1/18/1998 - Some Saw Glory

Dean William Willimon

Passage: John 2:1-11

Sermon:
Let’s say we’re all here this morning in an attempt to get close to God. That’s why you have gotten up, gotten dressed, and come into this place — to be close to God.
And then we hit you with a weird story. Today’s gospel is the sort of story which you academic, intellectual types despise.
First of all, the amount of water is huge. About 120 to 130 gallons of water. What were they doing with all that water? Well, this water is for the Jewish rites of Purification. The Jews had many such rites for making oneself pure. Here, in this story, 120 to 180 gallons of water is present, enough for a hot tub or two. This is for the ritual of purification.

Isaiah 62:1-5)
For Zion's sake I will not keep silent, and for Jerusalem's sake I will not rest, until her vindication shines out like the dawn, and her salvation like a burning torch. The nations shall see your vindication, and all the kings your glory; and you shall be called by a new name that the mouth of the LORD will give. You shall be a crown of beauty in the hand of the LORD, and a royal diadem in the hand of your God. You shall no more be termed Forsaken, and your land shall no more be termed Desolate; but you shall be called My Delight Is in Her, and your land Married; for the LORD delights in you, and your land shall be married. For as a young man marries a young woman, so shall your builder marry you, and as the bridegroom rejoices over the bride, so shall your God rejoice over you.

(1 Corinthians 12:1-11)
Now concerning spiritual gifts, brothers and sisters, I do not want you to be uninformed. You know that when you were pagans, you were enticed and led astray to idols that could not speak. Therefore I want you to understand that no one speaking by the Spirit of God ever says "Let Jesus be cursed!" and no one can say "Jesus is Lord" except by the Holy Spirit. Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit; and there are varieties of services, but the same Lord; and there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who activates all of them in everyone. To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good. To one is given through the Spirit the utterance of wisdom, and to another the utterance of knowledge according to the same Spirit, to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by the one Spirit, to another the working of miracles, to another prophecy, to another the discernment of spirits, to another various kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of tongues. All these are activated by one and the same Spirit, who allots to each one individually just as the Spirit chooses.

(John 2:1-11)
On the third day there was a wedding in Cana of Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there. Jesus and his disciples had also been invited to the wedding. When the wine gave out, the mother of Jesus said to him, "They have no wine." And Jesus said to her, "Woman, what concern is that to you and to me? My hour has not yet come." His mother said to the servants, "Do whatever he tells you." Now standing there were six stone water jars for the Jewish rites of purification, each holding twenty or thirty gallons. Jesus said to them, "Fill the jars with water." And they filled them up to the brim. He said to them, "Now draw some out, and take it to the chief steward." So they took it. When the steward tasted the water that had become wine, and did not know where it came from (though the servants who had drawn the water knew), the steward called the bridegroom and said to him, "Everyone serves the good wine first, and then the inferior wine after the guests have become drunk. But you have kept the good wine until now." Jesus did this, the first of his signs, in Cana of Galilee, and revealed his glory; and his disciples believed in him.

Mary says simply to Jesus, “They have no wine.” In other words, the human race has no real life left in it.

Jesus replies that it is not yet “his time,” or in other words, his public life has not yet begun. He must preach, heal, suffer, die and rise again. But Mary knows him too well. She says to the servants, do whatever he tells you.

Mary does not take seriously all the reasons why God’s promise cannot be fulfilled at this time. She knows that the people need the full, rich wine of life, which is love. She trusts her son.

God’s abundant and extravagant giftedness calls us to generosity and praise. In the words of the hymn, “God of Change and Glory,” we joyfully affirm, “For the giver and the gifts, Praise! Praise! Praise!”

John’s gospel affirms that Jesus’ first miracle took place at a wedding feast in Cana of Galilee. Jesus’ ministry, and the reign of God, is about celebration, about a party, about bringing families together in moments of joy and reconciliation. Joy, as C.S. Lewis notes, is a sign of God’s presence. Joy expands our hearts and souls, and inspires us to reach out to others.

