It’s a wedding!

It’s a wedding!

In the words of Paul Simon, two people were married, the act was outrageous, the bride was contagious, she burned like a bride.

And this wedding was in Cana.

And where was Cana?

Well, no one really knows for sure but tradition, according to the Catholic Encyclopedia, tells us it is now an Arab town known as Kafr Kanna a little more than 4 miles away from Nazareth.

So, if they were walking, Jesus and his disciples, maybe his mother as well, would have walked for a couple hours or so to get to the festivities.

Perhaps they were tired when they arrived, tired of traveling, tired of their feet hurting, tired of road trip conversations and playing I-Spy on the Nazareth to Cana Expressway.

Perhaps they arrived the day before and found that the Days Inn was booked and there’s Mary shrugging her shoulders because again, there was no room at the inn.

Anyway and in whatever scenario got them there, the Jesus of Nazareth family and his disciples were gathered for a wedding and ready to celebrate, to wish the newly married couple good wishes, to feast at the banquet, and to drink wine and sing songs and dance to the music of the centuries, the music of love, the music of permanence, the music that is the soundtrack to every such celebration in every form it takes throughout the centuries, in this age and before.

And the story, our gospel reading from John this morning, starts with this: “On the third day there was a wedding in Cana of Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there.”

On the third day of what?

Well, earlier in John, we read that Jesus was spending the previous two days gathering his disciples; he was just baptized in Bethany and went from Bethany to Galilee and from Galilee to Cana.

Jesus had been on the road for a while now and now it was time to relax, to celebrate the wedding of two friends?

Friends of family?

Relatives?

It is not clear, but I can imagine that Jesus was a bit knackered after having spent so much time traveling and now it was just time to relax, to sit at those round banquet tables ubiquitous at so many weddings, and maybe get to know his disciples a bit more.

They were new to the job and they had miles to go before the hour would come and they would be tested like they were never tested before.

And so I can imagine his consternation, and admittedly a lot of this sermon so far is imagining, when the word starts to spread that the wine had run out.

I can imagine his eye-rolling, the knowing, “oh boy, here it comes,” as word spreads to his table in whispers and insinuations that the wine had run out and such a faux pas!

And then his mother turns to Jesus…

“You know, you could help out if you wanted to.”

“It’s not time for that, mother.”

“What do you mean it’s not time, it’s time because people need you.”

“Need me? They need wine, they don’t need me.”

“Oh, never mind you… Steward, come here, my son can help. Just listen to what he says and he’ll take care of the whole wine situation.”

And then it happened.

Clouds appeared.

Dark, ominous clouds gathered over the outdoor wedding.

Thunder clapped and the breeze picked up.

Celebratory cocktail napkins blew about and though it looked like rain, the heavens never truly opened.

Jesus rose slowly, gathering his robes around his thighs, he stood first on a chair and then stepped up to the table around which the disciples and his mother were gathered.

He began to wave his arms in an intertwined figure eight motion, he said some words of scripture, his voice boomed like the thunder from the heavens and he called down the lightning.

Six bolts of lightning kissed six large stone jars and there appeared in them wine, the finest wine for all to drink.

When he was done, the skies cleared, Jesus clapped his hands together as if to say, it is finished.

And that is how Jesus became known to the world.

This miracle of the ages announced his arrival and the people were awed.

And yet, none of this happened.

There was no thunder, lightning did not strike, Jesus did not announce he was the Christ through great and dramatic actions, yet people still found wine in their goblets.

It stands to reason though that Jesus would reveal his presence through great and serious ways, that perhaps he would cure diseases in the north or relieve southern Israelis of famine or hunger, but he did not.

It is easy to imagine Jesus proclaiming salvation through him to the world to ready the earth for the arrival of the kingdom, but he did not.

Wouldn’t it be such a beautiful picture of Christ absolving all people of their sins in some grand and glorious manner?

But he did none of these things.

He turned water into wine for a wedding party.

Okay.

I mean that’s great, it’s wonderful to have some wine at a wedding, especially the good wine, but I am sure the wedding hosts or the banquet managers could have procured some wine from elsewhere.

Instead, Jesus’ first miracle as told to us in John is turning water into wine.

Great.

Still there is disease and still there is hunger and still there is sin, but at least we have wine!

So what is the significance of this?

Why are reading about wine at a wedding?

Well, as with many things in the Bible, I think there are many reasons to consider rather than a single point being communicated to us through a single verse.

