2nd Sunday After Ephiphany
Sunday Notes from Church: The Chance to Change
The most certain thing in life is change (so is death and taxes). Sometimes, change requires not so much our preparedness of the event, but it asks for what kind of attitude we have to respond. The priest mentioned today of a book called Who Moved My Cheese? that featured a story concerning two mice who had wondered where their cheese moved after they ate it. Now, one mouse refused to look around farther than what they could see and stayed put. The other mouse bothered to actually move and go find some cheese. One stayed with a lot of pride and ego to motivate itself; the other moved with humility out of its comfort zone to actually get the cheese it wanted.
With the way Christians can be attuned to following traditions of their church, we can find ourselves being comfortable in traditions that become unmeaningful and habitual. Many people may not bother coming to church for this reason. They've seen it, sang it, done it every year without real change in the church's mission or fellowship with each other or in the community. Other traditions can still bear their meaning with grace that extends to the following generations of their church, even past centuries (like the habitual traditions we do). The key is, if we perform these things or serve the church and community with humility , then God can work through us in ways that amaze us.
Case in point with the wedding at Cana for this Sunday's Gospel reading: Mary of Nazareth, the mother of our Lord Jesus, was ready to see Jesus in action. Though Jesus was trying to time things well with what his Father willed, he nevertheless pulled off the miracle of changing the purification water into wine. This welcomed a newfound joy in the lives of the newly wedded couple and their families to not be publicly shamed from the lack of wine for the occasion. Mary showed a wonderful faith in Jesus, even if she may have been a bit premature on the timing, yet she trusted that he had the power to change things for the benefit of others.
When we are presented with the chance to change, will we find ourselves changed by it in a good way or an unfortunate result to our character? Change can also be unpredictable as well as a planned occasion, whether in personal, professional, communal, national, and any other type you can imagine. What matters is that when it comes, what of our attitude and actions will it require for us to show that we can handle it... or can we let God handle it?
