More thoughts from ground level

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The account from Nehemiah captures a historic moment sometime around the year 450BC. Jewish exiles had begun to return from Babylon. With their leader Nehemiah they started the work of rebuilding Jerusalem’s walls. These walls and the city were in ruins from a long war and a generation of neglect. The book a Nehemiah tells about rebuilding Jerusalem beginning with its walls. This book is also about rebuilding a sense of community for a people returning home.

When the walls had been completed, the people gathered in a great assembly. The priest Ezra stood on a wooden platform and read aloud from the book of the law from morning until midday. He also gave interpretation of what he had read. When Ezra had finished, Nehemiah said to the people, “go your way, share a meal with those who have none, for this is a holy day to the Lord.” Sound familiar? We do the same thing. Like those ancient people, we gather to hear the Word of God with interpretation, and then respond by sharing what we have.

Does that sound like the building blocks of a faithful community? Gathering together around the word, hearing the word proclaimed, and responding to it. Can you hear how there is more happening in the book of Nehemiah than taking care of stone walls. The same should be said about us and so much points to this being true in 2007.

Do you know that moment between the reading of the Word and the sermon? It’s that moment after the book is put to the side. I’ve just said, “This is the Word of the Lord,” and you’ve responded, “Thanks be to God.” It’s mostly a quiet moment. I shift my notes. You wait patiently. Some of you shift in your seat a little bit. Some of you smile at me. Some of you cross your arms, and some of you uncross your arms.

In that moment between the word read and proclaimed there are questions waiting to be answered. How will ancient words be made relevant to modern people? What will I hear that I can take with me into a new week? How will the preacher read from the book and bring understanding?

As Ezra stood on that wooden platform by the city gate, the same questions waited to be answered. Those ancient people were rebuilding their lives, and coming together to find direction for the future in ancient words.

Within twenty years of Jesus’ death and resurrection, the early church had grown so that there were many congregations across the Roman Empire. Paul wrote letters to give direction and understanding to those communities of faith when he could not be there in person. The congregation in Corinth happened to need of a lot of direction. It was a diverse church in a cosmopolitan city: Jewish converts and Gentiles who had little understanding Judaism, slaves, masters, and free people, merchants, dock workers, civic officials, wealthy people and poor people. They met weekly for worship, and in that meeting, they read the book and told from memory the accounts of Jesus’ death and resurrection. Those questions between the reading of the word and the sermon were there for them too. They responded to what they had heard by sharing with others. Well, most of them, and that’s part of the reason Paul wrote them letters.

Paul wrote to the church in Corinth about unity. Unity in Christ, he wrote is like a human body. Unity is not abandoning diversity (something valued in Corinth), but rather a recognition that God is working through all the different parts to accomplish something great. Every person in a church has some part in this great endeavor.

I read a story recently that illustrates this. A person who carried water in India had two large pots. Each pot hung on the end of a pole and he carried this pole across his neck. One of the pots had a crack in it. The other pot was fine. Each day the person was able to deliver a full amount of water from the good pot and only half the amount of water from the cracked pot because the water leaked out of it. This went on every day for a long time, with the water bearer delivering only one and a half pots full of water. (In this story the pots can talk to the water bearer.)

The pot with the crack was embarrassed because it was able to accomplish only half of what it had been made to do. The water bearer felt sorry for this pot, and said to it as they began their long walk from the river, “as we return to the village notice the beautiful flowers along the path. Do you notice that there are flowers only on your side of the path, and not on the other side? That’s because I have always known about your flaw. I planted flower seeds on your side of the path, and every day while we walk back from the stream, you water them. You have, because of your brokenness, been able to add beauty to the earth. How is God using your brokenness for to accomplish something great?

Ezra stood on a wooden platform and spoke to the people. Paul wrote to an urban church. Both announced that God gathers imperfect people to form a new community. All of us have some purpose in this community. Some part of the wall needs repair, some water needs carrying, some word of hope needs to go forth.

These are good texts to hear on the Sunday we ordain and install elders and deacons. Even in all of our own Corinthian diversity we trust that God has a place for each of us in the body of Christ. The Corinthian congregation shows that we are a diverse humanity. That Corinthian diversity is surely matched by the diversity of God’s gifts to us.

It is so easy to forget this and gravitate to people who are like us, who share similar world-views, worship styles, political ideas, who read the Bible the way we do, who ask similar question in that quiet moment between word and proclamation. This is part of the reason we gather around the book: to be reminded that God is here and at work in us, imperfect, leaky clay vessels who still are called to share in the work building community and living out the good news of God in the world. And thanks be to God. Amen.

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Isaiah brings us hope-filled poetry about the restoration of Jerusalem following war and exile. So much of the poetry in this last section of his book is about gathering people together. A road, Isaiah writes, will lead the people home from a distant land. It will be a highway from Babylon cleared of stones with a banner showing the way. A debate is happening right now about such a road for our military out of Babylon today.

