John 2 Third Sunday after Epiphany

 The WATER the WINE and the WHYS

The Water, The Wine and the Whys   John 2:1-11

   Disaster strikes, and life is not the same as it was.  A young person dies suddenly, and we ask, " Why?" Life does not always give us our desires, but we find many disappointments. Our prayers do not seem to be heard. It is in times like this that we ask questions like, " Where was God when the tragedy happened?"  We cannot but be moved as we see the pictures of the needy around us. I am sure all of us can identify with feelings of loss like this as we go on life's journey.  Someone knocks on a door with a military uniform giving some very bad news to a family who was looking forward to seeing their loved one come home.  Many turn to God in times of loss and distress. Others go away from Him.

   Jesus and His disciples were at a wedding. The wine had run out. His mother, Mary, lets Jesus know. " They have no wine." There were six stone jars each holding twenty or thirty gallons of water that Jesus turns into wine. " The master of the feast tasted the water now become wine." 2:9 We are told by John, " this first of His signs Jesus did at Cana in Galilee and manifested His glory." 2:11  A sign points to something.  In Matthew we read, " Then he began to upbraid the cities wherein most of his mighty WORKS (signs) were done , because they repented not." 11:20

    The result was " and disciples believed in Him." Literally, " believed into" says that it conveys the " idea of the absolute transference of trust from one's self to another." ( Westcott)  George MacDonald ( the Scottish poet, author and pastor who was a friend to many Christian authors such as CS Lewis )said it this way, " God ministers to us so gently...as it were with a quiet, gentle, ..as it were with such a quiet, tender, loving absence of display, that men often drink of His wine, as these wedding guests drank, without knowing whence it comes--without thinking that the giver is beside them, yea in their very hearts."

    On September 11, 2001 and American Airlines flight 11 headed directly for the offices of workers in New York City in the World Trade Center. The south tower was struck 18 minutes later by United Flight 175. Why them? The New Yorkers as well as the rest of our nation could not believe it. The hymn by William Cowper is our story as well :"

  God moves in a mysterious way His wonders to perform

  He plants His footsteps in the sea, and rides upon the storm."

If we did not believe this world was God's and His ways are above our ways, we would not have faith. We must believe that in the deepest distresses and difficulties and tragedies that God has His own purpose , yet unknown to us.

    It seems as though it was a little thing in the middle of a wedding. Jesus comes to us as well in the midst of our lives when we are doing things that seem so little and common. We see His presence in the sunrise and yes even in the frost. The last vs of Cowper's hymn tells us, " Blind unbelief is sure to err, And scan His Work in vain: God is His own interpreter and He will make it plain."

    The Apostle Paul said, " For now we see in a mirror, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know fully even as also I was fully known." I Cor. 13:12 Chuck Swindoll in his little book, When God Is Silent, tells of the president of Dallas Seminary, Dr. John F. Walvoord, " a man ( Swindoll says) I always admired for his clear thinking...He told our graduating class that he hoped all of us would continue to remember that our God is inscrutable.   He then quoted Romans 11:33 (' O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and the knowledge of God! How unreachable are His judgments, and His ways past tracing out!' ) Looking around ...the audience, he added with a wry smile, ' There are times you will try to unscrew the inscrutable. You cannot do so!' "

    There are times when I wish things were better. I am looking for God's power to change things. He can do that if He wills. But often He does not. He is asking us to trust Him despite what we see. I have often found solace in the oft quoted " Serenity Prayer" by Reinhold Neibuhr:

" God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.  Living one day at a time, enjoying one moment at a time; accepting hardship as the pathway to peace; taking, as Jesus did, this sinful world as it is , not as I would have it; trusting that You , God, make all things right if I surrender to Your will; So that I may be reasonably happy in this life; and supremely happy with You forever in the next. Amen. "

   " And His disciples believed in Him." Believed into . Absolute transference of one's trust to another! I cannot think of a better place to be---in God's Hands. I remember receiving from someone in my family, when I was younger a tiny picture of a Sailor steering a ship in the middle of the storm, and in the foreground behind the wheel of the ship is Jesus. The inscription read, " God is my Co-Pilot." I have never forgotten that.

     May God be with those who suffer today, and may we be the helping hands of God to them!