Magnolia
United Methodist Church

This Week's Service (Jan 19, 2025): They Have No More Wine (John 2:1-11)

Here we are at the precipice of a new season in the United States political life and I think it’s safe to venture that for most of us here at MUMC we are feeling a certain amount of apprehension? Worry? Dread, perhaps?

I especially am concerned for my trans friends and the atmosphere of hate and persecution which will be stoked. And LGBTQ friends. And immigrant friends. And the people at our local homeless shelter where we serve pies, as funding is likely to be cut from those sorts of programs. And for the many women across our country who will no longer have access to healthcare.  We are concerned for those who are barely making ends meet currently, and wonder how they will make it as more and more wealth is stripped from the poor and given to the wealthy.

And we are concerned by the wedge that is just continually being opened up in the church, dividing us into factions, progressive churches verses nationalist churches, rather than houses centered on worshipping God and walking the path with Jesus.

And there’s so many possible things to say, but I want to urge all of us, as believers, as a church, to try our best to not get swept up in the fear and anger, but to always lead with grace and hope. To try our best to place our trust in Jesus each day. To increase our efforts to care for the marginalized and vulnerable in our society.

Above all, right now, I want us here at MUMC to be a church which is known not for who we dislike or who we exclude, but as a loving body known for who we include.  Our message should never be, “You are not welcome here”, but should always be focused on “Come in and sit with us. Jesus is here.” We should be known for who we include. That plays out in our church life, but inasmuch as there is a division between our church lives and our personal lives, it is also a calling to fulfill in our personal lives as well.  Arms open. Come in. Have a seat at the table.  We are not a place of fear and division, but of welcome, grace, love, and community.  Trans friends, you are safe here, you are welcome unconditionally and fully. Same for you, our LGBTQ+ friends, our immigrant friends, our unhoused friends.

Today we are looking at the wedding at Cana, when Jesus turns the water into wine. It is a very open-armed passage, asking us to be involved, to come in, to join the party and to trust in Jesus for everything, from all this worldwide and national instability, to something as mundane as the wine at our parties.

(Past services archived here.)