A Concord Pastor Comments: Pause for Prayer: SUNDAY 1/21

When did Mary begin to recognize and understand who her son was? We picture Mary with Jesus in her arms but how did she relate to Jesus the teenager, Jesus the young man, Jesus the adult? When did she begin to understand the angel's message of who her son would be? When did she begin to see where Jesus' preaching would lead him? How did Mary come to understand that she was the Mother of the Son of God?

Perhaps she began to see more clearly the relationship she shared with Jesus at the wedding feast at Cana. When the wine ran short, the mother of Jesus said to him, "They have no wine." (And) Jesus said to her, "Woman, how does your concern affect me? My hour has not yet come." His mother said to the servers, "Do whatever he tells you."

Mother Mary,
   why did you bring the problem with the wine to Jesus?

What did you expect him to do?

What had you already seen and heard
   that led you to trust that he could help?
that he would help?

When he told you his hour had not yet come,
   did you know the hour of which he spoke?
Did you know the suffering that hour would bring him?
Did you know of the suffering that would be yours
   when his time came to pass?

So simply and confidently you told the servers,
"Do whatever he tells you..."

Help me to have that same simple confidence
   in your son and in his love for me...

Teach me to trust in him as you did...

You told your son they'd run out of wine,
   will you tell him when I run dry?
When I run out of joy?
      of trust? of faith? of hope?

Help me to trust, as you did,
   that he will supply whatever I truly need...

You told the servants to do whatever he asked of them...

Help me do freely and willingly whatever he asks of me,
   trusting in his grace and help...

He turned the water into wine!
Your son, my brother, turned water into wine!

Ask him, please, to make a fine, a choice wine
   of the plain and sometimes muddied waters
      coursing through my daily life...

Mary, Mother of Jesus, Mother of us all,
   intercede for us with your Son
      in the everyday Cana of our lives...

Holy Mary, Mother of God,
   pray for us...

Jesus, Son of God,
   change the waters of our lives
into the wine of your peace and joy...

Amen.

Twelve Days 2012