The Second Sunday after the Epiphany

January 19, 2025

St. John 2:1-11; Romans 12:6-16

Our minds contemplate grievances and dreams, seeking our own will.

We are called to contemplate Christ and seek to be conformed to His will.

We become what we contemplate. We become what we adore. If we gaze on images of uncleanness, we are conformed to that image. It defiles, and renders us incapable of genuine love.

We become what we contemplate. We become what we adore. So what is occupying your mind? We naturally have many scattered thoughts held in the mind: things to do, things to buy, bills to pay, the needs of the day. We cannot spend the whole day reading Scripture and occupied in formal prayer. Yet the needs of the day will overwhelm us, distract us, conform us to their own image – if they are done separated from the contemplation of Christ.

By the framing prayer – prayer at the beginning of the day, and repeated invocation of the Name of Jesus throughout the day – by framing each activity with prayer, we invite Christ to enter among us as the child is fed, the clothes are washed, the pistol is loaded, the legal action is engaged, the car is maneuvered into position.

The Lord Jesus came into the world to redeem it. Each person we encounter is a descendant of the one made in God’s image. Each person needs love – perhaps most of all those who are very difficult to love.

Each problem we face needs Jesus invited into it. That’s what we see in the mother of Jesus in today’s Gospel. She brings the problem to Jesus. She doesn’t even ask Him to do anything specific. “They have no wine.”

This is something we should do. Bring our problems to Jesus. We don’t even know the solution. “Lord Jesus Christ, my child is struggling.” “I can’t keep up.” “The people at work make me angry.” “Our church needs money.” “My back hurts.” “I can’t find a wife.” Whatever it is, we simply bring the problem to Jesus. “They have no wine.”

And it seems that He does not answer. Yet the mother of Jesus is undaunted. “Whatsoever he saith unto you, do it.”

And these are words for us as we face the day. Whatever Jesus says, do it. Whatever God’s Word says, do it. Whatever the commandments say, do that. Whatever is true, whatever is from love, do it. Whatever Jesus says, do it.

And some of what we are to do is identified by our gifts. Today God’s Word tells us, in Paul’s letter to the Romans, that we have different gifts. Those gifts are to be put to work for the Lord’s service. He lists some of them:

Prophecy - preaching

Service - that’s the work servants do in the ancient world, starting with taking care of the meals

Teaching - Pastor’s, Sunday School, parents

Exhortation - that word can mean “encouragement” (some people are so good at supporting others with words)

Generous contribution - each of us has a duty to financially support the church

Leadership - the church needs men who step up and lead the church in righteousness; and finally,

Acts of mercy - all around us are hurting and struggling people, who need kindness and compassion

We don’t all have the same gifts. But every one of them is important, just like every part of your body is important, even though the various parts serve different functions.

Uniting all these is love. “Let love be genuine,” God’s Word tells us. The actual Greek words are Ἡ ἀγάπη ἀνυπόκριτος. You’ve heard agape before; that’s one of the words for love. Agape is interesting in that it’s not about your feelings; it’s about recognizing value in another person. And since every person has intrinsic value, because God made that person, we should highly value—love—each person. Ἡ ἀγάπη ἀνυπόκριτος. Unhypocritical. It’s not a genuine love if it’s just based on how we’re feeling. That makes us hypocrites, because we are distinguishing value based on how we feel instead of what God’s Word says.

The disciple of Jesus highly values each person, but does not consent to his error. Love abhors what is evil, and holds fast to what is good. That starts with, each Sunday, getting on our knees and abhorring what is evil in ourselves. We can only love unhypocritically if we begin with the premise that we ourselves are poor miserable sinners.

That love leads us to bless others. “Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse them.” “Bless” is εὐλογεῖτε - “eu” is good, and the “log” means “word,” like Logos. So it means “good words.” We get the term eulogy from this, where we say good words about the dead.

Here God’s Word tells us to say good words to and about people, before they die; and not just any people, but the people who persecute you, the people who hate you, the people who make themselves your enemies. This is the last thing we naturally want to do.

Blessing is both in what we say to the person, but also in what we say to God about the person.

We see this in what Jesus does, where He prays for and forgives those who are killing Him.

That action of self-giving is what St. Paul says describes the husband in holy marriage. “Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself for her” (Eph. 5.25). And the wife’s call is to submit to her husband: “Just as the church is subject to Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands in everything” (Eph. 5:24). Because we are corrupt and selfish, marriage knows many hardships, symbolized by the lack of wine in today’s Gospel.

But Jesus visits the wedding, Jesus visits the marriage to bless, to rescue, to redeem.

Marriage is a gift. It is the first institution God makes. Get married. Have babies. Baptize them. Stay married.

And when things are difficult, you turn to the Lord Jesus. Whatever He says to you, do it. He transforms sorrow to gladness.

What does He do in Cana? He starts with water from the waterpots. What are they for? Outward purification, the washing of the body.

What does Jesus do with it? He turns it into wine. You don’t wash with wine, you drink it. It goes inside.

All this anticipates what Jesus will do just before His crucifixion, where He takes wine, gives thanks, gives it to His disciples, and says, “Take, drink, this is my blood, shed for you for the remission of sins.” The eucharistic wine goes to the inside and cleanses us.

That’s what you should be contemplating. This is Whom you should adore – the Lord Jesus who gives you life. Gaze upon the things of evil no more. Contemplate no more the things that vex. Give no adoration to the idols this world sets up. Gaze upon the Lord Jesus. Contemplate His Word. Adore His work. He shall conform you to His image, and bestow upon you life unto the ages. +INJ+