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Good morning. My name is Catherine St. Clair.
Today's scripture reading is from the Gospel according to John 2, verses 1-11, as found in your liturgy.
On the third day, a wedding took place at Cana in Galilee.
Jesus' mother was there, and Jesus and his disciples had also been invited to the wedding.
When the wine was gone, Jesus' mother said to him,
They have no more wine.
Woman, why do you involve me? Jesus replied.
My hour has not yet come.
His mother said to the servants,
Do whatever he tells you.
Nearby stood six stone water jars,
the kind used by the Jews for ceremonial washing,
each holding from twenty to thirty gallons.
Jesus said to the servants,
Fill the jars with water.
So they filled them to the brim.
Then he told them,
Now draw some out and take it to the master of the banquet.
They did so,
and the master of the banquet tasted the water
that had been turned into wine.
He did not realize where it had come from,
though the servants who had drawn the water knew.
Then he called the bridegroom aside and said,
Everyone brings out the choice wine first,
and then the cheaper wine,
after the guests have had too much to drink.
But you have saved the best till now.
What Jesus did here in Cana of Galilee
was the first of the signs
through which he revealed his glory,
and his disciples believed in him.
This is the gospel of the Lord.
Praise to you, Lord Christ.
Hello.
Good morning, Christchurch family.
Happy New Year.
Happy 2022.
For those of you here for the first time,
normally you'd find Pastor Jonathan
or Pastor Andrew up here preaching,
but today you've got me.
My name is Jesse,
and I work in the church office.
I'm here because a few months ago,
Pastor Andrew asked if I'd like to preach
on December 26th,
which was last Sunday,
or today, January 2nd,
and I picked today because I thought
it would give me an additional week of preparation.
But it just turned out
I had an additional week of procrastination.
So today is not only the first Sunday of the new year,
but it's also my first time preaching here at Christchurch.
I've preached at some other churches.
I've preached a few times before,
but it's my first time preaching here,
and depending on how things go
in the next 30 minutes or so,
we'll see if it might also be my last time preaching here.
So today's sermon text is John 2, verses 1 through 11,
where we see Jesus performing his first sign,
turning water into wine.
And even though turning water into wine
is a miracle,
it's miraculous,
John, the author of this gospel,
calls it a sign.
And why is this a sign?
Why is it something that's more than a miracle?
So for two reasons.
One, it is a foretaste of the age to come.
And two, it is a glimpse of God's glory.
A foretaste of the age to come
and a glimpse of God's glory.
We'll also talk about the significance
of this sign happening at a wedding.
And we'll talk about the significance of wine.
So the four keywords you can keep in your head
as you're listening are foretaste,
glimpse, wedding, and wine.
All right, let's start our exploration
of today's passage by going to the last verse,
verse 11,
where it says,
What Jesus did here in Cana of Galilee
was the first of the signs
through which he revealed his glory.
And his disciples believed in him.
Now, what does it mean that this was a sign?
To help explain this,
I'll talk about a store that
most of us know about
and some of us might even love.
This store is known for its bigness.
The stores themselves are big
and the items for sale in the store are big
because they're sold in bulk.
So what store do you think I'm talking about?
Costco, yeah, you got it.
Costco.
Costco is known for being big, right?
But Costco is also known for something small.
And that thing that's small that Costco is known for
are small samples, right?
How many of you, when you go to Costco,
try to get a few samples?
Yeah, most of us.
And
turning the page here.
In case you've never been to Costco,
if you've never experienced the wonder of free samples,
what it is is
throughout the main aisles of the store
or scattered in the main aisles of the store
are these stations
where there's a Costco employee
kind of giving out free bite-sized pieces
of some type of food item that's for sale
at that store.
And
so for example,
let's say they're selling frozen ravioli at Costco.
So if there's a sample of this ravioli,
there'll be an employee who's heating up the ravioli
and then kind of apportioning it out
into little bite-sized pieces.
Now,
you might be wondering,
what does ravioli have to do with the Bible?
Well,
I'm going to ask you a question,
which is,
what is the purpose of a sample of ravioli?
The purpose,
what is the purpose of a sample?
The purpose of a sample
is to give you a taste of a larger item
and to point you towards it, right?
A sample is supposed to give you a taste of the item
and point you towards it.
The same for a sign.
