St. Paul’s Church in
Bergen & The Church of the Incarnation, Jersey City NJ
January 20, 2019
Year C: The Second
Sunday after the Epiphany
Isaiah 62:1-5
Psalm 36:5-10
1 Corinthians 12:1-11
John 2:1-11
God of Abundance
“Jesus did this, the first of his signs, in
Cana of Galilee, and revealed his glory; and his disciples believed in him.”
The
other day there was a story in the paper about a church in Brooklyn called the
New Utrecht Reformed Church.
The
church has been around a long time, founded in 1677 – just a few years after
our friends over at Old Bergen Church got started - and they’ve been worshiping in the same
stone church for nearly 200 years.
Or,
actually, a little less that that because for the past fifteen years they’ve
been using their parish hall for church services – which they were forced to do
because of repairs to the old church – repairs that were expected to take just
a few months but then dragged on for years as contractors discovered one
problem after another.
As
some of the church leaders said, “Old buildings have a lot of secrets.”
Around
here we know how that goes!
The
work is still not quite done, but the congregation recently – finally – moved
into their sanctuary, which must feel amazing and a little strange after all of
this time.
Unfortunately
and unsurprisingly, over the long years of parish hall exile, the congregation
declined, probably in part because worship in the parish hall didn’t really
inspire or attract people, but also because of the all too familiar patterns of
older members dying or moving away, a changing neighborhood, and the smaller
role that organized religion plays in the lives of people, especially the
young.
Reading
the article, it’s clear that the congregation is so excited to be back in their
sanctuary, and determined to try to grow their church – but reading between the
lines, I’m sure there’s also a troubling sense of scarcity, of near emptiness,
and real fear about the future.
I
imagine that those feelings will be familiar to anyone who has been around the
Episcopal Church or pretty much any church lately - fewer people, fewer people
willing or able to attend regularly, fewer people willing to lead, and, yes,
fewer churches as more and more close their doors.
At
the same time, just as the church is declining, it’s obvious that many of our national institutions are in
serious decline – words and actions from officials that would have been
unimaginable just a few years ago are now shrugged off and forgotten by most of
us because, really, we can sustain only so much outrage and have grown numb – 800,000 government employees have been essentially
laid off or forced to work for free and, at least so far, most of the rest of
us continue life as usual while the people responsible for guarding our coasts
and keeping planes in the air and keeping our food safe go unpaid – not to
mention the government contractors who will never see any of their lost income.
And,
you may have seen on the news that just the other day about some kids from a Roman
Catholic high school in Kentucky who were in Washington attending the March for
Life. It's a little unclear how this all started, but on video we can see some of these kids boldly and crudely taunting and ridiculing Nathan Phillips, an Omaha Nation
leader and Vietnam veteran, as he drummed and chanted in front of the Lincoln
Memorial during the Indigenous People’s March.
If
we’re paying attention to what’s going on around us, we may be mourning the
loss of our institutions and the loss of our way of life.
We may be feeling
kind of empty – far emptier than the emptiness felt by partiers at a long-ago
wedding in Cana, where the wine had run out and it seemed like the celebration was over.
The
miracle at the wedding at Cana – the miracle of Jesus turning water into wine –
is found only in the Gospel of John.
And,
it’s important to note that John never uses the word “miracle” to describe the
wondrous acts of Jesus. No, instead of “miracle” his preferred word is “sign.”
And,
that’s important because signs are not such a big deal in and of themselves.
Signs aren’t that important themselves but it’s what they point to that’s
important.
Think
of a Stop sign.
The
sign itself is not particularly important – just a piece of metal painted red
with four letters - but it points to something very important – it points to
the fact that you must stop at this intersection – that you must stop here or
else you’re likely to get a ticket or, far worse, injure others and/or
yourself.
So,
Jesus turns the water into wine not just to quench the thirst of everybody at
the wedding – certainly not to become the most popular guest at the party – not
even to make his mother happy – he turns the water into wine to reveal his glory
and, most of all, to show his followers and to show us in a most delicious way
the overflowing abundance of God.
And
just in case we don’t get just how abundant God’s abundance is, each of those
six stone jars held about 24 gallons and I’ve done the math for you and 24
times 6 equals 144 – 144 gallons of the best wine.
The
overflowing abundance of God.
Just
when it feels like we’re empty, God pours out abundance.
Back
to that article about New Utrecht Reformed Church:
In
response to the obvious and pressing need and desire to attract new people to
the church, the pastor (who has been there six years so, until recently, had
never led worship in the sanctuary) said,
“Is
it my obligation to grow the church? No, God’s Spirit will do that.”
I
like the faithfulness and the honesty in that statement, because while we never
know what the future will bring, the truth is that when we’re feeling empty,
when we feel like we’ve run out of wine or, maybe better, run out of gas, God
is ready to pour overflowing abundance into our lives.
And,
we don’t have to just believe that because like the first disciples we’ve seen
it with our own eyes.
Around
here we’re in the midst of preparing for our annual meeting and it’s always a
time to take stock of where we’ve been and to look ahead to the future.
It
wasn’t that long ago that attendance had really thinned out here at St. Paul’s
– it wasn’t that long ago that this little congregation sometimes worshiped in
the parish hall not because of construction but to save money on heat or to
keep cool – it wasn’t that long ago that there was no Gail and no weekly choir
and some feared that the St. Paul’s celebration was almost over.
And,
for Church of the Incarnation, after years of creatively and persistently and
faithfully fighting to keep the church going on its own, it was a year ago that
we began worshiping together.
Back
then I’m sure there was at least some sense among the Incarnation folks that
the wine had run out - that the celebration was coming to an end.
But, while we’ve
had a few bumps along the way, and we’re not quite there yet, it feels to
me and I hope to you that Jesus has again turned water to wine – and those of
you from the Incarnation side of the family have brought such delicious new
wine to our unified community, through your leadership and your musical gifts
and devoted participation in all areas of parish life and, I have to say, also
your faithfulness in weekly worship.
God’s
overflowing abundance.
So,
yes, churches and denominations and even governments come and go – and, yes,
that can be sad and frightening - but yet, through it all, God is always pouring
out abundance – God is always turning death into new life.
Amen.
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