RVCC Pastor's Sermon

Sermon - January 17, 2010

“Saving the Best for Last”

By Rev. Nancy Foran
John 2:1-11

Many years ago when Johnny Carson hosted “The Tonight Show,” he interviewed an eight year old boy who had rescued two friends from a coal mine in West Virginia. During the interview, it became clear that the young boy had been raised in a strict religious home where going to church was a non-debatable part of family tradition.

It was not surprising then that Johnny Carson asked the boy if he attended Sunday school. When the boy vigorously nodded his head, Johnny inquired, "And what are you learning?"

"Last week," the child replied, "our lesson was about Jesus going to a wedding and turning water into wine."

"And what did you learn from that story?" Johnny asked.

The boy squirmed in his chair and looked down at his shoes, obviously trying to remember just what the Bible story had been about and what possible relevance it had outside his Sunday School classroom. It was pretty clear that he had not given it much thought.

However, only a few moments passed before the boy lifted his head, smiled broadly, and replied, "What I learned is this: If you're going to have a wedding, make sure you invite Jesus!"

Though that might be one nugget to take from this story – Jesus as vintner in a pinch - surely the Gospel writer of John had something else in mind when he chose not only to include this story of the wedding at Cana in his Gospel but also decided to place it at the very beginning of Jesus’ ministry.

Now a wedding was a huge social event back in first century Palestine. Not unlike the multi-day destination weddings of our day, weddings in Jesus’ time lasted for a week. They began with a nighttime procession to the brides’ home. There among brightly flickering oil lamps, the groom called for his wife-to-be. He and the wedding party then escorted her by lamp light to the groom’s home, where the wedding ceremony took place, and then, well, let the party begin! All seven days of it!

However, at this particular wedding celebration, something went terribly awry. Long before the week of festivities was up, the wine ran out! Not only was this an unfortunate occurrence and sure to put a damper on the celebration, it was downright embarrassing for the groom’s parents who were hosting the whole shebang.

This was not just a small social faux pas. It was a disaster, a disgrace. I mean, how inhospitable the family would look in front of the whole community! How could their planning have been so off? Had pages of the guest list somehow been inadvertently used to start the morning fire? What is a party host to do?

It is at this point, of course, that Mary, the mother of Jesus, intervened. Maybe she had something to do with the festivities, you know, behind the scenes. At least, she knew what was going on and apparently was about the only guest who did.

Jesus was there as well. Who knows? Maybe Joseph was too busy in his carpenter’s shop to escort his wife, and so the dutiful son and his disciples stepped up. At any rate, apparently Jesus was simply a guest – with no clergy duties and certainly no responsibilities in the kitchen.

Whether Mary knew her son’s favored destiny or not, she still wore the pants in the family when it came to the social graces and so confronted Jesus with a statement of the facts. “They have run out of wine.”

Jesus responded with the flippancy of a young adult. “So, what is it to us? Don’t tell me what to do. It is not my time yet anyway.”

Mary gave him that steely look he remembered from his youth when he had crossed the line and then turned to the hired wait staff. “Do whatever he tells you,” she ordered curtly and walked away.

Wow! What did she expect him to do? Run out to the local spirits shop or grocery store and stock up? Nothing was open this late. Even RSVP had closed hours ago! Was he supposed to take some sort of offering – though what good that would do he failed to see?

However, what Jesus did see clearly was that even though, for him, the timing was not right, clearly the human need was there. And Mary really had taught Jesus well – not only about the social graces but also about reaching out and helping people when the chips are down - even when it is not the most convenient time or place for you.

It might have been too early to show his stuff, to reveal his power, but he took six empty 30 gallon purification jugs anyway and had the busboys roll them one-by-one to the outdoor spigot and fill them with water.

And lo and behold, at his bidding (whatever that was), somehow the water became wine, better wine than the expensive stuff used for the first toast to the bride and groom. Though the hired help and a couple of disciples were the only ones privy to this first of seven miracles or signs that Jesus would perform, they witnessed first hand that the very best had been saved for last. Just when they had been so sure that the wine was gone, they discovered an unheard of abundance – 180 gallons of the best the vineyards had to offer.

Remarkable? Yes. The splashiest way to proclaim Jesus as the Word – God’s Word – becoming flesh? Hardly! Jesus as vintner in a pinch? I mean, come on.

Look at the Gospel writer of Mark, for example. He began with Jesus healing – right there in the middle of synagogue worship - a ranting, raving demon who had taken up residence in some poor fellow’s body. The least the Gospel writer of John could have done was start off with raising someone from the dead – like Lazarus maybe – in front of a crowd. Now that would have been an attention getter.

But instead, the Gospel writer chose this backwater wedding feast when only a handful – mostly catering staff – know how or why those purification jugs were now overflowing with enough wine – 180 gallons of it – to last for a good long time – long after the wedding feast was over and all the guests had gone home.

What is John up to in this passage? He actually tells us in the last verse. He says that Jesus did this first sign to show his glory. For John the Gospel writer, a sign (as he calls it) or a miracle is far bigger than the sum of its parts. That is, turning water into wine – as impressive and useful as that may be at times – is not the point of this story.

The ‘wow” of going from H2O to 20 proof is not what he wants us to take away. No, it is better than that because John’s signs always point beyond themselves to something more important. John’s signs give us a clue about what Jesus is all about and what God’s kingdom is all about as well.

So what is embedded in this glimpse of glory revealed to us bystanders at a wedding in long ago Cana? What does this story tell us about God and about God’s kingdom?

Simply this….Our God is a God of abundance. Our God is a God of extravagant generosity. United Church of Christ pastor Kate Huey reminds us that this text “invites us to trust so much in God's generosity and abundance that we, like the perceptive mother of Jesus, (can) nudge God with our observation: they have no wine” and know deep in our hearts – what? Simply this: with God there will always be enough.

That is a truth embedded in this passage. Jesus took six enormous purification jugs, filled them with water, and turned all that precious water into wine when surely one jug would have been more than enough. As Baptist pastor Randy Hyde notes, “When the first-century Jews worshiped, first they purified themselves. (At home or) as they entered the synagogue or temple, they dipped their fingers into the water set aside for the purification rite (The water kept in those enormous jugs Jesus used at the wedding). 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 (purification) 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!” Do the math, John seems to say, and you will discover that there is enough wine in this story for the whole world – but it is more than just about the wine. The Good News is this:

Our God is a God of abundance. Our God is a God of extravagant generosity. That is what John is telling us in this passage. And Jesus proves it to us with a sign, a sign of his glory and power, a sign of God’s glory and power, a sign that forever reminds us that the cup is neither half empty nor half full. Always, always, it is overflowing – with love, with forgiveness, with grace. Thanks be to God!

Sermon - January 17, 2010

“Saving the Best for Last”

By Rev. Nancy Foran John 2:1-11

By Rev. Nancy Foran
John 2:1-11