All Life Is a Blessing from God :: John 2:1-11
[Introduction]
In the beginning, God created (Gen. 1:1a).
That’s who God is ... The One who creates ... outside of himself. The fact that he creates outside of himself reveals the great attribute that belongs to him ... Love. God is love (4:8) and God created man so that he may have someone to love.
That work of God continues today. As we say in the Catechism, I believe that God has made me and all creatures. He has given me my body and soul, eyes, ears, and all my members, my reason and all my senses, and STILL TAKES CARE of them.
The fact that he has made you and me means that ... apart from anything we have done or have failed to do ... apart from anything we have thought or failed to think ... he loves us ... he STILL takes care of us. As we say: He also gives me clothing and shoes, food and drink, house and home, wife and children, land, animals, and all that I have. He richly and daily provides me with all that I need to support this body and life. The fact that you are made ... that you are God’s creature ... means that you are loved by him. Apart from any merit or worthiness.
We need to recognize this truth ... that each person of the Holy Trinity creates ... and therefore, each Person of the Holy Trinity loves. He loves you. He loves me. He loves humanity. He loves his creation. Every time we confess the Nicene Creed, we affirm we believe this. Our Heavenly Father, the Almighty, is maker of heaven and earth, of all things visible and invisible. Our Lord Jesus Christ is the One by whom all things were made. And the Holy Spirit is the Lord and giver of life. That means ... then ... that life is not ... first of all ... ours. Life belongs to God. He created it.
The life we have is given by God.
The life others have is given by God.
The life that God gave is his to take, and his alone.
LIFE IS A BLESSING FROM GOD ... NEVER A CURSE ... EVEN WHEN WE ENCOUNTER CROSSES IN LIFE.
I. [Life is a blessing from God]
In the Gospel appointed for today, this Second Sunday after Epiphany ... our Lord Jesus changed water into wine. Saint John tells us, This, the first of his signs, Jesus did at Cana in Galilee, and it manifested his glory (Jn 2:11). ... It manifested his divine nature ... It manifested the reality that Jesus is not merely a man ... It manifested the reality that Jesus is God in the flesh ... True Man and True God ... 100% man ... 100% God. As Saint Irenaeus put it, “The glory of God is a living man.”
It’s no accident that Jesus manifests his glory for the first time at a wedding feast. Scripture begins with a wedding feast, the marriage of Man and Woman in the garden of Eden. Scripture ends with a wedding feast, the marriage of the Lamb and his bride, the Church, in the city of God. We were blessed in the beginning. We will be blessed in the end. And everywhere in between. Did you know the feast is featured in almost every book of the Bible? The wedding feast calls for joy and celebration. This is where the finest wine is served, the place where God enjoys his intimate relationship with us. As the angel told John in Revelation 19, Blessed are those who are called into the wedding feast.
More than that, in this miracle today, we see and hear that this marriage feast happened on the Third Day. The Third Day is the day the Lord married his bride, the church. The Third Day is the Day of his Resurrection from the dead. The Third Day is the Day of the Revelation of Jesus’ glory ... glory manifested at a wedding feast. In the narrative of the Gospel of John, the Third Day also happens to be the Sixth Day, the day God created Man and Woman. More than that, on this Third Day ... at this marriage feast ... the one that never ends ... the one we still celebrate today ... we find the mother of our Lord ... the woman who gave Jesus life. The Creator of Life came to a feast to give us joy in life. There is nothing more blessed than life! Nothing more joyful than a feast. Even the woman, who was called Eve because she is the mother of Life ... marveled that the Lord could give man life through her (Gen 4:1).
Every Lord’s Day that calls us to return to this celebration is a beautiful day. That’s because this is a day in which we receive new life. Life is always a blessing from God.
One of the chief purposes for marriage is the generation of new life, the creation of children and grandchildren. It is not the ONLY purpose for marriage, but it is the primary one. In Genesis, God reminds us that he created man and woman, and HE blessed them, and he nourished them, and HE told them to be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth (Gen 1:27-28).
