Sermons

January 14th, 2007
Extravagant Love

Reverend Linda Saffrey

There was a wedding: Hurray – a beautiful text on which to preach! Jesus’ ministry begins with eating and drinking and celebration. A wedding – everyone in the community participates. Like in small towns, still, where an ad placed in the local newspaper invites people to share in the happiness of the couple. Two people – love, celebration, hope for the future, anticipation and excitement, families joined, new community forged.

In Scripture the wedding banquet is a metaphor for God’s reign, marriage a metaphor for the covenant relationship between God and God’s people. In the minds of the early church - Jesus is the Bridegroom, and the Church the bride. In life weddings are factored on the joyful side – the icing on the cake of all those years of parental commitment and sacrifice to launch your child successfully, happily into the world. Five years ago we were planning for our son Kevin’s wedding. Words are inadequate to describe how exciting and deeply joyful it is to host family and friends. You had to be there!

Trouble in Cana: The wine ran out! - Not enough for the week-long festivities. What went wrong? Poor planning? poverty? Somebody tapped into the supply – theft? Some of the guests over-indulged? Don’t know – doesn’t matter. For reasons beyond our control, the wine runs out, the well runs dry, and we are left without resources. (except for the incredible generosity of God!) At this wedding Jesus gives beyond what any of us could give. As a miracle-worker Jesus goes well beyond meeting the needs of the moment for health or safety or food. “In this story …the sheer abundance of the gifts Jesus brings to humankind extends beyond what any of us can ask or think or comprehend.” (Texts for Preaching)

This is the only miracle of its kind. It is prompted by Jesus’ mother. Jesus resists her urging. “Not my time”, he says. It’s as though he knows his ministry is measured out like an expensive bottle of vintage wine – only so much, saving for a special occasion, once opened must be consumed.

There is no a practical reason for this miracle – no lives being saved, no demons being cast out. It is not a response to human need. No one even notices that it has happened except the disciples who come to believe in Jesus. Perhaps the whole thing is symbolic rather than factual, and though it is tempting to treat as allegory – better to look at it as a whole than to closely examine each element of the story. Someone said, maybe the fact that we can’t figure this out is itself the point – this mystery is pointing ahead to the greater mystery yet to unfold.

On this occasion of his first miracle – maybe what Jesus wants to say about the covenant of marriage and the community gathered is that it is important enough in God’s eye to spend your life for – the joyful banquet higher priority than all the stuff that goes wrong, needs fixing, failures etc. This is a powerful image of our ultimate outcome. Although we experience suffering, and Jesus goes on to suffer and die, we were created for joy. We say this when often our experience is grief – Cheri leaving, Jim dying, worry about the future, all our personal and family stuff, concern for the planet, global warming, and the condition of the world – famine, terrorism. (The metaphor of the wedding banquet is used throughout scripture) The bottom lime: God delights in us, rejoices over us – and we, who are the image of God – must not/will not be prevented from rejoicing, too. According to John, some of Jesus last words to his disciples were: “I will see you again, and your hearts will rejoice, and no one will take your joy from you!”

The writer of this gospel is the only one to share this story. Jesus probably attended just as many weddings as the next person, but did Jesus really perform a miracle where water changed into wine? As difficult to believe as walking on water. John’s gospel hard enough to understand – warned by a professor not to preach on it for at least 7 years. The author, in poetic, mystical language – presents a body of evidence to defend the church community against its opponents – signs to explain why believers followed Jesus, and to encourage us to follow, to proclaim that Jesus is the Messiah, the son of God, and to have life in his name. A tall order.

In the movie, Gospel of John, released a few years ago – Jesus is like alien from another planet – a visitor whose true citizenship is in Heaven with the Father. Not very convincing – in our scientific world, impossible to believe at face value – because someone said so, need some kind of proof. We are like Thomas, the twin, who didn’t believe, even when he saw Jesus risen. We need something more than words or wonders to make believers out of us. We can count those times when our troubles are not transformed into the wine of celebration – at least not in such a timely fashion. Times when our doubts are much weightier than the arguments of our faith.
What does God do with those times? John tells us a story and invites us to believe.

Jesus and his disciples were invited to a wedding, in Cana, a small village about 9 miles northwest of Nazareth. Mary, Jesus’ mother was also present. There would have been the usual festivities, a procession of the bride from her house to the groom’s house, a wedding supper, and a celebration that would last for several days. And Jesus was there, passing the time of day while others were the centre of attention, exchanging greetings with people he knew, joining in songs and dancing, mirth and hilarity, talk and traditions. It is thought that this was the marriage of a relative or close friend, because of Mary’s special interest when they ran out of wine. Jesus refuses to be involved. It’s not his business, nor is it the time. Mary persists, and this becomes the occasion of the first of Jesus’ “signs”, when he brings his glory into this celebration of life about to turn sour.

It took only a few drops of water for the ritual of purification. So why did Jesus ask them to fill the jars? And where did they get all that water in the first place? There was no lake or river near this village. Anyone who has ever carried water from a well knows it would take a long time to carry 120 gallons of it. According to Jewish custom, there is enough water in this story to purify the whole world.

We aren’t told at what point this water changed to wine, and some people hearing this story might say that 120 gallons of wine is just too much. It is if you drink it all yourself? But perhaps it’s just enough if you share it with as many people as you can. (One commentator sees the wine as a metaphor for what Robert Putnam refers to as “social capital” – for the good of all – like the gifts of the Spirit. God is the host of humanity, prepares the banquet and invites us to the table. The cup overflows.

Each of us, with our own particular gifts can become so much greater when we are gathered together as the body of Christ, when we worship and work and rejoice together. The cup overflows. Jesus begins God’s work among us with this sign of God’s generosity, this demonstration of God’s boundless love. This is a celebration of life itself. God’s abundance is poured out beyond our expectations or comprehension. We are called to rejoice. When we reach the end of our resources, we are met by God, and surprised by a new beginning.
Thanks be to God.

Amen.