[Propertalk] 2 Epiphany - Jan. 17, 2010 - Sermon quotes - Part 4

[Joe Parrish]

The Bible says that wine is the oil of gladness; that wine brings further joy to the party. Wine helps people smile. Wine helps people to be happy, and people want to be happy at weddings, so they often drink wine. Of course, not at Baptist weddings. Of course, not at Norwegian Lutheran weddings. But with those exceptions and a few others, people often drink wine at weddings, and this happens throughout the whole world. Wine is part of the celebration. 
<>
What is the message of this sign of water into wine? The message is not so much the water into wine. The message of the sign is that Jesus took 180 gallons of Jewish laws, the rituals of purification, and transformed them. Jesus took 180 gallons of guilt, 180 gallons of laws, laws and more laws, 180 gallons of don't do this and don't do that, 180 gallons of laws that then numbered more than 600 regulations, and he transformed them into a new religion, new meaning, new wine that would burst old wine skins. Jesus transformed the old religion into the new religion. The miracle was a sign. The miracle had a message and you have to get the message. You stop at the intersection outside of church and see red and white paint painted on metal, you better get the message. Stop. It is the message that is important. And there is a grand message to Jesus' first sign. 180 gallons of guilt are transformed into 180 gallons of grace. 

http://www.sermonsfromseattle.com/series_c_180gallons.htm

Edward F. Markquart
- - - - -

To know Jesus Christ is to taste new wine, to be free from the wineskins of Jewish legalism. 
<>
As a footnote, I had to admit that I when I was  brought up in childhood, I was not reared on Jewish legalism but Norwegian legalism. These two legalisms are country cousins. What was it to be a Christian back then? I can tell you. A bunch of don'ts. My pastor and church told me, "Don't dance. Don't drink. Don't smoke. Don't play cards unless it is Rook. Rook was permissible. Don't go to movies. Don't marry a Roman Catholic. Don't get a divorce. Divorce seemed to be the unforgivable sin." Somehow, I got hung up on all the wrong issues. Then, I read my Bible and I read the Apostle Paul and discovered that I was free from all these cultural and legalistic hang-ups. I found out that I was free to love, free to die that others might live. I found out that being a Christian was not a series of rules to obey; the New Testament was not a series of new rules in a new rule book. Rather, Christianity is like tasting new wine. 

http://www.sermonsfromseattle.com/series_c_tastewine.htm

Edward F. Markquart
- - - - -
 
Recently I revisited an old movie, Babette's Feast. It is an intriguing story placed in a desolate and tiny village on the Jutland Peninsula in Denmark. The drama revolves around two sisters, the daughters of the local Lutheran pastor, who carry on after his death the pastoral care of the elderly and call together the community weekly in prayer and Bible study.
Into their lives comes Babette, who had to leave her home in Paris for political reasons. She comes to live with them as their cook. Now being such did not demand much, since they ate the same meal every day-boiled dried fish and ale bread. For a Parisian woman, this was not haute cuisine. She would spice it up in small ways and seek to make the food more palatable.

Another facet of the story comes in our learning that in the day-to-day routine of life personal relationships can become strained. One of the sisters has already been sought after by two men and rejected by her father and sent packing. Two old friends tell each other what they really think about one another. A husband and wife become engaged in angry conversation. This all happens at the table gatherings for prayer and Bible study. Babette from the kitchen hears this.

She becomes the winner of the lottery and receives 10,000 francs. The sisters feel sure she will now be leaving them. Her response is quite different. She tells them she will be offering a banquet-a feast. The food comes from abroad. The delivery is quite uncommon for the community. The table is laid with linen, china, crystal, and silver. It is a veritable and incredible meal, the likes of which most of the diners have never had before. Only a visiting general who has lived abroad is cognizant of just what is being offered them. The wines, the soup, the quail, the roasted suckling pig, the cheeses and fruits, the dessert give to each person a new lease on life. The argument between the two men is resolved. The married couple are reunited in their love for one another. Babette's feast offers them something they have never had before. Food which satisfied and at the same time offers faith that life can have more substance to it than they have known before.

The outcome is that Babette's 10,000 francs were literally eaten up and she continued to live with the sisters, but life is changed for all of them.

http://day1.org/647-sermon_for_the_2nd_sunday_in_ordinary_time

Robert Gould Tharp, 2001
- - - - - 

Perhaps the most obvious meaning is that Jesus by his attendance at the feast (while the bride and groom were consummating their union in another room or merely behind a curtain while the drinking and singing and dancing went on) endorsed human sexual love. 

http://www.agreeley.com/hom10/jan10.htm

Andrew M. Greeley [Fr. Greeley survived a horrendous accident last November and nearly died. With the continued effort of his family, friends, therapists and physicians he continues to recover and improve.]   
- - - - -
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://stsams.org/pipermail/propertalk_stsams.org/attachments/20100116/5d0ee74b/attachment.htm>