Manifestation: Prophetic Jesus

Over the last few weeks, we have had several miraculous and divine revelations of Christ to the world:

• The angel announces the coming of Jesus to Mary. 
• A choir of angels announces the birth of Jesus to the shepherds. 
• A star proclaims the divine birth and guides a group of Magi from the east. 
• The Holy Spirit descends on Jesus while a voice from heaven claims Jesus as the Beloved Son.
• Jesus turns the water into wine at a wedding feast.

Each of these events reveals Jesus as the Son of God to different groups of people through some sort of mysterious act of power. Messengers from heaven are not nearly as common as we would like to believe; the accounts of angels in the bible are relatively few and are often separated by many years from one another. We can no more follow a star to a specific location than we can follow a rainbow to a pot of gold. And someone who could turn water into wine would be a huge hit at parties.

But today’s revelation takes a far simpler form. There is no choir of angels, no voice from heaven, and no miracle. Today we hear that Jesus has started to teach in the synagogues. Where John had preached in the wilderness, Jesus meets people where they are. He brings his powerful teaching into the synagogues, and the people praise him for the teaching that he offers to them. As he continues throughout Galilee, reports of his ministry are spreading throughout the area.

Manifestation: An Ordinary Jesus

A reflection on the Wedding at Cana for the Second Sunday after the Epiphany.

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"Mawwiage! Mawwiage is what bwings us together today." 

Well, maybe not us, but a wedding is the setting for today's reading, a reading which follows the trajectory we have been on since Christmas. You see, shortly after Christmas each year, much of the larger church celebrates Epiphany on January 6. Technically Epiphany is celebrated as a single day, but we count the Sundays following Epiphany until Lent begins as the Sundays after Epiphany (though some traditions do think of this as the season of Epiphany).

Throughout this season following Epiphany, we focus on much the same theme as the one introduced on Epiphany - the manifestation or revelation of Christ to the world. On Epiphany Sunday, we hear about the visit of the Magi. We hear how these wise ones from other lands to the east come to see the newly born king of the Jews. They are not Jewish themselves, they followed a completely different tradition. But they knew that the one foretold by the star would be one of great importance to the entire world.

And so Jesus was revealed to strangers from another land.

Last week, we celebrated the Baptism of the Lord, the day that Jesus was baptized. We heard how the Holy Spirit descended upon Jesus and a voice from heaven claimed Jesus as the Beloved Son.

And so Jesus was revealed to those in the crowds that day.

Today we have a revelation of a different sort. Jesus is at a wedding with his mother and some of his disciples. While they are there, the host runs out of wine for the guests. Mary makes a point of telling Jesus.

Now I am trying to imagine being at a wedding and having my mother tell me they are out of wine. I imagine my response would not be too different from Jesus’ initial reaction - what does that have to do with me?

Manifestation: Jesus is Baptized

Now that I will be preaching most weeks, many more of my posts will be slightly retooled versions of my weekly sermons. I will still have other ideas to share that will not appear in my sermons. But for now, most posts will be based on sermons. On the plus side, for those that may be paying attention, this means more regular posts.

This post is based on my first sermon in the new congregation preached on Baptism of the Lord Sunday, 2019. Beginning with this sermon and continuing until Lent, I will be focusing on the Manifestation of Christ and the various ways in which Christ becomes known in the world.

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Every January just a few weeks after Christmas, many churches celebrate the Baptism of the Lord. This is a day of celebrating not only the fact of his Baptism, but also one of the moments of Christ's revelation to the world. The gospel readings for this celebration rotate through the first three gospels in the New Testament, each of which attest to this moment in Christ's life.

In the Gospel of Luke, we have just five verses appointed for the day (Luke 3:15-17, 21-22), which seems like not very much for our commemoration of the day that Jesus was baptized. Obviously we are stepping into the middle of a story. “As the people were filled with expectation…” doesn’t exactly tell us much about where the story has been, only where it is going.