Those who return from exile will be called holy and redeemed of the Lord. A banner (Isaiah’s word is ensign) along that road shows those who travel home that are on the right road, the road home. The first Christians heard these words from Isaiah and heard him speaking about Jesus as the one who gathers together the people and leads them home.

Do you remember our last two Easter sunrise services? We put up a large a banner over the path leading down into the cemetery. That banner announces, “Christ is Risen.” Walking under that ensign, we headed toward our gathering point down the hill for that early morning worship. Isaiah’s banner is like our banner. It tells those who walk the road that they are heading to the right place. The manger is like that too. The angels told the shepherd that they would see a sign to know that they were on the right path: a baby wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying n a manger. The wise men told Herod, “We have see his star at its rising and have come to pay him homage.” Signs mark the way.

In his account of Jesus turning water into wine John writes that it was Jesus’ first sign. John, like Isaiah, is telling us that we are on the right road. Like the banner showing the way our sunrise service, this miracle is telling us to keep on this path we’ve started down called the gospel of John because is leads home.

John writes that this sign revealed Jesus’ glory. He means it served a purpose beyond permitting the celebration to continue. It announced something about Jesus, the sign-maker in John, and what he came to earth to accomplish.

But why begin with this sign? Why not heal someone or give bread to the multitudes or bring someone back to life? Why not start off with a large-scale, walking-on-water type of sign? Why turn water into wine? How does this tell us we’re on the right road? It tells us what kind of ministry Jesus will have, and it tells us what kind of ministry we should have.

Turning water into wine points to a ministry of abundance. Each of the six, stone jars each held 20-30 gallons. Jesus doesn’t just make enough for the guests to have another glass before they leave, he makes far more than enough. This first miracle points to how Jesus’ ministry will be one of plenty. John writes we have all received grace upon grace. In chapter following this one, John writes for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son. Jesus told the disciples I have come so that you might have abundant life. The amount of wine points to the abundance of his ministry.

Turning water into wine points to Jesus’ willingness to challenge convention. Remember the words of the steward to the groom? Everyone serves the good wine first, but you have kept the good wine until now. The wine Jesus made was better than what ran out. Jesus ministry will be one of turning religious, cultural, economic, social convention upside down. He offers the world a new way in which the best wine is served last, where the religious elite are the last to know what God is doing, where the people society puts last and are invited to the banquet first.

Turning water into wine points to Jesus’ commitment to address human need. The wine had run out, and he made more. Jesus’ ministry will be one providing what is missing. When his hour comes, it will be a ministry about fixing what’s broken in humanity, offering hope in the face of tragedy, bringing joy into the sorrow of life.

Turning water into wine points to the indelible quality of this sign. In the ancient world water was stored in stone jars. Other liquids such as oil, vinegar, wine were stored in skins or in pottery. Those liquids can’t be stored in stone because is porous. Whatever is put in a stone vessel will soak into the stone. That’s not a problem if it is water, but once a stone jar has held a liquid besides water, it can’t be used for water. Once wine has soaked into the stone, there’s no going back. Turning water into wine in stone jars shows that what Jesus will accomplish for the world cannot be undone. The wine is in the stone.

Here are the signs of Jesus ministry: abundance, challenging convention, meeting real human need, and permanency. These signs tell us that we are walking a path that can transform lives. So how are these signs present in your faith?

As someone who follows Jesus what can you point to and say here is the abundance of Christ at work in me? What can you point to and say because of Christ at work in me here is my commitment to challenge what is upside down in the world? What can you point to and say because of Christ at work in me here is my commitment to meet real human need. What can you point to and say because of Christ at work in me here is something that has changed in me forever?

Consider these questions as they relate to a famous American whose birth we celebrate this weekend. Martin Luther King, Jr, worked to bring an abundant future to many who had little in the present. He sought to challenge the agreed upon structures of power and division in our culture. He worked to address human need and the dignity of people. He worked for an indelible change.

At the beginning of a new year, I want to encourage you to consider how your faith shows this sign of water becoming wine. Today we walk underneath a banner. On that banner is the account of the day Jesus first revealed his glory. That means we are on the right road. In these early days of January, pray that as God continues to lead us, on this road we are led into the kind of year we really need.

John’s gospel begins and ends with stone vessels. In chapter 2, stone water jars hold water and then wine. At the end of the gospel, a stone tomb holds death and darkness and three days later resurrection life. If God does this with stone, imagine what God can do with living, breathing people. Let us discover this together in 2007. And thanks be to God. Amen.

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For the past few years right after Christmas, we’ve gone to see Susanne’s family in
Virginia. At some point while were there I bake a loaf of bread. Usually I bake it on New Year’s Day. I don’t remember exactly why I started doing this, but it’s a tradition now. For Christmas this year then, Susanne’s family gave me a book about Bread. The title is Breads of the World and How to Bake Them at Home. Maybe they wanted me to bake a different kind of bread for a change.

