February 3, 2019 was Super Bowl Sunday. The theme for the day was "Taste," part of a series called "Making Sense of Jesus." It was also the day of the annual Parkwood UMC chili cookout and fundraiser, hence the references to eating chili in the message text. Over $142 was raised for the pastor's discretionary fund as people voted on five different kinds of chili. The winner was "Nightshade Free Miracle Chili" - an appropriate thing for the day when we considered Jesus' first miracle of turning water into wine.
The service is on facebook live, here. The gospel reading and sermon start at about the 33:40 mark, but the whole service was lovely and fun so you might just want to kick back and enjoy it.
The service is on facebook live, here. The gospel reading and sermon start at about the 33:40 mark, but the whole service was lovely and fun so you might just want to kick back and enjoy it.
The lectionary texts for the Second Sunday of Epiphany are:
Isaiah 62:1-5
Psalm 36:5-10
1 Corinthians 12:1-11
John 2:1-11
Come, Holy Spirit. Feed our hungers. Feed our bodies, minds, and souls so that fully nourished, we go out to share your love. Amen.
So! Who’s hungry? Can you smell the chili cooking? Or maybe you cooked a pot of chili for the cookoff and have been smelling it for awhile? I’m ready to dig in.
And let me say… if you are here smelling that delicious chili then please know that YOU are particularly invited! Seriously! Please stay and enjoy some delicious lunch and pay what you wish. You can eat the chili knowing that all of it is an important part of the Parkwood UMC ministry. If you are hungry, come taste and eat.
In satisfying your own hunger, and voting with your love offering on the cook off chilis, you will be helping to support others who are hungry but for any of a million reasons cannot afford to eat… or pay electric bills… or sleep in a warm, dry place. Through the pastor’s discretionary fund the Parkwood UMC congregation shows the love of Jesus to people in need while protecting their dignity as God’s beloved children.
Which brings me back to my original question:
WHO IS HUNGRY?
• Is it the people who did not eat breakfast this morning?
• Or the families that qualify for Free and Reduced Lunch at Parkwood Elementary?
• Does being financially poor mean you are hungry?
• Sometimes we talk about athletes being hungry for a win.
• Or business people who are hungry to make the best deal and make the greatest profit.
• Sometimes we talk about loneliness as a gnawing hunger for companionship.
• People with addiction sometimes describe their addictions as an unquenchable thirst, or a hunger that they cannot satisfy and so turn to drugs or alcohol to dull the pain (even if it does not remove the hunger.)
It seems like, in one way or another, all of us are hungry. Maybe the question that I should be posing instead is what are you hungry for?
What is it like, to be hungry in the way that you are hungry?
Is it a need for nourishment for your body, and the smells are suggesting to your brain that there might be very tasty means nearby of being nourished? That is certainly true here today! But there are all kinds of ways that we need nourishment. Healthy people are routinely nourished in body, in mind, and in spirit. And today, in our gospel lesson, we see Jesus addressing all three.
Now, this wine at the wedding in Cana was the first sign that Jesus did. That’s the word John uses: “sign.” You might have heard these signs called miracles. So it was a big deal, this turning water into wine. His entrance into the fray of ministry. Up until now he has been a guy doing his thing, worrying his parents by hanging out in the Temple, getting baptized. But at this wedding in Cana, he is doing something else.
Now think about that for a second.
If this were your FIRST ACTION to show the world what is to come, where would you start? Would you want to make a big splash? Would you advertise, and try to get people to attend, and build up the anticipation?
Well, Jesus started at a wedding party that he just happened to be attending in a little village. He made party wine. How odd that seems to us in our workaholic, advertising-driven world! We are constantly bombarded with messages that WORK IS MOST IMPORTANT. That we must GIVE OUR ALL. That PLANNING IS IMPERATIVE! That if you aren’t getting sick then you aren’t doing enough and you should have an elaborate planning and journaling system to make sure it’s all happening in the right way.
That is not what Jesus did, though. Jesus makes his big entrance with PARTY WINE. Because his mother told him to, and told the workers to do whatever Jesus instructed them. This was not a big career opening this was a nice young man doing what his mother told him to do!
