John 2:1-11
January 17, 2010
"The Call"
Now this might seem an unlikely text for talking about the call of God. You would think that I’d use John 1:35-51, which describes Jesus call of his first four disciples, but the call of God, is shown here in a specific, subtle and very fun way!
There is a lot of symbolism in this text, beginning with verse 1, “on the third day”. Jesus beginning or the first sign of his Messiahship happens on the third day of a wedding feast.
“His hour” is completed on the third with his resurrection.
This is just one of the symbols in this text. It would take me an hour to explain the rest, because like most of John, this story is written on two levels: that of facts as they happen and that of what they mean.
But speaking of call or invitation, “Jesus and His disciples had also been invited” to this party that Jesus’ mother attended and had helped with the arrangements. They had been called to a seven day party, and Jesus arrived on the third day, when the wine gave out, which was a major social embarrassment in that day! So big that we today can’t even imagine how embarrassing this was.
Well, then, Jesus “call” came. His mother said to Him, “They have no wine.” To which Jesus seemingly gives a rude reply. He says, “Woman, what concern is that to you and me? My hour has not yet come.”
Wow! This gives me some hope at times and I hope you too when you think and even say, “God, I’m not ready to serve you yet”, and God comes back – “Oh, yes you are! Do this!”
The call to begin his public ministry came through an invitation to a party and the urging of his closest relative, his mom, to fix a wine problem!
Now Jesus reference to Mary as “woman” rather than ‘mom’ or ‘mother’ is not as rude as it first seems. Some translators think the sense of the Greek word used should be more like “Lady”, a term of respect and even endearment. Jesus refers to his mom only twice in the Gospel of John, here and at the cross, and both times refers to her as “Woman”.
But the point for us today is that Mary proceeds in her faith in her Son. She says, “Do whatever He tells you.” Those are words for us today! In fact, those are our words today “Do whatever he tells us”! And often others see God’s calling in our lives before we do.
If you know it is God calling and you respond, then there is a superabundance of God’s grace awaiting you. No first century wedding would need 150 – 180 gallons of wine, even after three days of feasting, with four more still to come. The point of this immense quantity of wine was symbolic: that a superabundance of grace and gifts await those who call on God, who believe and answer God’s call to “do whatever He tells you”.
Now God’s call is not just to heaven and eternal life. God call’s us to that, but so much more. God’s call always comes with a mission and a purpose. 1 Cor. 12:7 says, “To each has been given a manifestation of the Spirit for the good of all.”
God has a purpose for all of us that the Holy Spirit has gifted us for it. We have a mission or purpose within the Body of Christ and as part of the Body of Christ a mission and calling to the world. We’re called to live out our mission in joyful events from Project Hospitality to a Night in Bethlehem.
But when God calls we need to answer and not just say “Yes, Lord, I’ll do it” and do nothing. We need to “do whatever he tells us.”
Even Mary did not understand what Jesus was going to do, but even when it seemed he had refused her request: Mary still believed in Him. She saw it was Jesus time before he did. And though she did not completely understand it she called him to act an instructed others to obey Him.
Her belief was then met with a miraculous gift of grace even more than she had thought to ask for, and through her faith in her Son, the wedding hosts gracefully avoided the embarrassment of having no wine. She called on Jesus, and through this, Jesus was called to action by God. He produced His first sign.
But Jesus’ first sign produced faith only in the disciples. The steward and bridegroom saw and tasted the same wine as the disciples, but it was the disciples who believed. They saw this and believed! On their caller I.D., up popped the name of God, and they believed.
But in our cell phones we don’t have God’s number, so how do we know when He is calling us?
How do you know God’s calling you to give you the gifts He promises us all in our 1 Corinthians passage? And because of this we can make mistakes and sometimes get in on someone else’s call!
This story is from Mike’s Funnys, December 1, 2004. This man wrote.
“I walked into the rest stop bathroom and had barely sat down when I heard a voice from the other stall saying, “Hi, how are you?”
Now, I’m not the type to start a conversation in restrooms, at a rest stop, no less. But I answered, somewhat embarrassed, “Doing just fine.”
And the other guy says, “So what are you up to?”
What kind of question is that I thought?!! I’m thinking this is too bizarre, so I say, “Oh, I’m like you, just traveling.”
At this point I’m just trying to get out of there as fast as I can when I hear another question: “Can I come over to your place for a while?”
Okay, this question is just plain wacky, but I figured I should be polite, answer him, and end the conversation. So I say, “Well, I have company, so today is a bad day for me.”
Then….I hear the guy say nervously: “Listen, I’ll have to call you back, there’s an idiot in the next stall who keeps answering my questions. Bye!”
Each church, each individual Christian has a different, unique call and giftedness. All are equally important and necessary for the health of the church and the individual Christian.
We wish when we spoke to God, and asked about our call and gifts or problems, God would answer in some big, booming voice and give us the answer right then and there, the way we want it.
But often, it seems, we get a response like Mary – we seem to be rejected and belittled by the silence and God seems to almost be saying, “what concern is that to me?”
But God does answer and responds and often calls us to and within a party. God often does speak to us through the voice of a friend or relative in the circumstances of life. I serve on the Board of Ordained Ministry of our Annual Conference. Part of what we do is to discern if it is God calling an individual into Ordained Ministry or are they trying to enter for some other reason.
In our holy conversations with the applicants we discern God’s call and validate it for some and for others we steer them in other directions. For not all Christians are called to ordained ministry but all Christians are called into ministry. We all have a calling, a ministry, a mission. Together in the Body of Christ as parts of the Body of Christ we find out what it is!!!
