Ocean Blue to Deep Purple

​Psalm 40:  1-11
Isaiah 42:1-7
John 2:1-11

TEXT: "Do whatever He tells you" (John 2:5)
 
 A young man finished college with a degree in Psychology.  Shortly after his graduation, the new psychologist was asked to deliver a speech to a group of senior citizens.  For forty-five minutes he lectured his elderly audience on the subject of, "How to live the Twilight Years Gracefully."
 
When the speech was over, an eighty-eight-year-old woman waited until everyone was gone but the twenty-three-year-old speaker.  She told him that he had delivered the speech with great power and conviction.  "Your vocabulary and your pronunciation are both wonderful.  I admire you very much," she said.  "But I must tell you one thing that you will come to understand as you get older:  You don't know what you're talking about."
 
In today's Gospel Lesson Jesus performs a wondrous miracle of transformation:  He changes ordinary water into fine wine.
 
Also, in today's Gospel Lesson we encounter an older woman who definitely knows what she is talking about.
 
"There was a wedding at Cana, in Galilee," the Apostle John tells us.  The Mother of Jesus was there. During the wedding feast, Mary informs Jesus that the supply of wine had run out.  Then she tells the servants to, "Do whatever He tells you."  Jesus instructs the servants to fill six large stone jars with water.  The servants followed Jesus' instructions and lo, the miracle took place.  More than a hundred gallons of water became wine.
 
The words spoken to the servants at this wedding feast in Cana -- "Do whatever He tells you" -- are meant for us, the present-day servants of the Lord.  Jesus comes into our midst offering to perform a miracle of transformation in the life of each of us.  If you want to grow into the uniquely beautiful person you were created to be, then do whatever He tells you for, now and forever, He knows what He's talking about.
 
For each of us, now is the time to take the test:  "Is what I am doing with my life Christ-like?"
 
In everything I do, am I seeing with His eyes? 
 
Am I feeling with His heart?
 
Am I judging with His Truth? 
 
Am I responding to all my sisters and brothers in this world with His compassion?
 
Am I loving all my brothers and sisters with His Love?
 
In other words, "Am I doing whatever He tells me?"
 
In one of the Chapels in London's Westminster Cathedral, there is a beautiful mosaic depicting the miracle at Cana, where Jesus changed water into wine ...
 
In the mosaic, a man is pouring water from one jug into another.  The water pouring out of the first jug is a radiant ocean blue.  But as it nears the mouth of the second jug, it becomes a deep shade of purple.  As you look at the mosaic, you get the feeling that water is turning into wine right before your very eyes.
 
Author Jim Forest has written that until he had seen the mosaic, it had never occurred to him that "this first miraculous sign of Jesus -- a miracle of transformation -- is a key to understanding everything in the Gospel.  Jesus is constantly involved in transformation: water into wine; blind eyes to seeing eyes; withered limbs to working limbs; guilt into forgiveness; sorrow into joy; Crucifixion into Resurrection; death into life."
 
Moreover, in His own words, Jesus is constantly offering to transform people who are on "the side of man" into people who are on "the side of God."
 
Remember, in terms of our relationship with God, it is we who are in constant need of transformation.  God is constant.  God is changeless.  God is always on our side!  "Where could I go to escape Your Spirit?" the ancient Psalmist cried out ...
 
"Or where can I flee from Your Presence?
 
If I ascend to heaven, You are there!
 
There too, if I make by bed in Sheol you are there.
 
If I take the wings of the morning and settle at the farthest limits of the sea,
 
Even there your hand shall lead me, and your right hand shall hold me fast.
 (Psalms 139:7-10).

It has been said that if there is one thing, we fear more than death, it is the fear of a God who keeps following us, hounding us, calling us to His side.  For some persons, the real hell of life may not be the thought that they are without God, but the realization that they can't get away from God.
 
And all of us need to be reminded that our business with God isn't over until He says it's over.  And all of us need to be reminded that, because He loves us so much, He will not leave us alone in life and, perhaps to our surprise, He will not leave us alone in death.
 
Whether it be in the day-to-day "little deaths" that come to us all, or the death that comes in the last moment of our life, God, our Loving Father, just will not let us be.
 
In the first chapter of Matthew's Gospel, we are told that the manner of Jesus' birth had been prophesied in these words: "The virgin will conceive and bear a son and they will name him Emmanuel, which means 'God is with us'" (Mt. 1:23).
 
God is with us!  God is for us!  God loves us unconditionally!  But there is no way we can truly appreciate that awesome reality, and take strength from it, if we are not reflecting God's Love in our human relationships.  That's what it means to be on God's side.  That's what it means to be obedient to the command, "Do whatever He tells you!"
 
If we would do whatever He tells us, we must learn to see through the eyes of Jesus ...
            
If we see through the eyes of Jesus, we don't merely see "scenery," we see the Creator in His Creation.
 
If we see through the eyes of Jesus, we become as vulnerable as He.  Our hearts open up like a morning glory to everything that is good and true and beautiful.
 
If we see through the eyes of Jesus, we understand that the same Love that moves the stars is the Flame that sets our wills on fire to put God's world aright.
 
If we see through the eyes of Jesus, we see this Church as an instrument of God's Love, a place to witness to peace and harmony and social justice.
 
 If we see through the eyes of Jesus, we see miracles of Love everywhere.

Rev. Donald Harpster