Another example of a sign is
if you drove here today
and you took the freeway,
you might have seen a sign on the freeway
that says University Avenue
or Telegraph Avenue, right?
And that sign is not the road in itself, right?
The sign that says University Avenue
isn't University Avenue.
It's meant to point you towards it.
So, in the same way,
in the Bible,
when we see something that Jesus has done,
called a sign,
it's supposed to give us a taste of something larger
and to point us toward a larger reality.
Also, if you look at verse 11,
it says,
the first of the signs.
What's kind of interesting is that the Greek word
that we translate here as first,
it's the Greek word archa,
which can also be translated as beginning.
So, you could also translate this as
the beginning of the signs.
And the word archa is a pretty important word in the Bible.
At the beginning,
at the opening of the Gospel of John,
at the opening of the Greek translation
of the book of Genesis,
how do those two books begin?
They begin the same way, right?
In the beginning.
And in Greek,
that term is N-R-K.
So, by calling this
the beginning of the signs,
we have kind of a connection
that connects us to creation,
that connects us,
that kind of lets us see that
it's a hint that Jesus
is the creator God.
Jesus is God.
The same God who created at the beginning,
the same God who is preexistent and eternal.
Now, the miracle itself,
the sign,
turning water into wine,
also connects us to God's creation
in Genesis 1,
where God creates the universe
out of nothing.
And this doctrine of God creating out of nothing
has a Latin phrase,
has a Latin name for it.
Does anyone know it?
Yeah, some of you are nodding.
Yeah, creatio ex nihilo.
Pardon my pronunciation.
But I think it's pronounced creatio ex nihilo,
which means creation out of nothing
or creation from nothing.
And there's an aspect of that
to this miracle that Jesus does here,
turning water into wine.
What I mean is that
some of the key and necessary ingredients
that make wine,
wine,
are simply not present in water.
or to look at it from another perspective,
let's think about healing, right?
We know Jesus healed people.
With the human body,
we know that if we give the body enough time,
it kind of can naturally heal from many injuries.
Not all of them,
but the human body can heal.
Or if you have a broken bone, right?
I've actually had a fractured middle finger before
from a motorcycle accident.
And I know that if you just kind of put things back
and give it enough time,
the bone will heal.
The human body can heal itself.
But with this sign,
with this miracle of Jesus turning water into wine,
no matter how much time,
no matter how much time you give it,
no matter how long you wait,
water will never become wine.
The ingredients for wine simply are not present in water.
Water doesn't have sugar
that can be broken down by yeast
to create alcohol.
Water doesn't have pigment from grape skins
to give wine its color.
Water doesn't have the flavor compounds
that make grape juice taste grapey
and wine taste whiny.
Should have revised that one.
So without spending too much time on this topic,
when Jesus turns water into wine,
he is demonstrating some aspect of creatio ex nihilo.
He's creating something out of nothing.
He's demonstrating the power of God
to create something out of nothing.
So with this sign,
which is more than a miracle,
which is the beginning of his signs,
Jesus is revealing to us that he is God.
The same creator God
who is preexistent, internal,
who created the universe out of nothing.
Now that we've established what a sign is,
let's explore today's passage from the first verse.
We'll look at the first two verses.
Feel free to follow along in the Pew Bibles
or on a Bible app,
or in the liturgy.
Verse one,
What's the setting?
The setting here is a wedding.
And Jesus,
his disciples,
and his mother
have all been invited.
Although we don't know if Jesus
was a friend of the married couple
or their families,
in that time and place,
it was customary
to invite
the entire village
to a wedding,
and even people from neighboring villages.
Jewish weddings
often lasted for seven days
and included music
and dancing.
The groom's family
normally hosted the wedding
and would try to invite
as many people as possible,
especially distinguished guests
like a religious,
like a well-known religious teacher.
One commentary suggests
that the host of this wedding
was probably well-off
because of the presence
of servants
at the banquet
and the large amount of water
in these stone jars.
Six jars doesn't sound like
a lot of water,
but remember,
each jar held between
20 and 30 gallons.
So if you do some math,
how much water in total is that?
120 to 180 gallons.
So,
you're probably expecting
a lot of guests.
Let's look at the next two verses,
verses three and four.
When the wine was gone,
Jesus' mother said to him,
they have no more wine.
Woman, why do you involve me?
Jesus replied,
my hour has not yet come.
If you feel surprised by this
or find it hard to understand,
you're not alone.
