world today.  As the in the song “The miracle of Christmas” by Steven Curtis Chapman, “So come to Bethlehem and see, For the God who spoke is speaking still, and the God who came still comes, and the miracle that happened still happens in the heart that will believe, and receive the miracle of Christmas.”  I extend to you and yours greetings for a most blessed Christmas and New Year.

Blessings

Rev. Hannah+