Life, which begins at conception, is a blessing. But even where a marriage does not result in children and grandchildren, God still blesses man and woman in marriage so that they can live in radical, devoted love and service to each other and the world around them ... the same radical, devoted, sacrificial love that would foreshadow the radical, devoted, sacrificial, faithful love between Christ and His bride, the Church.
II. [God blesses us with life through the curse of the cross]
Earlier, I said that life is a blessing from God ... never a curse ... even when we encounter crosses in life.
Brothers and sisters in Christ, caring for others can be challenging, and not merely physically or financially, but spiritually. Caring for others can be overwhelming. The cross is a reflection of how overwhelming it actually can be. As John always reminds you ... God loved you in this way: Jesus was crucified for you. Jesus shed his blood for you. Jesus was sacrificed for you. Greater love has no one than this, that One lays down His life for His friends (Jn 15:13).
When we were dead in our sin and trespasses, Jesus loved us. God saw what sin was doing to us. Therefore, Jesus had compassion for us, taking our sin upon himself. God bore all the wrath for our sin ... all sin, my sin, your sin, the world’s sin. Jesus stood in our place, being pierced for our transgressions so that by his stripes we would be healed. God himself died on the cross for you. And then because he is righteous and just, God raised Jesus from the dead. He is now risen! He is risen indeed! Hallelujah! ... And all who confess and believe this truth will be saved.
III. This promise is not just for you and me: It is for the life of the world.
In the beginning God created us for life. He created us in his image ... an image that does good ... an image that seeks justice, and corrects oppression, and brings justice, and pleads the cause for people who cannot help themselves (Isa 1:17). From the tiniest human beings that the world tries to exploit for experimentation ... to defenseless babies who struck down by abortion ... to mothers who feel they have nowhere else to turn and have known only a church that condemns without helping ... to people brought low by illness and disease and then are regarded by society as having no value ... We are surrounded by helpless people in need. And that need continues to grow.
On Wednesday, Lutherans from around the country will join others in observance of the Fortieth Anniversary of the National Sanctity of Human Life Day. That movement and message that is vitally important. Life is a blessing from God ... never a curse.
The World Health Organization estimates that there are 73 million abortions induced every year in the world. That’s 200,000 every day ... 200,000 lives destroyed every day by man. Lord, have mercy! In the US, where 30 percent of pregnancies are unintended and 40 percent of these are terminated by abortion, there are about 2,800 elective abortions every day ... a record high in the United States. Christ, have mercy! Meanwhile, attitudes for euthanasia in the US continue to grow: Nine states and the District of Columbia have legalized doctor-assisted suicide. ... Lord, have mercy!
Whether you join any of the public demonstrations in support of the Sanctity of Human Life, you should remember your life every day is a blessing. Therefore, your life is replete with opportunities to give witness to the glory of God in Christ. Do that! The glory of Christ, who bore the curse of the cross so that we will live, is manifested as you help your spouse who struggles with dementia. It is manifested as you support the women of Zoe’s Home in Clinton. It is manifested as you visit someone in a hospital. It is manifested when you greet and welcome the visitors in your midst. It is manifested as you care for your children and grandchildren. These noble and good things are often not seen by others.
But God sees them ... and God rejoices in them.
[Conclusion]
We come therefore before God today first with a prayer of confession ... asking Him yet again to demonstrate his glory by enabling us to show mercy and grace to us and the world ... asking him yet again to lead us into repentance ... asking him yet again to deliver yet the forgiveness of sins that was made manifest in the cross and the resurrection.
In the beginning, God created us and blessed us with life. And he still creates and he still blesses us with life. In the beginning, he who created wine from water still comes to us to give us the very best life. He comes bearing his own body and blood so that all who eat and drink at his marriage feast will have the sanctity of everlasting life.
May the water that is wine renew his life within us, forgiving us, healing us, and enabling us to bear witness to the Sanctity of Human Life in everything that we say and do ... in Jesus’ name.