Bible scholars
and pastors also admitted
that this passage,
especially verse four,
can be hard or perplexing
for modern readers
to understand.
Actually, let's go back
a little bit.
Going back to this wedding.
We see in verse three
that the wedding
has run out of wine, right?
Jesus' mother says to Jesus,
they have no more wine.
Now, why is this a big deal?
So, the Middle East,
then and now,
is a shame
and honor
culture.
And the family
is the fundamental
unit of society.
So, it's a little bit different
than here in the West,
where the individual
is the fundamental
unit of society.
And although we do have
some aspects of shame
and culture,
we're kind of relative
to the Middle East
or other Eastern cultures,
we're kind of more of a
guilt and innocence culture.
So, shame and honor culture
in the Middle East.
To run out of wine
at a wedding
is to fail
to be a good host.
It's to fail
to live up
to that expectation
of hospitality.
So,
to run out of wine
at a wedding
could bring
lasting shame
to the groom's family.
So,
that said,
let's go back
to verse 4,
where Jesus says,
Woman, why do you involve me?
My hour
has not yet come.
So,
Jesus says,
Woman,
and
the Greek word
used there
is kind of equivalent
to the English word
ma'am.
It's respectful,
but it creates
distance.
Then,
when Jesus says,
why do you involve me?
The Greek there
is just four words,
which if you translate
word for word,
says,
what,
me,
and you.
What,
me,
and you.
And when you look at
other occurrences
of this phrase
in the Greek version
of the Old Testament,
it creates
distance
between the speaker
and the hearer.
So,
taken in total,
Jesus is creating
a distance
between himself
and his mother.
And then,
at the end of verse 4,
Jesus says,
My hour
has not yet come.
And what is he
talking about here?
Well,
in the Gospels,
when Jesus talks
about his hour
or the hour
or my hour,
he's referring
to his crucifixion
and the time
and events
surrounding it.
So,
his arrest,
death,
crucifixion,
resurrection,
and ascension.
The word hour
is spoken of this,
in this way,
in the Gospel of John
seven more times
and also
in the other three Gospels,
Matthew,
Mark,
and Luke.
So,
when Jesus says
to his mother,
my hour
has not yet come,
he is telling her
that his primary task,
his primary mission
on earth,
has not yet arrived.
All the signs
and miracles
that he's done,
those are important,
but what is most important
for us,
for humanity,
to be saved,
what is most important
for our relationship
with God
to be restored,
was,
one,
Jesus' death
on the cross
as sinless
and fully God
and fully human,
two,
his resurrection,
and three,
his ascension.
Putting all these ideas together,
when Jesus says to Mary,
woman,
why do you involve me?
My hour
has not yet come.
These words
prepare us
for what
is about to happen.
They prepare us
for what
Jesus is about to do.
He's saying that
he's not merely
obeying
his mother's request,
but it's also
not the fulfillment
of his mission
on earth.
It's like we're talking
about two ends
of a spectrum.
What Jesus is about
to do at this wedding
is not merely
a small-scale
act of salvation
for this married couple
and their families,
but it's also
not the cosmic-scale
act of salvation,
this history-changing
act of salvation
for humanity
and creation.
Jesus' hour
had not yet come.
Let's look at
the next two verses,
verses 5 and 6.
His mother said
to the servants,
do whatever
he tells you.
Nearby stood
six stone jars,
the kind used
by the Jews
for ceremonial washing,
each holding
from 20 to 30 gallons.
Let's talk about
the stone jars here.
The text says
that they're used
for ceremonial washing,
and we see
some more information
about that
in the Gospel of Mark,
chapter 7,
verse 3.
The Pharisees
and all the Jews
do not eat
unless they give
their hands
a ceremonial washing,
holding to the tradition
of the elders.
The ritual
involved here,
here involved
servants
pouring water,
taking water
out of these stone jars
and pouring it
over the hands
of guests.
spirits.
And there is
some significance
to these stone jars
that we should
discuss further.
The ceremonial washing
done using
these stone jars
was part of a larger
system in Judaism
of ceremonies,
sacrifices,
and rules.
These rules
included rules
on what people
could or could not eat.
And elsewhere
in the New Testament,
in Hebrews,
this is written
after the
death,
resurrection,
ascension of Jesus.
Probably written
around 68 AD.
