"They have no wine," she tells Jesus. Although, surely it wasn't just, "They have no wine." I'll grant you that it's speculation on my part, but I have a feeling that her statement was much more of a suggestion than observation; parents are good at that. I'm not sure how y'all say it up here, but if Mary had been from Georgia her comment might have been something like this, "Jesus, honey, they're out of wine. Now, what do you ‘spose we should do about that?" Well, Jesus, to be frank, doesn't ‘spose anything about it and in effect says to his mother, "Momma, it's not my problem."

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One mother realized that the children didn’t really understand Elizabethan English of the King James Version about Mary being ‘great with child’. At the last minute, she switched to the Good News Translation. As Mary and Joseph entered, the narrator read, “Joseph went to register with Mary, who was promised in marriage to him. She was pregnant.” As the last word echoed through the PA system, little Joseph froze in his tracks. This is not how he had heard it in the rehearsal. He gave Mary an incredulous look, then looked out at the congregation and said, “Pregnant? What do you mean – pregnant?”

 Christmas is a time of surprises!
A lady was preparing her Christmas cookies. There came a knock at the door. She went and found a man – rather shabbily dressed – obviously looking for some Christmas odd jobs. He asked her if there was anything he could do. She replied, “Can you paint?” “Yes,” he said, “I’m a rather good painter.” “Well”, she said, ‘there are two gallons of green paint there and a brush, and there’s a porch out back that needs to be painted. Please do a good job. I’ll pay you what the job is worth.” He said, “Fine. I’ll be done quickly.” She went back to her cookie making and didn’t think much more about it until there was a knock on the door. She went, and the obviousness of his painting was evident; he had it on his clothes and himself. She said, “Did you finish the job.” He said, “Yes!” She said, “Did you do a good job?” He said, “Yes. But lady, there’s one thing I’d like to point out to you. That’s not a Porsche back there. That’s a BMW!”

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There’s something I want us to be sure to notice in this story! And it is regarding the word ‘see’ or its variant, ‘saw’.
When Jesus saw them, he gave them healing!
When the Samaritan saw he was healed, he praised God!
And the question naturally emerges.
What do we see and what do we do when we see?
What do you do when you see!
What do I do when I see?
Jesus saw need and moved to meet it.
The leper saw healing and he did not just celebrate his good fortune! He returned to praise God and to fall on his face before Jesus.

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This may come as a shock to you, but some people say that I’m absent minded. Now, I don’t usually admit to anything, but today’s sermon is on mindfulness, so I thought why not!
It was just yesterday… I’m leaving the church about 1:30 and I realize that I’m hungry (forgot to eat lunch). So I pull into the McDonalds on East Avenue. I order my sandwich and open my wallet. Not a bit of money! (Forgot to go the bank) So I reach for my Mastercard and hand a card to the woman at the drive thru. Well, I’m waiting on my food, not really paying attention, but I kind of notice that the woman from the window is engaged in a long conversation with another woman who appears to be the manager. There’s some head shaking and then finally a nod of agreement. I’m just beginning to wonder what’s up when she opens the window again and hands me my bright blue card back. Smiling patiently she says, “Sir … I believe you have given me …your library card.”

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“Grace, mercy and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ”
It’s the salutation that St. Paul most frequently uses in his opening letters to the various Christian communities to whom he relates. It’s a salutation and response I first encountered in my early years … years when Eastman Kodak was such a prominent, gracious participant in this community and city … the years some of you will definitely remember … others may know through stories told … when Sibley’s actually occupied the Sibley building

Almost twenty years ago, the United Methodist Publishing enterprise – Cokesbury –produced a study guide on ‘Twelve Parables of Jesus’

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Our first language is the language of personal entitlement. That’s the language – the way of speaking – that comes most naturally to us. It is the language we are all fluent in as children and that was certainly true with me. When my older brother would commit some grave injustice against me or I suffered a heart-breaking loss on the ball field, I would gravitate to one particular question as naturally as a fish to water: Why is life so unfair?

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Shortly before he died of a brain-tumor, famed political strategist Lee Atwater looked back on his life with resignation: The 1980’s he said were about acquiring, acquiring wealth, power and prestige. I know.  I acquired more wealth, power and prestige than most. But you can acquire all you want and still feel empty. Terminally ill with cancer, Atwater diagnosed “a spiritual vacuum at the heart of American society, a tumor of the soul."

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And that also made leaven dangerous. In those days, it was unleavened bread that was a sign of purity and holiness. How his audience must have gasped when Jesus turned on his heels and said, You are to be like leaven in this world! They knew he was talking about something unexpected … something radical … something dangerous … something that gets inside of a community and through a series of internal transformations succeeds in turning it inside out.

You … and … me … a mustard seed …. and the kingdom of God.

There’s a game for young children that’s been around for generations. And, I bet almost everyone here has played it at one time or another. Perhaps you played it with your parents when you were very young. Maybe you played just last week with your grand-kids. The game is Chutes and Ladders and the rules are about as simple and straight-forward as you can get.

Okay… so a priest, a rabbi and a Protestant preacher all go into a bar…
Everyone here knows that I’m about to tell a joke right? Maybe it will be funny. Maybe not. But either way, when we hear that well-worn phrase, we know that a punch line is coming. Why? Because we share certain cultural assumptions about priests, rabbis and Protestant preachers. We assume they don’t hang out together very much – the world would be a better place if they did -- but we assume they don't and when they do happen to get together, we assume it isn’t at the corner bar. Those unspoken assumptions clue us in that a punch line is coming!

Come away for a minute and come to the Swiss Alps in all their grandeur with me. We are hiking along a path in the meadow far above the village of Grindelwald … one can barely make out its houses … oh , you know they are down there because the half hour Gondola ride , the longest in Europe has brought you to this place … this place of awe inspiring beauty.

Last weekend, I was watching the democratic debates. The candidates were being asked all the typical questions about the War in Iraq, health care and immigration and then out of the blue came a zinger that none of them could have expected. No campaign staff person had prepped them for this one! It was an email question from a man in Utah. My question is this, he wrote, do the candidates believe that, through the power of prayer, disasters like Hurricane Katrina or the Minnesota bridge collapse could have been prevented?”

What do you see when you look in your mirror? I wonder if you see the mirror through words that have been given to you, passed down over time -- some kind, some not so kind. Is your mirror scratched and broken? Or has it been made whole and complete through the healing power of love? I wonder if you see the fullness of glory that God made in you. Can you see the beauty that God sees in you?