Second Sunday After The Epiphany
Preaching
Lectionary Preaching Workbook
Series III, Cycle C
The Church Year Theological Clue
The Epiphany theme of the manifestation of God in Jesus is expanded in another direction on this Second Sunday after the Epiphany (once more, the Sundays ought to be thought of, if not actually named, as the Sundays of Epiphany), as Jesus' ministry is about to begin. The Gospel for the Day used to be the Gospel for the First Sunday after the Epiphany (Luke 2:41-52) in the classic, one-year lectionary; that, in itself separated Jesus' response in his ministry from God's action in his birth and baptism. (It will be remembered that the Epiphany, originally, was a unitive festival, consisting of the "Star Story" about his birth, the story of his baptism, and the miracle Christ performed at the wedding in Cana in Galilee.) The three-year lectionary limits its use of John's gospel and his "signs" to this one Sunday each year, two selections from John 1 and this one reading from John 2. All in all the "manifestation" offerings in Epiphany have been expanded by the three-year lectionary that deals with God's epiphany in the life and ministry of our Lord.
God does indeed manifest himself in Jesus' teachings, his miracles of mercy and might, and in his final glorification in the cross/tomb event. It is fitting, on this Second Sunday after the Epiphany, that Jesus should do a miracle, changing water into wine, presaging his passion, death, and resurrection. It might well have been used with more effect on the same Sunday in Cycle A.
The Prayer Of The Day
The collect for this Sunday in The Book Of Common Prayer articulates the "light" theme in the Gospel of St. John and has little or nothing to do with the particular theme of this day (and John 2:1-11). The Prayer for the Day in the LBW does not make a general reference to Jesus' "works" and to the epiphany emphasis of the season, but it, too, has little to do with John 2. It reads: "Lord God, you showed your glory and led many to faith by the works of your Son. As he brought gladness and healing to his people, grant us these same gifts and lead us also to perfect faith in him, Jesus Christ our Lord."
Once more, three prayers, one that speaks to each of the gospels in the three-year lectionary would better explicate and reinforce the manifestation/epiphany theme of the day.
The Psalm Of The Day
Psalm 96:1-3, 7-9; 96:1-10 - This is another of the enthronement psalms, perhaps the most beautiful of them all. It was meant to be sung after the return from the exile in the hope that the chosen people of God would be able to sing a "new song" to the Lord their God. When they found no new song to sing, this psalm took on eschatological proportions; the "new song" would be sung sometime in the future when they would indeed have a reason for singing it. From the standpoint of the Christian Church, the world could begin singing that song, which the angelic chorus sang first, at Jesus' birth, when the Promised One was born in Bethlehem of Judea. As his public ministry is about to begin, the church has reasons to rejoice and to sing the "new song" of salvation that God has put into the hearts, minds, and souls of those who call him "Lord." The psalm finds multiple expression in the church year, especially in the Christ Mass at midnight.
Psalm 36:5-10 - The Episcopal and Lutheran churches appoint this psalm for annual use on Monday of Holy Week and for good reason; verses 5-9 spell out the nature of God's love for his creatures and his faithfulness toward them. The psalmist declares, "you save both man and beast." He says, "For with you is the well of life" and "in your light we see light." The psalm ends with a portion of a prayer: "Continue your loving kindness to those who know you, and your favor to those who are true of heart." The psalm expresses the "light and life" themes of John 1, which is read on this same Sunday in years/cycles A and B.
Psalm prayer (36 - LB W) is particularly well-suited for functioning in the liturgy on this Sunday in years/cycles A and B rather than C "Lord God, source of light and life, by the light of your truth let the virtuous know your goodness and sinners feel your mercy, so that together they may drink from your river of delight and rejoice now and ever in your Son, Jesus Christ our Lord."
Psalm prayer (96 - LBW) - "Lord Jesus, the Incarnate Word, when you consented to dwell with us, the heavens were glad and the earth rejoiced. In hope and love we await your return. Help us to proclaim your glory to those who do not know you, until the whole earth sings a new song to you, and the Father and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever."
