Epiphany. The word means showing. When Jesus showed us who he was. Like the
pulling back of a veil, the moment the curtain opens, a tear in the fabric of
reality when the Son of God lets us know that he is real. He is alive.
The first Epiphany that we celebrate in the season of
Epiphany is the Baptism of Jesus. That was last Sunday. Today we celebrate Jesus’ first miracle in
the Gospel of John, the changing of water into wine.
The strange thing about this first miracle is that it
was totally spontaneous. You would think
that the Son of God might have a plan to unveil his ministry, a strategic plan.
Or at least a first step. But no, Jesus
begins his miracles at a wedding, at a party, when his mother pesters him.
The relationship that Jesus has with his mother in the
Gospel of John is very different from the relationship that he has with his
mother in Matthew, Mark and Luke. In the other three gospels, Mary seems
determined to stop Jesus in his tracks and to bring him back home. In the Gospel of Mark, Mary claims that Jesus
is possessed and must come back home. He is not acting himself! He is out of his mind, she claims.
But in John’s gospel, Mary is not trying to stop Jesus
and bring him home. In fact, in John, Mary is doing the exact opposite. She is trying to activate her son’s
ministry. Mary is challenging Jesus to
get started.
“They have no wine,” she says to him. And you know that she must have given him
that look that only mothers can give, the look of “you’d better do what I
say.” And here they were, in the middle
of a party. And Jesus’ disciples are
with him.
Was he embarrassed?
Angry? Annoyed? Something was
wrong. Jesus’ response is curt and
unfriendly at best. “Woman,” he
says. “What have you to do with me? My
hour has not yet come.”
Woman. People
addressed women that way. It was not considered rude. Jesus would later address
the woman at the well in the same way.
But he is clear with his mother that this is not the time. And he sounds firm.
But she doesn’t listen to his protests. Instead, she instructs the servants to follow
his orders.
And Jesus performs his first miracle because his
mother would not leave him alone.
What is your most challenging relationship right now? Sometimes, miracles come when we confront the
most difficult people. Challenging
relationships- they can be exactly what God wants for us.
In the late 1870’s there was a doctor living in
Paris. His name was Stephane Tarnier and
he was an obstetrician, he delivered babies. He worked in a hospital for some
of the city’s poorest women. And he saw
their agony when their babies died. 66% of low-weight babies died in his
hospital. 66%. Being born early was close to a death sentence.
Tarnier could have gone to another hospital. He could
have escaped the pain. But he didn’t. He
looked into the faces of the mothers in agony and realized that he had to do
better. They were asking him to help them. One mother in particular looked at
him and begged him to help her baby. Desperate for an idea, he went wandering through
a zoo. There he stumbled upon chicken incubators, there to help the eggs
hatch. In that moment of challenge and
grief and frustration and even agony, Tarnier had an idea. An idea that would save the lives of millions
of babies to this day. The incubator. It
was already being used on chickens but no one had connected the dots. So simple.
Such a miracle.
How random that Jesus would make wine for his first
miracle. No one was starving. No one was
sick and in pain. No great humanitarian
need. Just a newly-wed couple trying to
celebrate their love. And a mother
challenging him.
When I was in college, I traveled to Russia to
research the Eastern Orthodox liturgy. But
there was just one problem, I was too scared to talk to a priest. Most of them didn’t speak to women about
worship. I was not only a woman, I was a
foreigner. Who would talk to me? So I
wandered into churches day after day not daring to strike up a conversation
with a priest. Until one day, I brought a friend from college with me. He too was studying in Russia that
summer. He knew my dilemma, how I was
stuck. He stood there with me in the
church after the service as I watched the priest greet people. I was hanging back. So my friend shoved me.
It made me really mad.
He came up behind me and pushed me.
Arrg! I could have turned around
and hit him. But his shove also
humiliated me, just a bit. I knew he was
challenging me. And I took that anger and walked over to the priest, to
establish one of the most formative relationships of my life.
We always think that the most successful relationships
are the peaceful ones, the loving ones, the supportive ones. But what if God works best when we are with
people who shove us, make us mad and even annoy us? Maybe the ones who make us uncomfortable,
maybe those are the people we should make sure that we meet.
Jesus changes water into wine and launches his
ministry. All because his mother would
not take no for an answer. Who shoves
you? Who pushes your buttons? Who holds you accountable and tells you the
truth? Love does not sit by and allow
the other to just be comfortable, not when the world is so broken and we have
so much to do. Love challenges. Love makes you move and grow and reach out
for something that you did not know that you could attain. Love does not wait for you to like that other
person. If they truly love you, they
will be willing for you to dislike them or even never want to see them
again. If someone truly loves you, they
will challenge you. They will ask something
of you. They will not rest until you
grow.
Epiphany. God
is showing you something right now. It
has to do with the challenge of being in relationship. When someone shoves you, maybe the best
response is Thank You.
