Thursday, January 14, 2010

Today’s text

John 2:6-10

There were six stone water jars standing there, meant for the ablutions that are customary among the Jews: each could hold twenty or thirty gallons. Jesus said to the servants 'Fill the jars with water,' and they filled them to the brim. Then he said to them, 'Draw some out now and take it to the president of the feast. 'They did this; the president tasted the water, and it had turned into wine. Having no idea where it came from -- though the servants who had drawn the water knew -- the president of the feast called the bridegroom and said, 'Everyone serves good wine first and the worse wine when the guests are well wined; but you have kept the best wine till now.'

Reflection

I have known the souls of those who know you, Jesus. They are like water jars you fill, not with water, but with the wine of your life.

This early morning I know that wine also in my soul, as if the veins and arteries that course this body run with the sweet blood of grace that ran through you as you dropped in on wedding feasts.

And yes, you did make the party run crazy. All that wine was not to impress the guests but to ensure human joy did not play out.

You come, Jesus, bearing the intention of God that the wine that makes glad the hearts of human souls might never run dry.

You come to a wedding feast to reveal that, in you, heaven and earth are wed, forever joined. You come to pour the wine of eternity into the narrow confines of our little lives, into the saddest corners of our worlds that the joy of the world we cannot yet imagine might fill our hearts and move our song.

And just maybe, we might learn to dance through sad and difficult days, knowing the sweet wine of your life runs through our being, too.

Truly, it does, and it never ceases to surprise me, filling me with a joy and power that makes me eager for the day, knowing there is good work to do and broken souls to touch.

Funny, too, that when we pour our lives out for another we find there is more in our souls than mere water.

I don’t wonder how it got there.

Pr. David L. Miller

Tuesday, January 12, 2010

Today’s text

John 2:1-3

On the third day there was a wedding at Cana in Galilee. The mother of Jesus was there, and Jesus and his disciples had also been invited. And they ran out of wine, since the wine provided for the feast had all been used, and the mother of Jesus said to him, 'They have no wine.'

Reflection

You come, Jesus. You come when the wine of life plays out, and we have no more.

You come when energy is low, and the day feels overwhelming.

You come when there is too little time and too little will.

You come when we wonder if our efforts are worth anything.

You come when we fail and see no reason to try again.

You come when we feel alone and wonder if we will ever be known.

You come when the road is hard and the way feels unending.

You come when we lose our way, and hope is faint.

You come when we hunger for joy, but our souls are cool.

You come when words feel empty and catch in our throat.

You come when life is threatened, and death draws near.

Come here, Jesus, where the wine threatens to play out, where souls mourn their beloved and worry amid disease. Come where weary hearts and worn bodies already bear too much, and life demands more.

Come to us. Pour into our souls the wine of laughter and assurance, the joy of loving companionship, the knowledge that in you heaven is wed to earth, and we need never worry about the wine.

For you will always bring enough, and the feast of heavenly joy will moisten every cheek.

Pr. David. L. Miller