****The following is a draft of the message for Sunrise UMC on February 12, 2012***
Have you ever
noticed how often things don’t go exactly as you have planned? For me, it seems to be a common occurrence. A
couple of weeks ago, I was getting ready for a good and productive
week...coming off a great time with our Bishop and District Superintendent,
getting ready for the first Church Leadership Council meeting tonight, starting
this new series Jesus @, starting the
study on Heaven is fro Real...but
then, I started getting a little tickle in the back of my throat. No problem:
I'll just take some meds and also a couple of home remedies and I will be just
fine. Now, here we are about twelve days later and I am still recovering. And,
I am behind on sooo much!
Just another
one of those things that you just have to deal with when your plans get suddenly
changed. That happens a lot, doesn't it? Take weddings for an example. You expect
some normal problems to arise in the wedding planning period, but some you
don't.
Over the sixteen
years of my ministry, I have had the pleasure to officiate over many weddings
and there is one thing that I have learned about this perfect and memorable
event – it’s unlikely that all will go as planned. For instance, several years ago, I married
Tony and Sue. During the solo that was
being sung in their precious moment, the Matron of Honor looks at me and
mouths, “I lost the ring.” Not quite
fully understanding what was being told to me, I looked at her and said, “Huh?” This time she slowed down and exaggerated her
mouthing, “Tony’s ring, I lost it in the grass.” For once in my life, my mind actually worked
a little quick and I slipped my ring off and showed it to her that we’ll use
this one. Now, unfortunately, or maybe
fortunately, Sue didn’t know what had
happened, so when the time came, the Matron of Honor simulated handing me the
ring and I then gave it to Sue. Up until
then, everything was working fine. Then
came the first problem, Sue tried to put the ring on Tony’s finger and he being
a good six inches taller and bigger than me, so the ring wouldn’t fit. Sue looked startled a first, then to my
horror, a look of sheer determination came across her face as she began to
force my ring over his knuckles. I could
just imagine having to go home and explain to Karen why either my ring had to
be cut or why I just got married to another man! Luckily, I quickly intervened and was able
get Sue to stop before the ring got to a point of no return.
That’s just
one of those things that you don’t plan for and is just a quirk and won’t
happen again, right? You would think,
but...at another church just a couple of months later, I was asked to do
another couple, Tony and Pat's, wedding.
Speaking with them, I noticed how nervous Pat was and so I tried to ease
her mind by telling her about the ring incident. We all laughed about it and it seemed to ease
Pat’s tension somewhat. During the
wedding, I looked at the Matron of Honor, who also knew the story and she
smiled; all was okay. We began the
section of the liturgy of the exchanging of rings and I asked for the
rings. The Best Man handed his and then
I heard, CLINK. I knew what had happened. I slowly looked at Pat, whose eyes were now
as wide as soup bowls and she just was frozen in panic. The Matron of Honor stood right next to her,
mouth hanging open as she dumbfoundedly gazed down at the ring, at the bottom
of the air return that she was standing over.
No doubt about it – once again, off came my ring to save another
wedding.
The one day
that more sweat and tears, as well as money, is invested in has to be a wedding
day. It was that way with my wife and
mine; it was that way for Tony and Sue and Tony and Pat. It was probably that way for most all of you who
are married and will probably will be for those of you getting married. Regardless of when people get married, we all
have the same dream about the wedding - we all want everything to go off
without a hitch and to be perfect. Some
may have it that way, but for the most, something unexpected happens and the
stress levels skyrocket.
Sound
familiar? It might. It is quite similar to a dilemma Jesus' mother, Mary, once
faced. Let's take a look at this story
as told in the Gospel of John 2:1-11.
Hear now the Good News:
John 2:1-11
1 On the third
day a wedding took place at Cana in Galilee. Jesus' mother was there, 2 and Jesus and his disciples had
also been invited to the wedding. 3 When 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." 5 His mother
said to the servants, "Do whatever he tells you." 6 Nearby stood
six stone water jars, the kind used by the Jews for ceremonial washing, each holding from twenty to thirty gallons. 7 Jesus said to
the servants, "Fill the jars with water"; so they
filled them to the brim. 8 Then he told
them, "Now draw some out and take it to the master of the
banquet." They did so, 9 and the
master of the banquet tasted the water that had been turned into wine. He did not realize where it had come from, though the servants who
had drawn the water knew. Then he called the bridegroom aside 10 and said,
"Everyone brings out the choice wine first and then the cheaper wine after
the guests have had too much to drink; but you have saved the best till
now." 11 This, the first of his miraculous
signs, Jesus performed at Cana in Galilee. He thus revealed his
glory, and his disciples put their faith in him.
