Grace, mercy and peace be unto you from God, our Father, and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen. Our text is the Holy Gospel reading which has already been read.

Dear friends in Christ, our Gospel reading is set at a wedding at Cana in Galilee, and St. John notes that "the mother of Jesus was there." It's remarkable that Mary gets mentioned even before Jesus does. Only in verse two does John tell us, "Jesus also was invited to the wedding with His disciples." It seems that John has focused more attention at the beginning of the story on the mother of Jesus than on Jesus Himself. But within the span of a few verses, Mary herself shifts all our attention onto her Son, when she tells the servants, "Do whatever He tells you" and He proceeds to manifest His glory as the Son of God through the miraculous changing of water into wine.

In one way, Mary does come before Jesus, because she is truly His mother; from Mary the only-begotten Son of God took flesh and blood and became our brother. And so from early times in the Christian Church, Mary has been called "the Mother of God." That is a shocking title, but a true one: Mary is the mother of Jesus, who is truly God; therefore, Mary is the Mother of God. Of course, this does not mean that she is the mother or God the Father or God the Holy Spirit, nor does it mean that she is the mother of God the Son in the sense that she existed before Him, but Mary is the Mother of Jesus Christ, who is God in the flesh, Immanuel, God-with-us, permanently united to our humanity. The title "Mother of God" actually tells us more about who Jesus is than it says about Mary, so even that title is intended to glorify Jesus while giving thanks for Mary's unique role in God's plan for our salvation from sin, death, and hell.

There is a way of misunderstanding the role of Mary for our Christian faith. Among many Roman Catholics throughout the world, there is a tendency to focus as much attention on the Virgin Mary as on Jesus, and in some cases even more attention on Mary than Jesus. Some Roman Catholics ascribe to Mary the title "Co-Redemptrix," which is often understood at a popular level to mean that Jesus and Mary were equal partners in the process of the world's redemption. This is heretical, because it diminishes the work of the God-Man Jesus in His life, death, and resurrection and it elevates the work of a sinful human being.

It is also common among many Roman Catholics to say that while Jesus is the Mediator between God and Man, Mary is the Mediatrix, which is similar to a common form of devotion in Martin Luther's day. People were taught to pray to Mary for salvation because they thought of Jesus only as a strict Judge who was coming to punish sinners; their rationale was that Jesus would surely be inclined to answer requests from His mother. This also is a false and misleading practice, but the reason it came about was because people were not being taught the pure Gospel of Jesus as the Divine Redeemer and Savior from sin. While Jesus will come on the Last Day to judge the living and the dead, the medieval church (and many churches still today) failed to make the simple Gospel of John 3:16-17 its main focus, where Jesus Himself said, "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him." Jesus alone is the "Savior of the world" (John 4:42; 1 John 4:14) and as He later said, He is the "way and the truth and the life," the only way to the Father is through Him (John 14:6), with no other mediator in between.

If we want to be faithful to Christ and His Word, this means that we must reject the notion of praying to Mary and especially of elevating her to a level alongside Jesus; but I think there is an unfortunate tendency among most Lutherans to ignore the Blessed Virgin Mary and the other biblical saints. Yet in doing this, we run the risk of losing an important element of our Lutheran confession of faith, because the Augsburg Confession (which explains fundamental Lutheran doctrine) says, "It is also taught among us that saints should be kept in remembrance so that our faith may be strengthened when we see what grace they received and how they were sustained by faith" (Augsburg Confession, Article 21). Lutheran Churches have always honored the saints who have passed before us into glory. We remember them with thanksgiving in order that their example would be an encouragement for our lives.And there is no saint more worthy of remembrance than the Blessed Virgin Mary, because she was the most highly favored lady in history, and by observing what God did in her life and how she reacted, we can learn what true Christian faith is and how it acts.

A few weeks ago, on Christmas Eve, we heard about the Angel Gabriel coming to the young Virgin Mary and announcing that she was one favored by the Lord, and the Lord was with her in a unique way: the Holy Spirit would conceive in her womb "the Son of the Most High," "the Son of God," who was the Christ, the heir to King David's throne and the one who would rule over the house of Jacob forever, and His kingdom would have no end. Mary was puzzled by how this could be, so the angel assured her that nothing is impossible with God, and then Mary gives us a sublime example of how true faith in God speaks. She said, "Behold, I am the servant of the Lord; let it be to me according to Your Word" (Luke 1:38).

Notice that the angel didn't come and say to Mary, "If you agree to God's plan for the Incarnation of His Son, then all of these things will come to pass." No, the angel came declaring the Lord God's Word, His plan, His will for Mary. The Lord didn't come to her because He thought she might be a good candidate for this, but rather He comes to let Mary know that He has favored her and blessed her with His choice that she be the one to bear the Christ Child, the Savior of the world. And Mary responds with a humble and faithful acknowledgement of her acceptance of God's will for her: "Behold, I am the servant of the Lord; let it be to me according to Your Word." Soon after, Mary would give us the marvelous words of the Magnificat that the Church sings in our Vespers services, when she sang joyfully, "My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, for he has looked on the humble estate of his servant. For behold, from now on all generations will call me blessed; for he who is mighty has done great things for me, and holy is his name" (Luke 1:46-49).

