JESUS BUILDS HIS CHURCH \u2026WITH PEOPLE, NOT STONES<\/strong><\/p>\nGrace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.<\/p>\n
Some years back, the youth group went on a mission trip to Hurricane, WV. We stayed in a high school, sleeping in the classrooms and eating in the cafeteria.<\/p>\n
One rainy night, we were called out of our rooms by a fire alarm to gather out in the front parking lot.<\/p>\n
The fire company could find no evidence of fire, so we went back to bed.<\/p>\n
Two more times that night, the fire alarm called us out of our rooms to gather in front of the building.<\/p>\n
It so happened, that this high school had a flat roof, and water was getting into the wiring of the fire system, setting off the alarms.<\/p>\n
Three times that night, we were called out of our separate spaces to gather together to await news.<\/p>\n
In the Bible, the word \u201cchurch\u201d, ecclesia, means those called out into an assembly to hear a message.<\/p>\n
This Week of Prayer for Christian Unity begins with the confession of Peter in Matthew 16.<\/p>\n
Then Jesus asked [the disciples], \u201cAnd who do you say I am?\u201d16\u00a0<\/sup><\/strong>Simon Peter answered, \u201cYou are the Christ, the Son of the living God.\u201d17\u00a0<\/sup><\/strong>Jesus answered, \u201cYou are blessed, Simon son of Jonah, because no person taught you that. My Father in heaven showed you who I am. 18\u00a0<\/sup><\/strong>So I tell you, you are Peter. On this rock I will build my church, and the power of death will not be able to defeat it. NCV<\/em><\/p>\nJesus, the Christ, Son of the living God, builds his church by calling people out of their unbelief into faith in him.<\/p>\n
He calls people out from their separate spaces into a public assembly to hear what the living God has to say.<\/p>\n
Jesus builds his church in multitudes that are taught and fed from 5 loaves and 2 fishes \u2013 and in a small gathering at a centurion\u2019s home where he raises a dead girl to new life.<\/p>\n
Jesus builds his church from among his own Jewish people gathered in synagogue, where he announces that the Spirit of God is upon him to preach God\u2019s good news, free those in captivity, give sight to the blind, and bring justice to those who have been treated unfairly.<\/p>\n
And he builds his church from among foreigners and Gentiles such as the Samaritan woman and the Roman soldier.<\/p>\n
Jesus himself is the focal point for the gathering of those whom he calls out from the masses of unbelief into faith in him as Lord and Savior.<\/strong><\/p>\nHe is the news which we await; the message from God we long for.<\/p>\n
And that Word, that news, that divine message is conveyed not only by what Jesus speaks, but also by what he does.<\/p>\n
So today, we \u2013 with Christians around the globe \u2013 have been called out as the church of Jesus Christ \u2013 to hear a story of something Jesus did.<\/p>\n
John the Good News Storyteller has shaped this story to increase faith in those who hear. So he begins\u2026<\/p>\n
On the third day\u2026<\/p>\n
Now, John wants us to immediately think: on the third day, Jesus rose from the dead.<\/p>\n
This is a story of the new life Jesus brings \u2013 God\u2019s promised new creation that has begun with Jesus.<\/p>\n
Three days ago, in John\u2019s Gospel, Jesus was baptized and identified as the Son of the Father. His baptism was not just of water, but water and the Holy Spirit \u2013 and was a baptism into death.<\/p>\n
Now, on the third day, Jesus is at a wedding.<\/p>\n
Weddings are big deals \u2013 then as now.<\/p>\n
Often, God speaks of his own people as his bride, as in our first reading from Isaiah 62:1\u20135:<\/p>\n
You will be called the People God Loves,
\nand your land will be called the Bride of God,
\nbecause the\u00a0Lord\u00a0loves you.
\n\u2026As a man rejoices over his new wife,
\nso your God will rejoice over you. NCV<\/em><\/p>\nJesus builds his church at this wedding, for which the whole community is called out to celebrate the union of bride and groom.<\/p>\n
God\u2019s new creation begun in Jesus becomes visible in the filling of what was empty and the giving of abundance where there was nothing.<\/p>\n
The wine had run out.<\/p>\n
We don\u2019t know why \u2013 did the bridegroom not plan well enough? Was his family too poor? Did they invite too many guests? Were the guests greedy drunkards?<\/p>\n
We don\u2019t know and Jesus didn\u2019t care about the why. He cared about the people gathered for this festive occasion.<\/p>\n
He cared about showing them that God\u2019s love and mercy are greater than human limits.<\/p>\n
So he had empty water jars filled with water which when served, became wine \u2013 the best wine \u2013 and more than they could ever finish.<\/p>\n
On the third day\u2026 the wedding was resurrected by the risen Lord Jesus.<\/p>\n
On the third day\u2026 people experienced the new and abundant life God had long promised.<\/p>\n
They began to join Peter in confessing Jesus as indeed the Messiah, the Son of the living God, who delights in us as his beloved spouse.<\/p>\n
And so, Jesus continues to build his church with people he calls out from unbelief to faith in him and the Father and the Holy Spirit.<\/p>\n
Turn now to someone near you, or if you are alone, look in the mirror, and say to them, \u201cJesus delights in you.\u201d<\/p>\n
Jesus delights in us.<\/p>\n
And he gathers us at this foretaste of the heavenly marriage feast to show us how far his love goes \u2013 that he gives his life for us \u2013 and changes bread and wine into his body and blood so that his death becomes our death and his life becomes our life.<\/p>\n
We have been called out from our unbelief into this gathering of faith to hear the Good News of our forgiveness, our redemption, our deliverance, our new life in union with Jesus, Son of the living God.<\/p>\n
Let us live this new life, reveling in the abundance of tender mercy and grace he shows us.<\/p>\n
In the name of the Father, and of the +Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.<\/p>\n
\n\u00a9 The Rev. Beth A. Schlegel<\/p>\n
Pastorschlegel@live.com<\/p>\n
St. Peter\u2019s Lutheran Church, York PA, USA<\/p>\n
Christ Lutheran Church, Manchester PA, USA<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Second Sunday after Epiphany | 19.01.2025 | John 2:1\u201311 | Beth A. Schlegel | \u00a0Text English Standard Version Copyright \u00a9 2001 by Crossway Bibles (or other version): 1 On the third day there was a wedding at Cana in Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there. 2 Jesus also was invited to the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":15038,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39,659,157,334,853,108,110,658,349,3,109],"tags":[],"beitragende":[],"predigtform":[],"predigtreihe":[],"bibelstelle":[],"class_list":["post-20684","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-johannes","category-2-so-n-epiphanias","category-beitragende","category-beth-a-schlegel","category-bibel","category-current","category-engl","category-kapitel-02-chapter-02-johannes","category-kasus","category-nt","category-predigten"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20684","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20684"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20684\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20685,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20684\/revisions\/20685"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15038"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20684"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20684"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20684"},{"taxonomy":"beitragende","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/beitragende?post=20684"},{"taxonomy":"predigtform","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/predigtform?post=20684"},{"taxonomy":"predigtreihe","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/predigtreihe?post=20684"},{"taxonomy":"bibelstelle","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bibelstelle?post=20684"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}