God called Jesus and His disciples to the party to jump start Jesus public ministry. I can almost hear Jesus saying in his response to his mom, “I’m not ready”, but He was and His actions showed it.
God often calls us to a party to jump start our ministry. God calls us through the voice of a friend or relative, even our Mom. For many the start of a Christian calling and life can be very pleasant and a lot of fun. My first call came to me in summer camp at Pine Canyon Camp. I was having so much fun I wanted it to continue, which it did in youth ministry for 24 years.
God called Jesus through his Mom’s voice but let her and us know in the end that God was in charge.
Sort of a P.S. here, God hears us when we call but the answer we get is not always the one we want to hear, or expect. Sometimes God simply says, “Yes”, or “No”, or “Wait”, but sometimes God’s answer is an offering of superabundant grace beyond all our expectations. Like 180 gallons of wine.
We need to get to know God’s call, God’s voice. We need to listen for the invitation to the party. And as I said, God’s call comes to us through the voices of friends, relatives, acquaintances and neighbors. In the case of our scripture today, it was Jesus friends and Mom!
Don’t fear or fight the invitation. If you have been thinking about joining in a ministry anywhere, a Bible Study, Stephen Ministry, being a Sunday School Teacher, Praise Team member, there’s a party going on and you’re invited.
And that naggy “maybe I ought to attend or serve” is God’s call. Now I have been thinking about the Sidewalk Sunday School program our Annual Conference sponsors and I believe the time is ripe and the place here at Christ Church is right for us to begin such a program here. That naggy little voice of God has become a shout. You will hear more on this in the next couple of months.
Now is it God’s call? Check your caller I.D.! How do we know it is God? How do we set our caller I.D. for God?
Well when a call comes we need to ask ourselves is it in accord with Scripture, brought to us in prayer, confirmed in holy conversation and matches the tradition of our church? If so it is God and we need to respond.
Each church and individual is called differently. At Christ church, we have encapsulated our calling and in our Motto and Mission statements.
Our motto is “People Caring For People”, our Mission statement incorporates our motto “As people caring for people, Christ calls us to teach, baptize, and make disciples in a spirit of compassion.”
Our current project guided by these is “to become the church for families with children living at home.”
All of these are in accord with the Scripture, our tradition, our Holy Conferencing, our reasoning and our experience and so we can say these are our calling, our mission from God.
And if you affirm these statements in your heart, and you aren’t a member here yet, then I believe God is calling you to live out your ministry here with us.
Now don’t be afraid of the party – attend or throw a big one!
In my years as a youth pastor, I grew to understand and see Youth Group time as a theme party. Some nights it was a super bowl party, some nights a Bible study “party”, some nights a service “party”, some nights a game night “party”, and some times we took the party on the road for three weeks and spent $75,000 on the party and saw lives changed and the superabundant grace of God pour out on all of us.
At Christ Church, we aren’t afraid to throw a great big celebratory party or join in one! 2009 the worst year economically since the 1930s we ended the year in the black with all our financial obligations met.
Sunday mornings, we call the “party” worship! Sometimes it’s a party like Frontier Sunday, or Amazing Grace Sunday, or A Night in Bethlehem, or the Halloween Party, or Music Camp, or Easter.
I know for many who you invite and attend it’s just a church picnic or party – like the steward in this story today. But for others like the disciples it’s a time to meet and see the grace of God in action and to believe. Some of my best membership recruitment times have not been from this pulpit but at picnics.
I’d encourage you all to see your ministry and calling as a calling to a joyful party with and for God. It transforms even things like Project Hospitality from “housing the homeless” to partying with them, so they can taste and see and feel the radical hospitality of God.
C. H. Spurgeon wrote, “I commend cheerfulness to all (Christians) who would win souls; not levity and frothiness, but a genial, happy spirit. There are more flies caught with honey than vinegar, and there will be more souls led to heaven by a man who wears heaven in his face than a fierce expression.”
Mike Yaconelli wrote an article called, “It’s Time to Party”. In it he said:
It doesn’t take much to make most of us realize that we have become too serious, too tense, too stressful. The result is that we have forgotten how to live life. It seems like the older we get, the more difficult it is for us to enjoy living.
It reminds me of a description of life given by Rabbi Edward Cohn: “Life is tough. It takes up a lot of your time, all your weekends, and what do you get in the end of it?”
I think that the life cycle is all backward. You should die first; get it out of the way. Then you live twenty years in an old-age home. You get kicked out when you’re too young. You get a gold watch, you go to work. You work forty years until you’re young enough to enjoy your retirement. You go to college; you party until you’re ready for high school; you go to grade school; you become a little kid; you play. You have no responsibilities. You become a little baby; you go back into the womb; you spend your last months floating; and you finish up a gleam in somebody’s eye.
It’s hard to imagine we were a gleam in someone’s eye once. What happened to the gleam in our eye? What happened to that joyful, crazy, spontaneous, fun-loving spirit we once had? The childlikeness in all of us gets snuffed out over the years…
…The sign that Jesus is in our hearts, the evidence of the truth of the gospel is…we still have a light on in our souls. We still have a gleam in our eye. We are alive, never boring, always playful, exhibiting in our everydayness the “spunk” of the spirit. The light in our souls is not some pietistic somberness, it is the spontaneous, unpredictable love of life…I believe it’s time for the party to begin.”
Finally, “Each one of us needs to know that we are a gleam in the eye of God.” God can’t hardly wait to see us become what he has called and gifted us to be. God loves us and calls us. God has a mission and purpose for each of us in this life throughout our livesand is helping us live into it.
Remember when God’s call comes, it’s often to a party.
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.
Amen
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