The Readings
Isaiah 62:1-5 (RC, E, L, C) - It would appear that this passage from Third Isaiah was selected because it has wedding imagery in verse 5 and, at that point, complements the Gospel for the Day's story of the wedding feast at Cana. Since this is one of the songs sung at the return from the exile, and since the rebuilding of Jerusalem had not yet taken place, and since there is a promise of "vindication" and "a new name" for the city, there is - from the Christian perspective - another reason for choosing this reading for this Sunday. It becomes a "song of anticipation" for Christians who hear the gospel and know how the story of Jesus turns out. They also know that "the best is yet to be" and anticipate his glorious return to reign over the Holy City and the whole world forever. And God will rejoice over his people in that day.
1 Corinthians 12:1-11 (E, L, C); 12:4-11 (RC) - Paul was concerned that the Corinthians should perceive the nature of the work that the Holy Spirit does among the faithful. The Spirit is responsible for causing the seed of faith to germinate to the point where people are able to confess that Jesus is Lord; the Holy Spirit does not dwell in people who reject and even curse Jesus.
The Holy Spirit bestows all of the "fruits of the faith" upon the believing community; they are given by God through the Holy Spirit, and must never be considered to be inherited and natural characteristics of people. Nor are they given for a person's private benefit, or as attributes in people to be admired by others; they are given for the benefit and blessing of the Christian community, for the good of all the believers, not for the gain, welfare, and even the praise of the "gifted" ones.
There is a kind of "God knows best" about all of this; he determines what gifts shall be given and to whom they should be given. And he is concerned that all of the gifts should be appreciated and highly valued by the community, so that none would be elevated in the eyes of the faithful to the diminution - or exclusion - of the others. The gifts of the Spirit are God's to give, and he gives them as he wills, sometimes to the unlikeliest of persons.
John 2:1-11 (E, L, C); 2:1-12 (RC) - In his book, Jesus The Magician, Morton Smith says that "Taking the gospel material (which is a kind of harmony of the gospels for Smith) ... we get the following, coherent, consistent and credible picture of a magician's career." He continues in a manner that "connects" the gospels for the First and Second Sundays after the Epiphany: "After undergoing a baptism believed to purge him from sin, Jesus experienced the descent of a spirit upon him - the experience that made a man a magician - and heard himself declared a god, as magicians claimed to be. Then 'the spirit drove him out into the desert,' a common shamanic phenomenon. After visionary experiences there, he returned to Galilee where his new spiritual power manifested itself in exorcism, in types of cures familiar in magic, in teaching, with magical parallels and authority, and in the call of disciples, who, like persons enchanted, were constrained to leave their families and belongings and follow him alone." That's really the combination of the Luke 3 and John 2 gospels for (these) days. Smith contends that "he lived (from then on) the predictable life of a travelling magician and holy man - a picaresque existence reflected, perhaps accidentally but not inaccurately, by the structure of the gospels."
The church agrees with the sequence of events, but rejects any assertion - no matter what the parallel to magic and magicians might be - that Jesus was basically a magician. Changing water into wine was a "sign," not that he was a magician, but that he was indeed the Son of God. As John tells the story of this "first sign" of the water that was transformed into wine, he may have had Jesus' death and resurrection in mind; Jesus took an impossible situation and changed it for the better. John begins his account of the incident with "On the third day," adding, "there was a marriage at Cana in Galilee; Mary and Jesus and his disciples were guests." Mary's request to Jesus to do something about the emergency seemed premature to Jesus. How did she know he had the power to work a miracle (because a miracle of some kind or other was necessary)? But Jesus complied, gave orders to the servants to fill the six stone jars with water, draw out the contents, and take it to the "master" of the feast; amazingly, the water was now excellent wine, prompting the comment of the "master" about the bridegroom. When Jesus did this "first sign," he "manifested his glory; and his disciples believed in him" - not simply as a magician, but as Messiah of God.
