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Invited to a Wedding

John 2: 1 – 11

 

(preached January 16, 2022)

 

During the church season of Epiphany, we see Jesus’ ministry unfold.  The word epiphany means a new realization and week by week, in the gospel stories, his disciples gradually realize who Jesus is.  On the last Sunday of Epiphany, two of them see Jesus, at the top of a mountain, shining in his full glory as God’s only begotten Son.

 

That day is still a long way off when Jesus arrives in Cana, for a wedding.  But at the wedding we get a glimpse of the glory of God.  As Jesus turns water into wine, we see the life of heaven, what Jesus calls the Kingdom of God, entering into ordinary life on earth.

 

The wedding in Cana is the first public act of Jesus’ ministry.  It’s the opening scene in the drama of his public life.  Like many opening scenes, it sets the stage for the action that is to come.  In the story of the wedding in Cana, John is saying, “this is what Jesus is all about.”

 

You know, it’s curious.  We might wonder, why doesn’t John begin the story with Jesus preaching a sermon or healing the sick or teaching the disciples to pray?  Why, to show the life of heaven entering life on earth, does John tell us about this party?  Why, for Jesus’ first miracle, does John show him helping a bunch of people have a good time?

 

One Christian writer offers a look at what John might be up to here.  In his book, The Heart of Christianity, Marcus Borg says that, in the wedding at Cana, John is describing what Jesus has come to show us: the relationship God wants to have with us.  John says that relationship, where the life of heaven breaks into life on earth, is like a wedding.  When the life of heaven breaks into life on earth, it’s like a wedding where the wine never runs out.

 

In Jesus’ time and today, a wedding is a lavish event.  As I was preparing for this sermon, I found myself thinking about weddings.  Just out of curiosity, I went on line to find out what a wedding costs in the United States today.  I learned that the average wedding – the average wedding, mind you, not the most expensive wedding – the average wedding costs about twenty-eight thousand dollars.  When you add up the cost of the dress, the flowers, the photographer, the reception, the DJ, the manicures and pedicures that everybody seems to need these days – when you add all those up, it comes to about twenty-eight thousand dollars.

 

As many of you know, I think it’s good to live simply.  I’m not a big fan of constantly consuming extravagant things.  So what I’m about to say might surprise you, but here it is:  I think it’s wonderful if brides and grooms and their families want to spend a bundle on weddings.  The outlay of cash seems incredible, but it signifies something: a wedding is important.  A wedding is a major milestone.  A wedding is a tremendous life-changing event for the couple and their families.

 

Spending a lot on a wedding is nothing new.  In Jesus’ time, in the village of Cana, a wedding was every bit as extravagant, every bit as lavish, as a wedding today.  That was a good thing.  Cana was a peasant town.  The lives of people there revolved around constant labor.  They worked long, hard, days: raising crops, caring for animals, keeping themselves fed and clothed and sheltered.  Their typical diet was grains, vegetables, and, once in a while, a fish.

 

But when a wedding came along, no expense was spared.  A wedding was a rare opportunity to break out of the toilsome, tiresome routine of daily life.  A wedding was a time to cut loose, to play, to celebrate.  It was a time to forget about all that hard work, put on your dancing shoes, and have a good time.  The feasting and dancing went on for several days.  The wedding would be the high point of the year: not just for the family directly involved, but for the whole village.

 

In Cana and today, a wedding signifies the coming together of two lives that have, until that day, been separate.  At a wedding, two lives come together.  From that day forward, those two lives will be joined in a new relationship.  A wedding creates one new life, together.

 

The wedding in Cana says the relationship God wants to have with us, the new and wonderful relationship Jesus has come to bring us, is like a wedding.  It’s a wedding where the life of heaven enters life on earth.  Two lives that used to be separate: the life of heaven and the life of earth, come together to make one new life.  Jesus calls that new life the Kingdom of God.  And this new life begins at a wedding that is far from ordinary.  It begins at a wedding where the wine never runs out.

 

If you’re a careful listener, you may have noticed that Jesus is not at the wedding to perform an official religious role.  He’s just one of the guests, along with Mary and the disciples.  He’s just one of the guests, but he’s able to help the host out of a jam.

 

Running out of wine at a wedding was a major crisis.  For the host, running out of wine was a social disaster.  So you can imagine the host’s embarrassment when what was supposed to be the party of a lifetime runs out of everybody’s favorite beverage.  He’s in a real bind.  How did it happen?  Maybe more people showed up than he expected.  Maybe the people who showed up drank more than he expected.  Whatever the cause, it was a major crisis.  But Jesus lends a hand and water turns to wine.  Embarrassment turns to laughter.  Panic turns to relief.  There’s no need for panic because there’s plenty, way more than enough.

 

In our lives, you and I often worry that there won’t be enough.  You and I suffer from what is sometimes called a mentality of scarcity, a constant, gnawing anxiety that there’s not enough.  The anxiety might be about money. We worry that we’ll never have enough money to get what we need.  The anxiety might be about time.  We’ll never have enough time to get everything done.

 

But there’s no such thing as scarcity in our relationship with God.  In the wonderful relationship Jesus has come to bring, there is abundance.  We find everything we need is ours in abundance.  We can see that in the abundance of wine at the wedding.

 

As you listened to the gospel, you may have noticed that John is very specific about the number of water jars.  He tells us that there are six jars.  Each jar would have held twenty or thirty gallons.  Jesus could have ended the wine crisis by changing the water in only a couple of the jars. He could have told the steward to fill just a couple of the jars and not bother with the rest.  That would have met the needs of the wedding banquet.  But Jesus isn’t interested in doing just the minimum here.  He isn’t interested in merely meeting the needs of the party.  He wants to make sure there’s plenty: more than enough for everyone to enjoy, long into the night, and the night after that, and the night after that.

 

Jesus has come to show us the way to a relationship with God: a relationship where the life of heaven enters into life on earth.  Two lives: our life and God’s life, used to be separate.  Now they are brought together in a wonderful new life.  In that new life there is abundance, more than enough, everything we need and more.  Just as those water jars were filled to the brim with wine, our lives will be filled to the brim and overflowing.  In our lives there will be plenty, more than enough.  Our lives in a relationship with God will be like a banquet where the wine never runs out.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Rev. Elva Merry Pawle

Epiphany 2