Joy is not accidental, but a spiritual virtue, grounded in our openness to God’s presence in our lives.

Even the Messiah had to adjust his schedule when events took a surprising turn. The story of Jesus coming-out event as told by John demonstrates his spiritual flexibility.

"My hour has not yet come." The phrase suggests that Jesus had hoped for a more carefully chosen setting for his first presentation of himself. In the political turmoil of first-century Judah. the way one called attention to oneself could be a matter of life or death. Jesus, understandably wanted to take on the heavy mantle of leadership in a considered manner. He did not want to stumble awkwardly onto the public stage.

Then came unexpected circumstances.

At every wedding we wait for the moment when we witness a bride and groom vow faithfulness to each other "til death us do part." We think when we hear those words, or even more when we speak them ourselves, that death will come to visit much later, at some far distant boundary of a marital union begun today with such promise.

But death is already there. It comes to sit with us at the beginning, else there is no glory, no gravity to the marriages we make by giving ourselves to each other. We do a weighty thing when we commit to sharing most intimately with one partner the brief and precious life each of us gets on this earth. Few of us see the full truth of this, however, until we reach that inevitable moment we named in our vows.

Gathering Meditation
(Based on Psalm 36: 5-10)

God, this past week has been hectic. Please shelter us from the storms of life. The mountains have been too high for us to climb, and the waters of life have overwhelmed us. The hard knocks and headaches of life seem to be too much for us to bear, but what a consolation to know that there is refuge in the shadow of your wings. Despite the way life has treated us all week long, you continue to wrap your arms of protection around us. In spite of us, your steadfast love never ceases. We come this morning, gracious God, seeking the abundance of your house. We come looking for the rivers of life to flood over our souls.

Invocation
(Based on John 2:1-11)

God, our God,
As you were with the wedding party in Cana of Galilee, be with us here today. The wine of our lives and souls has run out. Fill this place with the presence of Your Holy Spirit. Fill the water pots of our souls this day with new and fresh wine from your wine cellar. The wine of yesterday is gone; it is stale; it is old. Today, God, send your anointing power in this place and in the lives of your people that we may find strength to hold on and hold out. Help us to know that the best wine is yet to come, and we can taste and see your goodness. Show yourself to be powerful, empowering, and awesome this day and for all times to come. In the name of Jesus the Christ, we pray. Amen.

The six stone water jars, each holding 20-30 gallons equals 120-180 gallons of wine! That's a lot of wine. I noted above that an abundance of wine was an OT eschatological symbol.

The abundance of God's grace is a theme that can flow out of these huge jars.

Something I hadn't noticed before is that these jars were empty. The servants have to fill them with water before the miracle occurs. Jesus is not transforming the purification water that was in the jars into the wine; but he is transforming new water that has been placed in the old containers. O'Day suggests: "New wine is created in the 'old' vessels of the Jewish purification rites, symbolizing that the old forms are given new content."

You see, there is 180 gallons of grace, 180 gallons of forgiveness, for past, present and future sins. This awareness also grows out of Hebrews, chapter ten, where Jesus says that he is the perfect sacrifice for all sins forever.

Many of you have heard the following story. A man or women prays,  “Today Lord, I have not sinned. I have not lost my temper today. I have not cursed today. I have not lusted today. Bless me now as I get up. Amen.”

There is 180 gallons of grace to cover all the sins that we commit after we get up in the morning.

This new religion of Jesus is a religion of joy and happiness. It is 180 gallons of joy juice and happiness. Being a Christian is like going to a party. Being a Christian is like going to a Jewish wedding. The bridegroom is with us, and the bridegroom brings pleasure to our lives.

So I pick up three lessons from our Gospel. First, I think the Gospel is saying that Jesus wants us to enjoy life, to live life to the full, that life in his kingdom is like a never-ending wedding banquet where the best wine never runs out and where Jesus is the life of the party. The Gospel says that God is not stingy, that God is extravagant, that God wants us to live life in God’s reign as a never-ending celebration of peace and joy for everyone.