Sermon Suggestions, Synopses, Sketches, Stories
John 2:1-11 (E, L, C); 2:1-12 (RC) - "A Very Special Vintage." - It has been almost 30 years since I first visited St. John's Abbey (and University), at Collegeville, Minnesota. Quite innocently, I asked if the Benedictines (St. John's is the largest benedictine community in the world) there made Benedictine liqueur, as they do - and sell - at St. Paul's Outside the Walls, in Rome, and in other European monasteries. I learned that the only commercial item that they produced was St. John's bread, but that they made wine for their own use. To make it, they needed more than good water; they had to import the grapes, because most people believed that the cold of a Minnesota winter would freeze grape vines and destroy them. Someone who could have turned water into wine would have been very handy in Collegeville!
Now the monks of St. John's have been proven to be wrong about producing wine from grapes grown in Minnesota. David Bailly, an attorney who spent the last two decades of his life growing grapes and making award-winning wine, died in April, 1990. His wine-making was a "sign" of something else. Said his daughter, Nan, "When it came to wine, Dad was a romantic.... That was the whole purpose of the winery. It wasn't so much for my father to have a new vocation (The Alexis Bailly Vineyard - named for his 'third great' grand-father, one of the founders of Hastings, Minnesota, where the vineyard is located, which began producing its first commercial wine in 1977).... It was because he loved being with people, people who enjoyed drinking wine as much as he did, who enjoyed talking about wine as much as he did."
Jesus saved the day at that wedding feast when he turned water into wine in response to Mary's request. We believe that he worked a real miracle, not a feat of magic, when he turned the water into wine. He knew who he was and what he could do and, in this situation, he did what was necessary and transformed water into wine.
He also discovered a man who appreciated good wine but who didn't know where it came from; the "master-host" of the feast thought the bridegroom was responsible for the fine vintage that the servants brought to him; he complimented him, and apparently missed his opportunity to speak with Jesus! That sort of thing happens to us all the time, doesn't it? Don't we often give people credit for various blessings in life when they really come from or are orchestrated by God?
But the disciples must have been watching, saw what took place with Jesus and the water, and believed that Jesus really had power that came from God. They "read the sign" as best they could because, at this point, they had no way of knowing that through his broken body and spilled blood, Jesus would transform the dead into new and living beings, who would live with him forever. Morton Smith is right about one thing; Jesus' disciples were not simply enchanted by Jesus; they were mesmerized by him, by what he said, by what he did, by what he was.
Jesus created a special vintage of wine there in Cana in Galilee; we don't even know if the disciples had a taste of it. But this we know, that those who drink wine at his table receive a very special vintage, the best vintage of all, and that wine will never run out.
Isaiah 62:1-5 - "The Cross And The Glorious City."
1. That's what Isaiah is talking about - the city, Jerusalem, which is glorious because God has brought about her restoration. The city is glorious because it reflects the love that God has for her. God loves his own as a bridegroom loves his bride - deeply - enough to do almost anything for her.
2. It is not the city but the risen Lord in whom Christians see the glory of God; Jerusalem, restored though it was, was destroyed again and again but Jesus lives forever. In his glory, he is in truth the beautiful savior.
3. The cross, which casts its shadow over the city, transforms it into the City of God, the City of Hope. The Church of Christ is that City in the world.
4. Praise the Lord our God for his gracious acts of forgiveness and restoration, particularly for the love he had made known in the cross of Christ, "in whom be glory forever and ever. Amen."
1 Corinthians 12:3-11 - "Gifts From A Glorious God."
1. First, among the gifts given to the church, is a gift of the Holy Spirit, source of light and life and the knowledge that Jesus is Lord.
2. God, through that Holy Spirit, gives other gifts to the members of the body of Christ so that the believing community might be built up and do its work in the world.
3. God gives his gifts of the Spirit to those he selects to receive them; they become gifts of humility and grace, not signs of personal power and pride. Even the most pious believers cannot produce them, and the most devout cannot claim them as their own.
4. Ours is to thank God for the Holy Spirit and the gifts the Spirit bestows upon us, and to develop and use them to the glory of the Father and the Son. He doesn't intend that they should be wasted, but that they should be employed in life and ministry in this world.
