The Joshua Victor Theory

In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, Amen. Much is familiar to us in the Gospel reading today. The experience of families who wrestle with the terminal illness and the death of a child. The experience of individuals with chronic disease, incurable by doctors, growing progressively worse while money runs out. The experience of suffering and death by those inside the church community, and the isolation and loneliness of those experiencing the same outside the church community. The wish to remain invisible in the crowd, or the urgency to get Jesus’ help quickly and without delay. They are all familiar emotions to those who struggle with the daily challenges of life, with faith and prayer to God. Even the experience of being mocked for believing that death is not final, holding out hope against all despair, that Jesus can deliver us even from death. Jesus, who is at the center of it all, does not behave as the people there that day expect or necessarily...

In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, Amen. This second Sunday after Epiphany, as we continue the theme of Jesus’ revelation as God and man, we come to His first sign or miracle, at Cana in Galilee. In the Gospel reading Jesus turns water into wine, showing forth His glory and blessing marriage. Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen. We might find Jesus’ first miracle a little unexpected. What was the crisis? Of course not every miracle Jesus performed involved a crisis. But in other cases Jesus healed a sick person, cast out a demon, raised the dead, fed hungry crowds, etc. Often it was people who were ill or suffering that received Jesus’ miracles, and there was an obvious case of need. But Jesus’ first miracle was under somewhat different circumstances. No one was sick or dying, and no one was starving. In fact the wedding guests already had much to drink, and the hosts were running out of win...