Is.62:1-5
Ps.36:5-10
I Cor.12:1-11
John 2:1-11

Epiphany 2C-FCL
HE 2B 10:00
(2:30 pm)

THE MARRIAGE AT CANA

(Credits & Previous: see end of sermon)

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I wonder what comes into our minds when we hear today's Gospel story, of the marriage feast at Cana. We go, I go, to lots of wedding receptions, and perhaps much of what comes into our minds is conditioned by what we know today. But those who know the Holy Land well (in our Lord's time) would warn us not to think of Mary as seated next to her Son, as we might expect her to be at a modern American wedding reception. In the Holy Land at the time of Jesus, the men would be reclining at the table, but the ladies would be in the background, busy in seeing about the food for the feast. So what we should picture is that Mary slips into the dining room from the kitchen and bends down to Jesus to whisper the devastating news that there was no more wine.

A wedding celebration in the Holy Land lasted over a period of several days, and, thanks to Jesus and His disciples' being invited, over and above the local and family guests, the wine was not going to hold out. Already the last of the wine had been sent in, and it would be only a matter of minutes before their hosts would have to announce, to their shame, that their guests would have nothing more to drink. It was a social situation that would be embarrassing beyond measure.

Jesus' reply to His mother, "What is that to thee?", sounds a bit rough to us, but it was common usage then, and we may take it in the sense, "Never mind; don't be worried." "Mine hour is not yet come" can be taken in a double sense - the obvious one that it is not yet time to act in the situation, and the deeper one: the time to show Himself publicly has not yet come. Certainly Jesus must have had the second, deeper meaning on His mind: How should the human crisis be met? Mary understood, at least enough so that she told the waiters to follow the directions of Jesus exactly. So the critical moment came, the change took place, and the festivities went on their way in complete ignorance that anything unusual had occurred. The back-handed compliment to the host, "You have kept the good wine until now", makes that entirely clear. No one knew except the servants who drew the water.

There is much that can be said about this story, for it is full of lessons for us. Sermons seem to fall into three parts, and this one does too.

I) First, the changing of water into wine makes us think of magic. But we know that one of the temptations of Jesus in the wilderness was to wrestle with the right and wrong use of the tremendous powers that He possessed. And He recognized that those amazing personal powers were to be used only to accomplish His Father's will.

True miracles are never used to bludgeon men and women to believe against their will. True miracles are never used to force those who are unwilling, to force them to understand. That was the temptation in the wilderness, to turn stones into bread. That would be magic, and there is no morality in magic.

True miracles of Jesus are the results of the mercy and might of God the Father, as seen by the eyes of faith in God. The world of men and women is to be converted on God's terms, and as Jesus showed us often, this is achieved by winning men and women one by one, not by the busload.

Here at the wedding feast at Cana, the miracle at the hands of Jesus illustrates the change which Jesus introduces into life as a whole. In the social setting, the miracle is an act of sympathy that increases the joy of life. And in life, wherever true and deep joy is in, creased, we may expect that Jesus has been at work making all things new. That is the true miracle.

In this Gospel account, the first thing that Jesus does after His baptism, is to go to the wedding of two young people, with His closest friends, His disciples. That seems to me to put marriage and its joys pretty high on Jesus' list of priorities in life.

II. Now even if some of us might have trouble believing in this story because of the miraculous element, there is still very important learning to be gained from it. Notice where this story comes in John's Gospel: near the beginning. Notice also that the story begins "On the third day": where have we seen that phrase before? Well of course in the creed: "On the third day" Jesus rose from the dead. So this story is in part a resurrection story.

"You have kept the good wine until now. Every man serves the good wine first, and then when people have drunk freely, then the poor wine." But you have kept the good wine until now. This points to the sort of change that Jesus wrought into life. When people have lived life to the fullest, and drawn from it what they think are all of its values for them, then Jesus comes into life and shows us what true life is, and what deep joy is. And the contrast is the difference between water and wine in quality. What is more, the quantity of wine involved in what Jesus did gives us a thought on the abundance of joy that He brings: twenty or thirty gallons for each of the six waterpots makes a great deal of wine, enough for the largest reception. And this comes without effort from Jesus, whereas so much of our human joy has to be worked so hard for, in order to bring it about. That is what happens in the Resurrection.

III. But my favorite point about this story is in the conversation between Jesus and His mother. One likes the mother of Jesus for her concern and kindly sympathy with her friends' growing embarrassment, and then for her appeal to Jesus, and her wholehearted confidence in Him. In all of this she is a pattern for you and me, a pattern to be closely followed. Yet the reply of Jesus, however gently it was spoken, still sounds like a mild rebuke, or even harsh. And we had better think this out, for here, we may be sure, there is a lesson that is needed by us.

It is true that we can go to God anytime in our prayers, with all our doubts and anxieties and difficulties, or with the same concerns on behalf of others. We are not intruding on God; we are doing what we ought to be doing. God has a Father's heart towards us. We cannot treat Him with too much confidence.

But in our prayers we can be fussy, alarmist, unbelieving. We too often speak to God as if He had forgotten - so we have to remind Him. He seems so slow - so we keep running on ahead of Him, tugging at His hand, bidding Him hurry, hurry, do something, in a way that can be unseemly and even ridiculous.

To such feverish souls, it must be bluntly said that one who truly waits on God is persuaded that the affairs of the universe are being managed in the best way, and that God, Who knows all things, will supply what is needed. Quietness before God is one of the most difficult of Christian graces.

But the main lesson of the story is the glory that Christ brings to anyone who will accept it from Him. That is the characteristic note of the New Testament. Always people keep bursting in on us, their eyes shining, their hearts on fire: - "We've found it - the thing that the whole world is seeking for - and it works!" It produces in people who see it an astonishment like the bewilderment of the steward at the wedding feast.

The only way that we shall win the world for Christ is by convincing those on the outside that we have something infinitely valuable which they lack. Then, of themselves, they will come running for a share in it. And that we do possess such a unique thing, is the truth set down with such vividness in this masterpiece in today's Gospel.

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CREDIT: Pulpit Monthly 1/20/1980; Interpreter's Bible

Previously preached St.Luke's Chelsea 1. 1/20/80 & 2. 4/19/92