The Epiphany theme of the manifestation of God in Jesus is expanded in another direction on this Second Sunday after the Epiphany (once more, the Sundays ought to be thought of, if not actually named, as the Sundays of Epiphany), as Jesus' ministry is about to begin. The Gospel for the Day used to be the Gospel for the First Sunday after the Epiphany (Luke 2:41-52) in the classic, one-year lectionary; that, in itself separated Jesus' response in his ministry from God's action in his birth and baptism. (It will be remembered that the Epiphany, originally, was a unitive festival, consisting of the "Star Story" about his birth, the story of his baptism, and the miracle Christ performed at the wedding in Cana in Galilee.) The three-year lectionary limits its use of John's gospel and his "signs" to this one Sunday each year, two selections from John 1 and this one reading from John 2. All in all the "manifestation" offerings in Epiphany have been expanded by the three-year lectionary that deals with God's epiphany in the life and ministry of our Lord.
God does indeed manifest himself in Jesus' teachings, his miracles of mercy and might, and in his final glorification in the cross/tomb event. It is fitting, on this Second Sunday after the Epiphany, that Jesus should do a miracle, changing water into wine, presaging his passion, death, and resurrection. It might well have been used with more effect on the same Sunday in Cycle A.
The Prayer Of The Day
The collect for this Sunday in The Book Of Common Prayer articulates the "light" theme in the Gospel of St. John and has little or nothing to do with the particular theme of this day (and John 2:1-11). The Prayer for the Day in the LBW does not make a general reference to Jesus' "works" and to the epiphany emphasis of the season, but it, too, has little to do with John 2. It reads: "Lord God, you showed your glory and led many to faith by the works of your Son. As he brought gladness and healing to his people, grant us these same gifts and lead us also to perfect faith in him, Jesus Christ our Lord."
Once more, three prayers, one that speaks to each of the gospels in the three-year lectionary would better explicate and reinforce the manifestation/epiphany theme of the day.
The Psalm Of The Day
Psalm 96:1-3, 7-9; 96:1-10 - This is another of the enthronement psalms, perhaps the most beautiful of them all. It was meant to be sung after the return from the exile in the hope that the chosen people of God would be able to sing a "new song" to the Lord their God. When they found no new song to sing, this psalm took on eschatological proportions; the "new song" would be sung sometime in the future when they would indeed have a reason for singing it. From the standpoint of the Christian Church, the world could begin singing that song, which the angelic chorus sang first, at Jesus' birth, when the Promised One was born in Bethlehem of Judea. As his public ministry is about to begin, the church has reasons to rejoice and to sing the "new song" of salvation that God has put into the hearts, minds, and souls of those who call him "Lord." The psalm finds multiple expression in the church year, especially in the Christ Mass at midnight.
Psalm 36:5-10 - The Episcopal and Lutheran churches appoint this psalm for annual use on Monday of Holy Week and for good reason; verses 5-9 spell out the nature of God's love for his creatures and his faithfulness toward them. The psalmist declares, "you save both man and beast." He says, "For with you is the well of life" and "in your light we see light." The psalm ends with a portion of a prayer: "Continue your loving kindness to those who know you, and your favor to those who are true of heart." The psalm expresses the "light and life" themes of John 1, which is read on this same Sunday in years/cycles A and B.
Psalm prayer (36 - LB W) is particularly well-suited for functioning in the liturgy on this Sunday in years/cycles A and B rather than C "Lord God, source of light and life, by the light of your truth let the virtuous know your goodness and sinners feel your mercy, so that together they may drink from your river of delight and rejoice now and ever in your Son, Jesus Christ our Lord."
Psalm prayer (96 - LBW) - "Lord Jesus, the Incarnate Word, when you consented to dwell with us, the heavens were glad and the earth rejoiced. In hope and love we await your return. Help us to proclaim your glory to those who do not know you, until the whole earth sings a new song to you, and the Father and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever."
