Sermon Prepared for Messiah Lutheran Church
The 2nd Sunday after the
Epiphany, Traditional Services – 1/14/01
by Gregory S. Kaurin
Associate Pastor for Spiritual Care and
Development
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Texts: John 2:1-11 & Isaiah 62:1-5
The Sermon:
This is no “vin ordinaire,” no ordinary wine!
Today’s Gospel lesson is a very popular text for weddings. Often, the message I hear drawn from it is that “Jesus blesses weddings with his presence.” I suppose, but a better text for that message might be when the Old Testament states in Genesis, or when Jesus quotes, “Those whom God has joined together, let no one separate.”
Today’s lesson has also been used to support the message that God blesses Christian celebration, “fellowship,” or anytime we Christians get together to eat! It is worth noting that Jesus did not hold himself above any part of human life. He was not above happiness and celebration. There he was at the wedding, celebrating with friends, family and disciples.
Sometimes we followers of Jesus, the Church, have forgotten and have made his religion into a more austere, cold, boring, serious and unhappy thing than Christ ever did. As a result, we have probably frightened or bored many people from Jesus who were, by all rights, his.
There was a wonderful nun once; her name was Teresa. Teresa was often known to pray out loud: “Lord, deliver us from the frowning saints!”
One of her followers wrote in memory of Teresa that she would speak of weighty subjects, “but other times Teresa would say things for our entertainment. She would often make up verses, good ones,” of all things from serious to silly.
Lord, deliver us from frowning saints. So, check your face: for frown wrinkles that have gone too deep into your soul. One of the best tools of evangelism and one of our greatest gifts that God has given us is the sense and expression of joy. We rejoice because we have everything of real value!
Psalms 126, which we read in worship about a month ago, states that God has filled our mouths with laughter. Ecclesiastes commands that we eat our bread with joy and drink our wine with merry hearts. We need, then, to try out St. Teresa’s prayer: “Lord, deliver us from the frowning saints.” Save us from gloomy people!
So, I can see the message. Jesus’ presence at the wedding feast in Cana, and his supplying of 120-180 gallons of great wine, was a blessing of celebration.
Still, it seems an odd miracle to me. Compare it to the healing of the paralyzed, the lepers, to the raising of Lazarus from the dead. Water to wine? A strange miracle. And it came after strange words exchanged between Jesus and his mother. So, this is a strange scene, and yet John, our gospel writer, ends the story by saying that 1) this was the first of Jesus’ signs, 2) it revealed his glory, and 3) because of it his disciples believed in him.
I might add that his brand new disciples believed in him. This miracle (John was very careful to report) happened in the week after John the Baptist announced to the crowd: “Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!” Between that announcement and this wedding feast in Cana, Jesus had picked up at least five brand new disciples, by the seventh day after John the Baptist’s announcement.
This miracle must have been very important to John’s message. Some have called the miracle at Cana the “frontispiece” to the Gospel. In books, especially the old books, a frontispiece was the opening illustration right before or after the title page. So, more than a blessing of marriage and more than a blessing of celebration, this miracle at Cana was a frontispiece to the whole Gospel!
Let’s take a closer look, then. First, the exchange between Son and mother. Mary—for whatever reason—approached Jesus with the embarrassing situation, “They’re out of wine!”
Jesus answered, “Woman,” (I assume that Jesus could call his mother “woman” very lovingly. I certainly have not, and will never try it out on my mother!) “Woman, what concern is that to you and to me? My hour has not come.”
In other words, “In light of the day and hour which is coming, this is not a tragic end. Never mind. Don’t worry about it, Mother!” So, even in this first sign we are reminded and pointed to the last moments when Jesus would announce to his disciples that “the hour has come.”
I wish we could have seen Mary’s expression to her Son’s strange words, “What is it to you and me? My hour’s not come.” Did she nod? More likely, did she roll her eyes? We don’t know. We do know that Jesus’ words didn’t stop her. She turned to the servants and said, “Do whatever he tells you.” Somehow, she knew, had faith, that under his direction things would happen the way they should.
Hearing it, I am reminded of an Old Testament story and one of the pharaohs. There was a great famine in Egypt. People were beginning to panic. The Pharaoh pointed to Joseph and told the people, “Do whatever he tells you.” They did, and their needs were supplied through the famine.
