Your Mission: If You Choose to Accept It

Sunday, January 19, 2025 – Isaiah 62:1-5, Psalm 36:5-10, 1 Corinthians 12:1-11, John 2:1-11

If you were watching television in the U.S. between 1966 and 1973, I could probably say a certain phrase and hum a certain tune and you’d know exactly what I was referring to. “Good morning, Mr. Phelps” and [then I hummed the theme song] are from what show?

Yes, “Mission Impossible.” The original one.

And how did the recorded cassette tape message always end? “Your mission, if you choose to accept it is…” blah, blah, blah…and then “This tape will self-destruct in 5 seconds.” I loved watching “Mission Impossible.” I thought it was a great show, although I didn’t have the crush on any of its characters that I had on Robert Wagner from “It Takes a Thief” or, a bit later, James Franciscus in “Longstreet.”

But that line, “your mission, should you choose to accept it,” is iconic.

What I find fascinating about our gospel reading today, is we might think that Jesus seems reluctant to accept his mission. Or maybe he’s unsure about his readiness to begin it.

I’d like to back up a little bit in the story and remind us of the sequence of events that precede today’s reading from the gospel of John.

This text opens at the beginning of chapter 2, but if we go back to the last several verses in chapter 1, we read about John’s baptism of Jesus. Remember that in that event, Jesus experiences himself as the beloved Son of God on whom the Spirit has descended. Now in the other three gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke, immediately after being baptized, Jesus is driven into the wilderness by the Spirit where he wrestles with those temptations.

But that’s not the story that John tells. (This is another reminder of the ways in which the gospels are not journalistic accounts of “just the facts, ma’am” but are narratives that seek to make particular theological points.)

In John’s gospel, Jesus is baptized, and the next day, the Baptizer sees him in the street and loudly declares Jesus to be the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. Again, the very next day, John sees Jesus in the street and announces him to be the Lamb of God for the second time.

I remember hearing a popular author say that you’ll know what your true vocation is when your community asks you to do it.

In other words, Jesus didn’t run right from his baptism into the Temple to begin teaching. It feels to me as if he was just walking around – living as if nothing had changed – but John the Baptist wouldn’t let him retreat out of the spotlight.

John made sure that Jesus – and the other people on the street – knew that he had a special calling.

After two days of John’s pronouncements, Jesus goes to Galilee and begins gathering his disciples. His first two disciples, Andrew and Simon Peter, were actually disciples of John. Then Jesus calls Philip and Philip invites Nathanael. But Nathanael doesn’t think anything good can come from Nazareth, so he hesitates.

But Jesus sees and knows Nathanael, placing him under the fig tree, and Nathanael proclaims Jesus to be the Son of God.

Now the momentum around Jesus is building. John’s proclaimed his identity and mission and so has Nathanael. But the very next day is the wedding at Cana. This is where our reading begins.

We’re told that Mary, the mother of Jesus was at the wedding, and that Jesus and the disciples were also invited. That leads me to think maybe Jesus and his new friends were invited at the last minute. Either way, they were just there to hang out and celebrate the marriage. We don’t even know whose wedding it was!

But all of a sudden, the wine gives out, and Mary tells Jesus. “They have no wine.” His response is not all that enthusiastic. He basically says “Why are you telling me? I have nothing to do with the wine.” And then he says, “My hour has not yet come.”

It seems that, unlike Mr. Phelps, Jesus may not yet have thought he was ready to accept his mission. I can relate. I often feel like I can’t act until conditions are perfect.

But Jesus did accept it, and in a big way! He turned what would have been something like 175 gallons of water into top-shelf wine.

This miracle wasn’t like the others that Jesus worked. He didn’t heal anyone or free anyone from evil spirits. But, like the feeding of the multitudes, Jesus manifested God’s over-the-top abundance and generous power. We even see a clue that points toward the rest of his ministry. Jesus frequently turns tradition on its head, and here he uses water meant for ritualistic purification and transforms it into overflowing joy and celebration.

And Jesus takes no credit for it whatsoever.

He does what he does for the common good and the glory of God. Jesus knew his gifts, he accepted his mission, and then he followed the call of God upon his heart.

Bruce Epperly writes that,

On that day in Cana, Jesus’ calling was to bring joy to a couple and their family. There was no need that day for preaching, admonition, prophetic challenge, or healing touch; the need was for good wine and plenty of it! There was a need to party! Our gifts and vocations are contextual in nature. They emerge and flourish in real time, oriented toward real people, and real situations.”

The mission that Redeemer had when we began in this place is no longer our mission. Our world has changed. We have changed. We may be older, but God is still calling us toward a mission, a vocation.

“Indeed,” writes Bruce Epperly,

the miracle of the wedding feast suggests that we have many vocations and callings, each appropriate to our particular setting. This is good news that challenges us to stay awake to God’s particular vocational vision for us.”

We’ve been talking a lot about mission lately. Jesus may not have known in that first moment if he was ready for his mission to heal the world. But his mother knew. And she called him forward. Sometimes we have to be willing to act when we hear our true calling, even when we think we’re not quite ready.

Let us each be willing to hear God’s voice leading us into our mission. And let us choose to accept it.