“The Wedding at Cana”
A Sermon
Preached by the
Rev. Jean Niven Lenk
Rev. Jean Niven Lenk
Sunday,
January 27, 2013
First
Congregational Church of Stoughton, United Church of Christ
Text: John
2:1-11
Let us pray…. O God of steadfast love, at the
wedding in Cana your Son Jesus turned water into wine, revealing his divine
nature. By the power of your Spirit,
bless our reading and hearing of your Holy Word, that we may be open to your
message for us today and believe in the signs that reveal your presence. In Jesus’ name. Amen.
This past week, I
googled the words “wedding disaster” and got 111,000 results. It seems that despite all the planning that
goes into creating a “fairytale” wedding, things can sometimes go unexpectedly
awry, whether it’s a hurricane, a drunken brawl, food poisoning, or a
horse-drawn carriage careening out of control when the horse gets spooked and
bolts. There seems to be no end to
things that can go wrong on the Big Day.
In my years of
officiating at weddings, I’ve experienced fainting brides, forgotten rings,
recalcitrant ring bearers, and a ceremony outside in a torrential thunder and
lightning storm, in addition to any number of minor calamities. With complicated logistics requiring minute
details being pulled off with military precision, it’s no wonder that weddings
are essentially accidents waiting to happen.
This morning’s Gospel
story is also about a wedding disaster.
At this wedding, which takes places in the village of Cana, the disaster
is nothing less than the wine running out – horrors! -- and it sets up the
opportunity for Jesus to perform his first miracle.
I invite you to turn
to page 93 of the New Testament section of your pew bible for our scripture
lesson from the Gospel of John, Chapter 2, verses 1-11.
On the third day there
was a wedding in Cana of Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there. 2 Jesus
and his disciples had also been invited to the wedding. 3 When
the wine gave out, the mother of Jesus said to him, “They have no wine.” 4 And
Jesus said to her, “Woman, what concern is that to you and to me? My hour has
not yet come.” 5 His mother said to the servants, “Do whatever
he tells you.” 6 Now standing there were six stone water jars for the Jewish rites of
purification, each holding twenty or thirty gallons. 7 Jesus
said to them, “Fill the jars with water.” And they filled them up to the brim. 8 He
said to them, “Now draw some out, and take it to the chief steward.” So they
took it. 9 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 10 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.” 11 Jesus did this, the
first of his signs, in Cana of Galilee, and revealed his glory; and his
disciples believed in him.
A couple of weeks ago,
we celebrated Epiphany. The word
“epiphany” has several meanings. To have
an “epiphany” is to have a sudden perception or insight – an “aha!” moment. And “epiphany” also means “appearance,” which
is what happens on Epiphany when the brightly shining star appears in the night
sky to guide the Wise Men to the Christ Child.
But Epiphany is not
just a day; it is a whole season which continues until Lent, and during the
Season of Epiphany come two more stories which reveal Jesus’ divine
nature. Last week, we heard the story of
Jesus’ baptism, which marked the end to his quiet life in Nazareth and launched
his public ministry in Galilee. At his
baptism, Jesus is proclaimed as God’s Son, through the Spirit which appears in
the form of a dove.
Today’s story is set
in Cana, a village a few miles north of Nazareth, and it becomes the setting
for Jesus’ divine nature to be revealed not through a star or a dove, but
through fine wine.
Jesus is at the
wedding as an invited guest. He’s there
not to steal the thunder from the happy couple by preaching or teaching or
healing; he’s there simply to have a good time, to join in the
celebration. We see throughout the
Gospels that Jesus loves a party – so much so that he was even accused of being
“a glutton and drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners” (Luke
7:34).
And this wedding is
not just a 3-hour reception at the local hotel.
In first century Galilee, a bride and groom celebrated their marriage
with a seven-day wedding feast at the groom’s home. But this particular wedding in Cana is
running into trouble because the wine is running out before the party is
over. This is a crisis for the groom’s
parents, who are shouldering the responsibility of hospitality, and it would be
considered an insult to the guests if there were no more food or drink to
serve.
