1 Corinthians 12.1-11, John 2.1-11
Bratton Clovelly, Sourton, Epiphany 3, 20/1/2013
Here’s some good news - the first thing that happened in Christianity happened not in a church but at a party. John's gospel story of Jesus' first ever miracle takes place with our Lord not praying in the Temple but propping up the bar. John tells us that the purpose of Jesus’ miracle at the wedding, was to reveal his glory to the world. In consequence, his disciples put their faith in him.
So Jesus first revealed his glory to the world, not by performing a wonderful healing, not by preaching a stunning sermon. And not by stopping people enjoying themselves. No! He went round the back of the bar at a wedding and boosted the stocks of best wine - by very generous proportions. And thus revealed the real good news in Christianity.
You might wonder why Jesus would be at a wedding in the first place. Wouldn't he be too busy being holy, playing God somewhere else, to mix with ordinary folks at a social event? In fact, the opposite is true. Jesus learned how to be holy precisely by mixing with ordinary folks - and he taught ordinary folks how to be holy whilst socialising with them.
We can assume that Jesus was at the wedding because he was invited. A single man of thirty years old is just the sort of person you'd expect to be invited to a wedding, and you can bet, in the close-knit community he belonged to, there would be a young bridesmaid or friend of the bride who would be watching him closely, with interest, hoping he might notice her.
Was Jesus a good dancer? We don't know, but we can assume this much - that he wanted to be at the wedding, because weddings are where people are. He wanted to be there to share the joy and the fun of the occasion with his family and friends. Jesus wasn't an abstainer.
It's only what you'd expect - that God who took such delight in creating the world and all its people, would delight to be with them on a day of celebration; that God whose whole being is wrapped up totally in love, would want to share the wonder of a young couple's love by joining in their wedding party.
There is another side to this which is also good news in a different sort of way. Because we know from our own experience that weddings aren't all joy. If we were able to see the wedding party through Jesus' compassionate eyes then we would know that that dancing bridesmaid was abandoned by her partner only weeks before and is hurting deep inside; we would know that the father buying drinks for everyone at the bar is compounding his financial problems by getting himself further into debt.
Jesus knows just as we do that weddings bring out family tensions as much as family blessings; Jesus knows just as we do that at weddings some people aren't there to celebrate stable long-term relationships, they'd settle for a one-night stand; Jesus knows just as we do, that for all the joy of weddings they can also bring out regrets, loneliness and pain.
And Jesus wanted to be there at that wedding fully aware of all those things. So that he could share in those meaningful little conversations over a drink where people pay attention to each other for once, open up a little and are raw and real about themselves. So that he could put his arm around a sad person, kiss a worried person, dance with a lonely person. Spread his love around. Isn't that precisely why he came down to earth from heaven in the first place?
Now the wine - the wine is something else which tells us Jesus wanted to be there and that he understood the people's needs. When he quietly snuck behind the bar and somehow transformed ordinary water into finest quality wine, three lots of people benefited.
The partygoers benefited, obviously, although they didn't even know what had gone on behind the scenes;
The hosts of the party benefited: it saved them so much embarrassment, there were no such things as all-night supermarkets to bail them out in those days;
I also like to think that Jesus performed this miracle for the sake of the bar staff, the caterers. It may or may not have been their fault that stocks ran so low; whatever, they would have got the blame and took the shame when the wine ran out. Jesus saved them from all that. Jesus stepping in to replace the people being pilloried for their wrongdoing - this miracle prefigures Calvary, gives us the first hint of the fundamental meaning of salvation.
Now, note that Jesus didn't just produce any old wine - Jesus' wine was the very best quality, sending the toastmaster into confusion, making the drinkers feel this was some do they were at, they were involved in something special here.
And Jesus didn't spend any time carefully calculating precisely how much wine was needed to keep the party going to a certain time. He didn’t act like a priest does, meticulously measuring the amount in the chalice before Communion. No: Jesus just got all the empty containers they could find and filled them right up to the brim. That should do it, imagine him saying, with a smile, to the flabbergasted bar staff.
This was more than enough. This wasn't just generous. This was a scandalously generous gesture. Which is precisely what Jesus intended it to be. Because after all, isn't the whole thing about God coming to earth scandalously generous?
Jesus chose to reveal his glory not to a temple-full of pompous priests or pent-up puritans but to a party full of all sorts - isn't that scandalous?
Jesus chose to offer everyone, whoever they were and whatever they were up to, the same sort of new life as he'd injected into that party with that new wine - isn't that generous?
The disciples saw his glory - and believed. And so can we. This story's power penetrates through human history. That was just the beginning - the extravagant glory of Jesus is still coming to light in the world now - you might have seen examples of it in your own life or someone else's.
The toastmaster said, "You have kept the good wine until now". This story helps us see that in our lives, the life of the community or the world, Jesus can replace the 'inferior wine' with 'good wine'. This is Good News for all people, in all situations. In the days and years ahead, through Jesus, the hurting bridesmaid can be healed, the debt-ridden father can find financial stability, the regretful can overcome their regrets, the lost and the lonely can find identity in community.
A final great thing about this story is that it invites us to see how Jesus needs us, to help share his extravagant glory with others. He didn't do the miracle on his own. He needed his mother to prompt him to do it in the first place. He needed the workers to prepare it all for him. And he needed those disciples to put their faith in him so that his glorious, generous work of love could carry on, spread and grow, through them.
We are their successors. And that's why Jesus gives us the Spirit. So we can help share his extravagant glory with others. Jesus gave everyone at that wedding something very good. In 1 Corinthians 12 Paul says that everyone who comes to Jesus will be given something good, through the Spirit, to help them serve God in their lives, day by day. Spiritual gifts, of all varieties, offered freely by Jesus to us. We're not called to be party-poopers. We're called to join Jesus at the party. We're not called to stop others enjoying themselves. We're called to join Jesus in filling their glasses to the full with the very best wine.
Now that makes our Holy Communion look a little mean, even inhospitable, by comparison. It’s a long way from looking and feeling like a party. We invite people to very soberly take a modest sip from a tiny chalice. Does the relative meanness of our Communion ritual influence the way we express our faith outside of church? Maybe we should be doing it differently; maybe we should rethink Communion in the spirit of the Wedding at Cana.
You know, God loves a wedding. Because he loves people, loves to spread joy. Think of the deep love of a couple embracing on their wedding day. That's precisely the sort of love God longs to share with you. It's not temperate at all. It’s wildly, wonderfully generous. And that is very Good News indeed.
Notes
[1] This is a reworking of another Wedding at Cana sermon, God's scandalous generosity, preached at the Good Shepherd, Liverpool, 14/1/2007, and an edited version of John 2 - Intemperate Christianity: the Good News, preached at Bridestowe and Lydford in January 2012.
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