A burning torch and a good party

Sermon

20^th January 2013

Epiphany 3

Year C

“For Zion’s sake I will not keep silent, and for Jerusalem’s sake I will not rest, until her vindication shines out like the dawn, and her salvation like a burning torch.”

As I sat looking out of the window, beholding the snowy wilderness of Cyncoed Road, I couldn’t help thinking how great these words are.  I actually wanted to shout them out loud! 

What a fantastic sentence for all occasions.  You could use it when you are sat on the bus, in the back pew at the deanery conference, whilst waiting for the cashier beeps your shopping through the till in Tesco.

Anywhere really!  We should start all meetings with the phrase, and we should have a burning torch on the top of the lychgate to remind us that our faith isn’t something that can be hidden, it shines as a light to the community around us.

I can see it now! 

It’s important to have hope as Christians, we need to fight against the apathy and the sense that whatever we do doesn’t make a difference…

A Pseudoscientist from Cardiff tells us that tomorrow is the most depressing day of the year.  The 21^st January 2013 is called Blue Monday apparently, when the weather, debt, time since Christmas and the failure of New Year’s Resolutions all converge to depress us all…

So perhaps this should be our ‘battlecry’ , like one of those ‘motivational’ sayings…”For Zion’s sake…”

So that even in the deepest depths of Winter, when we have little to look forward to in Church terms, no Christmas, just the quiet reflection of Lent, we can still light a torch for faith.

Each morning we wake a miracle has occurred – we have been given another day of life, to spend as we will.  To accompany this gift of life, God has given us individual skills and abilities that we can use for good.  What do we do?  What can we do that will be useful and efficient in the building of the Kingdom of God?

We have taken small steps, and things are good.  Our New Coffee and Cake Collective is serving the community and the city twice a week.  Morning prayer is growing (even shocking me) up to six or more people meet to pray for our church, our mission and the world – every weekday morning!  And this year, we’ve got plans to accompany all the other things we do so well.

So what do we light our burning torch with?  Well, just as we start our day here in prayer, we need to fire up our hope and imagination in God’s grace.

And to top it all, the Gospel reading is the one where Jesus performs his first recorded miracle – at the wedding feast in Galilee. 

The miracle is seen as the antitype of Moses’ first act of turning the River Nile to blood.  Christ is turning water to wine. Seen through John’s Gospel, because this is the only place it appears, it is seen as one of the seven miraculous ‘signs’ by which the divinity of Christ is revealed.

In many ways this seems quite a difficult miracle to understand – One commentator suggests that;

“It is easy to see the compassion behind some of the miracles such as making the blind see or the lame walk, but was there really any need to provide an abundance of wine at the wedding party?” 

I think you know what my answer to that particular theological question is.

If the miracles of Jesus were just performed in order to provide compassion, then the answer would certainly be no, but the miracles of Jesus are given for a much wider reason, and this reason appears at the end of the gospel reading this morning,

‘He (Jesus) let his glory be seen…’

The miracles are performed not to show off, not just to be kind and help the disadvantaged, but to show the power and glory of God.

Jesus is very much here to show us how God works.  “For Zion’s sake HE is not keeping silent.  For Jerusalem’s sake HE is not resting”.

I want to make just a few observations about this miracle and about miracles in general. The first is to recognise Jesus was at a party – often Christianity is portrayed as quite dull and boring, but I don’t think Jesus could ever have been described like this. He led an active life, and was obviously very popular. As a Church we are challenged to seek out the same sort of popularity, not through compromise with the standards of the world, but by displaying the kind of love and compassion that Jesus did for the world and for its entire people. 

As Christians we cannot shut ourselves away from the world – we are called to live in the world.   I don’t think, put on earth to hide ourselves away from society as Christians, but rather to mix it up with all, who may, through our words and actions, be led into a relationship with Jesus.

This is a long-winded way of saying that as Christians, we are called to Party lots!

My second observation about this miracle – Jesus turning the water used for the purification rites into wine (probably about 120 gallons) – is not just the link with the last supper or the Nile, but symbolic of the hugely overwhelming generosity of God, through the work of Jesus. 

The wedding party had already consumed the wine, and now Jesus gives them more than they can ever drink.  Not only did they have more than enough wine, but also they had a better quality wine than before. 

So, whenever we turn to Christ – (however useless and bad we have been) that doesn’t matter.  We will be rewarded richly, beyond all our expectations.  Our cup will not only be full, but overflowing.

If you were filing a report about the first recorded miracle of Jesus, you would put it under the heading of The importance of going to parties and the importance of generosity.

There is a third thing though.  This week is the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity.

Not to make us all the same, but to commit to work together, as different denominations.

The greatest mistake of Ecumenism has been that we have spent so much time working out what is acceptable to other traditions in terms of liturgy and order, that we forgot to go back to basics, to the first miracle, and reminds ourselves clearly what being a Christian is all about.

People go to different churches because they feel comfortable there.  Some people go to different churches because it is where they first felt God at work in their lives or for a hundred other reasons.

However the real test of Ecumenism, Unity and Faith is a lot easier to understand; I’ve got three easy questions for us all;

·    Are you are willing to respect with generosity the traditions of others?

·    Are you are willing to stand shoulder to shoulder in calling for a better world?

·    Do you like a party?

If you can say yes to all three, pass us the matches because we are lighting a burning torch for the Kingdom of God in this place.

“For Zion’s sake we will not keep silent, and for Jerusalem’s sake we will not rest, until her vindication shines out like the dawn, and her salvation like a burning torch.”