The very first sign of Jesus’ identity is a sign of sustenance, of giving the people all that they need, and more. It is also a sign of community preserved, of dignity restored. For the hosts at this wedding banquet to have run out of wine would have been a deep embarrassment, one that others could easily have ridiculed and scorned. What we humans miscalculate, Jesus corrects and fills to the brim, and does it with food of the finest quality.

As Jesus leans into his purpose, we too receive that same invitation, no matter how young or old we are. And it should cause us to ponder, what does it mean to live a spiritual life, a life of meaning and purpose? Is it about having all the right answers? Or is it about embracing a posture of watching, and wondering? Of listening more than telling, and of greeting the world and its Creator with holy curiosity?

Christmas morning is a strange and liminal time – I have come to love it far more than Christmas Eve, because somehow it does not have to try so hard. Christmas morning does not strain to carry the weight of having to create magic, does not groan under the pressure to provide that perfect Christmas experience. Things are, in a way, so much more ordinary.

Stewardship refers to right relationship and right use of our talents, time and energy, and money for the purpose of doing God’s work in the world.  I’d like to reflect on stewardship in light of the bible and current situation in our country.

Does love have any power? It forgiveness possible?

The gospel and other readings today make the claim that loving service to others has the power to bring life and freedom out of unmerited suffering and death. Does love have any real power today in a world beset by overwhelming injustice and violence? Can we stake our lives as Jesus and his disciples did on the promise that the costly way of love saves and liberates us and others? Let me share a story of one person who helped me answer that question.

“Good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” Jesus said to him, “You lack one thing; go, sell what you own, and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; then come, follow me.”

The Jesuit scholars John Donahue and Daniel Harrington wrote about our gospel passage today that it is “the longest sustained treatment of any ethical issue in the gospel.