Vicar Karla Leitzman
I really like wine. I may not be incredibly knowledgeable about wine, and truthfully a glass of the very expensive stuff is probably going to be lost on me, but I like wine.
Champagne can technically only be called champagne if it comes from the Champagne region of France. Most sparkling wines are a type of prosecco, or if it’s from Spain, a variety called Cava. Every time I try true, real champagne, which can be incredibly pricey, I appreciate it, sure, but inevitably I am going to prefer the $12 bottle of sparkling cava that I’ve been buying for years at Total Wine.
Even though all of that is true, I still just really enjoy learning about wine and trying new ones. I like listening to experts talk about what excites them about the varietals they make. I like learning about how different years mean different things for making wines. Upon reflection, I think it is because I like really learning and I like being surprised.
The summer before last, I learned about the wine region of Mexico in Baja California which is known as Valle de Guadalupe. I’d never heard of the area, but funnily enough, it was through some of the pastors that I work with in San Diego for my work with Global Refuge that I learned about the area. Because Valle de Guadalupe is only about a two hour drive from San Diego and the border, it is a pretty easy weekend getaway for them, kind of like how Duluth is for us here. It turns out that this very arid, dry region produces about 90% of all of the wine that comes from Mexico. And it turns out that while it may not have the same reputation or longevity as regions of France and Italy or Napa here in the US, Mexico makes some truly excellent wine.
Upon learning about Valle de Guadelupe, I earnestly began my lobbying project to my now husband, Felipe, to have us make a visit. He was, shall we say, skeptical to put it mildly. He spent a lot of time looking at google images and doing research and basically saying, “you seriously want to drag me to the desert?” Because it is a desert.
Finally he agreed. We made a plan so that on one of my work trips to San Diego, he flew in and met me at the end of my appointments, we picked up the rental car and started our little road trip south. And, as we made this drive, I started to watch some of the skepticism on his face slip away. The hotel that we found to stay was gorgeous and as we visited lots of vineyards over the next few days and truly never had a bad wine, you could watch him be more and more willing to acquiesce that I was correct. It also doesn’t hurt that the man loves a good bargain, and for the high quality of the food and wine and accommodation, it really was a fantastic value.
On our last day, he was already planning our next visit. Come and see that I, Karla, was right.
I know it seems like a silly comparison, but when looking at today’s gospel lesson, I did find myself making that trivial comparison to me being eager to let Felipe see that I knew what I was talking about, not because I had been there before, but because I was very ready and willing to trust these San Diego pastors. I just knew that it was going to be good. John the Baptist just knew that all that was to come from Jesus was going to be good.
Last week, we celebrated the Baptism of our Lord. In commemorating that day, we all re affirmed and still reaffirm our baptismal identity. We continually come and see all that our identity in Jesus means. We are loved and given grace abundant without needing to produce any good deeds that, in our human understanding, would “earn” us salvation. That grace is given to us lovingly and it is then up to us to use that freedom to serve others.
John is the testifier of Jesus’ coming and of Jesus’ identity. He is the one to share who Jesus is and who sends him. In a lot of our mainline Christian traditions, we admittedly don’t always know what to do with this idea of testifying. Many of us might assume that testifying to Jesus’ identity means shouting it from the rooftops, using our words to raise the volume. But it is also through our actions that we testify to who Jesus came to be and who Jesus continues to come to be.
We can and should talk about Jesus, yes, absolutely. And, we must also use our actions to live out those words.
We live them out by moving through the world with kindness, by testifying with our compassion and care for all of God’s beloved children, particularly those who are harmed by the powers of the world.
Let us this week testify with our words and with what we do that backs up those words. May we testify to God’s love, compassion, and mercy.