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2nd Sunday after EpiphanyThe Gift of Life
There are a lot of big questions in life beyond "Where did the wine come from?" Who am I? Why am I here? What happens to you after you die? These big questions usually begin to arise when you're a teenager and everyone tries to resolve them-to some degree of satisfaction-as they move on into adulthood. But there's another big question, one as big as those, which comes up earlier in life. It's the one parents sometimes dread to hear from their children's lips. They don't know how quite to answer it, though they think they know the answer well enough for themselves. It's not where the wine came from but where did I come from? This big question is: "Where do babies come from?" We think we know the answer. We're familiar with the biology. No stories of storks or birds and bees for us. We can talk of cells and 40 weeks and umbilical cord and placenta. Maybe we've seen the process beginning to end, been there, done that, through the pregnancy test and the doctor visits and preparing the nursery and the "Honey, it's time" and the pain and the joy and the coming home and the 2 a.m. feedings. We may know a lot about where babies come from. But that's only part of the picture, and not the most important part, at that. Babies come from God. They are his creatures. Martin Luther once said that there is no higher title that can be given to a person - that they are a creature of God. We might call someone a prince or a king or a president. These titles will show the roles these people have in human society - but before God's eyes, the prince and the pauper are equal in His sight. But to be a creature, such as we are, made in the image in God, crafted by hands and blessed with His gift of life - this is something we cannot give, but only God can bestow. He knits us together in our mother's wombs and He makes each of us of inestimable value. Much more than a mere biology, every person is a creature of God, a gift of God to the world, a gift of God to themselves, a gift God gives to Himself in making another object for His infinite love. How else can you account for those miraculous things which biology simply cannot explain. We come full of laughter and tears, music and art, poetry and drama. With the help of God, we are capable of feats of great daring and gentle kindness. We explore the world, master science, build beautiful structures, plant and harvest, wonder and question, dream and invest. Every human creature bears something of the likeness of God, just in being human - something of His creativity and goodness. We are so much more than molecules and cells and genetic programming. We have personality and reason and emotions and these all witness to the fact that our Creator is a personal being, full of knowledge and wisdom and love. Our very selves - and the very character of every person we encounter - bears traces of the fingerprints of God. We are unique and wonderful, each in our own amazing way. This is all perhaps easier to remember during the 40 weeks of pregnancy when it seems so obvious that something miraculous is happening, or in the hospital delivery room when the unbelievable has just taken place in the gift of a new son or daughter. It is harder to remember what a gift every person is when some driver cuts us off in traffic, risking his life and ours with it. It is harder when the sin of humanity rears its ugly head and we have to deal with those who would use us or hurt us or take from us. And we have our temptations, too - temptations to feel that some people in our lives are just getting in our way and other people just aren't that important. We might be inclined to like some and avoid others. We might find some to be awkward, others embarrassing, and yet others frustrating, even infuriating. I imagine those are the kinds of feelings that the hosts at the wedding at Cana were beginning to experience - awkwardness, embarrassment, and frustration. How did this happen that the wine ran out? Who was in charge of the planning? At that point, it would have been easy to see some people as having failed you - because the proper provisions hadn't been made for the party. And it would have been easy to see other people as threatening - because once the failure had been made public, there would be shame and blame to go around. Would you ever live this down? Or would this become one of those stories that people told about you for years to come? Of course, that day turned out well because Jesus was in the mix. There was only the bland chemistry of H20 available, but at His hand it became a wine of celebration, and good wine, at that. The humiliation and embarrassment turned to joy in His provision and at His touch. It strikes me that all of this took place at a wedding. A wedding, of course, is a place where it looks like just a man and woman are joining their lives together, but in truth it is God who is present, joining them as one in His sight. God puts them together and no one should separate them. Nor can marriage be separated from the work of God in providing companionship and care and the prospect of children to come. Just like that wine could not be separated from the work of Jesus - it bore witness to Him, it confessed His deity and His creativity and His goodness and His love. The disciples saw what had happened and they believed in Him. Nor can we separate the work of God from the conception of new people for this world - God is there. He is in the mix. Jesus is present. Like changing water into wine, He transforms a couple cells with chromosomes into a person - a creature of his own delight, completely original, like any bottle of wine is it's own unique blend. People are not like water (bland and common and ordinary); they are like wine flowing from their makers hands (unique and precious, made to bring Him joy and gladness). Once God puts a child together, let no one separate that soul from that body until God's good course for life has been run. It is because God so treasured the creatures of His hands that He sent His Son to us and gives His Spirit to us. By His Son, He takes away our shame and the guilt of our sin, which would make us so much less then God would make us to be. By His Spirit, He works to restore us to the fullness of His image in all its beauty and goodness and love. God's fingerprints are on us, not just at our beginning but also in His forgiving us and in His saving us and also in His leading us and re-making us. We are His creatures, and there is no nobler title for us - All we have is from Him and all we are to be is from Him and we shall live for Him to the praise of His glorious grace. Yes, there are a lot of big questions in life: who am I? why am I here? what happens after you die? But it turns out that if you get the first question right - where do babies come from? - that leads you to the answers of all the others. Life is from God. We are from God. We are here as His children. We live for Him. And the life He gives us to live with Him has no end. |
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