St Albans Uniting Parish

Readings

Isaiah 62: 1-5

Isaiah 62 continues the restoration promised in chapter 61 with the promise that Yahweh will not rest until Jerusalem’s vindication shines forth like the dawn and salvation, like a burning torch.  The poetry then moves on to see the relations between people in their land and Yahweh as a marriage.  The changing of name from ‘Forsaken’ for the people to ‘My Delight Is in Her’ and the land from ‘Desolate’ to ‘Married’ implies a total transformation.

This section has been important to Maori in the past as they looked to restoration of their relationship with the land.  Maurice Andrew quotes historians Bronwyn Elsmore and Judith Binney writing of both Te Kooti and Rua Kenana quoting this passage in terms of hope of restoration and union with a regained land.[1]. Lindsay is reading for us

John 2: 1-11

Raymond Brown says that this first sign, and all the subsequent signs in John’s Gospel, are about the revelation of the person of Jesus.[2]  Brown also mentions that, like the multiplication of loaves, this miracle has echoes of the Elijah/Elisha tradition of people of God doing miraculous things with food. 

That argument suggests that having gathered disciples, some of whom came at the recommendation of John the Baptist, Jesus does a quick food miracle to demonstrate his divinity and get the disciples committed to him.  That certainly fits the more Risen Christ image of Jesus in John’s Gospel.

Sermon

The beginning of this year has seen a fair amount of optimism about the future of Christchurch expressed in the Press and I have particularly liked the pieces about young people committed to rebuilding Christchurch. 

While all the official enthusiasm has focused on revitalising the commercial heart of our city Alan Leckie, who is our first Community Comment speaker for the year, is very enthusiastic about his vision for revitalising the red zone in a way that will enhance our suburban landscape. 

In line with much of the hope and optimism expressed at the beginning of this year we could paraphrase Isaiah and say:

For our city’s sake I will not keep silent, and for Christchurch’s sake I will not rest, until her vindication shines out like the dawn, and her salvation like a burning tourch. (isaiah 62:1) 

However it is going to take a long time and even as we work through insurance negotiations, engineering reports, churches strategic plans and specially designed procrastination procedures, some of the bigger projects are going to extend into future generations.     I am a fan for the river park concept including Alan Leckie’s vision of an urban forest but if I get the chance to help him plant Kahikatea in the new swampy river margins I am never going to be able to walk in their shade or see them tower over the more rapid growing Pittosporums and faster growing exotic trees. 

But we can read Isaiah’s words and be reassured and encouraged by them in the struggles we must work through.  Isaiah’s words remind us that God is with us.  God is a God of new beginnings and those of us who are ‘married’ to this city, who call this city home, can be reassured that every little effort we make will shape this city and send Christchurch into the future as a blessing to its people.

So often people take biblical prophecy at its face value and because, in the real world, such prophecy predicted has obviously not happened yet, people continue to expect some miraculous change sometime in the future.  Such expectation quickly becomes a world in which a god of their imagining admits people like them and expels the people they don’t like. 

That understanding is a wonderful way of controlling people and building in-groups because once you become part of the group who are destined to travel to this disaster free paradise there is always the fear that leaving leads to eternal punishment and misery.  It is a belief system that encourages cults and those who have been brought up in such tight knit faith communities find themselves even more constrained. 

However the God of the Exodus journey is the God of freedom and the lion does not really lie down with the lamb.  The reality of the food chain was wonderfully expressed recently in the Saturday quotes in the Press which listed among others, American rock musician Ted Nugent who said ‘Vegetarians are cool. All I eat are vegetarians - except for the occasional mountain lion steak.’

Maurice Andrew maintains that Hebrew Scripture is realistic and in that understanding the Hebrew prophets addressed issues of their time and offered what we all need, hope in the face of disaster.  As disaster is universal to the human condition the same words that gave hope to Jerusalem can give hope for Christchurch.  

Like the previous chapter Isaiah 62 is addressed to the returned exiles faced with restoring their city and re-establishing their nation.  Next week we read from Nehemiah who was sent back to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem so we understand that people are coming back from exile to a ruined city and the passage of poetry we read is assuring them that all the effort is worthwhile.  The city has to be restored and the countryside rejuvenated but it is worthwhile because it is their land and it represents a covenant relationship between the people and their God.  The poet uses marriage as a metaphor of the relationship between the returned exiles and the land.  It is a relationship that is sanctioned, recognised and called into being by God but like a marriage it has to be worked at and is not protected from disaster. 

