01-17-2010

           I’ll begin with some Jesus humor that relates the Gospel, and then circle back around to the First and Second Lessons.

          A while back

“A small boy was asked on a television variety show if he attended Sunday school. When he said he did, he was asked, “What are you learning?” “Last week,” came the reply, “our lesson was about when Jesus went to a wedding and made water into wine.” “And what did you learn from that story?” After thinking for a moment, the lad answered, “If you’re having a wedding, make sure Jesus is there!”

When people get married their names can carry a whole lot of baggage with them,,, the Vanderbilt’s, the Kennedys, the Bartlett’s.  Just this last week I Watched a movie about  a person with the same name as me- “Lymelife” about a Scott Bartlett, and he got called Scott Fartlett too…(not the kindest of names, but sometimes accurate.)

          Well, while married names are happening at the wedding in Cana in the Gospel where Jesus is at, also In the first reading, God also talks about marriage, marriage with the city Jerusalem, marriage as a way of redemption for the city and it’s people that had been through so much and called so belittled. 

          Jerusalem the word is sometimes transliterated to mean- “The city of Peace”, yet by the time Isaiah is describing, it had become known as city people demolished by war and unfaithfulness.  Instead of a “Holy City of God” …Jerusalem became known as “Desolate” and Forsaken.

          It’s as if the City of Angeles has become known as the City of Demons…

          And the only way out, was for God to rename the city, to give it new names. Like changing names through marriage, God changes the city named desolation, God redeems this place and people and gives them a good name, a loving name, a name to be known for delight and for rejoicing.

Oh, people had been calling her names like forsaken and desolate.

 But then,  God says, don’t you dare call her that, she’s married to me now,

these people are part of God’s family and God speaks up to speak well of these people. 

And you know, speaking well of people only takes a few words. 

Kind words may be short and simple,

Speaking the best of others, doesn’t hide problems from the past, rather the good effects of kind words can be eternal.

No longer are they to be known as the sinners, we are to be known as the forgiven.  No longer are we separate from God, we are family, like the family in the gospel, we are married into this family of God, and adopted as children of God.

Each of us is renamed by God  In baptism where Jesus is able to do something even more spectacular with water, even more a miracle of water into wine, as fun as that sounds, is water with the word of God made into a ritual of forgiveness that joins us together with God…

Through the waters of Baptism, We are Renamed and Remade, Reunited with God forever.

We are renamed Christian at Baptism and we become Christian through receiving Christ in the bread and wine of communion…

And this is how we speak well of one another, when we speak of one another by the name Jesus has given us as Christian.

Sometimes though, Christians and people hide behind holy names and labels, or even miracles…, as this joke illustrates…

A traveler was sneaking a half-gallon bottle across the Mexican border when a U.S. Customs official searched him. Upon discovering the bottle, the official asked the man what it contained. “It’s just holy water,” the traveler replied. “I took it from the shrine I visited.” Doubting him, the inspector opened the bottle and took a sniff. “This is tequila!” he shouted. “Good heavens!” cried the traveler, looking up to the sky, “Yet another miracle (Reader’s Digest, February, 1988, p. 85)!”

The real miracle in the Bible today, isn’t that water turned to wine; rather the miracle is that ordinary people have been made extraordinary by God,

By calling us Christian, and giving us spiritual gifts to share, God has truly given us good things to talk about.…

God gives us gifts to be known not just for the name Christian, but also for the actions and responses of being Christian. 

These Godly gifts for action and excitement in our lives are named the following in the Second Reading…and within each of us is at least one or many of these gifts…

The message version of the Bible says it this way…

“Each person is given something to do that shows who God is: Everyone gets in on it, everyone benefits. All kinds of things are handed out by the Spirit, and to all kinds of people! The variety is wonderful:

   wise counsel

   clear understanding

   simple trust

   healing the sick

   miraculous acts

   proclamation

   distinguishing between spirits

   tongues

   interpretation of tongues.

   All these gifts have a common origin, but are handed out one by one by the one Spirit of God. He decides who gets what, and when.”

Concluding with the interpretation of tongues- of words,,,  God gives us a whole new vocabulary of words to use, good words to use and live. 

And here, God doesn’t just give us a set of laws to follow, but a set of gifts to use, to use in bringing life and not death, good news instead of bad, kind words in replace of others…   

Some people may no doubt be thinking, “Oh pastor believes if we only use nice words for other people then the world would be a better place”,

well, yes, this is exactly what God is saying,

and for the times when we fail to use nice words, God even gives us a solution to this problem called repentance and forgiveness. 

Jesus has said elsewhere Mt 15—It’s not what goes into a persons mouth that defiles them, but rather it’s what comes out of our mouths and what we say in our hearts about people that truly eats us away from the inside out as Christians. 

God gives us a gift to use kind words, to say sorry when we mean it, to offer forgiveness where there has been hurt.  Kind words, Good words, Good News, the Words of Jesus Christ. 

So then, to help us practice for the week ahead, let us take a moment silently to consider someone with whom we have not gotten along well recently, take a moment to allow God to give you new kind, good words to use for them, and say that word about them

Therefore, this week especially in the Miracle Mile of our church, may we practice using our spiritual gifts with our words to name and rename people and places with care and creativity as well.

Amen.