Second, Mary gives us a great instruction here, “Do whatever Jesus tells you.” That should be the guiding principle of our lives. We are a people who do what Jesus tells us to do. That’s how we make our decisions. We ask ourselves, “What would Jesus do?” and then we can go and do what he would do.

Finally, if we are to live life, we have to oppose the forces of death.

If there’s one thing most doctors agree on it’s that each of us ought to drink eight glasses of water a day. That’s 64 ounces of water every day. They recommend this to keep the body hydrated, to keep weight off, and to avoid a whole host of other ills.

Somewhat more controversial is the advice to drink a glass of wine every day. Many believe that there is something in the wine that reduces the risk of stroke by something like 32%. But even so, people are less likely to be enthusiastic about recommending a glass of wine because wine is a fairly different drink from water. Water is a nice safe drink. Good for you. Drink lots of it. Wine on the other hand—drink too much of that and you can run into problems. It’s got the potential to make you drunk. It can cause you to lose control.

II. TEXT

And so we encounter Jesus at a wedding in Cana of Galilee and water and wine are both involved. It is three days since John the Baptist declared his “the Lamb of God who takes a way the sins of the world.” It is very early in his ministry. They run out of wine at the wedding and Jesus’ mother says to him, “They have no wine.” His response is curious:

“Woman, what concern is that to you and to me? My hour has not yet come.”

Jesus' ministry begins with a party. He attends a wedding at Cana. We do not know the host or the two people getting married, but we know it might be a "family affair," for Jesus' mother is at the wedding. She is the one who notices that the wine has run out and tells her son. In those days well as these, I suppose, they regarded anyone who ran out of wine as a social failure. It was shameful to run out of wine, especially at a wedding; and it could cause a family pain and humiliation in the community.

Like the good mother she is, Mary assumes Jesus can do something to rescue the situation. Jesus has an odd response to her, which we can easily assume is the narrator's voice, reminding us that Jesus is more than the son of Mary, no less than the child of God. Mary does not react harshly to Jesus when he rebukes her; instead, she shows confidence that he will do something to save the situation and instructs the servants to do whatever he asks.

I want to mention a few aspects but I am sure there are more.

 

• The first thing to notice is the extravagance of God. This wasn’t just a few bottles of wine – it was six huge stone jars full. . . .  And this wine is only a sign of all sorts of ways God is extravagant. Think of the extravagance of creation: apart from the bewildering variety of species of plants and animals one only has to stand under a night sky in a remote place and look at the stars and try to fathom the Mind of a creator who placed not only those stars in our one galaxy, but also trillions upon trillions more throughout the millions of other galaxies. Or think of the extravagance of the kingdom as taught by Jesus’ parables where a tiny mustard seed becomes a bush large enough to house all the birds of the air, or a little leaven is enough to provide a truckload of bread, or a group of itinerant workers are paid a day’s wage for a mere hour’s work, or a rebellious runaway son is given a hero’s welcome upon return. The God known by the psalmist is also celebrated for generosity and extravagance – such as the words we read this morning: “All people feast on the abundance of your house, and you give them drink from the river of your delights” (Ps 36:8). When Jesus turned 6 large water vessels into wine he was giving us a sign of God as the generous host who not only fills our cup but fills it to overflowing.

 

• Secondly I think the sign is about the possibility of ordinary becoming extraordinary. There is a story about a child who heard about this story in Sunday school, and when he was asked what he had learned from the story stopped and thought for a moment, then said “I learned if you’re having a wedding, make sure Jesus is there. . . .
  

 

• Thirdly, I think this story can be for us a sign of new possibilities when we follow Christ and allow ourselves to be surprised by God at work in our lives.

