Epiphany II. January 19, 2020, W.H.

John 2:1-11,

In the name of our Lord who cares in amazing ways,

Dear Fellow Redeemed:

       It is not uncommon for a quest to bring wine to a dinner.  You may have done it.  Jesus did it in an unusual way.  It is such a common story.  There was a wedding.  Guests were invited.  Jesus provided ample wine.  The story isn’t unique.

       What is surprising about such a story out of everyday life is this.  It is an important part of the life of Jesus, our God and Savior.  This is the first miracle Jesus performed.  It is so simple.  It isn’t jaw dropping like the Virgin Birth or the Resurrection.  With His first miracle Jesus did not give sight to the blind or heal the sick or raise the dead.  He didn’t walk on water or cast out demons.  He provided wine for an embarrassed bride and groom.

       He had a reason.  His purpose shall answer this question.

WHAT IS REMARKABLE ABOUT JESUS' FIRST MIRACLE?

       We could speak of many things.  A marriage took place.  This could be the opportunity to talk about weddings and married life.  God instituted marriage at the very beginning of creation.  God had clear commands concerning what marriage is and should be, who can be married as so on.  God warns us how sin attacks marriage.  God has clear commands concerning divorce.  That Jesus performed His first miracle at a wedding, indeed, shows us the importance of marriage.

       We could deliberate on the use of wine as Christians.  It is an important topic effecting many families.  Christians do not agree concerning the use of wine.  Some try to explain away this story.

       We could consider Jesus perfect relationship with His mother, with Mary.  Mary asked her Son to do something for her.  He did it.  We did talk about His perfect obedience to the fourth Commandment last week, how Jesus did that for us.  All these would be good topics for the sermon.

       St. John, writing by inspiration of the Holy Spirit, takes us to

the heart of the story as he writes:

This beginning of signs Jesus did in Cana of Galilee, and manifested His glory; and His disciples believed in Him.

       Jesus shows us His glory.  Every miracle Jesus performed demonstrates or proves His glory.  Every miracle Jesus performed proves He is God.  He is our powerful God.  He is awesome.

       We forget this when trials invade our lives.  God is God.  He is awesome, powerful.  He is everywhere.  He knows what our thinking, what we do.  He can do anything.  He has all power.

       Epiphany means to manifest or show forth.  The great miracles of His incarnation, His birth of the Virgin proves who He

is.  The Epiphany season shows forth who Jesus is for us.

       Some miracles frighten, or at least they should.  That Jesus created the entire universe using only His word, is a frightening demonstration of supreme power.  Everything exists because Jesus commanded it.  Jesus caused flood waters to cover all the earth as a judgment against sin.  God was so angry with sinners He destroyed them with water.  And He will return with power.  His power ought to give pause to all sinners.

       But today Jesus turned water into wine to help an embarrass-ed bride and groom.  It is such a little thing.  It isn’t frightening.  It doesn’t terrify but it reveals much about the Almighty God.

     The almighty just God is compassionate.  The just omnipotent Holy God who ought to make sinners cower in fear it the same

who almighty came into this world as a little baby and brought the

wine to a wedding.  The Bible emphasis His compassion:

As a father pities his children, So the Lord pities those who fear Him.

God, as He walked this earth, endured life from our perspective.  When our lives are being destroyed by problems, by pain or despair, when we think that no one understands, no one really knows our pain, God tells us that Jesus experienced exactly what

we suffer and more.  He understands.  He knows how we feel.

He has not dealt with us according to our sins, nor punished us according to our iniquities.  For as the heavens are high above the earth, So great is His mercy toward those who fear Him;  As far as the east is from the west, So far has He removed our transgression from us.

       God, the Father, removed our sins so far from us, all the way to Jesus.  The kind compassionate Jesus, who did not wrong, willingly took the blame for our sins.  He suffered the consequences human sin deserves.  He suffered in our place.

       Every time we feel guilt, every time we feel shame for what we have done, every time we feel by far too evil to be loved by God, God reminds us that Jesus took our evil, our shame, our guilt.  He removed all our sins so far from us that not even

God, Himself could blame us for them.  We are forgiven.

       More than a father pities his children, God loves and pities those who believe in Him.  Jesus miracles prove His heart.

       This, His first miracle proves how far He will go to help.  And the bride and groom didn’t even ask.  As far as we can tell, they weren’t even aware of Jesus’ miracle.

This is not meant to discourage prayer.  Rather it reminds us Almighty God knows our needs before we do.  God is good even when we don’t ask.  Earnest prayer is not the power forcing God to answer, motivating God to hear us.  God’s heart is the power. The number of words we speak doesn’t change God’s mind.  His compassion inspires Him.  Should we be so earnest in our prayers they bring us to tears, nonetheless, God’s love answers prayer.  God commands us to pray and by grace He hears.

       Jesus compassionate miracle, such a simple matter, added to the joy of this couple.  Joy is also reverent.  God rejoices with us when we rejoice. Jesus enjoyed a wedding.  Jesus, our God, is the God of true joy.  He loves it when we are happy.  He rejoices

when we are happy.  He enjoys our joy.

       He brings joy as He calls us to us to repentance:

I say to you that likewise there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety nine just persons who need no repentance.

       God wants us to enjoy creation.  He wants us to enjoy each other.  The joy of our homes and families foreshadows heaven.  Should we have been blessed with an amazing father who loved us dearly, by him, our earthly father we experience the heart and love of God the Father.  Around Mother’s Day the slogan is proclaimed:  God couldn’t be everywhere so He created mothers.  The error is clear but let’s turn it around.  God shows how He is everywhere by giving us good mothers.  They picture His heart.

