if i could i would break into flower

if i could I would no longer be barren

The Holy Gospel according to St. John!

January is a hard month, isn’t it?
So, if you’re having a rough go of it. If everyone at work seems to be at each other’s throats. If getting through the day is a slough come noon; know you’re not alone.

January is hard because there’s the hangover from the holidays. The miserable whether. And probably worst of all, no end in sight…

January is a month even the best of us feel a little run ragged, a little empty…

Kind of like those stone jars at the reception of the wedding in Cana…

After three days of partying, all that was left was the letdown. The wine gave out…

Jesus’ mom, who this isn’t her first rodeo, sees the disaster coming. 

*And isn’t that how it always goes? The more experience you accumulate, the sooner you see the disappointment coming.

Well, anyway, before the disaster can make a muck of everything, Jesus’ mom intervenes and engineers a solution to the pending social disaster…

Before the bride or groom lose any face, the wine is replenished. 

And not just replenished; but restocked with the good stuff, to boot!

Stunned by the special reserve that’s been pulled off the shelf, the wedding coordinator calls the groom over to deliver an unwitting punchline to Jesus’ first miracle. 

“Everyone. 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. Now!” 

Putting into words as well as anyone, what the ‘grace upon grace,’ God has lavished on us in Jesus Christ is like!

Then, John wraps up the scene with an understated, “Jesus did this, the first of his signs, in Cana of Galilee, and revealed his glory.” Revealed his glory…

…Now forgive me for asking, but I can’t help but wonder; what, exactly, was revealed, and to whom?

After all, no one really seems to know what happened. Do they?

Certainly nothing was revealed to the chief-steward. His ignorance about the sign is what makes his punchline land with such great irony…

And the bride and groom, they aren’t let in on what Jesus has done, either. Why, even most of the wedding guests are none the wiser!

In fact, the miracle isn’t even really described to us! All we see are the servants filling the jars, taking a ladle to the chief-steward, and then all the aftermath!

The only ones who anything, whatsoever is revealed to; in anyway we can see, are the servants, the disciples, and maybe Jesus’ mother…

So what, exactly, was revealed, and to whom???

Now before Jesus turns the water to wine; he tells his mother that it’s not his hour yet. 

And that’s a big theme in John’s Gospel; knowing what time it is. Jesus’ hour.

It isn’t until the 17th chapter of John’s Gospel, when Jesus will finally say that his hour has come. And then, off he will march to the cross. The cross.

And from there, we see the fullness of God’s glory. At least, as much as we can bear to look at. 

The glory of God revealed in the only Son of God, dying, forsaken, on the cross. Without any honor, or glory…

Martin Luther described this as God’s glory, hidden. 

God’s glory, shown under what looks to us like it’s opposite. God’s final victory hidden under a disgraceful, shameful, humiliating defeat of the cross; and nowhere else. 

Which is why Luther said we must learn to know nothing other than the cross.  Learn to look for God’s glory where it has promised to be revealed, and nowhere else.

Because we all think we know glory when we see it, don’t we?

It comes with glitz and glam. It wows. It leaves no room for doubt.

But on the cross, Jesus’ hour; we’re shown otherwise.

God’s glory hidden in the last place we’d look. God’s glory revealed in the most dishonorable death humanity has ever devised.

And what’s more, this is the way God always works. 

The cross is not God’s final riddle; but rather the culmination of what God has been up to from the start. 

We spent four months in the Old Testament, didn’t we? And throughout scripture what were God’s favorite tools? Except for the lowly, the unlikely, the deceitful and the laid-low.

Like Jesus’ first sign, right? 

Today’s scripture.

Jesus getting involved, not when everyone is going out there and making a difference for God, but right as the party tilts headlong toward disaster. Saving the reception by filling six empty stone jars. 

And doing it all, without a press-release. Revealing his glory, without the guests of honor even seeing it!

You see, this is what God LOVES to do! This is what God’s glory looks like!

Taking the inglorious, and filling it with the glory of God. Taking empty vessels, and filling them with the best God has to give. 

This is why we must heed Luther’s charge, to learn to look for God’s glory nowhere other than where it has been revealed; the cross. Otherwise we, like the rest of the guests at that reception in Cana, will miss what God is about to do with ordinary bread and cheap wine here this morning.

Or, what God is giving to you and me…

January is a hard month, isn’t it?

The best of us, we’re running on empty. Many of us, we’ve been empty for a long time. In fact, it’s mere fumes that got us here today. 

And what does God do, but away from the sight of the rest of the world, without any glitz or glam; sends the Word made Flesh to fill the like of us with his spirit. 

This happened when you were first covered with water. And then, in your baptism, you were sealed with Jesus’ spirit. 

And not just once, but over and over again. Because Jesus doesn’t hold back on the good stuff when it comes to his sheep. 

Like Martin Luther said, your baptism is waters you return to day in and day out. The waters you drag your empty corpses to, to be filled with Jesus’ spirit whenever your’s gives out. 

Today, maybe you’re here feeling empty. Half-asleep. Maybe you’re not feeling anything at all; and it’s just by habit, you’re here. 

Either way, Jesus hides himself, his glory in empty vessels like you and me today…

Flannery O’Connor was once asked what it was like to write as a person of faith. The newspaper man obviously assumed little good could come from believing in Jesus, because he said it must be hard for her to write by having something like faith limit what she could say. Flannery retorted by saying; on the contrary, it saved her about a thousand years of life experience.

And I think that’s especially true for us on any given Sunday. 

Because again and again, we hear this message that God loves to use the broken, the sinful, the empty, to reveal his glory. Folks like us, though, we’re addicted to glitz and glam, aren’t we? 

We think we know where to look to see God’s glory. But the cross reveals another glory. The glory of the cross. God’s glory hidden in this room. Our lives. 

God doing this as our lives tilt toward disaster. When our hearts are empty. When we notice the wine, or any other thing we’ve used to prop up our lives, has given out. 

In other words, when we find ourselves in the shadow of the cross…

For Jesus’ first miracle, he gives the good stuff. And for his last, he drinks the bitter down to its dregs. 

And at that godforsaken cross, God’s glory is fully and finally revealed. 

But it’s hard to see, is it? It’s easy to miss. But there, Jesus drank the death of our emptiness, and into it he poured out all his glory; himself, his spirit. His body and blood. Everything he has to give. 

And today, in this room, in your life Jesus’ glory is revealed once more.

Revealed in cross you carry. Because we all have them, don’t we? 

In the emptiness you bear. The loneliness you know. The grief that sneaks up on you. The fear that sits at your shoulder. And there, in those unexpected, easy to miss, hard to see places, Jesus reveals his glory in your life!

For when you are empty, Jesus is all you have. Jesus’ glory is easiest to see! 

When your spirit is empty, Jesus fills you with himself. When your life tilts toward disaster, he takes the moment and turns it into an occasion to reveal God’s glory. 

All this happens right now, as I simply tell you what Jesus’ mom told the servants, “Do whatever Jesus says.” 

Listen to Jesus, because what he says to you is, “I forgive your sins, I carry your death, and into that emptiness I breath my life, my spirit, my glory.”

But it doesn’t look like much, does it? It’s easy to look past. Hidden in these mere words, though; in this room, in your life; is the fullness of God’s glory. Is grace upon grace.

So take your empty vessel and bring it to this table where your Lord and Savior fills it with everything he has to give.

Jesus did this in Burlington, Iowa, not the last of his miracles…