In its opening pages, the author writes about origin of bread. The oldest and simplest kind of bread is a mixture of flour, water, and yeast. Mix these three items together and add heat and you’ve got bread. This is an ancient recipe. Of course some ancient bread had no yeast in it, just flour and water. Some ancient bread also contianed salt.

This most basic recipe—flour, water, yeast, heat—was used by the oldest civilizations on earth. It’s also the bread of the Bible. Abraham served the unleavened version of this bread to visitors who announced that he and Sarah would have a son. Esau gave Jacob lentils and this bread in trade for his birth rite. The sons of Jacob traveled to Egypt in a time of famine, in search of bread. On the night of the Passover, the Hebrew people ate unleavened bread before they departed for freedom. Boaz gave bread to Ruth while she was working in the fields and their friendship began. David divided this bread with his army when they arrived in Jerusalem. Hundreds of other references to bread in the Bible reflect that an ancient world survived on this simple recipe. But what about bread in a modern world?

A mother goes to the store to pick up some groceries and stares at an isle full of many kinds of bread. Which one will the kids eat? Every Christmas a man’s step children send him a delicious bread made by Monks not too far from here. On her way to work, a woman stops at Starbucks for a cup of coffee, looks at the display case, and tries to decide which of two dozen breads she’ll get with her vendi skim latte. A mother in Darfur divides a single, round flat bread. It’s the only food they have at the moment. Once it’s gone they will wait for more. A church family gathers for worship on the first Sunday of a new year. They break bread together for communion. The loaf was made by a member of the church who also sings in the choir.

The bread of our modern world is both simple and diverse. Some is just flour, water, yeast, and heat. Some is fancy has many other ingredients as well including salt, milk, eggs, spices, herbs, etc. In our world, some have an abundance of bread, and too many don’t have enough. As part of the 30-hour famine this weekend, our youth group spent some time considering what it means to have too little bread. The book I received for Christmas calls bread a staple for people all over the world. Almost every culture has some form of it, and almost all of the recipes in that book begin with that ancient mixture of flour, water, yeast, and heat.

Of those four ingredients, it’s the water that sets the process in motions. Water activates the yeast. Water makes dry flour into dough that can be kneaded. Water warms the gluten in the flour so it becomes elastic, then the yeast can cause dough to rise, and then heat can turn the dough into bread. It all begins with the water.

In the gospel reading, Jesus was baptized by John in the Jordan River. In this Trinitarian moment, the Holy Spirit descended and a voice from heaven announced that Jesus was the beloved Son of whom God is well pleased. Jesus’ baptism signaled the beginning of his public ministry. The water of the Jordan River sets in motion Jesus’ ministry of teaching, healing, and preaching. The water of the Jordan begins the events that will lead Jesus to a cross and an empty tomb.

Before his baptism, all of the ingredients are in place. They just needed the water. Last month we heard from ancient prophets who announced the Messiah was on the way. Two weeks ago, on Christmas Eve we heard the news that Jesus was born in Bethlehem, which in Hebrew mean city of bread. Shepherds came to see that birth. Wise men followed a star from the east. And then Jesus grew in wisdom and in years, in divine and human favor.

All of the ingredients were there. They just needed the water to start the bread-making process so that the bread of life would go forth. Today we read how that happened.

We begin 2007 with this account of water from the Jordan. What events are now set in motion for us because of that water? What flour is becoming dough for us? What yeast is rising for us? I am really looking forward to a new year of mission and ministry together with you to see what God has planned for us. There is so much potential with the beginning of this new year.

At the end of the gospel of Matthew, Jesus told the disciples to go into the world and make disciples of all people and baptize them. Go into the world, he told them, and add water so that the bread-making process can begin. How will we do that as a congregation this year? Think about how yeast makes bread rise. How is God calling us to raise our ministry and mission to another level? Once Jesus said to the disciples, the kingdom of heaven is like yeast. It goes everywhere in the dough and causes it to rise. How will we be yeast which has been set in motion by this water so that the kingdom of heaven is at work in us giving life to the world?

Let me take that image one step further. What did the water of your own baptism set in motion for you? A mother goes to the store to pick up some groceries for the week and stares at an isle full of bread. She buys two loaves one for her family and one for a man who just lost his wife to cancer. Maybe he needs a little extra food in the house in these difficult days, she thinks. Every Christmas a man’s step children send him a delicious bread made by Monks not too far from here. This year he takes it with him to work and shares it others. On her way to work, a woman stops into Starbucks for a cup of coffee, looks at the display case and tries to decide which portion of bread she’ll get to go along with your skim latte. She skips the bread and decides to put the money she would have spent on it into the offering plate at her church so that someone else can have bread. A mother in Darfur divides a loaf of flatbread. As usual, the children get the bigger portions, and then they wait for more food to arrive. A church family breaks bread together and remembers Jesus, whose public ministry began with the waters of his baptism. He is the bread of life and is for all who hunger and thirst for something more. It is our great calling in 2007 to share that bread with the world. Thanks be to God. Amen.