For many people, January can be a dismal month. Gray skies and bitter winds don’t lift our spirits. Our mailboxes no longer bulge with cheery Christmas cards. Instead they are likely filled with credit card bills. We know that to be a Christian means to hope, but it’s hard to do that in January.
To break my winter blue January mood, I looked at the calendar and I am uplifted by a significant date we will soon celebrate, namely the 90thbirthday of Martin Luther King, Jr., a prophet, who like Isaiah, could not remain silent.
Dr. King never moaned about the fact that the wine of freedom was drying up in America. He instead believed deeply in the power of God’s grace not only to change water into wine, but to also change hearts of stone into hearts of flesh and love. His dream of making a great nation even greater stirred us to change then and even now.
On a summer day in 1963, he shared his dream. “I say to you today, my friends, that even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream. I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed…we hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.
“I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia, the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood.
“I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.
“I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places shall be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight, and the glory of the Lord will be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together.”
Fifty-six years later, that dream has yet to be fully realized. Much progress has been made since Dr. King first shared his dream. Gone are the ravages of segregation that once colored the Deep South yet blatant tolerance of racism still linger in our country that color the attitudes of many.
We follow a Lord who changes things: water into wine, bread into his body, old ways into new life, January into hope. But how does he do it? Through you and me, that’s how.
We heard the last words spoken by Mary recorded in scripture moments ago when she told the servers, “Do whatever he tells you.” Those words are directed, in a true sense, to every Christian who ever lived or will live.
Imagine God asking you, “Are you listening to my Son?” or “Are you doing what my Son told you to do?” What might you say? Perhaps we would defend ourselves, “But Jesus told us many things to do. What particular teaching do you have in mind God?”
God would likely reply, “I have in mind two teachings that my son, Jesus, repeated over and over. Love one another as I love you and forgive one another as I forgive you.”
We are quite familiar with these nuggets of Jesus’ teaching: to love one another as God loves us and to forgive one another, yet often do we make them our priority in life? In a world torn apart by anger, hatred, and conflict, we have the privilege of being living signs of a love that can bridge all divisions and heal all wounds.
Let me give you this math quiz: 5+2 equals what? 7×7 equals how much? One nickel and one dime add up to what? Pretty simple math, huh? Conventional math is one thing, but what about determining the value of God’s math?
In gospel math, for example, 5 + 2 adds up to 5,000, when someone willingly gave up all they had, 5 loaves and 2 fish, that were then blessed, broken, and shared among a group of 5,000 gathered in Jesus’ name on a grassy hillside.
Seven times seven is the measure of unlimited forgiveness and unfailing reconciliation; always seeking out the lost, finding a place for the rejected, healing the hurt and the wounded, welcoming the stranger or back the prodigal.
A single nickel and dime, when given out of the same love and sacrifice as the poor widow demonstrated once with her mite in the temple equals eternity in the Kingdom of God.
Christ comes to change the bottom line, the equations, the trends, the standards by which we live our lives, the way we deal with one another, the factors that go into the decisions we make, the things we value and seek for ourselves.
In Christ, the “watered down wine” of rationalized self-centeredness is replaced with the “new wine” of compassion and gratitude for the life God has given us, namely, the “new wine” of honor and respect for every human being as a child of God, regardless of their race, gender, ethnicity, place of birth, and those in a womb yet to be born, the “new wine” of justice, mercy, and peace for every human being as a child of God, which Dr. King dreamed would be the hope shared someday by all peoples, providing them with the same hope God generously offers us in this lifetime and the next.