"Do I Want to Stay Like This?"

 

Isaiah 62:1-5    John 2:1-11

 

     On Wednesday I read the following quote by Anne Lamott, "God loves us exactly the way we are, and God loves us too much to let us stay like this."  I find comfort and hope in that statement.  There is comfort in the fact that God loves us.  There is hope in that God has something better in store for us. 

 

     I think that is what the passages in Isaiah and John are saying to their readers.  Isaiah was speaking to a people in exile who longed to return to Jerusalem.  He is telling them that God has not forgotten them.  They will be given a new name and will become a crown of beauty in the hand of the Lord.  At the wedding feast at Cana in Galilee the hosts were beginning to despair because they were running out of wine.  Normally they served the best wine first, when people knew what they were drinking.  Jesus helps them save face as he changes the water into wine, and lo and behold the best wine is served last.  With God the best is yet to come.

 

      I don't know about you but that is a word I needed to hear.  Ever since November I have felt like I have been trying to get over the hump.  It is like a part of me has been missing and I don't know how to fill the void.  I want to be like new wine, I want to experience the joy that God has in store for us, but there is something that keeps me from it.  I feel like I take two steps forward and then a step backward.  I can see the light at the end of the tunnel but it is not as bright as I would like it to be. 

 

      My guess is that there are some who are feeling that way about the church right now.  We are beginning a period of transition that we are not quite sure about.  Right now we can't see the light at the end of the tunnel.  We hope it works well but right now we just aren't sure.  I have to be honest, there are some things about the reorganization that make me nervous and there are some things that have me excited.

 

      I don't expect my life to change magically overnight.  I hope the transition will be as smooth as possible but I don't expect it to happen overnight.  Nor is it my expectation that a person will change magically because that person has been chosen as an elder or that a deacon automatically changes because his or her position has been changed to elder.  

 

      What I need to keep in mind is that finally it is in God's hands, the God who led the exiles back to Jerusalem and his son, Jesus, who changed the water into wine.  What will bring about change is our trust in the one who promises to help us become a crown of beauty in the hand of the Lord and who can transform us from water into wine.  We trust that God loves us too much to stay like this.

 

       What should our expectations be of our ministers, our elders, our congregation.  That we are changing in positive ways because God loves us and is working through us.

      

       We also have the expectation that God has given to each one gifts to use for the glory of God:  wisdom, knowledge, faith, healing, discernment, compassion, kindness.  And that these gifts will be used with humility, for the purpose of proclaiming good news, for bringing about peace. 

 

        The most important thing we can expect of our ministers and elders is that they love Jesus and that they will use the gifts God has given to them to share that love in the church, the community and the world. 

 

        In my personal life I am hoping I can get to the point when I feel whole again.  In the church I hope we can get to the point where we feel like a crown of beauty in the hand of the Lord.  As Jesus changed the water into wine, may God transform us as individuals and as a church into joyous disciples. 

 

        "God loves us exactly the way we are, and God loves us to much to let us stay like this."  Life is good, life lived in the Spirit of God is even better.