Pastor: Paula Hemann
Message: Doing it for God
By: Pastor Paula Hemann
- 1st Reading: Isaiah 62: 1-5
- 2nd Reading: 1 Corinthians 12: 1-11
- Gospel: John 2: 1-11
God delights in His People.
Have you ever heard of a Stradivarius violin? It’s the gold standard of violins—instantly recognizable and famously expensive. These aren’t $29.95 instruments. One sold for $1 million, another for $4 million, and two went for $10 million each. Recently, one sold for an astonishing $16 million and is currently being played by a musician. Now, I doubt the musician bought it—most can’t afford a $16 million anything—but the question remains: why is it worth so much?
There are a few reasons. First, Stradivarius violins are rare. Many haven’t survived, so basic supply and demand drives the price up. But the real reason lies in the craftsmanship. Antonio Stradivarius, the 17th-century master luthier, used a special type of dense wood and applied precise techniques to shape and brace it. The result is an unparalleled acoustic quality—a resonance so exquisite it’s unmatched even centuries later. That’s what makes a Stradivarius worth millions.
But there’s more to the story. Antonio Stradivarius believed that every violin he made needed to be as perfect as humanly possible because, as he put it, “God needs violins to send His music into the world. If it’s defective, God’s music will be spoiled.” That belief fueled his extraordinary dedication to excellence.
What a perspective! Imagine the difference between someone casually churning out violins for $29.95 and someone crafting each instrument as an offering to God. Stradivarius wasn’t just making violins; he was fulfilling a calling.
It’s a reminder for us in our work, too. Whether you’re pushing papers, seeing patients, running a business, or crafting something, you’re not just doing it for yourself—you’re doing it for God.
When we each approach our work with that mindset, the ordinary becomes extraordinary, and the work of our hands becomes an offering of worship.
Today in pour 1st Reading in Isaiah- Israel had just gone through, if not a messy divorce, then at least a nasty separation.
After committing adultery with multiple lovers (foreign gods) for generations, Israel had finally exhausted Yahweh’s famous long-suffering. In deep sorrow and long simmering anger, God had finally sent his beloved bride away into Exile, in hopes that she would realize the error of her ways and return to her Beloved.
There Israel sat in Babylon, described as a Deserted wife, a Desolate woman.
In these last chapters of Isaiah God says to his exiled wife , that the time has come for me to Delight in you and that there is hope for our future.
God promises that Israel and OUR present situation is not the end of the story, that the desolate condition is not God’s final goal for them or US.
Over and over again, God speaks of a reversal of each of our misfortunes;
He offers us each:
- renewal of our lives
- restoration of their broken relationship with God
- And today in our text, the language of marriage is intentionally and eloquently used Think of a time when you flourished and a time when your life was far from Peace and Order. How did you feel Gods delight in each situation?
It’s like having a day when everything worked together- this is God’s relationship with Israel and with us- not because the days are perfect, but because we are mutually interacting- seeing God as our true Delight.
This passage is for us a wonderful piece of Good News. It does not tell us to do anything; we search in vain for what is vitally important.
But today we receive an announcement of God’s plans for us; All we must do is simply believe and rejoice.
Let us rejoice in what God says he will do for us as his. When your in an interactive relationship what you Do for God you are also doing for yourself, because you desire what God desires.
Let’s listen more carefully.
In Verse 1 God reminds us of his promises. He says he won’t keep quiet, until our righteousness shines out like the dawn. Salvation is like a blazing torch! Until all see us as we are created to be
This is not just God, interacting with us endlessly until God does what God has promised to do.
There is no question about what God promises to do for us .
God will make US shine again, as We did when he first chose US and as God intended for US throughout history.
Earlier, God put it this way. “I will also make you a light for the Gentiles, that you may bring my salvation to the ends of the earth (Isaiah 49:6).”
Israel had failed at that, and let’s be honest so do we. And this is how we end up away into the darkness of the world.
Now here God says to us all, I will vindicate you by saving you.
You see others said that your God couldn’t save you, that your God really amounted to nothing, that you were nothing but a pipsqueak people that has bragged too much and got smacked down for it.
But today we Hear this “I, your God, will vindicate you (and myself) and save you.”
Then, you will shine like the first rays of dawn, like a blazing torch, and the nations will see your vindication and all the kings your glory.
Well, that sounds nice, but that didn’t happen to Israel, and it hasn’t happened to the church…YET. Wait a Minute…
Actually, it did happen to the church.
For hundreds of years, the nations streamed to the church when the saw the glory of Christ in the church.
God’s plan worked and the new Jerusalem now assembled in heaven is composed of people from every nation.
But now, God’s churches are struggling in many places and in many ways.
We need to hear that the bedraggled, broken, desolate bride- we the People of Christ have a glorious future. God Delights in Us!
That’s what the rest of our text promises.
Like all brides in traditional marriages, the bride of Christ will get a new name.
No longer will he call you “deserted” or “desolate.”
You will be called “my delight is in her” and your land “married.” The formerly outcast bride will shine like the Kings & Queens of God. “You will be a crown of splendor in Yahweh’s hand, a royal diadem in the hand of your God.”
