Second Epiphany
Isaiah 62:1-5; John 2:1-11; I Corinthians 12:1-11
One of my favorite questions over the last few weeks has been, "Did you get any good toys for Christmas?" As Chris will tell you, being the oldest of six children and five of them boys, I grew up surrounded by toys. Models and games, hockey skates and sleds, chemistry and erector sets were all staples of the Christmas season. Modern technology, of course, has changed the shape of many toys but the essential definition of a toy remains constant. At Christmas time, many toys are anticipated or even expected but the best are often those that come to us as real gifts. Something unexpected with no particular value other than to bring a moment of play into our lives. I got one real toy this Christmas. Chris gave me two very small and light radio controlled helicopters. They are so small and so light they can be flown indoors. They were a wonderful surprise to receive and equally exciting to watch as we tried to maneuver them around burning candles and wine glasses at the Christmas day dinner table. They were also helpful at beginning to remove ornaments from the Christmas tree, if only accidentally.
As far as Christmas and gift giving is concerned, we usually blame or credit the Wise Men for starting the whole thing when they brought their three presents to the birth of the Christ child. The honest truth is that gift giving seems to be a basic part of our human nature. We enjoy the giving of that which is a gift. And if it happens that we have an "excuse" for giving the gift, like Christmas or a birthday, all the better. A true gift is something that is not deserved or earned. Generally a gift is something that is not essential to another's well-being although certainly some gifts are more practical than others. Some gifts are just "toys" or "pretty" or "nice". In the midst of the realities of life there are moments, places, times when a gift is what transforms or shapes the meaning of the moment. And how a gift is received often reveals something of the value placed on not only the gift but the relationship or the one who gives the gift. A true gift is something that is given without any conditions or strings attached. Having to give a gift really means that the item offered is not a true gift but a tribute or payment.
In many cultures of the world it is difficult to truly give a gift. In these societies every item given to another must be acknowledged with a gift of equal or greater value unless the gift is given anonymously or in such a way that there can be no response. When we went to Togo, West Africa, to visit our son Tim, we took a large suitcase full of gifts to give to various members of the communities Tim serves in the Peace Corps. Pens, inexpensive watches, soccer balls, the gifts we brought were not particularly expensive but they were items we had been told would be especially prized because they were so rare in communities with no running water and little electricity. The interesting thing, is that we never gave anyone the gifts we brought. It was only after we left that Tim distributed the gifts thus relieving the person receiving the gift from any debt or responsibility to try to respond to our generosity. Tim knew that there was nothing even a Togolese chief could give us that would be considered of comparable value. A gift is something given without any strings attached. A true gift is the definition of grace. Something given freely because the giver chooses to give it without preconditions or expectations.
One definition of the epiphany season the church now finds itself in is that we are in the season of gifts or at lest inheritors of the gift tradition established in the first epiphany. As I noted last week in the children's sermon, epiphany is actually a Greek word phrase which means "to show forth"--the word phanos --literally means "to shine" and epi --"forth". The lessons we usually read in the Sundays after the Epiphany usually focus on the revelation of God's gift in his Son, Jesus. You might say the purpose of the various stories we read is to enable us to unwrap God's present. To discover that inside the Bible or inside the stories we read is the gift God wants us to really receive.
That is one way of approaching our lesson for today. According to the Gospel of John, the first miracle Jesus ever performs is in a setting where gifts are expected. It is a wedding. Jesus shows up with his disciples only to find that the wedding reception is facing a major social disaster. The wine has run out. Mary, the mother of Jesus, informs him of this problem as if she expects him to deal with it. Maybe Mary felt that the wine had run out because Jesus had shown up with more disciples than the wedding party had planned on. There are any number of explanations, but the long and short of it was that the wine had run out and a wedding reception in Palestine with no wine was about the same as a wedding reception with no bride or groom. This couple was about to begin their marriage stumbling from the very beginning. Jesus replied that he did not see how this problem had anything to do with him. But Mary told the servants to do what ever Jesus told them to do. And this is when Jesus begins to wrap up a special wedding gift. Six stone water jars each holding 20-30 gallons are filled to the brim after which Jesus tells a servant to draw off a glass and take it to the chief steward, the sommelier responsible for tasting and approving all wine served.
Now there are lots of ways to receive a gift. We all know that for very young children the first thing they like most about gifts is usually the wrapping paper. The sheer joy of tearing and ripping, opening the gift often can become an end in itself. Left alone in a room full of beautifully wrapped gifts the very young child will crawl over to the gifts and begin to enjoy quite simply transforming the wrappings into a pile of colored confetti. If the child is slightly older they may begin to open the boxes but we all know how often we have seen what happens next, and that is that the young child creatively and joyously finds that the boxes are the greatest source of wonderful entertainment. It doesn't take too many years though until we all pretty well figured out how to receive a gift. You take it graciously, open the card first, then unwrap it showing a certain respect for the care with which it was wrapped and then open the box and show some sign of pleasure at what you find inside. Sometimes the box helps identify what the gift might be or at least where it comes from so you can anticipate what might be inside. Sometimes though, as the gift is unwrapped a box is revealed that bears the name of a store, like Sears, Macys, Gap or Abercrombie but then you hear a voice saying, "What's inside didn't come from that store" and you immediately are at a loss as to know what to expect.
