Jesus' Time - Our Time

I suppose it’s inevitable that, in our day of “reality TV” there are reality wedding shows. “Rich Bride, Poor Bride”, “Bride vs Bride”, “Bridezillas” – nothing sexist there….but in our voyeuristic culture that likes watching “real people” behaving badly, watching “real people” acting out on TV, what better than the stress of preparing for that special day to give the viewers at home a reason to tune in. And I’m sure we’ve all been to real weddings of family or friends that gave us indelible, if unintentional, memories – the wedding where the bridesmaid tripped over her dress and landed on her backside, the rings got lost, the bride or groom started giggling during their vows, or the best man got drunk at the reception and slurred his way through the toast to the newlyweds. Preparing for that day of a lifetime can cost thousands of dollars, if the couple wants to go upscale, requiring coordination of all manner of items and services – wedding gowns, tuxes, caterers, a limo rental, not to mention setting up things at the church. In the stress of all this planning, the bride’s and groom’s fangs may come out. One hopes that by the time they’ve driven off for the honeymoon, they’re not ready for a divorce.

Our Gospel reading today (John 2:1-11) describes a situation in which the headwaiter, or in today’s terms, party planner, were he on such a TV show, would likely have been sent packing. In Jesus’ day, a wedding was not just an event for immediate family, but for extended family and friends, an event which traditionally would have lasted seven days. Among an oppressed peasant population, a wedding would be one of the few occasions in a person’s life where one could relax and rejoice amid plenty of food and drink, at least for a week, before returning to their difficult daily existence. This wedding took place in Cana, a small village about 9 miles north of Jesus’ hometown Nazareth. We’re told that that the mother of Jesus was invited – for all we know, she may have been helping with the arrangements – and Jesus and his disciples were invited also. And then a fit-for-reality-TV moment arrives – the wine runs out. In our context, this would be embarrassing; in the time of Jesus, in which hospitality was literally a matter of life and death, this would have been utterly hang-your-head-in-shame mortifying. Mary says to Jesus, “They have no wine.” Jesus’ immediate next words seem callous, “Woman, what concern is that to you and to me?” Hey Mom, butt out! It’s not our problem! But then he goes on, “My hour has not yet come.”

We may need to unpack this a bit. Scholars tell us that “Woman” would have been considered a polite form of address, though it sounds cold to our ears. It’s also important to note that, in John’s Gospel, Jesus is very much in charge at all times – as he says at a later point, “I lay down my life and I take it up again.” And so Jesus was in this situation – asserting himself to act independently of his mother’s words – on his initiative, not hers.

Mary is not put off by his response, but tells the servants, “Do whatever he tells you.” There were six stone water jars, used for the Jewish rites of purification – in other words, that would have contained water for ritual washing of hands. It’s possible that, for John, the number six is significant – seven is a sign of completion, perfection, while six is a number of incompletion. Jesus tells the servants to fill the jars with water, which they do, then tells them to draw some out and give it to the chief steward. Of course, what they bring the chief steward is wine – not just any wine, but top-quality wine. John tells us that the chief steward didn’t know where it came from, but the servants did – it’s almost as if Jesus whimsically spiked the punch, playing it as a quiet in-joke between himself and the servants, behind the back of the chief steward and the bride and groom. So the chief steward called the oblivious bridegroom over and told him, “usually people serve the good wine up front and save the cheap stuff for when people are sloshed, but you’ve saved the best for last.” John tells us that Jesus did this, the first of his signs, in Cana of Galilee, and revealed his glory, and his disciples believed in him.

John’s gospel records many fewer miracles of Jesus than do Matthew, Mark, and Luke. In John’s gospel, in fact, they are not called miracles, but signs – signs that point to God’s glory, just as a road sign points out directions to a nearby location. And, in fact, John’s gospel is the only place where the miracle of the wine at the wedding of Cana occurs.

