Jesus, I embrace your reluctance. I wonder if your compliance only a line later suggests that perhaps you too were hesitant (maybe even a little afraid?) to make a choice to publicly 'announce' your role in this world knowing there would inevitably be consequences. For, it seems very clear to me at this point that Jesus' miracle was much more than a simple gesture of hospitality but also a bold political act. A challenge to the current system of power. An announcement of the coming Kingdom of God which posed a direct challenge to the legitimacy of the Roman Empire and the authority of all earthly Kings.
On the final day of the Young Clergy Leadership Forum during chapel service we were all given an opportunity to lift up our prayer concerns during a time of meditation and communal prayer. As I sat in the short wooden pew the Spirit gave to me these words to lift up, "for all those who find in our denomination closed doors and closed minds, may they be granted justice." I sat there silent. Almost in tears because I hadn't really spoken up all week and now I feel like I should say this bold and potentially upsetting prayer request! "Good grief, Holy Spirit!" I couldn't do it. I didn't do it.
It seemed like a glaring absence of discussion throughout the week. The ongoing, purposeful discrimination of people based on sexual orientation upheld in our Social Principles as being "incompatible with the Christian faith." In that pew it all hit me at once that the only thing that was incompatible for me was the message the Spirit had spoken to my heart and the the discriminatory practices of a church claiming to have Open Doors, Open Hearts, and Open Minds for all of Gods people. In my silence I resigned to the truth that I did not want to face the consequences of such a statement...and in my privilege I confess that this is a choice I was able to make.
Rosa Parks once said that she had "learned over the years that when one's mind is made up, this fear diminishes." I bet that in some ways this is what happened to Jesus at the wedding. Thrown into a situation which was not intentional nor planned he decided to claim his ministry through action. In a similar manner, I believe what will be expected of us will be done in a space for which we can hardly predict and rarely prepare. It is in our ability to trust the nudging of our hearts and the movement of the Spirit towards a greater manifestation of mercy and justice in this world that I believe God will judge us on in this life and the Life that follows.