The cup served the chief steward in our story had been drawn from a stone water jar, a plain package to be sure for they had witnessed the wrapping. So the chief steward received a filled cup. He also knew what he expected to be in the cup..
He took a sip, swirled it around in his mouth, sucked in a breath of air savoring the taste and embellishing the aroma. Wine, he decreed. Good wine. Excellent wine. Sometimes the gift surprises us, becomes the unexpected. Then what can we do but express our joy. The Chief steward called the bridegroom, whom he assumed had provided the wine, and observed that most people serve their best wine first and then as the guests drank more and more eventually brought out the gallons of common wine. But the steward exalted in praising the excellent wine now being served. Water to wine. It was a grace moment, unexpected and undeserved. A gift. This we are told was the first sign Jesus performed to reveal his glory and his disciples believed.
Here was a great wedding gift wrapped up in a box that should have been just the same old thing only this time there was a surprise inside. Water to wine. His disciples believe because he can change water to wine? There are a number of college campuses where this miracle would make you very popular but it is hardly a sure foundation for building a faith. The whole story sounds more like magic than miracle, unless we can get past the wrappings and the packaging and the name on the box. What we are looking at this morning is the first glimpse of a gift far greater than one miracle.
Sometimes we can't recognize the full nature of the gift until later. Few students attending college fully appreciate what they have been offered. Few volunteers truly know what a difference they are making in the lives of others. I remember receiving gifts that I at first thought would be of no particular value only to find that with the passing years I used that item more than any others. And sometimes the value and meaning of a gift gets wrapped up in who gives it. At a certain point in most of our lives we reach a point where there is nothing more that anyone can give us as a gift that we could not buy for ourselves and probably do if it is something we really want. But that doesn't mean we don't appreciate receiving a gift. The unexpected item that witnesses to the fact that someone was thinking about us. We are not forgotten. A gift truly given and rightly received will in some small way open us to the world in a new way or lets us experience something new about the world.
I got a helicopter for Christmas. It was not something I really wanted or needed but it had a curious effect on the way I thought about this Christmas. It brought back memories of toys, the boys, and the rich variety of gifts past that touched my life and filled me with joy. Gifts not just received but used, enjoyed and shared with others.
That is what the apostle Paul is focusing on in our second lesson for today. The gifts that God gives to each of us to use. Many and varied gifts. Gifts that we often fail to unwrap or gifts that we fail to use because we get preoccupied and distracted. This morning we are baptizing William Duprey Seiland. A gift is being presented to this young child that he cannot yet begin to unwrap. But the gift is his, given to him as it was given to each of us in our baptisms. Paul reminds us that we are all gifted. True, there are some people who put that gift on a shelf and never open it. But most of us gradually become curious about God's gifts and somewhere around grade school age we begin to ask questions about this package and some parents provide a chance for their children to mess with the wrapping paper. We call it the Bible--sometimes it is also wrapped in Sunday school and maybe choir.
Eventually there comes the time of grabbing the box and shaking it--we call that confirmation. Some young people even take a peak inside. A gift--a gift of the Spirit. I tell the confirmation students that they are embarking on the most important job of their life. They are working to discern what their gifts are. They are trying to not only unwrap the gifts of the Spirit that they have been given but once they have that gift in their hands, they need to figure out what to do with it.
Some people spend their whole lives with a wrapped present in their lap. Some people unwrap the gift, open the box, take out the gift and then decide no and they put it back in the box They may even try to wrap it up again and pretend it doesn't matter. But once a gift is given it is given. We can decide not to open it or use it or ignore it but the gift is still ours. The water was wine, there was no going back
Today is a day for celebrating the gifts that did not fit back in the box. History is filled with such people, who opened themselves to God's gifts. This is the weekend we remember the life of a young African-American preacher named for a great reformer who centuries earlier had opened a box and found God's gift of grace.
Centuries later that southern preacher opened a similar box and found a God not only of grace but also justice and equality. This morning in this congregation there are boxes yet to be opened, gifts yet to be discovered. This morning in this congregation there are gifts being offered, sacraments of grace offered to all who will open themselves to receive them. God gives, we receive. We receive, but then what? The wise men offered their gifts and a miracle of giving began. The real wedding party began when the gift Jesus offered was received, tasted and embraced. That is what this day means once more, taste and see, that the Lord is good. That's what is so great about the season of epiphany, the gifts just keep on coming. All we have to do is unwrap them and use them.
Amen