And it's written
to Christians
who came from
Jewish backgrounds.
Hebrews,
chapter 9,
verse 10,
says,
speaking of these
rules and laws,
they are only
a matter of food
and drink
and various
ceremonial washings,
external regulations
applying until the
time of the new
order.
And then going
on a few more
verses to chapter 10
in Hebrews,
verses 1 and 2,
it says that the law
is only a shadow
of the good things
that are coming,
not the reality
themselves.
For this reason,
it can never,
by the same sacrifices
repeated endlessly
year after year,
make perfect
those who draw
near to worship.
Otherwise,
would they not
have stopped
being offered?
For the worshipers
would have been
cleansed once for all
and would no longer
have felt guilty
for their sins.
I mention these
because
the ceremonial
washings
were a reminder
of people's need
to be cleansed,
washed of their sins.
But they could never
actually cleanse
people from their sins.
that required
a Savior.
And now we're
starting to get at
more of why
Jesus' act of
turning water
into wine
at this wedding
was more than
just a miracle.
It gave the people
at the wedding
and gives us today
a glimpse
of who Jesus is
and what he came
to do.
It shows us that
Jesus is the
promised Messiah
who would fulfill
Old Testament law
and prophecy
and give humanity
true and lasting
cleansing from sin.
and that he would
usher in
the promised age
to come
when good wine
would be abundant,
when evil
would be no more,
and when God
would be fully
among his people.
And we'll talk
more about this
later.
Let's look at
verses 7 through 9
in today's passage,
but we'll start again
at verse 6.
Nearby stood
six stone jars,
the kind used
by the Jews
for ceremonial washing,
each holding
from 20 to 30 gallons.
Verse 7,
Jesus said to the servants,
Fill the jars
with water.
So they filled them
to the brim.
Then he told them,
Now draw some out
and take it
to the master
of the banquet.
They did so,
and the master
of the banquet
tasted the water
that had been
turned into wine.
We'll stop there.
All right,
let's do some math there.
Let's do some math here.
We have six stone
jars,
each holding
from 20 to 30 gallons.
So in total,
120 to 180 gallons.
And each jar
was filled
to the brim
with water.
And all of the water
became wine.
So how much wine
are we talking
about here?
So here is
a bottle of wine.
It's empty.
This is kind
of a standard
size bottle of wine.
And who knows
what's the volume
of a standard
bottle of wine?
Yeah.
750 milliliters.
So that's
0.75 liters,
which will help us
later on
because we're going
to do some math.
So if you bottled
all the wine
that Jesus made
at this wedding,
how many bottles
of wine would that be?
Okay.
Oh, I should have
passed out some
scratch paper and pencils,
but no worries.
I did the math
for you already.
So each jar
held between
20 and 30 gallons.
Let's pick the lower
number, 20 gallons
per jar.
That's 120 gallons
in total.
How many liters
is 120 gallons?
The answer is
454 liters.
Now, how many bottles
of wine is 454 liters?
So 454 divided
by 0.75 equals 605.
So that's 605 bottles
of wine.
That's the low end
of this calculation.
What about the high end,
right?
If each jar holds 30 gallons,
that's 118 gallons.
In total,
118 gallons is equal
to how many liters?
681 liters.
How many bottles
of wine
is 681 liters
of wine?
Okay.
Crunch the numbers.
908 bottles
of wine.
So on the high end,
Jesus created
908 bottles
of wine.
I mean,
imagine what that
would look like
if we saw that.
900 bottles
of wine.
So I think
this little math
exercise helps us
kind of sense
how much wine
Jesus produced.
It was exceedingly abundant.
So earlier,
we talked about
the significance
of these stone water jars.
And now we're going
to talk about
the significance
of wine
and the significance
of this miracle
occurring at a wedding.
And when we consider
all the meaning
behind these things,
we'll see that truly
this was more
than a miracle.
It is a sign
that gives us
a foretaste
of the age to come
and a glimpse
of God's glory.
Wedding.
Why is it significant
that this sign
occurred at a wedding?
Jesus could have chosen
another setting
to display
his first sign,
the beginning
of his signs,
but he chose
a wedding.
wedding.
And remember
that a sign,
I'll put this
wine bottle down,
remember that a sign
is a foretaste
of the age to come.
And in several places
in the Bible,
in both the Old Testament
and the New Testament,
when Scripture
speaks of the age
to come,
it often uses
the language
and imagery
of wedding
and marriage.
