from inside out

2 Epiphany C 2013
http://www.lectionarypage.net/YearC_RCL/Epiphany/CEpi2_RCL.html


God is closer to us than we are to ourselves.

This is no new notion. It was old when Augustine said it in the 5th century. It was old when Isaiah said it so poetically, “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.” I wonder what those rough Hebrew peasants thought when they heard that God had married them and their land! Too Much Information? Or maybe not; maybe as they worked the land intimately, hands dirty, and watched the land blossom with crops, as they held newborn lambs wet and quivering in their hands, I think they understood the God who was intimately with them as they were with the land.

At the deepest core of our being, we find the living God.

Strangely enough, it can be easy for religious people to forget this. Maybe that is why so many people resort to that expression which has become a cliché, “I’m spiritual but not religious.” To folks who say that “religion” represents a set of dogmas and rules and a scary institution that demands obedience. A better response might be “I’m spiritual because I’m religious”, because worship and practice together with others allows me to be transformed by the living Christ who dwells at the core of our being.

The Christ-light of Epiphany does not shine on us from outside, like a spotlight showing up our human flaws and imperfections. The Christ-light shines from within us. To be in Christ is to be illumined from within. To follow Christ is to co-operate in our own illumination. Writer Frederica Matthews-Green says “one’s essential being is permeated and filled with the presence of God. It is something more than merely resembling Jesus, more than merely ‘following’. It is transformation.”

On Facebook a long conversation started with the question: what is Christian formation? How do we do it? The word awakens deep longing for many. I think that longing is rooted in a deep hunger—we wish illumination, we wish transformation, we want “being in Christ” to be a lived reality.

In our tradition, we need to show up to allow Christ to work. “Word and Sacraments” are named in the Collect. Basic formation is supposed to take place as we gather to hear the Word and break bread each Sunday. This Epiphany is a good time to re-name and re-claim that deep reality. This Sunday is a good day to ask ourselves, “What is it I am thirsting for?” If it is not illumination and transformation by Christ, then during these Sundays leading to Lent it may be good to reflect and pray on that.

An illumined life has great power.

One man who lived an illumined life was Martin Luther King. King was once asked how he was able to keep such a grueling schedule of meetings, conferences, writing his own speeches and sermons, and gathered with activists and protestors long into the night, all under great stress, absorbing criticism and hostility. King said, “Early each morning, one hour belongs to God. The rest of the day belongs to everyone else.” It is good to think of the simple Christian pastor at prayer at dawn, probably with his Bible in his hands, then standing up with a sigh and going about a difficult life that changed our world. That is an illumined life.

And it is our life. John tells us so with signs and symbols today. Those stone jars at John’s wedding party held only water. But look what they held when Jesus showed up and when people just did what Jesus told them. Wine, wine, rich and good, better than an Oregon Pinot Noir, poured out for people who thought they were already full.

What about the old stone jars and plain water of our own hearts?

Watch what Jesus Christ in Word and Sacrament can do. And when our lives are filled with Christ’s new wine, see who will come and drink, see how the thirsty will gather. See how our illumined lives will be a gift to the world.