I personally really dislike the way Mary handles things here because, after I whine to people, I’ve got no trouble alerting God to the problem saying Jesus, here’s my problem. Then I’d like to supply him with all the answers to my problem that would behoove me and fit my schedule and needs. You know, give him some multiple-choice options: “A” being the best, “D” being the least, and I, of course, want “A,” but I’ll take “C” if he steps on it and gets me out of this thing. Do you do this? Do you ever feel like, Lord, here’s the problem. You must do this and you must do that and you must do this, as if he were our cosmic errand boy whose sole purpose in existence — this be God’s — to arrange circumstances so that we are supremely happy.

When our wine runs out, there’s a big problem with this approach to prayer. T. S. Eliot, a poet that I’ll now reference, spoke right to this in a poem. What he said was brilliant. He got it right when his wine had clearly run out. He said this,

I said to my soul, “Be still and wait without hope.”

Did you catch that? Not with hope.

“Be still and wait without hope”

We stop supplying Jesus with our own hopes, our own answers, our own agendas and our own issues because inevitably, we’re always prone to rationalization and justification — we will get it wrong. We can’t see what’s right. We don’t even know what’s right for us. Our agendas will fall short.

And to follow Jesus means that we do not cut ourselves off from the flesh, or the world; we do not demonize peoples because we do not approve of them; we do not raise up one gender at the expense of the other; we do not insist that people must be like us to gain God's approval. To follow Jesus means that we proclaim that God's Community is open to everyone, regardless of their social stigma. To follow Jesus means that this table is big enough for everybody. To follow Jesus means to see this world as a good gift from an extravagant God, that its fruits are meant to be enjoyed and shared.

Now, this is not the same as the "Gospel of Prosperity" preached by the charlatans on TV. God's extravagance promises no one riches, or positions of power or privilege. God's extravagance is not economic in nature; it is, more than anything else, moral. God has made the world and declared it, and all that is in it, good. Woe to those who call good things evil. God has opened his gates of his community to the prostitute and the outcast. Woe to those who then bar them from God's table. God has called us to an "abundant life," and those who eschew it are only cutting off their own noses to spite their faces.

They have no wine. Is that the same as saying, they have no life in their day? They have no joy in their community? They have no hope for their re-demption? They have no dream of really loving one another -- no hope of justice and freedom ringing from sea to shining sea? That they had enough experience with this world to rein in their expectations?

First he said, "My hour has not yet come." We could have anticipated that kind of response. And then, almost as if he couldn't help himself, he poured out life-giving, joy-releasing, precious full-flavored wine. And the disciples said, "Oh, Glory!" You don't suppose life could be that good, do you? You don't suppose the church could be that loving, do you? You don't suppose this world could finally wake and find itself in a real dream, do you?

When the first-century Jews worshiped, first they purified themselves. They prepared. As they entered the synagogue or temple, they dipped their fingers into the water set aside for the purification rite. It didn’t take much. It was more a symbolic gesture than it was hygienic. It only took about a cup of water to purify a hundred men. But John almost goes out of his way to let us know there’s a lot of water here. Six stone jars, he says, each holding two or three measures, a measure being about ten gallons. Let’s do the math: six jars, twenty to thirty gallons each... There could have been as much as a hundred-and-eighty gallons, at minimum a hundred-and-twenty. That’s a lot of water, especially in such an arid part of the world where water is not taken for granted.

 

If one cup of water could purify one hundred men, imagine how many a hundred-and-eighty gallons would serve! What is John saying? There’s enough water here to purify the world, the whole world! And it is at Jesus’ command.

Perhaps the Cana story appears first in the Gospel of John because in reality the world is a wedding celebration. Here Jesus transforms the water of ordinariness into the wine of miracles. All benefit from these transformations, though some know the cause of them, and others do not. To share our faith means this: letting others know that signs are abundant, and Christ is the one to whom they point.

 

So Cana continues. It continues not simply at this table, this feast of grace, but also when we leave here to encounter Christ active throughout the wide world. Not only here, but there as well he changes the ordinariness that wearies us into the wonder that renews us and makes us glad.