2nd Sunday after Epiphany-Year C

2nd Sunday after the Epiphany Year C January 20, 2019 I have a confession to make. There were many times that I, as a relatively new priest, would say to my colleagues: “I’d rather do a funeral over a wedding any day.” (I think if there are times in our lives when God just laughs and laughs at us, and maybe even says kindly, “Be careful what you wish for” that this was one of those times for me.) But weddings are often so complicated—so fraught with heightened (and often unrealistic) expectations. There’s usually drama, often family drama; and if the couple is especially young, the sense that they have absolutely no idea what they are getting into, and that they are spending too much energy focusing on the wedding and not enough energy focusing on the marriage. But then something changed, and I started doing weddings for older people—people who had been divorced, people whose spouses had died and who had miraculously found love again, people who were past the first blush of youth and getting married for the first time who had worried at many points along the way that they had missed the window and probably would not ever get married. And it was these couples who helped me see past the wedding drama, the family arguments, the ridiculously high expectations and the blissful ignorance to recognize that weddings at their best are symbols of God’s new creation. In our readings for today, we have not just one but two passages about weddings. In the gospel reading, we see Jesus’s first act of his public ministry in John’s gospel which is the changing of water into wine at a wedding in Cana. This miracle becomes one of seven signs in John’s gospel, whose purpose is to reveal the person of Jesus. This first sign is a manifestation of God’s abundance. The second passage about a wedding that we heard today is from the Old Testament reading: Isaiah 62:1-5. This section of Isaiah is known as 3rd Isaiah. Scholars have determined that the lengthy book of Isaiah was written by at least three different writers over three different time periods. The first part of Isaiah deals with Israel’s breaking of the covenant and God’s abandoning them to be taken into exile in Babylon. Second Isaiah focuses on the hope for the return from exile in Babylon back into Israel. And Third Isaiah considers what happens after they go home again. And this portion of Isaiah for today is interesting because it does not start with the “happily ever after.” Rather it starts with the call by the prophet to God to make things right. In fact, the prophet offers lamentation on the peoples’ behalf, demanding that God make amends for forsaking God’s people, that God set things right. The prophet acknowledges that these people have known suffering, and that all is not yet put right, even though they have been restored to their homeland. But then the prophet speaks on behalf of God, assuring God’s people that they are going to receive new names: “You shall no more be termed Forsaken,/ and your land shall no more be termed Desolate;/ but you shall be called My Delight Is in Her,/ and your land Married;” This is significant because any time in the Bible, when someone is given a new name (think Abram to Abraham; Jacob to Israel; Simon to Cephas or Peter; Saul to Paul), it is a sign that God is doing something new in the life of that person. God is bringing about a new creation in that person’s life. In Isaiah’s passage for today, God is renaming God’s people and signifying that God is doing something new here, bringing about a new creation, and the new names also signify a change in relationship between God and God’s people, signifying a new commitment to the people on God’s part. The passage concludes with the prophet’s assurance to God’s people that God delights in them, and that God rejoices over them like a bridegroom rejoices over the bride. During the season after Epiphany, we celebrate, remember, and look for the ways that God has been and continues to be manifest in our lives and in our world. In walking with people who were going to be married who had suffered loss (either through divorce or death or long-frustrated hope), I learned about how God works in us a new creation. It is the gift of those who have known lamentation who once again receive God’s delight. I, too, have tasted this loss and delight. I was forced out of the church that I served before I came to St. Thomas. It was the work of a small group of people, and it became a long, drawn-out, public conflict that was incredibly painful to me, my family, and so many others in that church. I was called to that church as priest-in-charge, and on the outside, the conflict was about whether or not the vestry should call me as rector, but as with most conflicts, there was so much more under the surface. Finally, on a Monday in April, the vestry voted not to call me as rector. And that was the most heartbroken I had ever been in my life, and this after months of nastiness and heartbreak. On the next day, a Tuesday, I interviewed via Skype with the St. Thomas search committee. I didn’t know it at the time, but I have since some to realize that was the beginning of God’s work of new creation in my life, in my vocation, and in the life of this church. And not a day goes by when I am not grateful for that gift of love and life and delight again after that season of hardship, heartbreak, and rejection. So this week, I invite you to look for ways that God continues to be manifest in your life and your world. Think about a time in your life when you knew loss, heartbreak, or change and how the Holy Spirit brought new life, new love; how God began a new creation in your life. And then talk to someone about it; share with someone the good news of God’s delight in you. In closing, I’ll pray over you the blessing that I have been using and will continue to use throughout this season of Epiphany: May Christ the son of God be manifest in you, that your lives may be a light to the world. Amen.