And what aspect of God’s glory is pointed out by this sign? – the sign points to God’s abundance, to the overflowing joy of God, brimming to the top and overflowing, just as those six huge stone water jars - at 20 or 30 gallons each, we’re told - overflowed with the best of wine for a wedding feast in Cana. We Protestants are often painted as sour, grim killjoy sorts, but the Jesus depicted in today’s reading is no killjoy – but rather, the sort of person who gets invited to wedding banquets, who can rejoice with others – to the point where critics called him a drunk and a glutton, a friend of sinners - and step in with God’s abundance in a situation of want, who cares even about something as personal as a wedding feast. In a sense, this miracle can be compared to the feeding of the five thousand, in which Jesus took the scarce morsels available and multiplied them so that there was enough and to spare. And in contrast to our culture and the prosperity gospel of some churches, this is not “abundance” to be hoarded and kept to ourselves, but rather to be given away freely, shared with all, so that all may experience God’s grace and rejoice.

It’s also surely not a coincidence that John mentions that the stone jugs were used to contain water for Jewish purification rites. Some theologians see Jesus’ miracle as a way of minimizing or invalidating the importance of their intended use in Jewish rites of handwashing – and certainly there was tension between John’s faith community and some Jewish leaders who did not follow Jesus - but I see the miracle instead as a sign of the continuity of God’s faithfulness – out of these vessels used for Jewish religious observance came Jesus’ abundant provision for the joy of those at the wedding feast. And we might reflect that, while this was Jesus’ first sign, he saved his best sign for last as well, when his hour – the hour of laying down his life for us on the cross and taking it up again at the resurrection – came to provide abundant grace for all of us, grace upon grace overflowing with joy like the top-quality wine at the wedding feast in Cana.

I must say, though, speaking of overflowing joy and abundance and even grace seems a bit disconnected to the news of the present day, to the difficult local, national, and international economy, the many unemployed in America, the many in Bridesburg who seek assistance – and especially in light of the aftermath of the earthquake in Haiti, where thousands were killed, trapped under crumbled buildings – perhaps 60% or more of the buildings in the capital city of Port Au Prince were destroyed - and perhaps millions are homeless, without food for days, and the international community seeks to send aid, but the Haitian infrastructure, rickety and unreliable even in the best of circumstances, is now almost completely broken down, making it incredibly difficult to distribute aid to those who need it most. Like Mary at the banquet, the news reports tell us that Haiti not only has no wine, but increasingly little food or drinkable water. As it happens, the Pennsylvania Southeast Conference just recently began supporting two medical missionaries to Haiti, Pat and Kim Bentrott. There’s additional information in the bulletin – they even have a blog, http://www.kimandpatrick.blogspot.com/ which I’ve begun to read, and I commend it to those of you who have computer access.

How will we respond? Some will say, “what is that to me, to us?” For example, Pat Robertson informs us that Haitians made a pact with the devil for their independence, and therefore the earthquake is an expression of God’s wrath. Others, equally eager to wash their hands of the disaster but less eager to play ventriloquist for God, simply say, “not my problem.”

But I’ll make a suggestion that will sound a bit odd coming from a protestant pastor – maybe we should take Mary’s advice to the servants at the banquet, “Do whatever Jesus tells us to do.” In Matthew 25, Jesus said that whatever we do unto the least of his brothers - and sisters, we would say today - we do unto him – for good or ill. And, despite Pat Robertson’s blatherings, surely the Haitians are among Jesus’ sisters and brothers. The United Church of Christ is among those gathering funds for relief efforts, and there’s information in the bulletin for those wishing to donate. Of course, assistance from the international community will come to assist in the immediate circumstances, but aid will also be needed over the long haul, long after the camera crews and news anchors have left to go cover other stories, to help Haiti rebuild. Our regular giving to OCWM pays for all of the overhead involved in getting disaster aid to Haiti, so that any funds designated to Haiti will go 100% to Haiti. More than this, as we did this morning, we should keep our sisters and brothers in Haiti in our prayers, not just today, but every day in the days ahead. Like the persistence of the poor widow’s pleas to the unjust judge in Jesus’ parable, we should persist in prayer, not only for ourselves and our church and our own community, but for our sisters and brothers in the poorest nation in the Western Hemisphere, struggling mightily to get by under the best of circumstances, now dealing with unimaginable disaster.

The head waiter said to the bridegroom – “You have saved the best wine for last.” Even amid our daily challenges, may we experience the overflowing grace and joy of Jesus in our lives, so that it will flow beyond us to our friends and our beloved community of Bridesburg, today and every day. Amen.