[Prayer]
The wedding
was rocking. The guests were partying and having a great time but all of a
sudden...the wine was gone; and that was a big problem. You see, back in those
days, wine was like the wedding cake and can you imagine how embarrassing it
would be to run out of wedding cake? Well, they couldn't imagine a wedding
without wine. So at this wedding, Mary
was facing one of those problems that may be trivial in the grand scheme, but
for the present moment one that makes you want to run a hide your face in
shame.
But isn’t
that the way it is with most of the problems we face? Very rarely do we ever face problems that
affects the outcome of the world or nation.
As a matter of fact, the majority of our problems never concern anyone
else or at least not for very long.
Usually the waves that we ride are made by pebbles, not by boulders.
We're late for work (again). We lock our keys in our car. The computer crashes -
again. We forget to relay a message. The waves rocking our lives are not life
threatening - yet. But they can be. A poor response to a simple problem can
light a fuse. What begins as small flickering flame can become a raging inferno
unless proper attention is given.
So I believe
it may be good for us to note how Mary handled the situation. Her plan is one that most corporate managers
could learn from. She simply goes to
Jesus and says, "They have no more
wine." That's it. That's all
she said. She didn't go ballistic. And
she did not begin to whine about it. She simply assessed the problem and took
it to Jesus.
The great
American philosopher, educator, and psychologist of the 20th century, John
Dewey, once said, "A problem well stated is a problem half solved."
Mary would have agreed with that assessment because that's what she did. She
saw the problem for what it was. Think
about it; she could have exploded. She
could have screamed, "Why wasn’t this planned better? There's not enough
wine! Whose fault is this anyway? You guys never do anything right. If anything
is to be done right around here I have to do it myself!" Or she could have imploded: "This is my
fault. I failed. I'm to blame. I deserve it. If only I was like [insert name] and had everything planned
and organized. I'm a failure in life. Go ahead; do the world a favor. Tie me up
and make me sit through another episode of Jersey
Shore. I deserve it."
You know,
it's so easy for us to focus on everything but the solution. We try to make
mountains out of molehills - but not Mary.
She simply looked at the problem, assessed it, and took it to the right
person, saying, "Jesus, I've got a problem that I can’t handle." She took the problem to Jesus before she took
it to anyone else.
I have heard
of a church council meeting that was getting a little heated over a rather
difficult problem. Apparently there was more agitation than there was
agreement, and after a lengthy discussion, someone suggested, "Let’s pray
about it, right now" to which another retorted, "Has it really come
to that?"
What causes
us to think of prayer as the last resort rather than the first? I believe Max
Lucado surmised two of the best possible reasons: feelings of independence and
feelings of insignificance. Sometimes
we're independent. We begin to think we are big enough to solve our own
problems.
A couple of
realities have hit our home recently. Yesterday, Katie turned twenty! How can
that be when Karen and I are still in our twenties? But it goes on. This fall,
Karen and I will become empty-nesters when bot Katie and Emily will be in
college. All of this has us becoming nostalgic. We remember those milestone
moments when both of our girls learned to wash themselves and their hair, dry
and dress themselves, and try their own shoes.
Then they were able to ride their
bikes on their own and swim without us having to actually hold on to them. With each achievement they have delightedly
pointed out, "Look, Mommy, Look Daddy, I can do it on my own." Karen
and I clapped at and celebrated each accomplishment our daughters have made.
While all of this is good and necessary, I hope they never get to the point
where they are too grown up to call on their daddy for help. Guess what friends, God feels the same way
about us.
At other
times we don't feel independent; we feel insignificant. We think, "Sure,
Mary could take her problems to Jesus. She's his mother. But he doesn't want to
hear my problems. Besides, he's got famine and disease to deal with and at
least a couple of million prayers about the presidential race. I don't want to trouble him with my
messes." If that is your thought, I’d like to share with you a verse that
you need to hear. It is from Psalm 18:19, “Because he delights in me, he saved me."
And you
thought he saves you because of you come to church each Sunday. You thought he saves you because you help out
with the missions or some of you other good works. You thought he saves you because of your good
looks or good attitude. You thought Jesus save you because you stay awake
during the sermon. Nope. Sorry friend. If that were the case, you and
I would be in a world of hurt, literally.
Now, there are many reasons God saves you: to bring glory to himself, to
appease his justice, to demonstrate his sovereignty. But one of the sweetest
reasons God saved you is because he is fond of you. He likes having you around.
He thinks you are the best thing to happen – well, since broken bread.
Jesus first
miracle was this, changing the water into wine.
Changing the ordinary into the extraordinary. He can do that. It’s within his power. It is also within his power to change
ordinary people like you and me into extraordinary champions in his
kingdom. And all it takes is for you to
be like the servants in the scripture reading today and allow it to
happen. Won’t you do that today? Or again today? Let Jesus have those problems that hold you
down. Whatever has you whining today,
let him take the despair out of your life, take that “H” out of your whining
and give you a glass of celebration and joy.
Afterall, he is the One who knows you the best and loves you the most.
[Communion]
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