"Holy is His name," sang the Blessed Virgin Mary. She recognized that God's name is holy in itself, but now through the Incarnation of God's Son, He was hallowing His name and bringing His Kingdom to earth. And so Mary had humbly said, "Thy will be done" when the angel's announcement came to her. And we must learn from her example. When the Lord comes to us announcing His Word, His plan, His will for us through the Scriptures, we too must respond in faith, "Behold, I am the servant of the Lord; let it be to me according to Your Word." We too must recognize that God is hallowing His name and bringing His Kingdom to us through Jesus Christ and His Word and Sacraments in the Church, and in response to His revelation in Christ, we pray, "Thy will be done. Let it be to me according to Your Word, O Lord."

And just as Mary rejoiced in the God of her salvation and sang a new song unto the Lord, it is a joyful thing for us to submit to Christ's good and gracious will for us, because we know that He only has blessing and salvation in store for those who trust in Him, as St. Paul announces in our Epistle, "Christ is the head of the church, his body, and is himself its Savior…Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, so that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish…[Christ] nourishes and cherishes…the church" (Ephesians 5, passim).

True love is motivated by care and compassion for another, but that love expresses itself in more than just words. It is not true love when a husband says he loves his wife but then abuses her; it is not true love when parents tell their children that they love them but then neglect them. Instead, true love is shown by loving action, and that is the love Christ has shown to His Bride, the Church: He laid down His life for her, for you! God the Father sent His Son into the flesh so that He could lay down His life on the cross as a sacrifice for the sins of the world. He is the Lamb of God who takes your sins upon Himself and dies for them. And when Jesus rose on the third day, God the Father showed that He had accepted the sacrifice Jesus had made for you. And then the Lord Jesus established a way for His forgiveness and salvation to be delivered to sinners like you and me. He instituted Holy Baptism as a gracious water of life to wash away sins by His blood, to unite you with His death and resurrection and raise you up with Him to new life in His Kingdom, His Church.

Just before the risen Lord Jesus ascended to sit at the right hand of His Father, He announced to the apostles who would go out and preach to His Church, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to Me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost, teaching them to observe everything I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the very end of the age" (Matthew 28:18-20). Through Baptism and faith, sinners, enemies of God, are made His disciples, His followers, His students, children of God and heirs of everlasting life. And the role of Christ's Church is to teach disciples to treasure, keep, and observe everything Jesus has taught us to believe and do. The voice of the Church must always say, "Do whatever Jesus tells you," because He is the Lord and He promises nothing but grace and blessing to those who keep His Word.

We see this happening in our Gospel reading this morning. St. Mary gives us a wonderful example of how believers should react to Christ's Word. When she comes to Jesus with the problem of the wedding feast running out of wine, Jesus is very direct with her and says, "Woman, what does this have to do with me? My hour has not yet come." In other words, the Lord wasn't ready to act. And so Mary simply trusts her son, who is also her Lord, and she basically says, "Thy will be done" when she tells the servants, "Do whatever He tells you." And then Jesus does act in His own time and in His own way through the miraculous changing of water into wine, when He manifests His glory as the only-begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. Here He shows that for those who trust Him, who wait on Him, who submit to His good and gracious will, He saves the best wine for the end, the best for last.

And so as we approach Jesus, who is our Lord and Savior from sin and death, we should heed St. Mary's advice when she says, "Do whatever He tells you." We also must listen to the words of God the Father when His Son's glory was revealed at the Transfiguration, which we will celebrate two weeks from today. God the Father said from above, "This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased; listen to him." If we combine the instructions from the Father of Jesus with the instructions from the mother of Jesus, it goes like this: "Listen to Him, and do whatever He tells you." This is a good definition of Christian piety, for Jesus said that His disciples should observe everything He says. In John 10, the Good Shepherd says, "My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand" (John 10:27-28).

And so our Christian lives will be ones that joyfully hear the voice of our Good Shepherd, take up our cross daily, and follow Him no matter where the road leads. Our Christian vocation is to submit to receive Christ's grace and forgiveness as He comes among us today through His Word and Sacraments, and He says, "The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel" (Mark 1:15). Do what He says: turn away from all your sins against God's commandments, don't make excuses for them but own up to them, and believe the Gospel that Jesus gave His life to redeem you, to purchase you for God with His own blood.

Jesus says, "Let the little children come to Me. Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved." Listen to Him, and trust that your Baptism into His death and resurrection, and the Baptism of your children into Christ, saves you and gives you a new life to live in His Kingdom.

Jesus says, "Take, eat, this is My body given for you…Take, drink, this is My blood of the New Testament, shed for you for the forgiveness of sins." Listen to Him, believe that His body was given into death for you, and His blood was shed for you, and then do what He says: eat and drink the body and blood that was given for your salvation.

Jesus says, "Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life" (John 5:24). Listen to Him, and do whatever He says: believe His promise that even though your body is dying, despite all outward appearances, you have everlasting life through faith in Him. And then, no matter what afflictions you are suffering, no matter how difficult it is to see how God could bring about good through what you are experiencing, take Jesus at His Word when He says that He will never leave you or forsake you but is with you always, to the very end of the age. And then you can say along with the Blessed Virgin Mary: "Behold, I am the servant of the Lord; let it be to me according to Your Word" (Luke 1:38). In the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

And the peace of God which passes all understanding will keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus unto life everlasting. Amen.