So… he made party wine, on the fly. When the party had already started to wind down. When the cups are sitting around, and people are a little tipsy, and everyone has rejoiced about the uniting of two families. Maybe the bride and groom have already gone off to start their married life. People who wandered in late, or who didn’t get in line in time, or who just weren’t bold and strong enough to get to the front of the line, would not have expected much, because all that anybody expected at that point was the leftovers. The dregs.
But instead the ones who would normally expect leftovers got THE BEST. Jesus brought the party home for everyone, even the people on the fringes. Everyone got the good stuff because Jesus was there.
A little while ago you heard a Mission Moment about how Parkwood UMC is working to expand our partnership by working with others across South Durham to address a certain kind of hunger. In addition to what Lisa described to you, I am DELIGHTED to announce that I have entered a formal contract with the NC Lutherans to explore the possibility of South Durham congregations and nonprofits working together on a range of outreach activities that will include work with people who have all kinds of hunger.
These are good things, for the community and for each of us who is part of the wider South Durham community. As a church community, we are called to live out our faith. We are called to follow the Jesus who went to weddings, celebrated the important ceremonies and events of life, and even made them better by including everyone – even the people who would normally have ended up with leftovers. That Jesus lived among his friends, listened to his mother’s encouragement, helped people be nourished in body, mind, and spirit.
In a few minutes we will be celebrating that very same Jesus – we will taste his body and his blood in communion. We will hear about how he was eating with his friends on the eve of his death. How he said in that saddest, most anxious of times that he was giving his BODY and his BLOOD. He had given his wisdom, he had given a newly married couple the best wine they ever tasted. He had loved people, raised people from the dead, helped people see again – not because they deserved it but because that is what Jesus was modeling for us. And now he was going to make it all possible by taking on all the things we cannot do – all the ways we are broken. So he instituted the supper that we will celebrate in a few minutes, and then he went to his death.
If that were the end of the story we would not be tasting bread and the fruit of the vine today. But Jesus did not stay dead. He was resurrected and is currently getting things ready for us in the ultimate wedding party – the ultimate party of joining together in love.
Jesus satisfied all kinds of hunger and as a result we are now free to live out all the gifts we have to help alleviate the hungers of those around us. We are free to do the best we can, and when we fail (as we always will) we are free to repent because we are already forgiven.
In tasting Jesus, we also taste the freedom to love our neighbors, and as we feed all the kinds of hunger that surround us, to be fed ourselves. We are nourished to nourish others in body, mind, and spirit, and to be nourished ourselves in the process.
Are you hungry?
Come. Taste and See. Jesus has just what you need.
Amen.
Psalm 36:5-10
1 Corinthians 12:1-11
John 2:1-11
Come, Holy Spirit. Feed our hungers. Feed our bodies, minds, and souls so that fully nourished, we go out to share your love. Amen.
So! Who’s hungry? Can you smell the chili cooking? Or maybe you cooked a pot of chili for the cookoff and have been smelling it for awhile? I’m ready to dig in.
And let me say… if you are here smelling that delicious chili then please know that YOU are particularly invited! Seriously! Please stay and enjoy some delicious lunch and pay what you wish. You can eat the chili knowing that all of it is an important part of the Parkwood UMC ministry. If you are hungry, come taste and eat.
In satisfying your own hunger, and voting with your love offering on the cook off chilis, you will be helping to support others who are hungry but for any of a million reasons cannot afford to eat… or pay electric bills… or sleep in a warm, dry place. Through the pastor’s discretionary fund the Parkwood UMC congregation shows the love of Jesus to people in need while protecting their dignity as God’s beloved children.
Which brings me back to my original question:
WHO IS HUNGRY?
• Is it the people who did not eat breakfast this morning?
• Or the families that qualify for Free and Reduced Lunch at Parkwood Elementary?
• Does being financially poor mean you are hungry?
• Sometimes we talk about athletes being hungry for a win.
• Or business people who are hungry to make the best deal and make the greatest profit.
• Sometimes we talk about loneliness as a gnawing hunger for companionship.
• People with addiction sometimes describe their addictions as an unquenchable thirst, or a hunger that they cannot satisfy and so turn to drugs or alcohol to dull the pain (even if it does not remove the hunger.)