The promise is that God will not rest until Jerusalem’s vindication shines forth like the dawn and salvation like a burning torch.  But the reality was that it is the people who had to clear away the rubble and lift the stones into place, rebuild the city and its defences, and replant and care for the crops that will sustain them.

All that will take time and the prophet’s message is not that a new readymade city will be lowered through the clouds.  The prophet’s message is that all the hard work will be worthwhile because the restored city and countryside is theirs.  Just as it is for us in Christchurch for some it may be the land of their birth, for others it was their parents land and there may even be others for whom it is their land of choosing.  It was the land they are married to and although many of them will not see the final restored city the future will bless them for the work they do. Jerusalem’s vindication will shine forth like the dawn—Jerusalem will hold a unique place in history. 

From our place in history we now see a mosque standing on the temple mound and Jerusalem has suffered disaster upon disaster and occupies one of the most hotly contested pieces of real estate in the modern world.  However Isaiah’s prophecy still holds its truth because Jerusalem’s place in history is unique as the foundation city of three of the world’s great religions.  Faiths that have played a significant role in the development of humanity’s ethics and learned empathy that allows its expanding and diverse population to co-exist.  Furthermore those faiths continue the prophet’s promise of hope by actively promoting even greater understanding, lovingkindness and justice among and between human communities as history and communication technology brings them into ever increasing contact with each other.

Jesus was very much part of the expounding of ancient Hebrew scripture to fit contemporary issues and John introduces the wedding metaphor at the beginning of Jesus’ mission as rabbi, healer and wisdom prophet. 

When we plan weddings we put a lot of effort and agony into the guest list but in Jesus’ time weddings were public events and the whole village was expected to attend.  If you have ever watched any of the programmes about Gipsy weddings you will remember that those involved never know how many will attend because everyone is expected to attend.

In Pacific Island communities in the islands the families involved provide a great feast and the whole village comes, but they get a payback when someone else has a wedding.  It is only when those customs interact with a cash economy that such events can cause real hardship and guest lists have to be closely scrutinised. 

So if there was a wedding in Jesus’ home town when he was there with his disciples it is very likely he would attend and unusual if he didn’t. 

In discussing this episode of John’s Gospel Raymond Brown quotes Bultmann and others who suggest strong pagan influence, especially the influence of the cult of Dionysus, the god of vintage which fits the Ephesus setting of the Gospel.  At the Dionysus’ feast the temple fountains spouted wine instead of water and this was celebrated on the 6th of January, a similar timing to the epiphany reading of this text. 

Brown is not impressed with that suggestion but Bultmann is one of the theological greats of the reformed tradition and the gospel writers were not above rebutting pagan custom by having Jesus upstage them.  Certainly as a Gospel writer John focused on impressing the divinity of Jesus on his readers and comparing Jesus to a local divinity could well be part of his evangelical strategy. 

It was a strategy the early church continued and many of the hagiography or ‘lives’ of the Celtic saints began by the saint turning water into wine ‘as Jesus did at Cana’.  The exception was Bridget who, as patron saint of brewing, turned the water into beer.  It is likely that Bridget was a pagan goddess of dairy and brewing before she was given a human history and canonised as part of the Celtic Church’s growth strategy. 

In further support of Bultmann and others Bishop Spong in his book Liberating the Gospels[3]expounds the hypothesis that the gospels were written to give the followers of Jesus readings to coincide with the Jewish lectionary cycle so this epiphany reading may have come about for that very purpose. 

But regardless of the arguments of gospel scholars or even John’s own agenda the real proof of the divinity of the Risen Christ lies in the way we as disciples react to Christ’s presence in our lives.  

In fulfilling our quest to live Christ filled lives the presence of Jesus at a wedding at the beginning of his ministry reminds us that Jesus celebrated community life with the community.  Furthermore he contributed to that celebration and made sure the party did not fizzle out or his host suffer the embarrassment of under catering. 

Isaiah reminds us that even though calamity and hardship are unavoidable the divine call is always to rebuilding and the resurrection of hope and this gospel episode reminds us that, as Disciples of Christ, we are called to both celebrate with our community and support our community in its celebration as Christchurch makes its resurrection journey. 

We are called to journey beyond the destruction of the past towards a future of hope and resurrection.  But we are also called to celebrate the new and renewed relationships, the moments of joy and signs of hope along the way.  As we make that journey of new beginnings we are called to break bread with the stranger along the way and find ourselves in the presence of the Risen Christ.