It’s funny because this past week someone here, knowing I grew up in the Catholic Church, asked me if I missed anything about Catholicism and it made me pause because it’s not a question I am often asked, but I had to respond that for me, quite evidently, I missed Mary and I missed the fact we don’t speak much about her in The Episcopal Church. But well, there it is, if there is an opportunity to talk about Mary that would be this Sunday, where she plays such an important role in our Gospel, which isn’t any passage of the Gospel but is actually the story of Jesus’s first miracle!
We are in the beginning of John’s Gospel, in chapter 2, and we almost pick up where we left off with Luke last week. If you remember we talked about Jesus’s baptism, and in John’s Gospel too Jesus receives the baptism, and after that he starts calling his first disciples. One thing we noticed about Jesus’s baptism is that it was actually kind of surprising he would actually choose to be baptized, to receive a baptism of repentance, he that John the Baptist calls the lamb of God, the one without stain, the one without sin. But we said maybe Jesus wasn’t so sure, maybe he doubted, he probably didn’t doubt about God, but maybe out of humility he doubted he was everything some people already said he was, and that’s why it was kind of wonderful to realize in Luke’s Gospel that God kind of took Jesus aside while Jesus was praying to say to him those words meant only for himself: “You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased.” (Luke 3:22), and it’s only after that Jesus starts his ministry. To me, it really cuts to the heart because this is something for us as human beings that we all need, we all need to be reassured, comforted, encouraged and we need to feel loved to be able to start living our own lives and do something in the world. And we realize that it was not different for Jesus. In John’s story today, we see that Mary also is encouraging him. Mary is invited at a wedding, and so is Jesus and he comes with the first disciples he has called, but there is a problem because the hosts are running out of wine, which is something that would have been quite the embarrassment when the wedding festivities usually lasted for almost a week, and Cana being a very small town in the countryside, it couldn’t have been easily fixed, it’s not like you could run to the store. So we are told that Mary sees the need and the embarrassment, and we can guess that she also sees an opportunity for Jesus to start using his gifts and make himself known to those first disciples, and even when Jesus seems reluctant to do something, he claims it’s not the time yet, Mary acts as if Jesus was about to do something, and ask the servants to be ready to do everything Jesus will ask of them.
Now some have noted that maybe it was a bit pushy on her behalf, but to me I see the gentle nudge a mother would give to his child like she probably did for his first steps, although here it’s about his first steps in ministry. You know, during Bible study we talked about how hard it is to think that God comes out nowhere or has never been created, but as I was reading this Gospel it reminded me of those words of a saint: It’s so good to have a Mom that God wanted one for himself too. So there you have it: God actually didn’t want to come out of nowhere! God wanted to have a Mom. But more seriously, we can see here again how our Lord made himself humble, becoming human he wanted to not only have the same natural needs as any of us, but he also had the same emotional needs: Jesus also needed to be loved, supported and encouraged, he quite literally had the need to have someone believe in him to be able to do something. He had the need to have someone believe in him to be able to do something. Let that sink in and think about that when you pray! Do we really believe that he can help us with whatever is troubling us? And how do we support the gifts of those around us? I wonder how is it that we behave in our own communities, with our friends, and even with our own children and grand children. Do we believe in each other, do we encourage each other, not only in the little things in life but in our life of faith and each in our own call and own ministry? Paul writes this long letter to the Corinthians to remind them that everyone is gifted in their own way, and that makes the beauty of our lives together, instead of comparing ourselves to others, we should support the good and fruitfulness we see in others.
That also requires trust. We see that Mary does not spend much time explaining or justifying her request or explaining to Jesus how to do what she would like him to do. She leaves it as it is, she leaves it in Jesus’s hands. Her last message for the servants, and for us (since it’s the last time we hear her speak in John’s Gospel), her last message is “Do whatever he tells you“. No wonder we believe that Mary was filled with the Holy Spirit. We already knew from the childhood story that everything started with her, as the Mom, but now we also see her as the first disciple, the first one who obeyed God:“I am the Lord’s servant,” Mary answered. “May your word to me be fulfilled.” (Luke 1:38) She was the first one who believed in Jesus, and because she believed, at least in our story, the servants and the disciples came to believe as well.
So the second important thing I see in the story is about obedience. Jesus is nudged to obey his mother, and then the servants are asked to obey Jesus and to do whatever he tells them to do. This is a very important theme in the Gospel and it’s very surprising that here, once again, Mary acts in lieu of the voice of God or the Holy Spirit. her words sound so close of what we are told the voice of God will say when Jesus is transfigured in front of his disciples: A voice came out of the cloud, saying “This is my Son,my Chosen One;listen to him!”. (Luke 9:35) This is my son, listen to Him. Isn’t it amazing? Now what does it mean for us to listen to Jesus and to do as he says? I guess it requires of us a life soaked in prayer, reading the Bible, receiving the Sacraments and also to be able to listen to the voice inside of us. We also talked last Wednesday about how we find God in the world, and our author, Adam Hamilton, said a lot about how we see God at work in nature, and many agree with that. The thing is, some people don’t always see only order and beauty in nature, we know there is also chaos and violence in nature, so some theologians and philosophers have started saying that maybe the best place to find God wasn’t so much in nature, rather the best place to find God is in our own heart and in our own mind, when we apply ourselves to do the right thing. And it looks like most of us, in most cases, we know what it the right thing to do, even if we don’t want to do it! Spending some time in prayer and meditation should help us to hear the voice of God within ourselves, guiding us throughout our lives. Jesus came to teach love of God and neighbor, trust in the Father and integrity in our faith, work and relationship with others. Nature may teach us the survival of the fittest, but the Gospel teaches quite the opposite: The Gospel teaches us that we need to support each other, and especially the weakest. Some people have very false ideas about God because they choose to look at nature to understand God, but as Christians the first person we turn to to understand God is Jesus, what Jesus taught and how he behaved. And again, Mary reminds us of that.
The last thing I noticed though, is even if Mary believed all these great things about Jesus, she knew he was still close to the people, he could understand their needs, even their basic ones, and he would respond to them. She knew Jesus was meant to bring joy and comfort rather than judgment and condemnation. I think her trust invites us also to trust Jesus with whatever need we may have, knowing that he can hear any of our petitions and use it for his glory and to the benefit of our faith. I said at the beginning that Mary saw an opportunity for Jesus to reveal himself at this wedding, when she realized the wine was running out. She wanted to help certainly, but mainly she wanted Jesus to show who he was (I remind you this is still the season of Epiphany) so that the new disciples may believe. Today we’re having a rite of healing and I noticed in the survey I asked you to fill that some didn’t understand this rite. Well, we do the same thing! As Mary told Jesus about the people’s needs, we come to the altar to tell Jesus about our needs or those of our loved one and we leave it there, knowing we give him this opportunity to increase our faith and reveal himself. The pray I say each time is: We pray that (request of healing) so that you may know the healing power of his love. So let’s not be afraid of asking him. Let’s not be afraid of bothering in. Let’s not be afraid of being rejected and let’s not be afraid of being disappointed. As Mary, may we come forward bravely giving him as many opportunities as possible to reveal his glory in our lives as he did on that wedding day. That’s right: We are often embarrassed by our prayer requests, but what Mary teaches us is that they actually are opportunities we give to Christ to make himself known in our lives, not only to our benefit but also for the faith of all. So let’s keep on asking.