Gospel lesson and Pastor Richard Pokora’s sermon from Sunday, January 16, 2022
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and His son our Lord Jesus Christ.
Nothing compares to a church wedding.
Every year church offices receives several inquiries from couples, hoping to be married here. If possible, we cooperate with their request. Wedding plans are inevitably complex, expensive, and time-consuming events. A guest list and invitations must be prepared. The bride and groom will select attendants and shop for appropriate clothing for the event. A reception hall needs to be rented, a band hired, and menu selected. This process may take more than a year. It’s stressful and exhilarating all at once.
Interestingly, weddings haven’t changed that much over the centuries. Look, for example, at our Gospel for this Sunday. Jesus and his disciples have been invited to a wedding at Cana in Galilee. His mother is there as well.
Now one timeless feature of a wedding has to do with drinking wine. Wine and weddings go together like a horse and carriage. You virtually cannot have one without the other. Traditionally, the bride and groom will be toasted with wine or champaign. Why, because it’s a tradition. Weddings have traditions for everything. For example, what the bride wears or who sits in which pew or what the wedding party does after the wedding. There’s always wine. Tradition.
The problem at the wedding Jesus attended is the wine runs out. Now that must have been a real problem. After all, what kind of wedding runs out of wine? That’s not a tradition, running out of wine. That’s a disaster.
Mary the mother of Jesus comes to him and says, “They have no wine.” Why does Mary take it upon herself to remedy this problem? We have no idea. But she dumps the problem right in his lap. Jesus responds to her, “Woman, what concern is that to you and to me? My hour has not come.” Jesus is absolutely right. Why should he, a guest at the wedding, have to address this problem?
One of my favorite moments in the Bible occurs in the middle of this dialogue. Mary pays no attention to her son’s protest. She turns to the servants and tells them, “Do whatever he tells you to do.” Jesus protests his hour has not yet come, but that makes no difference to Mary. She is his mother and she has a responsibility, to tell him what to do. Or as they say, once a mom always a mom. She has received an authority that supersedes God himself. How can that be. Tradition. She must know the way to make a proper home, a quiet home, a kosher home. She must raise a family and run the home. She’s the mama. And mother knows best.
Jesus neither questions his mother nor protests but goes to work. Nearby stand six stone water jars meant for the Jewish rites of purification, each holding twenty or thirty gallons. That’s almost 180 gallons. Jesus tells the servants to fill the jars with water, which they do, right up to the brim. Then he tells them, “Draw some out and take it to the chief steward,” They follow his directions. The steward tastes the water, but it has become wine. Wonder of wonders. Miracle of miracles. God changed the water into wine. Not just a little water, but 180 gallons of it. Let the celebration begin. May everyone rejoice in this great sign.
Now the steward had no idea where this wine came from. Only the servants knew. So, he says to the bridegroom: “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.” Years later the disciples would look back on this event and remember it as the first of the signs Jesus did. He revealed his glory through the miracle and his disciples believed in him.
This text is routinely read at weddings. From time to time a couple will read about the miracle of wine made into water and say, “so.” It’s doesn’t inform their relationship. I’m sure many Christians sitting in church on Sunday morning may also have trouble, connecting with this story. I know I once did. To me the wedding at Cana was interesting, but not applicable until one I participated in a study of the Old Testament Book of Isaiah and then the light went on. You see John wrote his story of the life and ministry of Jesus with one eye on Isaiah and Isaiah had some very important things to say about the Messiah.
When Isaiah wanted to describe what it would be like, when God comes, he says this. “On this mountain the Lord of hosts will make for all peoples a feast of rich food, a feast of well-aged wine, of rich food filled with marrow, of well-aged wines strained clear.” For Isaiah, the coming of God will be like this great banquet, like a wedding feast, a time of joy and unity and fulfillment of human need.
Isaiah describes God’s relationship to humanity, as that of a bridegroom to a bride. We read: “As the bridegroom rejoices over the bride, so shall your God rejoice over you.” God’s love for his people is like that of a bridegroom for his bride. Isaiah the image of a marriage feast and of a bridegroom and a bride to describe how God looks upon his people. Should we be surprised, therefore, at the beginning of the ministry of Jesus that John uses the wedding at Cana in Galilee as a way to frame the coming of Christ to us.
The key words in our Gospel come from the mouth of the steward who has tasted the wine. He says: “You have kept the best wine until now.” In other words, the coming of Christ is like water made into wine; something extraordinary, miraculous, wonderful has happened with Jesus. It’s like one big, grand wedding feast, bringing together all people as the family of God.
The message of the Gospel of John, on this Sunday in Epiphany, is that God has done something incredible for humanity in Jesus Christ. It is so beautiful that only the image of a wedding feast can describe it. It is so filled with goodness that only the love of a bridegroom for his bride can give it full definition. Think of it this way. Imagine the anticipation of bride and groom for their wedding day, a day when cares are set aside, and family comes together to celebrate. That is the feeling Christians share with each other, as they anticipate Christ’s coming. Let that joy and hopefulness and the unity and love revealed at the wedding in Cana in Galilee infuse and radiate in your faith. Let God take your ordinary life and make it into something extraordinary that you may exclaim the best times have been kept until now.
May the peace of God which passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Subscribe: Google Podcasts | RSS