Lighthouse or Ship in Distress?

Devotional Reflection, Friday, January 12, 2024

The week of the first Sunday after the Epiphany

The Rev. David W. Perkins, Th.D.

Key phrases for reflection from today’s Gospel.

2:1On the third day there was a wedding in Cana of Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there. 2Jesus and his disciples had also been invited to the wedding. 3When the wine gave out, the mother of Jesus said to him, ‘They have no wine.’. . . .

9When the steward tasted the water that had become wine . . . (he) called the bridegroom 10and said to him, ‘Everyone serves the good wine first, and then the inferior wine after the guests have become drunk. But you have kept the good wine until now.’ 11Jesus did this, the first of his signs, in Cana of Galilee, and revealed his glory; and his disciples believed in him.

You will find the full text of today’s Gospel at the end of this reflection.

Daily Office Devotional Readings (BCP, 943)

AM Psalm 16, 17; PM Psalm 22

Gen. 6:1-8; Heb. 3:12-19; John 2:1-12

Today we celebrate the Feast of Aelred of Rievauxl. (See below.)

David’s Reflections

I began ministry as a 20-year-old college student in a little country Baptist Church, the Longstraw Baptist Church (I’m not making this up) in the rolling hills of northern Louisiana.  The orations with which I afflicted that little flock were long on content and short on understanding.   

One of my favorite topics was witnessing to others about your faith in Christ, a challenge that probably rightly terrified those folks.  (And, that challenge lacked the distinctively Anglican understanding of witness that includes inviting people to share in liturgy and come to faith in the context of a believing community.)  Perhaps they felt like the German poet Wolfgang Borchert:

A lighthouse I would be

In wind and night--

For cod and smelt,

For every boat--Yet I myself

Am but a ship in distress! *

Today’s Gospel reading records Jesus’ first miracle in John’s presentation of the ministry, the turning of water to wine at a wedding.  John presents this miracle as a symbolic parable of Jesus’ identity without taking away from his understanding of it as a real event.  In verse 11, he says, “Jesus . . . revealed his glory.” Jesus was not a ship in distress; definitely, a lighthouse.

Glory in Scripture has associations with light.  God’s essential nature, when it is revealed, is spoken of as glory.  William Temple, a former Archbishop of Canterbury, defined glory as “absolute love in perfect self-expression.” +  Here, Jesus’ action reveals his essential nature, witnesses to his identity.  He turned the water from six water pots into wine.  Six speaks symbolically of imperfection, something less than ideal and perfect, of which the number seven speaks (seven days of creation in Genesis 1; the repeated sevens in The Revelation).  The water pots for cleansing represent the system of ritual devotion, familiar to Jesus’ hearers, that could not really cleanse the conscience.  This miracle hints that Jesus can effect the cleansing and renewal of which the six water pots for cleansing can only speak.

How can our lives speak of God’s loving intent to remove the stain of a guilty past and the haunting feelings of inadequacy that shame evokes?  How will people get a glimpse of God’s ability to love and save?  They will see that lived out in our lives.  Our witness consists first of our experiencing the realities of God’s renewing and cleansing love.  Then, it might well consist of our inviting those we care about to worship with us.  Or it might involve sharing the story of our spiritual journey when doing so does not impose on or presume on another and adding that invitation to share in worship.  Exposure to the sensory power of Holy Eucharist and to the narrative of God’s saving love in the Great Thanksgiving has life-changing power that our words lack.

I may be a ship in distress, and if so, living through that distress without being overcome by it may be my best witness.

A lighthouse I would be

In wind and night--

For cod and smelt,

For every boat--Yet I myself

Am but a ship in distress! *

*Cited by Helmut Thielicke, The Freedom of the Christian Man: A Christian Confrontation With the Secular Gods.  Trans. John W. Doberstein (Grand Rapids: Baker, 1975 reprint ed. Orig. Published New York: Harper, 1969), p. 58.

+ William Temple, Readings in St. John's Gospel (First and Second Series)  (London: MacMillan, 1947), p. 328

Collect of the Day, First Sunday after the Epiphany: The Baptism of our Lord

Father in heaven, who at the baptism of Jesus in the River Jordan proclaimed him your beloved Son and anointed him with the Holy Spirit: Grant that all who are baptized into his Name may keep the covenant they have made, and boldly confess him as Lord and Savior; who with you and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns, one God, in glory everlasting. Amen.  (BCP, 214)

Today we celebrate the Feast of Aelred of Rievauxl, abbot and writer (died 12 Jan 1167 CE). http://www.satucket.com/lectionary/Aelred.htm

Collect of the Feast of Aelred of Rievauxl

Grant to your people, Almighty God, a spirit of mutual affection; that, following the example of your servant Aelred of Rievaulx, we might know the love of Christ in loving one another; through the same Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

A Collect for Fridays

Lord Jesus Christ, by your death you took away the sting of death: Grant to us your servants so to follow in faith where you have led the way, that we may at length fall asleep peacefully in you and wake up in your likeness; for your tender mercies' sake. Amen.  (BCP, 123)

A Prayer for Light

Lighten our darkness, we beseech you, O Lord;  and by your great mercy defend us from all perils and dangers of this night;  for the love of your only Son, Jesus Christ,  Amen.  (BCP, 111)

A Collect for Mission

O God of unchangeable power and eternal light: Look favorably on your whole Church, that wonderful and sacred mystery; by the effectual working of your providence, carry out in tranquility the plan of salvation; let the whole world see and know that things which were cast down are being raised up, and things which had grown old are being made new, and that all things are being brought to their perfection by him through whom all things were made, your Son Jesus Christ our Lord; who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.  (BCP, 280)

Daily Office Gospel, John 2:1-12

2:1On the third day there was a wedding in Cana of Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there. 2Jesus and his disciples had also been invited to the wedding. 3When the wine gave out, the mother of Jesus said to him, ‘They have no wine.’ 4And Jesus said to her, ‘Woman, what concern is that to you and to me? My hour has not yet come.’ 5His mother said to the servants, ‘Do whatever he tells you.’ 6Now standing there were six stone water jars for the Jewish rites of purification, each holding twenty or thirty gallons. 7Jesus said to them, ‘Fill the jars with water.’ And they filled them up to the brim. 8He said to them, ‘Now draw some out, and take it to the chief steward.’ So they took it. 9When the steward tasted the water that had become wine, and did not know where it came from (though the servants who had drawn the water knew), the steward called the bridegroom 10and said to him, ‘Everyone serves the good wine first, and then the inferior wine after the guests have become drunk. But you have kept the good wine until now.’ 11Jesus did this, the first of his signs, in Cana of Galilee, and revealed his glory; and his disciples believed in him.

12 After this he went down to Capernaum with his mother, his brothers, and his disciples; and they remained there a few days.

Daily Offices in The Book of Common Prayer

Morning Prayer, Rite 2, page 75, The Book of Common Prayer

Noonday Prayer, page 103, Book of Common Prayer

Order of Worship for Evening (Vespers), p 109, Book of Common Prayer

Evening Prayer, Rite 2, page 115, Book of Common Prayer

Compline (Night Prayer), page 127, Book of Common Prayer

Daily Devotionals, page 136, Book of Common Prayer