feast

Bring us to the feast, guests with all the saints,

at the marriage of the bride that is Creation,

to the holy groom Emmanuel.

Guide us to the overflowing abundance

of your unexpected presence

as we ourselves are wed to Eternity.

(© John Leech, 2022)

equinox

 Look up and find the north star and know where you are. Watch the moon rise or set and know when you cannot see it, still it is there, a silent companion, unjudging, always present. When the sun rises and you face its rays you are literally reoriented. Understandable, then, that people always have drawn upon the changes and constancies in the skies for a sense of where and who they are. More involved is the understanding behind equinox. Every year predictably feature writers remind us that the days grow shorter as nights grow longer, and vice versa. They tell us that traditional feast days of many cultures coincide with the changes of the seasons, and with the long and short of days and nights. In between the longest and shortest are the equinoxes, the times when day and night are roughly equal, equidistant between the polar opposites of midwinter night and midsummer day. These are also occasions for observance of the heavens’ changes, and of our own. We see around us the seasons progress (or it seems, recede) around the solar revolution of the planet. We see the changes in plant and animal, weather and cloud. And we see in ourselves our reactions, some subtle, some not. “Are you ready for some football?” is not the least profound of our responses to changes in the year. Shopping for clothes and shoes, a box of pencils or an eraser or a backpack, or at last a new tablet, mark the beginning of a new school year. We find new paths to old places as rains carve new channels in the washes, and enjoy old paths that take us someplace new as seasons run. It all seems very benign, innocuous, … unless the day comes when a storm or sunstroke overwhelms us. Our desert is not benign, it is neutral. It is indifferent. What we do in it, for ourselves or others, is up to us. It will be hot or cold, brutally severe or calmingly luxurious, depending on our situation. If we find again that people are in need or want or distress because of the extremities of our weather, the fault, dear friends, lies not in our stars, but in ourselves.

the love chapter

 

Head west from downtown Palo Alto on University Avenue – when you arrive on the Stanford campus you see ahead of you at the end of the road a great big old church: Stanford Memorial Church. Up its grand entrance and into the building you proceed – into a large open circular space with balconies and a large stage, and a sound engineer.

When the bride and groom come to you hand in hand, you face them, and speak the words of  the apostle Paul’s discourse on love – “If I spoke with the tongues of mortals and of angels…”  (1 Corinthians 13) After the service, everybody shakes your hand. Good sermon.

Great sermon, Paul – but how did the Corinthians like it? The first people to hear your words were not at a wedding. They were gathered as a church to listen to a letter read aloud – a letter from their founding pastor.

All too fond as they were of certain distinctive spiritual gifts – ones that made them feel special, that showed off their piety – they were so proud of what they had got hold of that they forgot why they had been given those gifts in the first place: for the common good.

Gifts are given to us for the purpose of building up each other; they are given us for love. They are given to us to empower us to love, as God loves.

What use is a gift without love? Eloquent speech, tongues, knowledge, prophecy – without the one vital element of love they are worse than useless – they are a new form of idolatry. They furnish a false identity – an identity not as God’s beloved children but as somehow finding security in yourself – in living by your own rules, by your own powers.

People who had turned from polytheism – those first Corinthians, first to hear this letter – now sought a new identity: would they look for it in a source of power for themselves, or would they set it all at the feet of the living God – would they worship God alone?

For people who follow the rules hoping that obedience will save them – or people with no rules at all (Corinthians again) – both fall away from trust in God.

The Corinthians were people who didn’t have much use for any rules at all. Freedom – in Christ, so they said – was what they were after. But it is so easy to fall into a false sense of identity. It was easy; it is easy – then and now – to attempt to gain status (in one’s own eyes) from the gift not the giver.

Paul brings them back – your true identity, your true self, is found only in the heart of God: God is love, and where love is there you will find God – so lay all your gifts at his feet.

The desire for status, or a sure thing, for success or power however fleeting – for something other than God to rule your life or allow you to rule your own – these are false gods for false people.

