In worship yesterday we reflected on the life of Dietrich Bonhoeffer and his experience with Finkenwalde Seminary in Germany during the rise of Hitler. Bonhoeffer’s discipleship ultimately cost him his life. His prophetic witness to costly Grace challenges us all to consider how we practice our faith today.
Where and how are you standing for Koinonia today?
The Wedding at Cana is my favorite text because there is a lot of humor in it. There’s humor in a mother approaching her son and telling him to do something without ever actually telling him to do it. There’s his pouty resistance to his mother’s non-demand while she completely ignores him and paints him in a corner. There is humor in a raucous wedding reception where the people are so “lit” that the wine has run out. And, for me, it’s particularly humorous that there’s this huge, beautiful secret of which only a few people are aware.
Those people include Jesus’ mother and the select servants who help him pull off the miracle that inaugurates his ministry. Servants are normally meant to be inconspicuous, so I wanted to focus on the servant who goes to the chief steward with a cup full of what, as far as he’s concerned, is water.
If Jesus—whose ministry has not started, so there haven’t been any wonders associated with him yet—tells you to fill jars with water and draw from the jar to give to the chief steward, what is going through your mind at that moment? I invite the viewer to focus on this servant and all his curiosity and expectation, and think of a time when you were surprised by something God did. What actions preceded the miracle? Did it make sense? What did you know, and what was hidden from you? What “secrets” might God be keeping from you now as God works clandestinely on your behalf?
—Rev. T. Denise Anderson
2 Comments
Kevin Luttrell
I make every effort to do good, do no harm and respect God every time I am out and about. Examples of this are; just being nice to people putting a smile on my face and saying good morning, afternoon or evening to all that I come across, I pick up trash where ever I see it, I encourage people to do the correct thing whenever I am asked, whenever I am asked I express my opinion without forcing it onto them and I volunteer when I hear there is a need for something I am capable of. I know these seem like small things, but if everyone did these little things it would make a big difference, toward this world being one big happy Koinonia.
ashley symons
I think most of us cannot do “big” things to stand for Koinonia, but do seemingly small things in our daily lives. It is the intention with which we do these small things, like sharing a smile, volunteering, and challenging prejudice that creates Koinonia.