1.
Grace,
mercy, and peace to you from God our Heavenly Father and our Lord and Savior
Jesus Christ. The message from God’s
Word this Second Sunday after the Epiphany and the day in which we recognize
the sacredness of all human life created by God in His image is taken from John
2:1-11. It’s entitled, “In the Beginning, God Created,” dear
brothers and sisters in Christ.
2.
In
August of 1996, publishers released a new magazine entitled Divorce. It’s become very popular since
there are now more than a million divorces a year in the United States. Ironically,
many staff members of the new magazine, including editor Gloria Sheppard, came
from marriage magazines such as Bride
and Wedding. One ad in the first
issue featured a special service to remove an ex-spouse’s image from a couple’s
photos. Such is life in the early
twenty-first century, yet we still celebrate weddings with all the enthusiasm
we’ve come to expect. But a culture of single parents, pregnant teenagers, and
general moral instability sets a dark backdrop for the success of marriage not
grounded in faith and commitment. Sociologist
Daniel Yankelovich spells it out: “Americans suspect that the nation’s
economic difficulties are rooted not in technical economic forces, but in
fundamental moral causes. There exists a deeply intuitive sense that the
success of a market-based economy depends on a highly developed social
morality—trustworthiness, honesty, concern for future generations, an ethic of
service to others, a humane society that takes care of those in need, frugality
instead of greed, high standards of quality and concern for community. These
economically desirable social values, in turn, are seen as rooted in family
values. Thus the link in public thinking between a healthy family and a robust
economy, though indirect, is clear and firm (cited in Anderson, p. 118).”
3.
In
light of the Bible’s call for family stability in both Old and New Testaments,
we shouldn’t be surprised at the way John began the narrative of Jesus’ public
ministry in chapter 2 of his Gospel. The first miracle took place in a very
natural setting, one of the timeless celebrations of human history. Pressures
and joys combine on such occasions and Jesus didn’t shy away from social
events. He and the disciples were probably invited to this wedding because of
Mary’s relationship to the family. Just two days after John the Baptist
announced Jesus as the Lamb of God, Jesus showed up at a wedding which became the
setting for the changing of water to wine.
4.
“In the beginning, God created” (Gen. 1). That’s
who God is. The One who creates. Outside of Himself. The fact that He creates
outside of Himself reveals that great attribute of His, Love. “God is love” (1
Jn. 4:8) and God makes man that He may have someone to love. That work of God continues today. As we say
in the Catechism, “I believe that God has made me and all creatures.” The
fact that He has made me means that already, and apart from anything I’ve done
or failed to do, He loves me. The fact that you are made, that you are God’s
creature, means that you are loved by Him. Apart from any merit or worthiness
in you.
5.
Each
Person of the Holy Trinity creates, and so each Person of that Trinity loves:
loves you, loves me, loves all of humanity. Every time we confess the Nicene
Creed, we affirm this. Our Lord Jesus Christ is the One “by whom all things
were made.” And the Holy Spirit is “the Lord and giver of life.” Which
means, then, that life isn’t first of all ours; it’s God’s. The life that we
have is given by God. The life that others have is given by God. They are
blessings from God, never curses, even when they may be crosses or a burden to
bear. So we dare not take our own life, nor should we take the life of another
person. The life that God gave is His to take, and His alone.
6.
In
the Gospel for today, the Second Sunday after Epiphany, after our Lord Jesus
changed water into wine, St. John tells us, “This, the first of his signs,
Jesus did at Cana in Galilee, and manifested his glory” (Jn 2:11). The divine
nature of Jesus, that He’s God in the flesh, is revealed and manifested. But,
there’s more to the glory of Jesus than just showing divine power and splendor.
God’s glory. An old prayer describes God as the One who declares His “almighty
power chiefly in showing mercy and pity” (Collect, Trinity 11, TLH). That’s
what we see in Jesus today. He does nothing for His own benefit. His miracles
are not to draw attention to Himself, but to show mercy to others. That’s how
His glory is manifested.
7.
And
it’s no accident that He does this at a wedding. Scripture begins with a
wedding in the Book of Genesis, the marriage of Adam and Eve, and it ends with
a wedding in the Book of Revelation, the marriage feast of the Lamb in His
kingdom, which has no end. What’s the significance of the Lord Jesus doing His
first miracle at a wedding? Because, one of the chief purposes for marriage is
the generation of new life, the new creation of children. But, even where a marriage
doesn’t result in children, God also instituted marriage between one man and
one woman for them to live in radical, devoted love and service to each
other. A devoted, sacrificial love that
would foreshadow the sacrificial, faithful love between Christ and His bride
the Church. That is, between the One
through Whom all things were made and we who have been made. God’s glory, then, is not in the raw
demonstration of power. God’s glory is in self-giving, in giving of Himself to
mankind. As St. Irenaeus put it, “The glory of God is a living man.”
8.
Earlier,
I said that the lives others have is given by God; blessings from Him, never curses,
even when they are burdens to bear. Caring for others can be challenging. Trust me on this one, this past week my wife,
father-in-law, and I have been caring for our two boys, who are currently ill.
And it’s challenging not just in a physical or financial sense, but also
spiritually. When confronted with the needs of another person, striving to meet
them often must come at the expense of what we’d like to do, what we hoped and
dreamed for ourselves. God calls us to bear these crosses so that we can be His
love for the person in need, and also to drive us out of our own selfishness.
The cross shapes us to be like Christ.
9.
The
great civil rights cause of our day is justice for people in need who can’t
help themselves. From the tiniest human beings used for experimentation in
embryonic stem cell research, to defenseless babies struck down by abortion, to
mothers who feel they have nowhere else to turn and have known only a church
that condemns without helping, to people brought low by illness and disease and
regarded by society as without value, we’re surrounded by helpless people in
need. This week as our country observes the 40th anniversary of the
Roe vs. Wade decision that legalized abortion in this country, Lutherans from
around the country will join others to give public witness to the sanctity of
human life. This is important. But, whether you join the public demonstrations
or not, your life each day is full with opportunities to defend the sanctity of
human life that God has created. The glory of Christ, the love of God is
manifested as you help your spouse who struggles with dementia, as you care for
your children and grandchildren, when you prepare food for a new mother, when
you visit someone in a nursing home, when you show respect to your fellow
traveler on the road.
10.
These
noble things are obscure, often not seen by others, but God sees, loves, and
rejoices in them. Yet too often, despite the correct position on life issues
such as abortion, we’ve not shown respect, care, and compassion on the lives of
the human beings right in front of us, in our homes, church, and neighborhood.
We come before God today first with a prayer of confession, asking Him once
again to demonstrate His glory in showing mercy and forgiveness to us. And
then, we humbly ask that He would use us to demonstrate His glory, as we show
mercy to others.
11.
In
the beginning, God created. He still creates, still shows His love and glory to
His creatures. Now He who reddened water into wine comes to us in the wine of
His life-giving blood in the Lord’s Supper. May that wine renew His life within
you, forgiving you, healing you, and enabling you to bear witness to the
sanctity of human life in everything that you say and do. Amen.
*Adapted from a sermon by Rev.
Christopher S. Esget, Immanuel Lutheran Church
Alexandria, VA 2010…
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