And Yahweh will rejoice over us.
We may feel far away from God right now, but God promises to bring us back, to renew our vows, to make us as glorious as he has always intended.
We don’t know when that will happen, or how.
God announces to his estranged that he will spare no expense in his effort to renew our relationship.
It is an eloquent announcement of God’s firm intention to renew our covenantal vows and start over again, and again, until the glory finally shines out of Him into Us and into the world. Can I get a Witness!
Today in Corinthians, to Paul spirituality entails the ongoing reality and work of the Holy Spirit in believers’ lives both individually and corporately.
I know we haven’t heard this word for awhile but aren’t we all Working for the COMMON GOOD! This means the sum of all our Gifts comes when we all bring our individual gifts to Create the Whole!
It’s like having a Spiritual POTLUCK!
The problem is that some spiritual elitists have really messed this up.
They have regarded their gifts of the Spirit as making them superior to other members of the Christian community.
Today Paul is presenting the proper and improper uses of spiritual gifts.
From the beginning of the reading Paul emphasizes unified divine action, which means the we are each empowered with diverse human activity for the common benefit of all.
Here we learn what spiritual gifts are, who receives them, and why they are given.
Paul's message is that spiritual gifts are given to every believer for the common good, and that no one gift makes a believer more important than another.
The Question we each must answer is this:
Are you doing what you do for God or for Yourself?
Inviting and engaging with Christ Brings Joy to All Lives
Why do we bring Christ into the wedding ceremony?
Because if we would only bring Christ into our marriages, we would have better marriages!
A few years back psychologist Dr. Joyce Brothers was quoted as saying that for about half of all American couples, marriage is a "quiet hell."
Many other marriages have degenerated into a "tired friendship," as someone put it.
I submit to you that this is a tragedy, and to prevent such tragedies, we ought to take the traditional marriage ritual seriously and invite Christ to be a guest at our weddings and Marriages, just as He was invited to the wedding at Cana in Galilee.
Above all, John is proclaiming the Good News that Jesus Christ is the Life of every party, that he is the one who livens things up, brings life abundant for all, even those in an out-of-the-way peasant village located somewhere in Galilee.
William Barclay put the following in his commentary on this passage: "...whenever Jesus comes into our lives there enters a quality which is like turning water into wine.
The trouble with life is that we get bored with it.
Pleasure loses its thrill.
There is a vague dissatisfaction about everything.
But when Jesus enters into us than what we do is for God yet what enters into us is new exhilaration!" We find new meaning and renewed purpose!
The Jews attached great importance to the high moments of life.
Thus a wedding was not just a brief ceremony, but an experience shared by the entire community.
The typical wedding feast could last up to seven days.
That sounds strange to our modern way of thinking, but this offered a bright time in an otherwise dreary existence.
The ceremony would begin on Tuesday at midnight. After the wedding the father of the bride would take his daughter to every house so that everyone might congratulate her. It was a community experience. Weddings were a time of joy.
Years ago when Johnny Carson was the host of The Tonight Show he interviewed an eight year old boy. The young man was asked to appear because he had rescued two friends in a coal mine outside his hometown in West Virginia. As Johnny questioned the boy, it became apparent to him and the audience that the young man was a Christian.
So Johnny asked him if he attended Sunday school. When the boy said he did Johnny inquired, "What are you learning in Sunday school?"
"Last week," came his reply, "our lesson was about when Jesus went to a wedding and turned water into wine."
The audience roared, but Johnny tried to keep a straight face. Then he said, "And what did you learn from that story?" The boy squirmed in his chair. It was apparent he hadn't thought about this.
But then he lifted up his face and said, "If you're going to have a wedding, make sure you invite Jesus!" The little boy was on to something.
At the wedding, which Jesus attended in Cana of Galilee, there was great joy but a problem developed. There was a shortage of wine. Not only was that a social embarrassment, it was also a symbol.
For a wedding to run out of wine was an omen that there was little chance of this particular marriage reaching its full potential, maybe joy was not meant for this couple.
So Mary approaches her son Jesus and asks him to do something. His response? “Why do you involve me woman?” Sounds harsh, but you have to look at this scene in its historical context.
Jesus, at this moment, had not performed a single miracle. He was thirty years old and he had just gathered together his disciples.
He knows that if he performs a miracle, a clock will start ticking and it will not stop until he gets to Calvary.
Crowds will flock; investigators will be dispatched.
Is this the appropriate moment?
Jesus thus makes his move and gives his first public sign that he is different; he transforms water into wine.
It is a crucial moment for Jesus and for each of us…it is the beginning- and Jesus comes to each of us and asks: Will you do for me what I will do for You? If you Answered YES than No matter what we do- we are not doing it for ourselves—we are doing it for God.
"God has given you this day to do as I will. I can waste it or use it for good. But what I do with this day is very important because I am exchanging a day of my life for it. When tomorrow comes, this day will be gone forever. I pray I do not regret what I traded for it.
I pray that whatever you do with this day you do it with Praise and Delight- because it is important - because you traded a day of our life for this day.
Our God has no regrets- He delights in us for John 3:16-17 tells us this:
For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. ~ Amen