It seems like, in one way or another, all of us are hungry. Maybe the question that I should be posing instead is what are you hungry for?
What is it like, to be hungry in the way that you are hungry?
Is it a need for nourishment for your body, and the smells are suggesting to your brain that there might be very tasty means nearby of being nourished? That is certainly true here today! But there are all kinds of ways that we need nourishment. Healthy people are routinely nourished in body, in mind, and in spirit. And today, in our gospel lesson, we see Jesus addressing all three.
Now, this wine at the wedding in Cana was the first sign that Jesus did. That’s the word John uses: “sign.” You might have heard these signs called miracles. So it was a big deal, this turning water into wine. His entrance into the fray of ministry. Up until now he has been a guy doing his thing, worrying his parents by hanging out in the Temple, getting baptized. But at this wedding in Cana, he is doing something else.
Now think about that for a second.
If this were your FIRST ACTION to show the world what is to come, where would you start? Would you want to make a big splash? Would you advertise, and try to get people to attend, and build up the anticipation?
Well, Jesus started at a wedding party that he just happened to be attending in a little village. He made party wine. How odd that seems to us in our workaholic, advertising-driven world! We are constantly bombarded with messages that WORK IS MOST IMPORTANT. That we must GIVE OUR ALL. That PLANNING IS IMPERATIVE! That if you aren’t getting sick then you aren’t doing enough and you should have an elaborate planning and journaling system to make sure it’s all happening in the right way.
That is not what Jesus did, though. Jesus makes his big entrance with PARTY WINE. Because his mother told him to, and told the workers to do whatever Jesus instructed them. This was not a big career opening this was a nice young man doing what his mother told him to do!
So… he made party wine, on the fly. When the party had already started to wind down. When the cups are sitting around, and people are a little tipsy, and everyone has rejoiced about the uniting of two families. Maybe the bride and groom have already gone off to start their married life. People who wandered in late, or who didn’t get in line in time, or who just weren’t bold and strong enough to get to the front of the line, would not have expected much, because all that anybody expected at that point was the leftovers. The dregs.
But instead the ones who would normally expect leftovers got THE BEST. Jesus brought the party home for everyone, even the people on the fringes. Everyone got the good stuff because Jesus was there.
A little while ago you heard a Mission Moment about how Parkwood UMC is working to expand our partnership by working with others across South Durham to address a certain kind of hunger. In addition to what Lisa described to you, I am DELIGHTED to announce that I have entered a formal contract with the NC Lutherans to explore the possibility of South Durham congregations and nonprofits working together on a range of outreach activities that will include work with people who have all kinds of hunger.
These are good things, for the community and for each of us who is part of the wider South Durham community. As a church community, we are called to live out our faith. We are called to follow the Jesus who went to weddings, celebrated the important ceremonies and events of life, and even made them better by including everyone – even the people who would normally have ended up with leftovers. That Jesus lived among his friends, listened to his mother’s encouragement, helped people be nourished in body, mind, and spirit.
In a few minutes we will be celebrating that very same Jesus – we will taste his body and his blood in communion. We will hear about how he was eating with his friends on the eve of his death. How he said in that saddest, most anxious of times that he was giving his BODY and his BLOOD. He had given his wisdom, he had given a newly married couple the best wine they ever tasted. He had loved people, raised people from the dead, helped people see again – not because they deserved it but because that is what Jesus was modeling for us. And now he was going to make it all possible by taking on all the things we cannot do – all the ways we are broken. So he instituted the supper that we will celebrate in a few minutes, and then he went to his death.
If that were the end of the story we would not be tasting bread and the fruit of the vine today. But Jesus did not stay dead. He was resurrected and is currently getting things ready for us in the ultimate wedding party – the ultimate party of joining together in love.
Jesus satisfied all kinds of hunger and as a result we are now free to live out all the gifts we have to help alleviate the hungers of those around us. We are free to do the best we can, and when we fail (as we always will) we are free to repent because we are already forgiven.
In tasting Jesus, we also taste the freedom to love our neighbors, and as we feed all the kinds of hunger that surround us, to be fed ourselves. We are nourished to nourish others in body, mind, and spirit, and to be nourished ourselves in the process.
Are you hungry?
Come. Taste and See. Jesus has just what you need.
Amen.
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