The wedding guest who
sees this disaster waiting to happen and wants to help is Jesus’ mother, Mary,
who asks him to intervene. For the past
30 years, Mary has watched her special son grow into the person God has called
him to be, and to her, now seems the right time for Jesus to fulfill that
calling. But when Mary tells him, “They
have no wine,” Jesus answers, “My hour has not come.”
Why is Jesus so
hesitant, so reluctant? Why does he seem
to be holding back? Isn’t helping others
the kind of thing God sent him to do – to turn scarcity and worry into abundance
and joy? Maybe he thinks that turning
water into wine is not exactly the kind of work that God had in mind. Healing and teaching and preaching, yes; but
not extending the hours of the open bar.
Helping the sick, the lame, the hungry, the hopeless, yes; but not
helping drunken people become more inebriated.
Is this the setting and are these the people to whom he is to reveal his
divine powers?
But Mary prods her
son; she knows her Jesus can help, knows he can produce the miracle that is
needed to save the party. And, even if
he’s rolling his eyes at her insistence, Jesus complies with his mother’s
appeal -- such a good son! Six water
jugs, each able to hold 20 and 30 gallons, are available. Jesus tells the servants to fill them with
water, and they do – “to the brim” – and Jesus takes the water and changes it
to wine.
The wine steward
tastes the wine and is impressed – not at Jesus’ miracle, for he does not know
that its source is Jesus. Rather, the
steward is impressed because this is really good wine, not the inferior stuff
served later on in the party when the guests are too drunk to notice or
care.
And those who have
witnessed Jesus’ miracle of turning water into wine have an “epiphany” – an
“aha” moment. This is the Christ. This is God’s Son. This miracle worker is the Messiah. Jesus has done the impossible – turned a
wedding disaster into a success; he has enabled the party to continue, the
celebration to keep going.
Later on in the Gospel
of John, after sharing a Last Supper in which he pours the wine and offers it
as a cup of blessing and forgiveness, Jesus will leave his disciples with some
final teachings – a Last Lecture, if you well – and then will conclude with
these words: “ I have said these things to you so that my joy may be
in you, and that your joy may be complete.”
And in Revelation [19:6-10], the last book of the bible, the imagery of
a wedding feast depicts that joyous day when the kingdom of God comes in its
fullness.
Jesus comes to offer
us a life of joy, complete joy, abundant joy.
That’s what the good wine at the wedding in Cana represents: the
abundant blessing of God, the richness of life in all its fullness. Life that is alive with flavor, that dances
on your tongue and floods your palate.
God wants our lives to be like Château Lafite Rothschild.
There’s only one
problem. At some point, sooner or later,
we may feel as if the wine of joy and blessing in our lives has run out. We might be enjoying our lives like the guests
at the wedding and then suddenly, a sobering event happens: the job is lost,
the diagnosis comes in, the depression hits, the loved one is stricken, love is
lost. Or maybe we feel an emptiness to
life, or that our hopes and dreams have evaporated. Maybe you’re in a dry period now and your
resources feel scarce.
But the story of the
wedding at Cana shows us that God’s intention for our lives is not scarcity but
celebration, not drudgery but dancing.
God offers life – abundant life, joy-filled life. Wine symbolizes the Spirit of God’s love
which Jesus offers to a bleak and wanting world. It’s a metaphor for prosperity, abundance,
and good times. Wine is divine love in a
glass. And God doesn’t offer us just a sip
of two-buck Chuck – he offers us gallons upon gallons of the best stuff around,
life in its fullest, in which everything is richer, more colorful, more
abundant, more alive, more robust, more flavorful.
No matter how low you
may find your reserves, Jesus can transform it into God’s abundance. Our empty hearts can be filled to overflowing
with the essence of God’s blessing; our thirsty souls can brim with new and
abundant life.
And so, let us drink
deeply from the abundance of God’s blessing and embrace the richness of life
that Christ offers. Amen.
