This week’s Prayers and Readings for the 2nd Sunday after Epiphany.
The Collect for the 2nd Sunday after Epiphany.
Almighty God, in Christ you make all things new: transform the poverty of our nature by the riches of your grace, and in the renewal of our lives make known your heavenly glory; through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord, who is alive and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen
The Post Communion Prayer for this Sunday
The Psalm for this Sunday is Psalm 36:5-10
Your steadfast love, O Lord, extends to the heavens, your faithfulness to the clouds. 6 Your righteousness is like the mighty mountains your judgements are like the great deep; you save humans and animals alike, O Lord. 7 How precious is your steadfast love, O God! All people may take refuge in the shadow of your wings. 8 They feast on the abundance of your house, and you give them drink from the river of your delights.
9 For with you is the fountain of life; in your light we see light. 10 O continue your steadfast love to those who know you, and your salvation to the upright of heart!
Glory to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit. As it was in the beginning is now and shall be forever. Amen
The Old Testament Lesson for this Sunday is taken from the Book of the prophet Isaiah, Chapter 62, verses 1 to 5
For Zion’s sake I will not keep silent, and for Jerusalem’s sake I will not rest, until her vindication shines out like the dawn, and her salvation like a burning torch. 2 The nations shall see your vindication, and all the kings your glory; and you shall be called by a new name that the mouth of the Lord will give. 3 You shall be a crown of beauty in the hand of the Lord, and a royal diadem in the hand of your God. 4 You shall no more be termed Forsaken, and your land shall no more be termed Desolate; but you shall be called My Delight Is in Her, and your land Married; for the Lord delights in you, and your land shall be married. 5 For as a young man marries a young woman, so shall your builder marry you, and as the bridegroom rejoices over the bride, so shall your God rejoice over you.
This is the Word of the Lord Thanks be to God
The New Testament reading for this Sunday is taken from the First Letter of St Paul to the Corinthians, Chapter 12, verses 1 to 11
Now concerning spiritual gifts, brothers and sisters, I do not want you to be uninformed. 2 You know that when you were pagans, you were enticed and led astray to idols that could not speak. 3 Therefore I want you to understand that no one speaking by the Spirit of God ever says ‘Let Jesus be cursed!’ and no one can say ‘Jesus is Lord’ except by the Holy Spirit.
4 Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit; 5 and there are varieties of services, but the same Lord; 6 and there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who activates all of them in everyone. 7 To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good. 8 To one is given through the Spirit the utterance of wisdom, and to another the utterance of knowledge according to the same Spirit, 9 to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by the one Spirit, 10 to another the working of miracles, to another prophecy, to another the discernment of spirits, to another various kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of tongues. 11 All these are activated by one and the same Spirit, who allots to each one individually just as the Spirit chooses.
This is the Word of the Lord Thanks be to God
The Gospel reading for this Sunday is taken from the Gospel according to St John, Chapter 2, verses 1 to 11
On the third day there was a wedding in Cana of Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there. 2 Jesus and his disciples had also been invited to the wedding. 3 When the wine gave out, the mother of Jesus said to him, ‘They have no wine.’ 4 And Jesus said to her, ‘Woman, what concern is that to you and to me? My hour has not yet come.’ 5 His mother said to the servants, ‘Do whatever he tells you.’ 6 Now standing there were six stone water-jars for the Jewish rites of purification, each holding twenty or thirty gallons. 7 Jesus said to them, ‘Fill the jars with water.’ And they filled them up to the brim. 8 He said to them, ‘Now draw some out, and take it to the chief steward.’ So they took it. 9 When the steward tasted the water that had become wine, and did not know where it came from (though the servants who had drawn the water knew), the steward called the bridegroom 10 and said to him, ‘Everyone serves the good wine first, and then the inferior wine after the guests have become drunk. But you have kept the good wine until now.’ 11 Jesus did this, the first of his signs, in Cana of Galilee, and revealed his glory; and his disciples believed in him.
This is the Word of the Lord Thanks be to God
The sermon this Sunday comes from Lorraine Ashworth
Today, we are leaving Luke's gospel as the source of this year's lectionary passages and have a story only found in the Gospel of John. A story where Jesus has already gathered a group of disciples who are invited to attend a wedding with Him.
And, Well...
If we are continuing with the theme of the last few weeks – the theme of “Come and See”, then today we are also invited to “Come and Join in”.
In the Psalm, we are invited to come and see how wonderful, how mighty, how loving God is, and we are invited to come and join in with praising God.
In the Old Testament reading we are invited to come and see how much God loves His People and we are invited to come and join in with expectation as the prophet foretells of a New Jerusalem, a holy city with a new name, in which all who love the Lord will be those that God rejoices over as a bridegroom rejoices over his bride.
In the New Testament reading, we are invited to come and see the gifts that our brothers and sisters in Christ have been given, and we are also invited to come and join in and ask for Spiritual Gifts and to accept them so that we can serve Jesus better.
And of course, in the Gospel reading we are invited to come and see what is happening at at that wedding in Cana, to see this first miracle, but we are also invited to come and join in as we, the church, the people who make up the body of Christ (as foretold by Isaiah and John in the book of Revelation), will be the bride – even if you are a manly man, you'll be a bride - dressed in all your finest at the wedding where we are joined to Christ.
So which passage should I focus on today? I am joining with a multitude of preachers today faced with the same choice as they look to explain the scripture, to inspire, to teach, to encourage, in some cases to admonish. It's amazing how many ways the same passages can be interpreted, but not really – every preacher is different, every congregation that they preach to is different.
If each of us who preach here in this church were to say how they would interpret the passages today, what they would base the sermon on, not one of us would say the same thing.
