February 18, 2013

Deuteronomy 8:11-20 Hebrews 2:11-18 John 2:1-12

John 2:1-2 …there was a wedding in Cana of Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there. Jesus and his disciples had also been invited to the wedding.

John’s Gospel and Genesis begin with the same words: “In the beginning.“ In Genesis God’s Word creates over six days, then the seventh day is reserved for resting and enjoying what had been made - a Sabbath.

John’s Gospel too begins with six days of creating - in the first two days John the Baptist points his disciples away from himself and toward Jesus saying, “Behold, God’s Lamb.“ John directs them away from him and toward Jesus who is shaping a new community of disciples. Over the next four days Jesus calls disciples directly or disciples draw in other disciples. By the sixth day the new community has been fashioned - the followers of Jesus. On the seventh day this new community goes to a wedding feast to celebrate with good wine and good food. When the inferior wine runs out, Jesus - who has been transforming lives - now transforms water into wine. The new creation has begun. Ever since then people have been invited to help reshape the world. We cannot look at the world and wearily say, “This is just the way the world is!” That is too easy and evasive. When we look at the world our antiphon of celebration or regret has to be, “This is the way we have made the world.” It can be remade.

I visited Mt. Vernon years ago and saw the slave quarters where our first president housed his human property. Last month I saw our nation’s First Lady stand alongside her husband as he took the presidential oath. She is the descendent of slaves. We make and can remake our world.

I am sure that you can, as I can, look back and see how so many times life invites or forces us into recreating in some way. We lose a job or are drawn toward a new one and begin again. A relationship ends or changes, and we begin again.

This recreating does not just happen to us individually. It happens in our country when history curves in new directions, and we see situations with new eyes as if for the first time. It may lead us to wonder where our blind spots are now - and what we may be refusing to see now but which may become visible to us later and call out to us to help refashion a situation.

I try to remember that this needing to begin anew is good for us, and I so admire those who keep open to it. Years ago I was asked to visit a woman in her 90’s who had recently moved to Maine from Massachusetts leaving her home of over 40 years to go along with her daughter’s desire to have her close in a retirement home. As this woman and I became acquainted on our first visit, I commented that I imagined this change must have been difficult for her. She smiled and said, “I decided to look upon it as an adventure.” I never forgot her words. When I visited people in that place, I always saved my visit to her until the end because of how good I felt when I walked away from her room and her presence. I often said a silent “Wow!” to myself. In her 90’s and still open to the recreating.

- Janice M. Schuyler