The Upload
Posted on Jan 15, 2016 by
Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ:
I pray you had a happy and blessed New Year.
In the church, we love to talk about being saved and we Lutherans love to talk about justification by faith. That is, we proclaim we are saved by grace through faith in Christ Jesus. We all learned that in confirmation and it is true, but for many of us the real question is, so, what is grace?
Grace, of course, is one of those words that, while central to our theological, is hard for us to define, let alone describe in a concrete and meaningful way. Think about it, the term grace is used throughout scripture but defining it and understanding what it is, is hard. For example, in his letter to the Romans, Paul writes, “They are now justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus” (Romans 3:24, NRSV). Sao, what is God’s grace and what does grace look like and feel like.
Well, our gospel text for this coming Sunday is John 2:1-11 which is the story of Jesus turning water into wine. Now when we think about this story, we often focus on the physical miracle of turning water into wine, but that wasn’t the reason Jesus did this. No, he offered this miracle so that people could get an idea of what is meant by God’s grace. You see, God’s grace is about generosity. Grace is about God’s “free gifts” for us. And most importantly God’s grace, as this story highlights, is about God’s abundance. God’s grace is free, generous and abundant.
Thin about the story, , the scene: Jesus and his disciples are at a wedding and the hosts run out of wine. Inconvenient, we will probably acknowledge, perhaps embarrassing, but is it really such a big deal? Yes. Because in this time and place, running out of wine too early isn’t just a social faux pas, it’s a disaster. Wine isn’t merely a social drink, it was a sign of the harvest, of God’s abundance, of joy and gladness and hospitality. And so when they run short on wine they run short on blessing and that would have been a tragedy.
Which is when Jesus, prompted by his mother, steps in and provides not just more wine, but more wine than the whole crowd could have drunk not only during the three days of the wedding feast, but probably across three weeks. And not only did Jesus provide a lot of wine, but it was the best wine and according to John, that is what grace is like: an overflowing of joy, blessing, and the presence of God. This is what God’s grace really looks and taste like.
Too often, we talk about God’s grace as just something that God offers to overlook our sins, but in reality grace is so much more than that. For John, grace isn’t only about making up for something we lack or did wrong, it’s also providing more than we’d ever imagined or deserve.
Have a blessed week!
Shalom,
Pr. Dave