I think this verse shows us the very kindness of Jesus’ actions in all he does.

That though he is tired from the road, that though he does not wish to be the center of attention at this particular moment, he knows that the lack of wine at a wedding is bringing quite the headache to the banquet’s hosts.

And he knows he can relieve that stress as small as that stress might seem in the context of the wider world.

That is kindness.

And yet there is something greater here, I think.

It is not just the miracle at work, but the symbolism.

John refers to Jesus’ miracles as signs.

Very much symbols of the kingdom arriving here on earth, a kingdom in which, we will not be without; a promised paradise in the days to come.

And yet they are also signs of how the kingdom is to arrive.

Now, throughout the gospels, Jesus does the big stuff.

He feeds the five thousand.

He heals the sick.

He brings promise to the poor.

He relieves us all of our sin.

Yet this scenario is the perfect example of how the kingdom is to be built and arrive here on earth.

For there is no drama associated with this miracle, certainly no thunder and certainly no lightning, but it is how the miracle is carried out that asks us to look to our own roles in this story.

For we are not Jesus, we will not turn water into wine.

Then what of us?

What is our role?

Why is wine important?

Here I want you to look at who carries out this miracle.

Not who performs the miracle, but who carries it out.

Let us look to the servants.

Jesus said to them, “Fill the jars with water.” And they filled them up to the brim. He said to them, “Now draw some out, and take it to the chief steward.” So they took it. When the steward tasted the water that had become wine, and did not know where it came from (though the servants who had drawn the water knew), the steward called the bridegroom and said to him, “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.”

This miracle could not have been performed in this context without the stewards.

This miracle brought the servants actions to light but did not highlight Jesus’ role especially.

It is the quietness of Jesus role in this miracle and the absolute necessity for your average every day, workaday followers of Christ that are helping to bring the word of God and the active love of Jesus to the world that strikes me.

It is through the stewards that Jesus’ word is put into action and friends, it is our actions that will bring the very word of God to this place and to the world.

We are all stewards of God’s word in action, deed, and thought.

We are not quite partners with God, but we have our role.

We are not quite the performers of miracles, but we can certainly work miracles through God’s word.

And so I am absolutely convinced that we continue to witness miracles to this day and in this age, and that within the two thousand years since Christ, Jesus remains for us a very active presence instructing the stewards of this earth to bring his word and sacrifice to all who would listen, all who would hear.

And so while Martin Luther King, Junior’s march on Washington was a feat of human know how, ingenuity, and coordination, I truly believe that Dr. King was a steward of God’s will and God’s love for all peoples.

I believe that Dr. King’s speech was a dream for all peoples.

And I believe that his dream is God’s dream for us to this day.

I do think that God was speaking through MLK throughout his ministry and on that day.

I do think that Dr. King served as a steward of God’s dream for all of us.

And I do not think that we must rely only on the greatest of those among us, the Kings, the Daniels, the martyrs among us to act and direct us on how to serve God’s will for it is each of our responsibility in each of our own ways to serve as stewards and doers of Christ’s word and commandments.

Tomorrow we will celebrate the life of Martin Luther King, Jr.

We are to reflect on the gift that was his life and ministry.

We are to truly imbibe his dream for all of us, to take it in and to dream it ourselves for all peoples, yet the harder ask is this.

Where do we fit in his dream?

Where do we serve his dream of equality?

And how do we make our default way of being the seeking out and ensuring the equalities of all of God’s people?

How do we overcome the sin of racism and act so that God’s kingdom might be better realized here on earth?

How do we reach out to all peoples regardless of our own biases and welcome them into the community that Christ provides?

How do we ensure that through Christ there is no us and them but only we?

For we must become the stewards of God’s word serving up the wine of equality if we are to truly share Christ’s deeds, Christ’s miracles.

It is through the largeness of Christ’s miracle that people as small as ourselves might act, might serve our fellow human beings.

This is a story of small beginnings in Cana, wine for a wedding.

It is also the story of our role as individuals and communities of individuals acting out God’s will.

It is the story of great people leading great movements in the face of great evil and it is the story of each of us being a part of that movement refusing to let evil continue in any way, shape, or form.

We are a part of this morning’s gospel for the word is alive.

And the word is ours to share, the word, the dream, the miracles shared through us as a part of us for all peoples, all nations, all colors, creeds, and so forth.

We are people of the word.

We are stewards of the word.

And we are blessed.

Amen.