2nd Sunday in Ord Time Yr C St Mary at the Elms
(JHD last Sunday in the Parish)
Jesus mother said to the servants, ‘do whatever he tells
you’.
One of the first things that struck me when Liz and I
moved to Ipswich to be with you at the Elms, was how
this Parish really enjoys a good party, and I have to
say that St Mary Elms has to be one of the best
customers of the local wine merchants, seeing how many
bottles we seem to get through!
So – no surprises that there is another party after this
service – and how fortunate that this morning’s readings
refer to another party, the wedding at Cana in Galilee,
where Jesus performed his first miracle.
You know, I feel very sorry for couples contemplating
marriage, and their parents, these days, for fashion
seems to demand very expensive weddings, and figures of
£15,000 seem to be bandied about with careless abandon.
We splash out as a way of making a statement about who
we are and what we hope for the future of the couple.
Weddings speak of our desire for love, security and a
full and happy life.
Many of these things come together in today’s readings.
The image of a wedding is frequently used in the OT to
describe the relationship between God and his people,
God being seen as Israel’s husband. Often she is
unfaithful, but God forgives her and turns her sadness
into joy.
In the time of Jesus, the people’s longing for the
Messiah was often expressed in terms of a wedding; the
days of the Messiah would be a time of great rejoicing,
a wedding feast, with an abundance of wine and
celebration.
Well, today we are not exactly having a wedding feast,
and I can’t tell you whether the Churchwardens have kept
the best wine till last or not, but perhaps a party will
remind us that we , the people of God, are bound to
Christ, almost as though we were married to him.
That whatever happens in our church life, whoever the
priest is, whoever comes and goes, it is the ongoing
relationship between the Church community and God which
matters. If that relationship is in good order, then all
the rest will follow.
So the implications of that are that, like being
married, we remain faithful, we stick to what we believe
in, and remain true to our beliefs, whatever temptations
are put in our way to stray from the path.
I always tell a couple who have come to me for marriage
preparation, to make sure that each gift they have been
given should be used for the benefit of both of them.
So if he is good at DIY and she is a good cook, then I
remind them to make sure they use those gifts between
themselves, and for the good of those around them.
St Paul reminds us of the gifts of the spirit, in the
extract from his letter to the Corinthians we had read
this morning:.
One may have the gift of preaching, another the gift of
healing, another the gift of faith – all these are the
work of the same spirit, he tells us.
This Parish is not short of people with gifts – in fact,
if you look around we are awash with the most amazing
gifts that
God has been able to bestow, from music making,
carpentry, flower arranging, catering, pilgrimage
arranging , teaching, humour, dancing, good-looking
assistant priests – what more could we want?
But the thing is to make sure those gifts are used, and
used now, for they are not here for ever.
A few days ago I looked at the list of my predecessors.
Most of you remember Fr.Brian, many Fr. Martin, some
Father Leslie Todd, John Dixon, even John Peach who
Fr.David Maudlin mentioned a few weeks ago. Then Fr
Vivian Crowther Alwyn, and at least one person can
remember Fr.Youlden Johnson, who came here in 1918, and
who brought anglo-Catholicism to this Church.
All of them brought their own gifts – a variety of
gifts, to the parish.
All of us have bring a variety of gifts to this
community for the time we are been here, and so have the
legions who have worshipped here whose names aren’t on
any memorial. I am sure that those who follow me, and
follow you, will have another set of equally valuable
gifts to lay at the feet of Jesus, the Christ whom we
worship.
None of us will rate more than a comma or a preposition
in the long history of this Church when the last trumpet
sounds, but the worst thing is to have been given a gift
by God and not to have used it for his service and the
service of others whenever we get the opportunity.
I cannot accuse anyone here of not using their gifts,
but I do urge you to keep using them day by day, whether
it is here for the Church or in the community at large
doesn’t matter, as long as they are used for God’s
glory.
And what is more, to enable everyone to have a chance to
use their gifts – making sure that we don’t stand in
their way and prevent all God’s gifts being used.
Remember how staggering generous Jesus was when he
turned the water into wine at that wedding – 6 jars, 180
gallons of it! He has been equally generous in the gifts
he has given us, and our task is to be as generous in
using them for others.
But let’s not get carried away.
Using our gifts, living the Christian life is not easy.
At that wedding, the disciples first began to realise
who Jesus was as he made his first miracle.
They began to understand that God really had come
amongst them as a man, but it took them three years and
many doubts and confusions, and the devastation of the
cross, before they fully grasped his reality.
So it should come as no surprise to us that we suffer
some of the same trials and tribulations in the course
of our journey through life.
Feeling abandoned, forsaken and bereft comes to all of
us.
Even the trials of an interregnum do not make for an
easy time for a parish, and especially not for
Churchwardens!
But in any trial we have to remember that the Lord who
turned water into wine also turned wine into his blood.
The Lord who was done to death is risen again, for us
and for our salvation. So we put all our gifts into the
community pot and come to each other’s aid in our
journey through life.
God’s task for each of us is to use our gifts, to live
the truth of who and what we are, what he made.
It is our decision, like Jesus, to accept the invitation
or not.
Mary had to make a similar decision when the angel
visited her.
Joseph had to make his decision when Mary became
pregnant while betrothed to him.
These two brave people who took up God’s challenge
provided a secure environment in which the Son of God
could be nurtured – in which he could be spiritually
prepared to make the decision with which he was
confronted at that wedding in Cana.
If we too want to live as authentically as Jesus asks
us, and to relish the rich life he promised us, we would
do well to listen again to his mothers loving words to
the servants:
‘Do whatever he tells you’.
So as I move on to the next stage of my Christian
journey, I would urge 3 things upon you:
1) be faithful to the gospel and the traditional
doctrines of the Church which we have received from the
Fathers throughout Christian history, and do not be
diverted by the rampant secular values which threaten to
swamp the Church and are so superficially attractive,
especially as they are so deceptively easy to accept.
2) Be strong, for being a faithful Christian needs
courage and an ability to swim against the tide, to
accept suffering, when even the Church itself can seem
prone to leaving behind the faith it has received in
favour of the latest social fashion.
3) Listen to Our Lady, who tells us to ‘do what he tells
you’ especially in nurturing the Church community, in
welcoming strangers and newcomers, in proclaiming what
you believe.
And remember, Jesus saved the best wine till last, the
wine of everlasting life.
Today’s gospel reading describes the wedding at Cana in
Galilee, where Jesus performed his first miracle.
The theme of vocation, of God’s call to Jesus and to us,
reminds us that each of us is called, like Jesus, to
serve God in our own special and unique way.
By our presence here and by our worship we show our
commitment to him, and our gratitude that we belong to
him.
So as we prepare to celebrate these Holy mysteries, let
us begin by calling to mind our sins, and confessing
them to Almighty God