Some Challenging Thoughts…

What do you think about this?

Jesus’ first miracle was to reveal the Glory of God. God’s Glory is so extreme in wonder and amazement that it has been called “profligate.” Wasteful you say? Well let us look again at the wedding in Cana of Galilee (John 2:1-11). According to David Runcorn in his book entitled, Choice, Desire and the Will of God (Hendrickson Publishers), there is more to the story than what catches the eye and ear on the first reading.

The story is very well known. The wine runs out at the reception. The celebration is in danger of drying up almost before it has started. Behind the scenes, Jesus takes action and the result is startling. He turns more than 330 liters of water into what the master of ceremonies describes as the best wine he has ever drunk. This after the guests have already drunk their way through the original supply! This is more than generous. It is irresponsible—even mischievous. Isn’t there a moral issue here?

John calls this miracle the ‘first sign’ of Jesus. Not simply first among many—but the ‘Arch sign.’ This is the sign that is the key to interpreting all the signs that follow. This sign ‘revealed his glory and his disciples believed in him.’ What is it a sign of? It is a sign that a wildly generous, intoxicating, joyful love is now revealed in the world. A love that never stops at what is strictly necessary. This love will transform beyond all that is needed or the occasion requires. God’s love among us is the sign for us and the world we live in is a wedding. God's love goes to the extremes to rescue you. When you can't help yourself, let God help you. He loves to be a part of your life.

What do you think about this?

The dance…

From earliest days one of the ways Christians have tried to express the life and relationship of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit is as a dance. An early Easter hymn has the words, O thou leader of the mystic round dance! O thou leader of the spiritual marriage feast. Two words are important for understanding what kind of dance this is and what it might be like to join it. Describing a relationship, the word 'perichoresis' means a free, mutual exchange. The life of each is continuously fulfilled by the gift of the others in an eternal, non-grasping dance of mutual indwelling. ‘They not only encircle each other and weave in and out of each other as in human dancing; in the divine dance, so intimate is the communion that they move in and through each other so that the pattern is all-inclusive. It is a dance that is only possible because the life of the Holy Trinity is one of pure giving.

This is where the other key word appears—"Kenosis." It is a word used to speak of how Jesus emptied himself. But when Jesus emptied himself to enter our world as human, he was acting and loving out of the dance of the Holy Trinity.

So the incarnation offers us a mysterious and astonishing vision—the Holy Trinity as a dancing community of divine poverty. Each eternally, joyfully, disposing themselves; emptying, pouring themselves out to the favor and glory of the other. Nothing claimed, demanded or grasped. They live and know each other in the simple ecstasy of giving.

We are invited to participate in this dance. There are accounts in early Christian writings of churches expressing their prayer through dance. God’s desire from before all time has been to draw us into His dance. So put your dancing shoes on and grab your partner. He is the one with the nail scared feet and hands. Don’t under estimate His dance steps. I assure you,He can "cut a rug." He’s doing it now with the Father and Holy Spirit!

(Sources cited are available)