Just Add Water

          “¹In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. ²Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.” Genesis 1: 1&2 (NIV)

Just add water.

“¹On the third day a wedding took place at Cana in Galilee. Jesus’ mother was there, ²and Jesus and his disciples had also been invited to the wedding. ³When the wine was gone, Jesus’ mother said to him, “They have no more wine.”

⁴”Dear woman, why do you involve me?” Jesus replied. “My time has not yet come.”

⁵His mother said to the servants, “Do whatever he tells you.”

⁶Nearby stood six stone water jars, the kind used by the Jews for ceremonial washing, each holding from twenty to thirty gallons.

⁷Jesus said to the servants, “Fill the jars with water”; so they filled them to the brim.

⁸Then he told them, “Now draw some out and take it to the master of the banquet.”

^9aThey did so, and the master of the banquet tasted the waster that had been turned into wine.” John 2: 1-9a (NIV)

Lord, there is a bushel full in those readings. My friends and pastors Andy and Lee could probably preach half a dozen sermons from them and not repeat each other. Early this morning the LCPC Men’s Ministry group read chapters 2 through 5 out of the Gospel of John and a couple of things struck me about Jesus’ first miracle. Hopefully, I won’t be steeling the pastors’ thunder.

Water plays a huge part in Biblical writings starting with the first couple of versus when God created the orb we live on and covered it with water. Water continues to play big through to the end of the New Testament with Jesus’ baptism, his first miracle, the man by the healing pool that Jesus healed on the Sabbath, the Samaritan woman at the well where Jesus started a revival in the town, just to name a few NT stories.

Jesus’ miracle was very simple, just add water and take it to the banquet master. This basic miracle would never have happened without Jesus’ mother taking the bold step of faith and first commanding the servants to obedience to Jesus. First the servants obeyed Mary, then they twice obeyed Jesus and the miracle became evident to kick Jesus’ ministry into high gear and giving us a story rich in allegory, abundant material for generations of sermons.

What step of faith do we need to take? What act of obedience to we need to make to precipitate a miracle in our lives and the lives of those we’ve been called to love?

         

In His Grip,

jerry

Dear Mom

Dear Mom,

Mother’s Day Sunday brings out a host of sermons about what it is to be a mother and many point to Mary as a shining example. All they need to do is lean a photo of you on the easel up front and have them give me a call; I’ll tell them all about you and how you’ve become and been the model mom. There is plenty that I can tell them and whenever I can, I brag about you and tell people how fortunate that I am to have a mom like you.

People sometimes ask me, or sometimes they don’t and I tell them anyway, what inspires me to youth ministry. Before I tell them it’s in my heart and I feel called to it by our Lord, I tell them it’s genetic, both my mom and dad were youth advisors to me while I grew up and my mom in particular carried on over many years – ‘carried on’ being such a descriptive phrase for how we are when we are in youth ministry. We carry on is so many ways; goofy, pragmatic, doggedly, silly, tearfully… You have been a guiding light to me with the pathway having been lit to what looks to me in the rearview mirror to have been a lifetime of youth work in one form or another with the times that I’ve felt most alive and most in tune with the Holy Spirit having been while working with young people. Thank you.

You have been an example of selfless love that you show us by your actions, the way you set up your priorities, how you go about Christian service – your lifestyle. The Love Chapter, 1 Corinthians 13, is your guidebook, your itinerary for living and it’s etched upon your heart.

You are the mother to two of the greatest treasures I have, Stacey and Denise. Sisters, as annoying as siblings can be to each other, are priceless and you have done a wonderful job with them, not so much like a sculptor with mallet and chisel as like the river washing away the roughness, leaving behind smooth stones, graceful and elegant, water and rock, perfect compliments, one to the other. Thank you.

You are and have been a bonus mom to my friends, my wife, and anyone I’ve loved and brought to the house. It has been an open door for the three of us and your extended family has grown and I know, has blessed you in return many times over, that’s the way giving of yourself is. Thank you for being there for my friends and caring for them as you have. We have a few bonus kids of our own and understand the appeal and fun of it; thanks for that as well.

By the way, your mom job as translated into a very nice gig as Gramsey and now GeeGee, hasn’t it? Thank you for being such a wonderful example to my own family unit. I am so grateful that God brought me a woman who has also been a great mom and reflects many of the same qualities as you. I’m quite certain that she would agree that you have influenced her on this in a very complimentary fashion with her own mother.

Thanks mom, I love you.

jerry james