The Readings
Isaiah 62:1-5 (RC, E, L, C) - It would appear that this passage from Third Isaiah was selected because it has wedding imagery in verse 5 and, at that point, complements the Gospel for the Day's story of the wedding feast at Cana. Since this is one of the songs sung at the return from the exile, and since the rebuilding of Jerusalem had not yet taken place, and since there is a promise of "vindication" and "a new name" for the city, there is - from the Christian perspective - another reason for choosing this reading for this Sunday. It becomes a "song of anticipation" for Christians who hear the gospel and know how the story of Jesus turns out. They also know that "the best is yet to be" and anticipate his glorious return to reign over the Holy City and the whole world forever. And God will rejoice over his people in that day.
1 Corinthians 12:1-11 (E, L, C); 12:4-11 (RC) - Paul was concerned that the Corinthians should perceive the nature of the work that the Holy Spirit does among the faithful. The Spirit is responsible for causing the seed of faith to germinate to the point where people are able to confess that Jesus is Lord; the Holy Spirit does not dwell in people who reject and even curse Jesus.
The Holy Spirit bestows all of the "fruits of the faith" upon the believing community; they are given by God through the Holy Spirit, and must never be considered to be inherited and natural characteristics of people. Nor are they given for a person's private benefit, or as attributes in people to be admired by others; they are given for the benefit and blessing of the Christian community, for the good of all the believers, not for the gain, welfare, and even the praise of the "gifted" ones.
There is a kind of "God knows best" about all of this; he determines what gifts shall be given and to whom they should be given. And he is concerned that all of the gifts should be appreciated and highly valued by the community, so that none would be elevated in the eyes of the faithful to the diminution - or exclusion - of the others. The gifts of the Spirit are God's to give, and he gives them as he wills, sometimes to the unlikeliest of persons.
John 2:1-11 (E, L, C); 2:1-12 (RC) - In his book, Jesus The Magician, Morton Smith says that "Taking the gospel material (which is a kind of harmony of the gospels for Smith) ... we get the following, coherent, consistent and credible picture of a magician's career." He continues in a manner that "connects" the gospels for the First and Second Sundays after the Epiphany: "After undergoing a baptism believed to purge him from sin, Jesus experienced the descent of a spirit upon him - the experience that made a man a magician - and heard himself declared a god, as magicians claimed to be. Then 'the spirit drove him out into the desert,' a common shamanic phenomenon. After visionary experiences there, he returned to Galilee where his new spiritual power manifested itself in exorcism, in types of cures familiar in magic, in teaching, with magical parallels and authority, and in the call of disciples, who, like persons enchanted, were constrained to leave their families and belongings and follow him alone." That's really the combination of the Luke 3 and John 2 gospels for (these) days. Smith contends that "he lived (from then on) the predictable life of a travelling magician and holy man - a picaresque existence reflected, perhaps accidentally but not inaccurately, by the structure of the gospels."
The church agrees with the sequence of events, but rejects any assertion - no matter what the parallel to magic and magicians might be - that Jesus was basically a magician. Changing water into wine was a "sign," not that he was a magician, but that he was indeed the Son of God. As John tells the story of this "first sign" of the water that was transformed into wine, he may have had Jesus' death and resurrection in mind; Jesus took an impossible situation and changed it for the better. John begins his account of the incident with "On the third day," adding, "there was a marriage at Cana in Galilee; Mary and Jesus and his disciples were guests." Mary's request to Jesus to do something about the emergency seemed premature to Jesus. How did she know he had the power to work a miracle (because a miracle of some kind or other was necessary)? But Jesus complied, gave orders to the servants to fill the six stone jars with water, draw out the contents, and take it to the "master" of the feast; amazingly, the water was now excellent wine, prompting the comment of the "master" about the bridegroom. When Jesus did this "first sign," he "manifested his glory; and his disciples believed in him" - not simply as a magician, but as Messiah of God.