We hear the call: Become the true people of God – the people who love one another as God has first loved us.

And what does that love look like? First and last, it looks like Jesus of Nazareth – a plain carpenter’s son, a peasant from a small village in Galilee – whose life is the best picture we know of love incarnate. And he is patient; he is kind…

And these characteristics, the same we find in Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians, are the work of the Spirit – the fruit of the Spirit – borne in us; borne in us when we too embody love and show to the world the presence of God.

Let us love another and the world – in spirit and in truth.

JRL+

 

Are you sure?

Illustration thanks to Suzanne Guthrie, http://edgeofenclosure.org/epiphany2c.html

When we were in New York one October we met a couple on their honeymoon. At their wedding, before they exchanged vows, the officiant cautioned them: ‘Life is long. It wasn't for our forefathers and ancestors. When they got married, they'd say, “We're married for life,” and go for ten years and die. You guys are looking at a thirty or forty year proposition... If you stay healthy, you could be looking at each other for over fifty years. So I ask you one more time. Are you sure?’

“Absolutely!” 

At another wedding, in New York years ago, the preacher said this: “When two people in this crazy world are willing to commit themselves to each other for life, we’ve all got something to celebrate.”—Barbara Crafton 

You have been to some pretty good weddings I imagine – so have I. What was the most fun about them? It varied, didn’t it?

From the look of love on the groom to the bloom on the bride to the wedding guests’ hilarity and the cute little kids having a party of their own around about knee height of the grown-ups ... to the message of grace you may have received, or the grief you may have revisited, as you were recalled to past experience. But then you recover yourself – and are present to the day – and wish well with all others as the two take their vow.

But then comes a surprise: you are asked to make a vow as well. Yes, the third vow.

“Will you who witness these vows do all in your power to support these two in their union?”

“Yes, we will.”

When we are guests we bless and we receive a blessing –

We witness vows and we make a vow…

“Will all of you witnessing these promises do all in your power to uphold these two persons in their marriage?”

At the wedding feast in Cana, Jesus and his companions are invited guests.

He is not the bridegroom.

He is present at the wedding – of the couple and family at Cana, as he is at the wedding of God and God’s people.

And he is a bit - disruptive...

Jesus and his boys show up when the party has been going for a while and they’ve run out of wine.

“They have no wine.”

“Fill the jars…”

When the guests arrived they could have expected nothing like this. Not what happened when Jesus showed up. In those days the party – the wedding celebration – typically went on for a week. It may have started as early as seven days before Jesus and his followers arrived. But when the Messiah appears — this is when the fun really begins.

A party that was about to run out of gas – embarrassing for the host, out of wine – suddenly revived. And more than revived. What was old was transformed. What was old became new.

Okay, stone jars. Big jars. Great supply of water for washing your hands. You would want to do that every once in a while while you are eating and drinking for seven days with the whole town at a big party. But –

“Fill the jars with water.”

“Now draw some out, and take it to the chief steward.”

The servants drew – and they knew. And Jesus’ disciples knew. They were in on the surprise!

What was manifested was a wonderful superabundant presence – indeed, as they soon perceived it, the very presence of God. In joy and laughter, and in blessing, God was there. In the midst of life. With us.

Bring us to the feast, guests with all the saints,

at the marriage of the bride that is Creation,

to the holy groom Emmanuel.

Guide us to the overflowing abundance

of your unexpected presence

as we ourselves are wed to Eternity.

 

JRL+

A version of this essay appears in the Sunday January 23rd 2021 issue of the Arizona Daily Star in the Keeping the Faith feature in the Home + Life section, on page E-3, under the title "Witnessing and making vows" and in the online edition under the title, "Make a commitment to yourself, others and God".

https://tucson.com/lifestyles/make-a-commitment-to-yourself-others-and-god/article_f13bc804-7886-11ec-842d-cbdeafe07448.html