Praise the Lord for this new day. It has
been balmy and beautiful the last couple days. It is going to be balmy again
today. Thank you, Jesus.
On Saturday, we had a service of death and
resurrection for a young boy who was 4 years old, who died in an accident. The
service was attended by so many friends and loved of the young family that there
was no room in the church. There was a dinner following the service. In the
midst of massive grief we have a wonderful Savior who is acquainted with our
grief. He is a Man of sorrows. We do not understand and comprehend about the
death of children. We continue to pray for the comfort and strength for those
who mourn.
One of the readings for Sunday was John 2:1-11 which speaks to how our Lord transformed common water into spectacular wine. Transformation is at the heart of Gospel. It is the heart of Jesus to bring about transformation, new birth, into our lives. Transformed people transform the culture.
I love the way the Lord came to the wedding as a guest, and then took over. He became the Host. The Lord performed the miracle, but nobody knew what happened. Only the servants had a clue as to what happened . There are times, and they are often, that only the least, the lost, and the last know. They become partners and participants in miracles.
I love the story of Jean Valjean. Victor Hugo introduced us to this character in the classic Les Misérables. Valjean enters the pages as a vagabond, a newly released prisoner in midlife, wearing threadbare trousers and a tattered jacket. Nineteen years in a French prison left him rough and fearless. He has walked for four days in the Alpine chill of nineteenth-century southeastern France, only to find that no inn will take him, no tavern will feed him. Finally he knocks on the door of a bishop's house.
Monseigneur Myriel is seventy-five
years old. Like Valjean, he has lost much. The revolution took all the
valuables from his family except some silverware, a soup ladle, and two
candlesticks. Valjean tells his story and expects the religious man to turn him
away, but the bishop is kind, and he asks the visitor to sit near a fire. "You
did not need to tell me who you were," he explains. "This is not my house—it is
the house of Jesus Christ." After some time the bishop takes Valjean to the
table, where they dine on soup and bread, figs, and cheese with wine, using the
bishop's fine silverware.
He than shows Valjean to a bedroom
where, despite the comfort, Valjean can't sleep. Then, in spite of the kindness
of the bishop, he can't resist the temptation, so he stuffs the silverware into
his knapsack. Meanwhile, as the priest sleeps, Valjean escapes into the
night. Before he can get far the police catch him and march him back to the bishop's house. Valjean
knows that his capture means prison for the rest of his life. Then something
wonderful happens. Before the officer can explain the crime, the bishop steps
forward to say, "Oh! Here
you are! I'm so glad to see you. I can't believe you forgot the candlesticks!
They are made of pure silver as well…Please take them with the forks and spoons
I gave you."
Valjean is stunned. The bishop
dismisses the policemen and then turns and says, "Jean Valjean, my brother, you
no longer belong to evil, but to good. I have bought your soul from you. I
take it back from evil thoughts and deeds and the Spirit of Hell, and I give it
to God." At this point, Valjean has a choice: believe the priest or believe his past.
Valjean believes the priest. Eventually he becomes the mayor of a small town
where he builds a factory and gives jobs to the poor. He takes pity on a dying
mother and raises her daughter. Grace changed him. Amazing grace... How sweet the
sound.
Tom Lane asks, “If Jesus could transform common water into wedding
wine, spit and dirt
into new sight, troubled sea into pathway, well water into living water…could Christ
transform the waters of my life, shallow, murky, polluted, stagnant, sour, into a shower of
blessing?”
Could it be?
Amen.
into new sight, troubled sea into pathway, well water into living water…could Christ
transform the waters of my life, shallow, murky, polluted, stagnant, sour, into a shower of
blessing?”
Could it be?
Amen.
In Christ,
Brown
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