For example,
in the Old Testament
in the book of Hosea,
God commands
the prophet Hosea
to marry
a woman
that the text
describes as a
quote,
promiscuous woman,
unquote,
so that their relationship,
Hosea's
and his wife's relationship,
would be a visible
illustration
of how Israel
was unfaithful
to God
and yet,
despite Israel's
unfaithfulness,
God would be
faithful and loving
God would reconcile
his people to himself
and restore them
and be with them
forever.
Also in the Old Testament
in the book of Isaiah,
we find more
wedding
and marriage-related
language and imagery.
Okay,
if you go to
Isaiah 54
verses 5 through 6,
Isaiah 54
verses 5 through 6,
it says,
for your maker
is your husband,
the Lord Almighty
is his name,
the Holy One
of Israel
is your Redeemer,
he is called
the God
of all the earth.
The Lord
will call you back
as if you were
a wife deserted
and distressed
in spirit.
And then,
a few chapters
later,
in Isaiah 62
verse 5,
it says,
as a young man
marries a young woman,
so will your builder
marry you.
As a bridegroom
rejoices over his bride,
so will your God
rejoice over you.
And moreover,
in the Gospels,
we see Jesus
identified as the groom.
In John chapter 3,
John the Baptist
refers to Jesus
as the bridegroom,
and John the Baptist
refers to himself
as a friend
of the bridegroom.
In Mark chapter 2,
Jesus refers to himself
kind of in an indirect way
that he is
the bridegroom.
And we see
from these verses
throughout the Bible
that God
has promised
that there will be
a time in the future
when God will
fully be with his people
as a groom
is with his bride.
And we see
that Jesus
is the groom
who has inaugurated
this restoration
of relationship.
Now,
let's talk about
the significance
of wine.
Why is it important
that Jesus' first sign
involves wine?
First,
let's look at
what kind of wine
Jesus created.
John chapter 2,
verse 9.
The master
of the banquet
tasted the water
that had been
turned into wine.
He did not realize
where it had come from,
though the servants
who had drawn
the water knew.
Then he called
the bridegroom aside
and said,
everyone brings out
the choice wine first
and then the cheaper wine
after the guests
have had too much
to drink.
But you have saved
the best till now.
What kind of wine
did Jesus make?
So,
we know that this
was a big wedding,
it was a big event,
and they even had
a master of the banquet,
a professional,
a professional
in food and drink.
And when he tastes
this wine,
he calls it
the best.
Right?
He mentions that
everyone brings out
the choice wine first
and then the cheaper wine
after the guests
have had too much
to drink.
But you have saved
the best till now.
The words
in our English translation,
choice and best,
here in this verse,
are actually both
the same word
in Greek,
kalos.
And kalos
is where we get
the name kalista.
Kalos,
so I looked up
this word
in a Greek lexicon,
and it says that
the word kalos
was,
quote,
applied by the Greeks
to everything
so distinguished
in form,
excellence,
goodness,
usefulness,
as to be pleasing.
Hence,
according to the context,
equivalent to
beautiful,
handsome,
excellent,
eminent,
choice,
surpassing,
precious,
useful,
suitable,
commendable,
admirable,
unquote.
So the wine
that Jesus
has made
in exceeding abundance
is really,
really good wine.
It's beautiful,
excellent,
admirable.
Now,
more about wine.
In general,
what makes
good wine
even better?
Time,
age.
So what's
another,
what makes
this miracle
even more impressive
is that
Jesus has made
new wine,
but it tastes
really good,
as if it's
aged wine.
He's made
900 bottles
of wine
that somehow
paradoxically
is both
new and aged.
Now,
to a Jewish
person of that
time and place
who was familiar
with Scripture,
when you talk
about wine
that's new
and aged,
very,
very good,
and in
exceeding abundance,
what would
that person
think of?
They would
have remembered
Old Testament
Scriptures
that talked
about this
kind of wine.
They would
have remembered,
for example,
Amos 9
and Isaiah
25.
So Amos 9
verses 13
through 15
say,
The days are
coming,
declares the
Lord,
when the
reaper will
be overtaken
by the
plowman
and the
planter by
the one
treading
grapes.
New wine
will drip
from the
mountains
and flow
from all
the hills
and I
will bring
my people
Israel
back from
exile.
