So there is a long held tradition that in a crisis, we see a
person’s true self come out. I can vouch
for this. It’s amazing the number of
times when, while working at CDC, we’ve been faced with a building on fire or
an emergency in a lab and the people you thought would be great in an emergency,
completely failed you, but the people who you would never expect, stood up and
revealed their true nature. And in
today’s gospel reading, we see Jesus faced with a crisis, or a least a crisis
for the host whose wedding party is about to be ruined because of poor planning
(or else because of very thirsty guests!).
And since a great of the deal of the readings in Epiphany help reveal
something about the nature of Christ, it’s appropriate that today’s text
reveals something about the nature of God. But more than that, through Mary it reveals to
us what our relationship with God ought to be like.
There’s a pastor named Rob Bell, who in one of his books
talks three words that kind of help us think about who God is. The words he uses are ‘with’, ‘for’, and
‘ahead’. And I think that the text today
truly helps us understand how God is with us, for us, and also ahead of
us. So let’s unpack that a little bit in
light of John’s story of Jesus at the wedding of Cana.
God is with us. We
know that God is present with us through our times of joy and trouble. But what we are reminded of in the reading is
that God has chosen us, God has chosen to be present in our lives and has
promised to stay with us, this what is revealed to us through the entirety of
scripture. But we are reminded that we
have been chosen because we are reminded that Jesus chose to be at the
wedding. Jesus was an invited guest here,
he was not the host. He was there
because of his love for these people and was there to share in their joy and to
be part of all aspects of their life.
But then Mary points out that we have a problem, that they
are all out of wine. Jesus’ initial
reaction is one of skepticism, and I think it’s a reaction that most of us
would have, or if we did do something, we might run down to the store and pick
a bottle just to say we tried to help.
Or we might just say, well, the party’s over. I’m headed out now.
But Jesus doesn’t do either of those things. Jesus stays at the party and doesn’t run away
from the people when they begin to experience challenges, God stays with them
(there’s that ‘with’ word again). But it
isn’t just a ministry of presence that Jesus provides, Jesus acts on behalf of
the afflicted. Jesus acts for the hosts
of the party.
And there is that second descriptive word, ‘for’. God is for us. God wants to see us do well and wants to see
us happy. God delights in our pleasure
and because of that, God works for us, God is active on our behalf.
What we are also reminded of here is that God is not just
active on our behalf in a token way, God doesn’t do the bare minimum. Instead, God responds to the need of the
wedding guests with abundance. Jesus
doesn’t come with just a bottle of three buck chuck from Trader Joe’s, it’s 180
gallons of the best wine that the guests had ever tasted. Where we see scarcity, God sees
abundance.
In being a God of abundance, God sees potential. God sees the potential of the large stones to
all hold wine, even they aren’t currently being used for that. And in our lives, God sees the potential for
each of us to grow and to become more and just like God was active in
transforming the water into wine, so too is God active in our lives
transforming us into something more, guiding towards greater acts of love and
compassion, transforming us daily.
Working on our behalf because God operates in our lives with abundance
because God loves us abundantly.
I think that last think that we come to know about who God is
in this reading is that God is out ahead of us, working on our behalf, making a
way for us, anticipating our needs. It’s
quite possible that the host of the party never even knew that they had run out
of wine. I mean, in the flow of events,
it can take a moment before information gets to who it needs to go to. It can
be a minute before the host ever realizes the problem that they face. But Jesus didn’t wait to be asked by the host
of the party to help out. And Mary never
actually asks Jesus to make more wine.
Instead Jesus sees the need that is present and acts proactively on
behalf of the host.
And it isn’t so often the case that so many things happen in
our lives and it is only later that we can look back and realize that God was
present with us and active in our lives throughout everything. If you watched the webcast last week with
Bishop Eaton dealing with racism, this was a point of discussion for them as
the panelists shared their stories of life in various aspects of the criminal
justice system and both a former officer and a former felon, now both seminary
students, shared how in looking back, they could see where God had guided them
along their path and in fact had worked to create that path to bring them to
where they are today.
In a similar way, the hosts of the party never saw Jesus
perform the miracle and turn water in wine, but in seeing the result, in seeing
180 gallons of wine, they could recognize that God had been present in the
midst of their lives; that God was present in their daily activities and
working on their behalf.
So we are presented in this gospel reading with a vision of a
God who is with us, who is for us and who is ahead of us. A God who loves us, cares for us, and makes a
way for us through all things. A God of
amazing love who cares deeply and profoundly for each of us.
But more than just telling us about God, the gospel reading
tells us about ourselves and what it means to be a disciple of Christ. It is through the actions of Mary that we see
discipleship portrayed.
What Mary exhibits here, is faith; complete and utter faith
in God. Despite the protestations of
Jesus about the wine, Mary has faith that Jesus will see the problems here and
because of Jesus’ own nature, she has faith that Jesus will intercede on behalf
of the people in need.
Deep down, Mary understands the nature of God so she has
faith. But what is remarkable here is
what Mary doesn’t do. Mary doesn’t tell
Jesus what to do. Mary doesn’t try to
control God. She doesn’t try and steer
God. She simply says to the servants,
‘do whatever he asks’ and then leaves the scene. She is content to know that God is present
and that whatever solution God has will be the right one.
And this what our own prayers should look like, we ask for
God’s help with our problems, but we don’t tell God how to solve them. We just trust that if we pray to God for
help, that God will provide help, even if it’s not through the means which we
might have hoped. I think that a lot of
us are praying for this congregation right now after seeing our budget sheets
last week. But maybe we shouldn’t be
asking God to give us more money (telling God what to do), but we should be
asking God to help us continue to be a visible proclamation of the word of God
in this community and then trust that God will provide the means for that to
occur abundantly.
In the text today, God doesn’t act just to give wine to his
mother (though that would make him a very nice son to do that for his mother),
instead God acts not just for the benefit of one person, not just for Mary, not
just for the hosts, but God acts to the benefit of all of the people at the
wedding. I firmly believe that God is
active in this place, not just for our own benefit, but for the benefit of the
entire community.
And in the first act of Jesus’ public ministry we are given a
picture of a God who loves us enough to be present with us in all things, who
loves us enough to want the best for us, and who loves us enough to go out
ahead of us, and work proactively on our behalf.
This is also the first public miracle of Jesus, the first
public miracle of the God who came down and dwelt amongst us. And when we gather together we remember that
God still comes down. The same God who
performed miracles with water and wine is present with us at the table in the
bread and wine; present with us each and every day, providing us life and
providing it abundantly.
And it is because of that enduring presence, that consistent
action on our behalf, because of the love that was shown to the wedding guests
and is shown to us; because of the God who is with us, and for us and ahead of
us, that we can truly say, thanks be to God.
Amen.
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