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Monday, January 14, 2013

Tuesday LEctionary Leanings: Got Wine!?!? Edition

Saw this picture on FB last fall and when I sat down to work this morning I just KNEW I had to use it this week.

Anyway....

This week brings us to the 2nd Sunday After Epiphany (which is a short-ish season this year only lasting for 4 Sundays before we get to T-fig on February 10).  The RCL passages are here, but first, shall we pause for prayer? (Prayer comes from here)
When we stand at the edge of desolation, staring down into our emptiness,
     you reach out to keep us from falling.
When we fumble and stumble
throw the shadows of our world,
     you offer us a little light,
          which is all we need until our eyes
          grow accustomed to the bright dawn
          of your grace and wonder.
When we are worn down
by the rough edges of life,
     you polish us until we gleam with hope.
When we feel deserted,
     you adopt us as your very own.
When the world files a bill
of divorce against us, turning its back,
     you slip the ring
     of joy on our finger,
     clasping our hands in yours,
          as you whisper vows of love
          which will remain longer
          than the stars will burn.

God in Community, Holy in One,
we give you praise for your presence,
even as we pray as we are taught,
Our Father . . .

So in Isaiah and John we have weddings.  But more importantly in John we have wine.  Gallons and Gallon of wine.  I did the math this morning and it works out to between 720 and 1080 standard bottles of wine.  [At that point any of several songs about drinking came to mind].  13 years ago I went to a community theatre production of Jesus Christ Superstar and during the overture they were enacting various scenes from the Gospels and at one point they had the actor pour clear liquid into a bottle and it turned a lovely shade of red.  I have always wanted to do that but can not remember the (fairly simple I think) chemistry needed to accomplish that trick.

Or there is the chance of going with 1 Corinthians.  I am not always fond of Paul but 1 Corinthians 12 is one of those passages where he is at his greatest IMO.  Given that this is the Sunday that falls during the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity this could be a wonderfully appropriate passage to lead into a discussion about why there are so many Christian churches in the world, particularly if you expand into the rest of the chapter and the metaphor about the body.

But it is a common "gift" in the church...
Then I believe there are those in our midst who are following the Narrative Lectionary and so will be talking about the calling of the first disciples (as Luke tells it) this Sunday.

And likely there are those who are off in a whole other direction.

Where are your headed this early in the week?  What questions, comments (relevant or irrelevant and also the irreverent) are jumping to the forefront of your mind?   Any great commentary columns you have found?  New insights?  Share all in the comments....

7 comments:

  1. Here are my early thoughts--where I show my work on the math of abundant wine

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    2. Never mind Gord - the 20-30 gallons is written into another translation of the reading. My original reading was from a children's bible that didn't have the numbers, just that there was a lot of wine. (I'm using this story for children's time)

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  2. Gord,

    Thanks for posting today! I especially love the link for Lectionary Liturgies --- that's a new resource for me, and I think I'm going to use that Great Thanksgiving.

    For the children's sermon, I'm putting red kool-aid mix at the bottom of a clear pitcher and then pouring water into it. The youth group did this last year, and it seemed to work well :-)

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  3. I think I'm going with the gifts of the Spirit...it's my second week in my new call, and while the wedding at Cana would offer interesting things to ponder, I think a community of people gifted for the work of ministry together is where we need to go. Plus next week is the annual meeting, when we'll be using the second half of the chapter about the Body, so...nice little continuity there.

    Of course, I don't yet know what I'm going to say about the gifts of the Spirit, but hopefully she'll gift me with something worth saying before Sunday...

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  4. I was going to go with the 1 Cor 12 reading and focus on the gift of the spirit are to be used for the good of the community and tie it in with Dr King. But I decided to go off lectionary, using Is 2 and a portion of MLK's first anti-Vietnam speeches as the texts (playing back a purchased MP3 of his actual speech). I hesitate to follow MLK speaking with my own words but I will probably still do so, making the connections to why I did that and also to the relevance to today. And quoting a line or two from earlier in the speech (it's 59 minutes and we will play about 15 minutes). A bit nervous about the whole thing but trust that the Spirit will make it meaningful and/or powerful

    Lynn
    (small UCC congo in IL)

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