Sermon Suggestions, Synopses, Sketches, Stories
John 2:1-11 (E, L, C); 2:1-12 (RC) - "A Very Special Vintage." - It has been almost 30 years since I first visited St. John's Abbey (and University), at Collegeville, Minnesota. Quite innocently, I asked if the Benedictines (St. John's is the largest benedictine community in the world) there made Benedictine liqueur, as they do - and sell - at St. Paul's Outside the Walls, in Rome, and in other European monasteries. I learned that the only commercial item that they produced was St. John's bread, but that they made wine for their own use. To make it, they needed more than good water; they had to import the grapes, because most people believed that the cold of a Minnesota winter would freeze grape vines and destroy them. Someone who could have turned water into wine would have been very handy in Collegeville!
Now the monks of St. John's have been proven to be wrong about producing wine from grapes grown in Minnesota. David Bailly, an attorney who spent the last two decades of his life growing grapes and making award-winning wine, died in April, 1990. His wine-making was a "sign" of something else. Said his daughter, Nan, "When it came to wine, Dad was a romantic.... That was the whole purpose of the winery. It wasn't so much for my father to have a new vocation (The Alexis Bailly Vineyard - named for his 'third great' grand-father, one of the founders of Hastings, Minnesota, where the vineyard is located, which began producing its first commercial wine in 1977).... It was because he loved being with people, people who enjoyed drinking wine as much as he did, who enjoyed talking about wine as much as he did."
Jesus saved the day at that wedding feast when he turned water into wine in response to Mary's request. We believe that he worked a real miracle, not a feat of magic, when he turned the water into wine. He knew who he was and what he could do and, in this situation, he did what was necessary and transformed water into wine.
He also discovered a man who appreciated good wine but who didn't know where it came from; the "master-host" of the feast thought the bridegroom was responsible for the fine vintage that the servants brought to him; he complimented him, and apparently missed his opportunity to speak with Jesus! That sort of thing happens to us all the time, doesn't it? Don't we often give people credit for various blessings in life when they really come from or are orchestrated by God?
But the disciples must have been watching, saw what took place with Jesus and the water, and believed that Jesus really had power that came from God. They "read the sign" as best they could because, at this point, they had no way of knowing that through his broken body and spilled blood, Jesus would transform the dead into new and living beings, who would live with him forever. Morton Smith is right about one thing; Jesus' disciples were not simply enchanted by Jesus; they were mesmerized by him, by what he said, by what he did, by what he was.
Jesus created a special vintage of wine there in Cana in Galilee; we don't even know if the disciples had a taste of it. But this we know, that those who drink wine at his table receive a very special vintage, the best vintage of all, and that wine will never run out.
Isaiah 62:1-5 - "The Cross And The Glorious City."
1. That's what Isaiah is talking about - the city, Jerusalem, which is glorious because God has brought about her restoration. The city is glorious because it reflects the love that God has for her. God loves his own as a bridegroom loves his bride - deeply - enough to do almost anything for her.
2. It is not the city but the risen Lord in whom Christians see the glory of God; Jerusalem, restored though it was, was destroyed again and again but Jesus lives forever. In his glory, he is in truth the beautiful savior.
3. The cross, which casts its shadow over the city, transforms it into the City of God, the City of Hope. The Church of Christ is that City in the world.
4. Praise the Lord our God for his gracious acts of forgiveness and restoration, particularly for the love he had made known in the cross of Christ, "in whom be glory forever and ever. Amen."
1 Corinthians 12:3-11 - "Gifts From A Glorious God."
1. First, among the gifts given to the church, is a gift of the Holy Spirit, source of light and life and the knowledge that Jesus is Lord.
2. God, through that Holy Spirit, gives other gifts to the members of the body of Christ so that the believing community might be built up and do its work in the world.
3. God gives his gifts of the Spirit to those he selects to receive them; they become gifts of humility and grace, not signs of personal power and pride. Even the most pious believers cannot produce them, and the most devout cannot claim them as their own.
4. Ours is to thank God for the Holy Spirit and the gifts the Spirit bestows upon us, and to develop and use them to the glory of the Father and the Son. He doesn't intend that they should be wasted, but that they should be employed in life and ministry in this world.
