A homily by Fr. Gene
Tucker, given at Trinity
Church, Mt. Vernon, Illinois; Sunday, January 20, 2013.
“THE CHURCH: REFLECTING THE
LIGHT OF GOD”
The theme
of light is prominent in this season of Epiphany, which is also carries the
subtitle “The Manifestation of our Lord Jesus Christ to the Gentiles.” Indeed, the theme of light which carries over
into this season of the liturgical year actually began with the Feast of the
Incarnation, more generally known as Christmas….there, we celebrated the coming
of Jesus Christ, He who is the Light of the world.
The theme
of light also figures prominently in today’s Collect, for the Second Sunday
after the Epiphany. It reads:
“Almighty God, whose Son our Savior Jesus Christ is the light of the world: Grant that thy people, illumined by thy Word and Sacraments, may shine with the radiance of Christ’s glory, that he may be known, worshiped and obeyed to the ends of the earth; through the same Jesus Christ our Lord, who with thee and the Holy Spirit liveth and reigneth, one God, now and for ever. Amen.”Picking up on this theme of light, a book I read recently by a wonderful English priest named John Fitch, entitled “Anglican Eirenicon”,[1] puts the relationship of the Light of Christ with the Church into proper perspective. In the book, Fitch makes the following comment (which I am able to only paraphrase):
“The Church has no light of its own, but only the light of Christ, to share with the world, in the same way that the moon has no light of its own, but only the reflected light of the sun.”So, putting together the themes of Christmastide, Epiphanytide, our Collect for today, and Fitch’s perspective, we can safely come to the conclusion that the Church’s mission is to:
- Become enlightened about Jesus Christ,
- Share the results of that enlightenment with the world.
Let’s
explore these issues a bit.
Looking at
the text, we can draw the following conclusions from it:
- Jesus expands the limits of normal life: Water doesn’t change into wine in the
normal course of things. So Jesus’
power to create is on display here, His power over the universe and its
normal manner of functioning.
- Jesus’ connection to the Father is demonstrated: It is God’s creative power that is at work here. This is the same God who – through the Word spoken at creation [3] - brought the world into being as its creator. The very point of Jesus’ miracles is to show that He is one with the Father (John 10:30).
- What was created is very good: In Genesis, we read that God said that the things He had created was “good”. Finally, God determined that everything He had made was “very good”. Here, in John, in the act of creating wine out of water, the steward in charge of the wedding feast determines that the really good wine has been reserved for the last part of the feast.
Let’s look
now at the role that faith plays in all of this.
Looking at
John’s account, we seem to see that the Lord’s mother has supreme faith in His
ability to address the problem of having no more wine to serve to the wedding
guests. Telling the servants that they
should “Do whatever He (Jesus) tells you,” she demonstrates her conviction that
her son is able to solve the problem.
Likewise,
John appends this comment to the end of his account of that first miracle,
saying, “This, the first of his signs, Jesus did at Cana in Galilee, and
manifested his glory, and his disciples believed in him.” (John 2:11)
The disciples
come to faith as a result of Jesus’ creative act.
We noted
above that the Church has no light of its own, but only the light that it
receives from the Son. John Fitch’s
excellent illustration serves to make a central point about the role of faith
in being able to receive and reflect the light of Christ: We must be willing – like the disciples and
like Jesus’ mother – to believe in Him.
Only then can we serve as a receiver and a reflector of the divine light
that shines in the words and the deeds of Jesus Christ, He who is the light of
the world.
AMEN.
[1] Fitch’s book has to do with promoting Church unity within the Anglican Communion.
[2] By the way, I can’t resist telling you that,
if you go to the Holy Land and visit the town of Cana today, you will see lots
of references to Jesus’ changing of water into wine. (I can’t remember if they are trying to sell
high quality wines in honor of His creative act or not.) But don’t be fooled into thinking that the
contemporary town of Cana is located on the site of the biblical town where
Jesus performed His first miracle. The
biblical Cana is about six miles away, a little further north of the modern
community.
[3] See Genesis, chapter one.
[3] See Genesis, chapter one.
