For Sunday, January 20

READINGS FOR SUNDAY, JANUARY 20, 2013

John 2:1-11
I Corinthian 12:1-11
(The readings are reprinted in full below)

John 2

The wedding feast is an image in different parts of the Bible for the kingdom of God – the celebrative coming together of different families, tribes and communities in love, finding their perfection and completion in their integration with the other, and together creating the possibility for new life for all.

The new thing the Gospel affirms is that it comes in and with Jesus –that when we invite or include him in the feast and do what he says, and do as he says, the kingdom happens and we participate in it.

Questions:

When and where does this happen in our lives, in our church, in the world?

As who, and where do we see ourselves in the story? As guests at the feast just happy to receive what is offered by others? As Mary telling others to listen to Jesus? As the servants offering what they have, even though they doubt its value? As the chief steward overseeing and evaluating everything?

And if our church life is like a feast, what kind of feast is it? A buffet where we pick and choose just what we want? A traditional single-cuisine meal? A nice, light snack? A surprising pot luck spread?

I Corinthians 12

In Corinth, the feast of the kingdom was more than the church membership knew how to enjoy. Corinth was a cosmopolitan and cultured city, and people were accustomed to finding their own niche or society to belong to (professional guilds, philosophical societies, cultural communities, etc.) and then within that society or club to evaluate the different leaders and teachers and attach themselves to the one they liked. Church members carried this way of socializing and affiliating into the church, and the church in its rich diversity soon became an increasingly divided collection of separate groups which did not always value one another – not a wedding feast, maybe more a high school cafeteria with its in-groups and out-groups at different tables … cool kids that everyone admired, and nerds or geeks that were disregarded …rivalries between differing groups … occasional fights, bullying, etc etc.

 

It’s into this situation that Paul writes to teach them about the real meaning of their diversity, and the value of what each and every one brings to the table.

Questions:

Is there diversity in our congregation? Of what kind?

How is diversity received among us? Feared, or welcomed? Lamented, or enjoyed? Repressed, or explored and developed? Tolerated, or nurtured and celebrated?

THE READINGS:

John 2:1-11

2On the third day there was a wedding in Cana of Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there.  ²Jesus and his disciples had also been invited to the wedding.  

³When the wine gave out, the mother of Jesus said to him, “They have no wine.”  ⁴And Jesus said to her, “Woman, what concern is that to you and to me?  My hour has not yet come.”  ⁵His mother said to the servants, “Do whatever he tells you.”

⁶Now standing there were six stone water jars for the Jewish rites of purification, each holding twenty or thirty gallons.  ⁷Jesus said to them, “Fill the jars with water.”  And they filled them up to the brim.  ⁸He said to them, “Now draw some out, and take it to the chief steward.”   So they took it. 

When the steward tasted the water that had become wine, and did not know where it came from (though the servants who had drawn the water knew), the steward called the bridegroom ¹⁰and said to him, “Everyone serves the good wine first, and then the inferior wine after the guests have become drunk.   But you have kept the good wine until now.”

Jesus did this, the first of his signs, in Cana of Galilee, and revealed his glory; and his disciples believed in him.

1 Corinthians 12:1-11

 

Now concerning spiritual gifts, brothers and sisters, I do not want you to be uninformed.  ²You know that when you were pagans, you were enticed and led astray to idols that could not speak.  Therefore I want you to understand that no one speaking by the Spirit of God ever says “Let

Jesus be cursed!” and no one can say “Jesus is Lord” except by the Holy Spirit.

 

Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit; ⁵and there are varieties of services, but the same Lord; ⁶and there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who activates all of them in everyone.  ⁷To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good.

 

To one is given through the Spirit the utterance of wisdom, and to another the utterance of knowledge according to the same Spirit, ⁹to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by the one Spirit, ¹⁰to another the working of miracles, to another prophecy, to another the discernment of spirits, to another various kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of tongues.  ¹¹All these are activated by one and the same Spirit, who allots to each one individually just as the Spirit chooses.