Standing Under the Scriptures
January 24, 2010

Dear Fellow Voyagers,

Our readings for this Sunday are:

Jeremiah 1.4-10: In this singularly poignant passage the prophet tells of his shrinking from the Lord’s call and of the Lord’s assurance to him.

Luke 4.14-30: In the synagogue at Nazareth Jesus announces his ministry, only to be rejected by his hearers.

SPECIAL NOTE: These are the readings appointed for the services not this Sunday but the next, the 31st. (Actually the Luke passage includes also the Gospel for this Sunday, without which next Sunday’s is not fully comprehensible.) I am scheduled to preach then. I am choosing them for our class this Sunday so that I may draw on our discussion in preparing my sermon. Your thoughts about them will be reflected in it indirectly if not directly. So please come.

In our class last Sunday we saw our first reading (1 Corinthians 12.1-11) as consisting for the most part of a listing by Paul of gifts bestowed by the Spirit “individually:” utterance of wisdom, utterance of knowledge, faith, healing, miracles, prophecy, distinguishing spirits, speaking in tongues, interpretation of tongues. (Some of these gifts, though we may not have experienced them directly, evidently were usual in the New Testament church.) By emphasizing the source of all in the Spirit, we supposed that Paul meant to bring out three things. Firstly, one gift was not to be esteemed more than another, as some of his Corinthian converts evidently supposed. Secondly, as the Spirit’s gifts, all were of value. Finally, every Christian believer receives some gift. And in terms of Jesus’ parable of the talents, no gift is to be hidden; each is to be put to use so as to bear fruit. In this way, albeit indirectly, Christ is manifested to the world.

We recognized another instance of this, the Epiphany theme, in the passage, this time a somewhat more direct one. In the first verses Paul, after citing the pagan background of his Corinthians, declares that no one speaking by the Spirit ever says that Jesus is accursed and that no one can say that Jesus is Lord except by the Spirit. This may strike one as odd; I confessed that it had so struck me. The first proposition is fair enough, but surely one could say that Jesus is Lord without really meaning it. We supposed that the key here might be the pagan culture which was not only in the background of the believers but still existed around them as they continued in the Graeco-Roman world. Thus they were under pressure to revert to their former ways at least nominally, so as to avoid censure by their pagan associates. Paul is telling them that they cannot revert, even nominally, and remain Christians. On the other hand, if in the face of these pressures they affirm Christ, they will be doing so not by their own power but by the power of the Spirit. Our own case may be not dissimilar. We also are under pressure, however subtly, to give lip service to the values of modern culture, so as to be considered normal. But when we do, we are acting against the Spirit that has been given us. Conversely, when we affirm our faith however odd this may make us appear or feel, we can consider that we are doing so in the Spirit.

In our second reading (John 2.1-11), Jesus’ manifestation is no longer indirect but direct. The passage concerns his changing water into wine at the marriage in Cana. Jesus’ mother has been invited to the marriage, and perhaps on her account he and his disciples are invited also. She points out to him that the wine has run out and, while affirming that it is for him to decide what to do, he follows up on her direction to the servants: “Do whatever he tells you.” He has them fill six stone jars, which were “for the Jewish rites of purification” and which held from 120 to 180 gallons, with water and then draw from them and take the water now become wine to the steward (or master of ceremonies). The latter, not knowing where it came from, calls the bridegroom and pronounces it “the good wine” such as is ordinarily served first.

In our consideration of the passage I remarked that John is generally considered to have been acquainted with the Synoptic Gospels and in large measure to be commenting on them. Thus when in this passage he portrays Jesus’ mother as acting in harmony with his ministry, John may have been concerned to present an alternative to the Synoptic picture of a certain tension (cf. Matthew 12.46-50, in which his mother and brothers apparently attempt to call him home from his ministry). More particularly, I advanced the thesis that this episode was meant to be programmatic for the rest of the Gospel, coming as it does immediately after Jesus’ calling of disciples and before any other of his actions. My thesis seemed to be unchallenged, and indeed it is consonant with the concluding verse, which speaks of “the first of his signs.” Thus we could take it as anticipating what was to come: his earthly ministry, together with his death and resurrection to which he refers in saying “My hour has not yet come.” On this basis, the water for the Jewish rites in the stone jars represents the tradition of Israel, which remained to be fulfilled and into which Jesus is to infuse the Spirit, thereby transforming it into that which will transform his followers and the world itself. The fact that the transformation into wine took place at a marriage is also significant. In the Synoptics, on which John is commenting, Jesus presents himself as the bridegroom, and several of his parables revolve around marriage feasts. So this passage anticipates also the heavenly banquet in his kingdom, to which those who have manifested him in this world---as in our Corinthians passage---may look forward. And here and now we have a reflection of it in the Eucharist, the spiritual abundance of which, like the abundance of the wine into which Jesus transformed the water, is sufficient for all requirements.

Faithfully, Fr. Ted