       Much of the joy of wedding ceremonies is what will be, the happiness to which the wedding couple look forward.  As we look into the heart of God through Jesus, we see the joy of our promised future with Him in glory.

Heaven is joy.  God is joy.  He is joy for all and He seeks to

save especially the lost so that all will rejoice to be with Him. 

Amen.  Soli Deo Gloria



John 1:1-5, 14, 18

In the name of our God who was made flesh,

Dear Fellow Redeemed:

"The Lord God in His blazing holiness and awesome wonder fills sinful man with horror."  If He doesn’t, He ought to fill us sinful human beings with horror.   God should fill every sinful heart with horror.  Before His unveiled glory not one human being may even dare stand.  He is the holy God.  We are unholy human beings. 

Sometimes, some days we convince ourselves differently.  We think we are not so unholy.  We spend time away from God's law. We ignore its demands.  "Thou shalt." God commands.  We ignore Him.  "Thou shalt not," God warns.  We think, “That is old fashioned”.  We think but maybe dare not say:  God must be wrong.  We will do what we want.  We will live, as we want.  We live for our pleasure.  We convince ourselves we do no wrong.

       Someday we will face the holy God.  John opens:

In the beginning (that is, in the beginning of creation, when nothing existed except the holy One who has always existed.  In the beginning...was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God.  He was in the beginning with God.

Someone was with God in the beginning before anything was.  This Some One is God Himself.  John says more:

All things were made through Him and without Him nothing was made that was made.

The one with God who is God, made all things.  Nothing was made that He did not make.  This is Jesus.  He is not a creature.  He is Creator, awesome, Omnipotent.  He is God.

       In the Bible times, several men met God.  Several holy men met God.  God's first creatures, Adam and Eve, saw God face to face.  Abraham met God.  Moses, Jacob, Joshua, holy men, men of fame, men we call saints met God.  Sinful people met God and fell, face in the dirt, in terror.

       Simple men met God's angels Christmas night.  We read:

Now there were in the same country shepherds living out in the fields, keeping watch over their flock by night.  And behold, an angel of the Lord stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were greatly afraid.

       We are not Moses nor Joshua.  We are not simple Christmas shepherds.  We are not holy.  Yet, we must meet God.  We must meet God with consciences not so clean.  We must meet God in His awesome terrifying holiness.

       It is a peculiar truth.  God came into this world on Christmas.  The almighty God came down to earth.  It was the historic event. 

God came to us.  It was Christmas.  And hardly anyone noticed.

And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it.

God shined His everlasting light into the darkness that is this world.  Hardly anyone noticed.  Most were too busy.  They were home enjoying family.  They were working, resting.  They were absorbed with life when God, the Holy and awesome God came to earth. God shined His glory into their eyes and they didn't see.

       We gather in daylight to meet God.  We celebrate the day the

holy God came to earth as a baby, as Jesus. John proclaimed:

And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.

       God is holy.  He is awesome.  In His glory, He can only be feared.  But this is Christmas.  God veiled His awesome glory in the form of a Baby.  God came full of grace and mercy.  Jesus is the glory of God, the only begotten of the Father.  He is full of Grace.   He brings us God’s grace.

       Grace means we sinful human beings need not be terrified of the Holy God.  Jesus came to bring us that which we do not deserve.  Grace is the great love God has for people who are not worthy of God's love.  It is God's love toward people whose lives are not going well, for people like you and me who try, we may do our best, and still fall short.  In the Christ, God is gracious.

       He became flesh and blood to take our dying upon Himself.  He is the second Adam.  The first brought sin into the world.  The second Adam brings forgiveness and life.  He fought for us.  He took our sin.  He fought our dying.  He rose Savior of the world.

       Christmas is awesome.  God became Human to make it possi-ble for us, sinful human beings, to meet the Holy and Awesome God.  We worship the One person dares look into the face of God

without fear.  We worship God's Son of whom John wrote:

No one has seen God at any time.  The only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, He has declared Him.

       Jesus is Immanuel which being interpreted means:  God with us.  He came on Christmas and continues to come into this world.

He came first to us personally when He brought us to the powerful washing of Baptism.  There He called us to faith.  In Baptism, God came to us to make us acceptable to Him.  He washed us.  He cleaned us.  He entered our hearts and gave us new life.  He gave us new birth.

       He continues to come to us when His word is read or preached.  Word and Sacrament keep our faith alive.  Apart from

God’s word there is no faith.  There is no life.  St. Peter wrote:

Since you have purified your souls in obeying the truth...having been born again, not of corruptible seed but incorruptible, through the word of God which lives and abides forever...Now this is the word which by the gospel was preached to you.

       Jesus feeds our faith in His holy Supper.  In bread and wine, He brings us His very body and blood granting us absolution, the total and free forgiveness for all our sins.

       He returns in glory.  Then all will see.  All will believe.  No one will resist.  No one will be too busy.  He will return in glory and all the holy Angels with Him.  We will see God.

       But we have seen Him in the Manger.  He is our friend.  We have seen Him in Baptism.  He is our holiness.  We have seen Him by faith in His Word.  He is our Savior.  We see Him in the Holy meal.  He is our joy.  Yes, we will notice when He returns. 

       “The Lord God in His blazing glory ought to fill the hearts of sinful men with terror.”  For Jesus sake, we are not merely sinful people.  We are forgiven people.  We are the people of God.  We have gathered once more at the cradle, which is His Word.  He

has come to us in love.  He has come to us to make us His own.

Ah, dearest Jesus, holy Child,

Make Thee a bed, soft, undefiled.

Within my heart, that it may be

A quiet chamber kept for Thee.

Amen.

Soli Deo Gloria!