So, Mary said, “Do whatever he tells you.” It was a statement of faith.
John, in his Gospel was very careful in choosing which miracles and teachings of Jesus he recorded and where he placed them. John called these miracles: “signs.” There is no doubt that, for John, all of Jesus’ miracles were literal and physical facts, but the miracle’s fact wasn’t the most important thing. The most important thing was the greater miracle to which each of these signs pointed.
John had no doubt that Jesus fed 5000 and more people. But for John, this was “an illustration of the more glorious fact that Christ can feed the hungry souls of needy men” and women.[1]
John was entirely sure of the fact that Jesus commanded Lazarus up out of his grave. But even that was just a sign of the miracle of miracles: that the voice of Jesus Christ “can reach to those long dead in [guilt, doubts,] and sins, and startle them into newness of spiritual life and being.”[2] So this important sign, this frontispiece, happened at a wedding in Cana. But there must be a greater and deeper miracle to which it points.
And did you see how simply and quietly it happened? Six stone water jars, for the Jewish rights of purification, stood off to the side. They were stone, cold, hard and empty; cold and empty like the traditions and blind empty rituals that Jesus would preach against time and again.
He told the servants, “Fill them with water.” So they filled them with 120 up to 180 gallons of water. There are great eternal miracles that happen through water whenever Jesus is present. (The writer of John’s Gospel loved these images of water, wine, light and darkness. Whenever you hear them in his writing, he would want you to make the connections.)
The servants filled the water jars and, just like that, it had already happened! Jesus told them, “Now, draw some out and take it to the steward.” They did, and the steward wondered why the groom waited so long to serve the best wine.
This was no vin ordinaire, no ordinary wine. This was the best! And nearly 200 gallons of it!
This is about much more than celebration, fellowship and good wine. It is about eternal celebration, eternal fellowship with God and a promise of the abundant and ever flowing grace, the sweetest and finest wine of all—from Jesus Christ.
It happened in Cana of Galilee at a wedding feast… and it happened in the hands of wedding servants. Did you notice that Jesus never touched a thing in this sign? He only told the servants what to do, and the servants did it.
The greatest miracles happen like that: quietly and suddenly through his servants. When we obey him, when we do nothing more that try to obey, then mere things become overflowing with meaning and life, mere things like sewing needles, diapers, hammers, pans, pencils, cars, telephones, computers and even the Internet! These things can express the gospel of Christ everyday when his servants handle them. So, we servants, more than most people should be careful and thoughtful how we use them.
I mentioned St. Teresa and her prayer of deliverance from the frowning saints. She also once said “the Lord walks among pots and pans just as much as in the Garden of Eden.”
“The Lord walks among pots and pans.” You and I need to look for him! You are a Christian! That means that there is nothing ordinary about you. You were reborn in his water. You drink from his wine. That changes everything about you and me: how we see, who we see, how we respond. If it doesn’t change the way we live, work and play; if it doesn’t change how we use our tools; if it doesn’t change the way we feel about our food, wine, friends and celebration; then we are not living the Life he gave!
We must never forget that contrary to all darkness, our Light has come. Our Light has come! In Jesus. We see, know and hear things that no one else can in all this darkness. Among pots and pans, we can see the hand of God.
I would like to close by suggesting that at the Wedding at Cana and through the abundance of the best wine, Jesus showed how he fulfills the wedding scene in our Old Testament lesson. Take a look at our first lesson where Isaiah spoke of a marriage between God’s people and their ideal husband: God himself would be united to, would become a part, of his people. On that day, in that hour, Isaiah said that God would give us a new name.
It is one of the greatest, most important and beautiful prophecies in the Bible. In verse four Isaiah proclaimed, “We would no longer be called forsaken. Our land and his creation would no longer be called desolate.” But in that day, in that hour, God married and joined his people and saved them through Jesus Christ. Now, we are called “God’s Delight.” Our land, home and people are called “Married,” because in God through Jesus Christ we are made complete, like an ideal Marriage and Family. Contrary to any forsakenness, contrary to desolation, we are found, married to God, and given abundance. This abundance is no vin ordinaire. It is eternal. It is best. Amen.
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