2nd Sunday in Ordinary Time
Some
biblical passages
Have
serious conjuring power
This
is one of them
All
I have to hear is
THERE
WAS A WEDDING IN CANA
And
a virtual music video
Begins
to take shape in my imagination
rich
food, colorful flowers...colorful guests
and
wine
but
not just any wine..top notch
…WATER
TURNED INTO WINE!
And
dancing
I
may even be dancing with Jesus
Bottom
line
There
is…
Jug upon jug of joy
It
is part of my homily-habit
to write
out...long hand...the Gospel passage
And
when I did
I
was immediately struck at
What
a sparse scene John actually narrates!
I
think because weddings are so universal
Our
imaginations jumps in
To
supply lots and lots of details
...filling
in-between the lines!!!
And
we end up with
a
distortion
that
very well
might
miss
The
intended GOOD NEWS
2
and half years ago
in
Spokane, Washington
1,971 miles from here
my
son/Robbie was married
to
his beloved Stephanie
Stephanie’s
family
Was
welcoming and gracious
We
enjoyed a lively rehearsal dinner
With
lots of food and drink and toasts
Then
the Wedding...lovely and prayerful
Then
the reception which was held
Outside
on a stunning bluff
As
I was mingling…after cocktails and dinner
I
learned that some of the guests
Didn’t
get any dinner
The
food ran out
The
MARTHA in me
Ran
to the caterers to no avail
There
just wasn’t anymore food
I
suggested ordering pizza
Which
was laughable considering where we were
But
all I could think about were
The
starving guests
from
1,971 miles away!!!
Just
then I bumped into a few of Stephanie’s aunts
Who
had been very involved in the planning
And,
for some unknown reason I broached the subject
And
the three of them looked at each other
I
think they were giggling
And
Aunt Ciel, full of joy and wisdom said
“You
know, we prayed for the multiplication of the loaves
and
it just didn’t happen!”
And
off they went
...dancing
My
imagination
Filling
in between the lines
Created
a bunch of starving guests
When
in reality
All
around me
There
was nothing but Good News
Nobody
was going hungry
There
was still plenty of wine and cake and dancing!
There
were jugs and jugs of joy
So
today as I hear again
the
gospel story of the Wedding at Cana
I
have to tame my imagination
Lest
I miss what is really offered
John
is preparing us… his readers…
to
read his Gospel and see...and understand
He
is careful to let us know that this is
the
FIRST of Jesus’ signs
(John
doesn’t have miracles…he has signs)
I
can hear him…
“I
know...
you
love miracles
You
are fascinated with
The
water to wine business
BUT…Don’t
get stuck on the miracle thing...
Please!
Go Deeper!”
And
really, if you look at the text
John
gives zero energy to the transformation thing.
What
DOES John highlight about this story?
What
DOES he want us to pay attention to?
A
lot could be said about “the third day”
And
the wedding…especially as it relates to the Isaiah passage
A
lot could be said about the characters…
Mary,
the disciples, the servants, the wine snob, the groom
But
today
I’m
onto those jugs!
So
much detail
Lots
of words
about
the jugs
What
they were used for
How
many there were
What
they were made of
How
exactly large they were…their capacity
How
they had been depleted
Needing
to be filled
John
spends a lot of ink!
A
clue to pay attention
Thinking
about those jugs reminded me of
One
of my favorite movies… Babettes Feast
The
setting is a frozen,
Austere,
Norwegian seaside community in the late 1800’s
And
it is home to a pious and puritanical religious community
Led
by two elderly spinster sisters
Babette
ends up on their doorstep
starved,
and frozen in grief at having lost everything and everyone she loves
to
the chaos and bloodshed in Paris
They
know nothing about Babette (who happens to be Paris’ most celebrated chef)
She
is welcomed to stay with them
and
begins to cook for the sisters,
and
through them to the community and its ministry to the poor…
and
slowly a thawing begins
an
inside out thawing
Babette’s
unimaginable grief
begins
to thaw at the hands of the pious sisters
And
the austerity and stiffness of the sisters and the community
Also
begins to thaw from love poured out in the form of delightful food
...A
thawing From the inside-out
And,
back again, this story makes me think of those jugs
Those
Jugs
Were
for ritual washing
They
were central to the religious economy of the day
an
economy centered on purity
It
was am
outside-in economy
Being
clean...on the outside
Being
careful what you touch
Avoiding
defilement
Protecting
ones purity
Those
jugs
Were
emptied of THAT outside-in economy
They
were emptied of a false understanding
Of
the relationship between God and human beings
And
they were filled with wine
Not
the wine of drunkenness
but
the wine of life and joy
Wine
to warm and transform and heal
From
the inside-out
These
jugs are being re-fashioned
This
is a timeless and a timely message
Aren’t
we
Almost
continually
being
seduced into this
Outside-in
Way
of thinking???
-If
I could just work harder at my prayer life
-Or
modify this behavior
-Or
that bad tendency
-If
only I could manage a few more self-improvements
Then
I will be more lovable to God and my neighbor
That's
my strategy
Outside-in…
Jesus
offers us a different logic
It
is Eucharistic logic
It
is inside-out logic
I
want to delight you from the inside-out
Jesus
invites
Take
me into yourself
Into
your very bodies
Meet
me there
Just
as you are
Let
me re-fashion you
let
me heal you
from
the inside-out
Because
that is what love poured out does
It
heals
Slowly…little
by little
From
the inside-out
And
the text says that in this way
Jesus
revealed his glory…his doxa
“You
have kept the good wine for NOW”
the
text says
The
glory is NOW
My
friends, with Jesus, it is always NOW
Abundant
and Rich and Near and NOW
This
is the Jesus John wants us to imagine
the
Jesus John wants us to encounter
With
all of our senses
From
the
INSIDE-OUT
