
Part 3 of Water, Wine and Human Beings Fully Alive
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(Read this series from the beginning at Part 1 and Part 2.)
Again, we are about to face crises of our own this coming year, crises of injustice rooted in marginalization and bigotry bearing the fruit of violence and oppression. In the midst of crisis, we too can be about turning water into wine. We won’t know exactly how till we are in the moment, but each moment will provide opportunities for us to make choices and build on them. The wine may be about to run out, and all we may have at our disposal is water. But don’t give up. Look for the water pots.
I’m deeply concerned about the immigration crisis being threatened now. I’m concerned for my LGBTQ friends and family. I’m concerned for the bodily autonomy rights of my wife and daughters living in our state here in Appalachia. Given our family’s history with two stillborn children, as traumatic as that experience was, we are both thankful it happened over twenty years ago under Roe and not today. I’m navigating anxiety for BIPOC communities and other marginalized communities here in Appalachia. I recently found out that my county here in WV is one of the top two in my state that Immigration and Customs Enforcement will be focusing on in 2025. Churches in my area are organizing to become places of sanctuary for immigrants.
This didn’t have to be, and yet, here is where we are. We don’t have any other time available for us than right now. We have no other circumstances to turn to than the ones we presently find ourselves in. Jesus asked his mother why she was bothering him because his time had not yet come, but our time has. It’s now. And how we will choose to show up in our world this year and the following years will matter for decades to come.
Our reading ends with the declaration, “What Jesus did here in Cana of Galilee was the first of the signs through which he revealed his glory” (emphasis added).
This reminds me of the words of St. Irenaeus, the early church Father, who was a strong advocate of justice for the poor. In his infamous work Against Heresies, he wrote, “The glory of God is a human being fully alive.” (Book 4, section 20, verse 7)
What does it look like for us this coming year to dedicate our energy and efforts to ensuring our neighbors have enough of what they need to be able to live fully, to be fully alive? This is what it means to work for the glory of God. Whether our neighbor is of a different race or culture, of a different gender, gender identity, or gender expression, of a different socioeconomic location, are differently able, differently educated, of a different orientation, or just different from us, period, these differences will be used to drive wedges between us and make us afraid of one another. The Jesus of John’s gospel tells us, above all else, to love one another instead. To love our neighbor means we take responsibility to do what we can to help them have all that they need not simply to survive but to also thrive. Some of us can do more, some of us can do very little, but whatever is within our ability as Jesus’ followers, the glory of God is human beings not marginalized, oppressed, or subjugated, but able to be fully alive.
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