It's a good thing to have variety, it encourages us to come and see, come and join in as we ponder the words we were given after the service, or before if we got the notices early enough.
Well, that's enough of me pondering, lets get down to business.
Firstly, I want to praise God. We've already sung hymns of praise, we've already had the part of the service where we say 'Blessed is the Lord'.
If we had read the whole of the psalm, we would have seen that it opens with a complaint about Human Wickedness – well we know about that every time we read or listen to the news, and it ends with the writer asking God for deliverance.
Right in the middle, the heart of the Psalm are verses declaring grounds for hope. In contrast to human wickedness we hear of the Lord’s amazing “steadfast love” and faithfulness. In contrast to secretive lies, deceit, and sinful nature, we hear of God’s righteousness which is high as the mountains and deep as the seas. This amazing grace is not limited to those huddled in the safety of the sanctuary whether it's the people of Israel or the people of the Church. God’s love extends to all peoples and also to the animals!
The imagery describing God here is imaginative and stunning: God’s steadfast love is “precious” like a whole collection of precious stones; God is like a bird providing shelter for its young or like a host providing rivers of delightful drinks ; God is a fountain that provides life or God is the light in a world of darkness.
Don't these words make you want to get out of your seat and shout Alleluia or Amen, Let it be so. To come, see, join in, Praise God.
I'm going to skip over Isaiah for now...
We are invited to come, see, join in when we look more closely at the passage from Corinthians. St Paul doesn't want anybody to be uninformed. That's why his letters were written down and preserved, so that those he wrote to and many future generations could see for themselves.
This passage stresses that the Spirit gives gifts, services and activities, not just to a few, but to all. These are diverse, but each are intended for the good of all. They are not to make some better than others, there is no difference in the value of someone taking notices or a community lunch to the housebound than for somebody who speaks in tongues, or interprets them. These are not for an elite, goodness, I wouldn't be here talking to you now if that were the case. I'm far from elite. Let me quote that part of Paul's letter again.
“there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit; and there are varieties of services, but the same Lord; and there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who activates all of them in everyone. To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good.”
Doesn't that make you want to get up out of your seats, and shout Alleluia or Amen, Let it be so. To come, see, join in, be filled with God's spirit working in and through you.
So what can we come and see in the Gospel passage? What can we come and join in with?
We can come and see the words – 'On the Third Day' and remember that those words are used again after the crucifixion. The third day is when something special happens. Its when life overflows, when Jesus is bringing the Love of God into everyday life and salvation to the whole world.
We've all been invited to weddings and we get dressed in our finery, we are full of joy and expectation as we come and see two people joined together and we come and join in the celebrations afterwards.
And I'm sure that we've all been at a wedding where something has gone wrong or seen videos on social media showing a bride's dress being torn because someone stepped on the train, or a page boy or flower girl throwing a tantrum. The cars breaking down and leaving the bridal party stranded... Yes? Worse?
So at this wedding in Cana, the free bar ran out of booze!
Yet the trust of Mary and the power of Jesus saved the day. This overflowing of love made the water, in jars filled to the very brim, turn into wine. Wine, which to us when it is a communion service, represents the blood of Christ which was freely given for us.
Jane Williams in her “Lectionary Reflections” writes “this miracle at Cana was a revelation and a confirmation of faith for the disciples. They saw the exuberant, creative power of Jesus at work... this streak of anarchistic joy is characteristic of God as we encounter Him through Jesus”
Doesn't that make you want to get up out of your seats, and shout Alleluia or Amen, Let it be so. To come, see, join in, feel the Love of Jesus surround us as we trust in him to provide miracles even today?
So what about our passage from Isaiah? It's a tricky passage in light of current events in the Middle East.
It talks of a marriage between God and the Holy City, Zion or Jerusalem, but as this is a prophecy, it cannot be fully interpreted until after it has happened.
We can read into the passage that when it was written, the people of Israel had, in a way, gone through a messy separation after they had been been unfaithful, but that God wanted the relationship restored. For His people to be true to Him once more and for His people to re-commit themselves to Him.
Many people are still waiting for the physical city of Jerusalem to be made whole and be an exclusively Jewish city worshipping Yahweh and this has meant many years of conflict since the country of Israel was re-created as a homeland for Jewish people after the atrocities of the Second World War and those already in the land were displaced.
However, we can interpret Jerusalem as a city with “a new name that the mouth of the Lord will give” the Jerusalem that in Revelation was coming down out of Heaven to be the Bride of Christ.
If this interpretation is right, then our Old Testament passage is a magnificent promise for the church of Jesus Christ, the new Jerusalem composed of people from every nation, race, tribe and language.
Like the people of Israel exiled in Babylon, the church seems to be struggling, losing members rather than growing. The media is full of lurid accounts of our sins and failures. We try to adapt, change, adopt new action plans, plant new churches or partner with others - all in an effort to be a light to the nations. And we don't seem to be succeeding.
And that makes this passage a wonderful piece of Good News.
It does not tell us to do anything; it is simply an announcement of God’s plans for us; we must simply believe and rejoice. Other Sundays can be devoted to things we must do to reverse our fortunes. For today, we can just rejoice in what God says he will do for his bride.
Like all brides in traditional marriages, the bride of Christ which is the Church - the people who believe and trust in Jesus to be our Saviour - will get a new name. We will be called “my delight is in her” and a “crown of beauty” in God's hand, “a royal diadem”. And God will rejoice over us.
Doesn't that make you want to get up out of your seats, and shout Alleluia or Amen, Let it be so. To come, see, join in, celebrate, just be the bride, part of a joyful worshipping community this Epiphany, this year, for ever? Amen.