They will
rebuild
the ruined
cities
and live
in them.
They will
plant vineyards
and drink
their wine.
They will
make gardens
and eat
their fruit.
I will
plant Israel
in their
own land,
never again
to be uprooted
from the
land I have
given them,
says the
Lord your
God.
Isaiah
25,
and I'll
read verses
1, 6,
and 8.
Lord,
you are my
God.
I will
exalt you
and praise
your name,
for in
perfect faithfulness
you have
done wonderful
things,
things planned
long ago.
On this
mountain,
the Lord
Almighty
will prepare
a feast
of rich
food for
all peoples,
a banquet
of aged
wine,
the best
of meats
and the
finest
of wines.
He will
swallow up
death
forever.
The
sovereign
Lord
will wipe
away the
tears
from all
faces.
He will
remove
his people's
disgrace
from all
the earth.
The
Lord
has spoken.
So,
let's
look at
the language
in those
two passages.
Amos 9
says,
the days
are coming.
So,
we know
that this
is referring
to sometime
in the
future.
Then we
see language
such as,
never again
to be
uprooted,
the sovereign
Lord will
wipe away
the tears
from all
faces,
and the
Lord will
swallow up
death
forever.
And today
when we
think of
a time
that has
those three
characteristics,
when God
will wipe
away every
tear from
every eye,
when we
will never
again be
uprooted,
when death
will be
no more,
what are
we thinking
of?
We're
thinking of
the age
to come
and the
kingdom
to come,
a time
and a
place where
death
will be
no more,
where we
will not
be exiles
or displaced,
but we will
be fully at
home,
a place
where God
will wipe
away every
tear.
And bringing
together all
these ideas,
plus the
idea of
wedding and
marriage,
we turn to
the book
of Revelation.
Your Bible's at
the end,
and the book
of Revelation
talks at length
about the age
to come and the
kingdom to come.
And in
verse,
excuse me,
in chapter 21
of Revelation,
let me turn
there.
It says,
Revelation 21,
then I saw a
new heaven and
a new earth,
for the first
heaven and the
first earth
had passed
away,
and there was
no longer
any sea.
I saw the
holy city,
the new
Jerusalem,
coming down
out of heaven
from God,
prepared as a
bride beautifully
dressed for her
husband.
And I heard a
loud voice from
the throne saying,
look,
God's dwelling
place is now
among the people,
and he will dwell
with them.
They will be his
people,
and God himself
will be with them
and be their
God.
He will wipe away
every tear from
their eyes.
There will be no
more death or
mourning or crying
or pain,
for the old order
of things has
passed away.
Today we've
looked at this
short passage from
the Bible,
from John chapter
2,
but hopefully we've
seen how full of
meaning it is,
how dense and
rich with
significance it
is.
What Jesus did
there was more
than a miracle.
It was a sign.
It gives us a
glimpse of God's
glory.
It gives us a
foretaste of the
age to come.
When a wedding
2,000 years ago
was on the brink
of failure because
they were about
to run out of
wine,
Jesus performed
a small-scale
act of salvation
by turning
gallons of water
into gallons of
wine,
and thereby
spared these
families from
likely lasting
shame and
preserved their
honor.
It was a
miracle,
but it was
more than a
miracle,
because he gave
them and he
gives us a
foretaste of the
age to come
and a glimpse
of God's
glory.
The passage
in John also
says that Jesus
was invited to
the wedding,
and remember it
says that Mary
told the servants,
do whatever he
tells you.
Likewise,
we need to
invite Jesus
into our lives
and do what he
says.
We need to
invite Jesus
into our lives
and do what he
says.
And remember
what the
master of the
banquet says
after he
tastes this
water that
had been
turned into
wine.
He says,
everyone brings
out the choice
wine first and
then the cheaper
wine after the
guests have had
too much to
drink, but you
have saved the
best till now.
You have saved
the best till
now.
And this
reminds us that
God's way is
not the
conventional way.
God's timing is
not always our
timing.
God's ways are
unexpected and
sometimes contrary
to the ways of
the world.
But when we
have experienced
and tasted what
he has done for
us, we will
see that his
way is the
best.
And we
will have
hope.
We have
hope because
we know that
the best is
yet to come.
When we
invite Jesus
into our lives
and we do
what he says,
we have
hope, we
have the
promise that
the best is
yet to come.
Amen.