Whatever

Scripture:  Isaiah 62:1-5, Psalm 36:5-10 , I Corinthians 12:1-11, John 2:1-11

A question for the married couples among us – what do you remember about your wedding day?  Of course it was a magical day, but were there any surprises?  Last minute hitches?  I remember a long-ago wedding I attended, at which I locked my  keys in the car. The groom and his party ended up helping me get my car door open so I could get my keys.   It wasn't the wedding present I'd intended, but I was - and am - grateful for their help and patience.

Today’s Gospel reading gives us a lovely story about Jesus and his family, specifically his mother.  It’s a very human-scale story – Jesus and his mother and Jesus’ disciples are at a wedding in Cana, a small village about nine miles north of Nazareth.  For the people of that day, the vast majority of whom were very poor, their wedding might be the one time in their lives where they could have a big celebration with plenty of food and drink.  This wasn’t just a one-night reception at a catering hall or firehouse; in those days the feasting and drinking and celebrating for a wedding would go on for a week. 

And so Mary and Jesus and his disciples are at the wedding of a couple, unnamed in John’s gospel, but certainly friends and perhaps even extended family of Mary and Jesus, when something really embarrassing happens – they run out of wine.  The couple probably wasn’t impoverished – we learn later in the story that they have large stone water jars, and servants, so they had some means.  The wine shortage could have just been poor planning.  Or maybe they invited too many guests, or too many guests invited themselves.  In any case, in that culture in which a very high value was placed on hospitality, it would have been a major, if unintended, failure of hospitality, a very unfortunate way for the couple to start their married life together.  If the bridegroom couldn’t provide enough wine for his own wedding, what did that say about his ability to provide for his new wife and the children that would follow?

So Mary comes to Jesus and tells him, “They have no wine”.  Her words are not just a casual observation, but something she’d have said with tension in her voice, as if to say, “Jesus, do something! Fix this!”  And Jesus’ response comes across as cold and uncaring:  “Woman, what has that to do with you and me? My hour has not yet come.”  Addressing one’s own mother as “woman” wasn’t necessarily disrespectful, but it was certainly unusual even in that culture.   He seems to balk at being asked to help the wedding couple.  Today in response to his mother’s words, he’d probably say “Whatever.”  And then there’s that mysterious sentence, “My hour has not yet come.”  Clearly, Jesus isn’t going to be pushed by his mother into getting involved; if he is to do anything, it’s going to be on his own initiatve.

Mary wasn’t about to be put off by Jesus’ apparent indifference – in this story, she really comes across as being forceful, even a bit pushy, seemingly trying to stage-manage the situation as she tells the servants, “Do whatever he tells you.”    We’re told that there happened to be six really large stone jars – 30 gallons each - for the purpose of the Jewish rites of purification.  Jesus tells the servants to fill the jars with water.  When that is done, he tells the servants to take some out and bring it to the chief steward.  And the chief steward tastes the water that had become wine, and tells the bridegroom, “Usually folks serve the good wine up front and put out the cheap stuff after everyone’s a little sloshed, but you’ve saved the best wine for last.”  John concludes this story with the words, “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 doesn’t include nearly as many healings and exorcisms and such as the other three gospels.  John also does not use the word “miracle” to describe the healings and other extraordinary works that Jesus does.  Instead, he uses the word “signs”, and reports seven of them, of which the wine at the wedding feast in Cana was the first.   For John, these seven signs point beyond themselves to reveal Jesus’ glory – reveal who Jesus truly is.

So what is the glory to which this miracle points?  It speaks, first and foremost, about God’s abundance and generosity.   In a situation of scarcity, where there was no wine at an  event when wine was pretty much mandatory, Jesus steps in to provide wine in abundance, likely more wine than they knew what to do with – and not just any old wine, certainly not Boone Farm Special or Wild Irish Rose, but really good, top-shelf wine.  Jesus, a guest at the wedding feast, steps in as the host of the wedding feast, unknown to the chief steward and the wedding couple, but known to the servants.  Jesus told Mary that it wasn’t yet his hour – and through much of John’s gospel, Jesus’ words about his “hour” refer to his crucifixion and resurrection – but it apparently was the hour for Jesus to be a gracious if unexpected host.  Jesus made up for what the host lacked, providing hospitality.  He saved the best for last.

The story also tells us that God wants us to have joy in our lives.  In the other Gospels, Jesus’ opponents accuse him of being a drunk and a glutton, and in this Gospel Jesus provides the wine so that the wedding feast can continue.  Many outside the church see Christians as buzzkills, as killjoys, as people with grim, condemning attitudes, as people consumed with rage and terror that somehow, somewhere, somebody is enjoying themselves.  And some Christians really are like that – Soren Kierkegaard once said that while Jesus turned water into wine, the church does something even more difficult – turning wine into water.  But that attitude doesn’t come from Jesus.  Certainly, there are many people who for health reasons shouldn’t or can’t drink alcohol – I’m incredibly glad and grateful we offer both wine and grape juice at communion - and there are many ways to enjoy oneself without alcohol – but nowhere in Scripture is anything like Prohibition, making alcohol illegal for everyone across the board, recommended.  As St. Paul wrote, “Let those who eat and drink, eat and drink to the glory of the Lord, and let those who abstain, abstain to the glory of the Lord”

Most of all, this is a story about God’s grace.  God’s grace overflows, just like the wine Jesus provided at the wedding feast.  Just as Jesus provided overflowing, top-shelf wine, God’s grace is extravagant, not sparing anything.  And just as Jesus saved the best wine for last, God saves the best for us, not in the past, but in the future.   It’s often tempting, especially in confusing and troubling times like ours, to look back to the past and reminisce about the good old days.  Certainly for this congregation, it’s tempting to say that our best days, when the pews and the plates were full, are behind us.  And yet Jesus calls us not into the past but into the future, saving the best for last.  

The Statement of Faith of the United Church of Christ, which we rarely use but which I like, contains the phrase “the cost and joy of discipleship.”  The cost and joy of discipleship – cost and joy.  It’s a statement that I keep coming back to, because for me it captures the essence of the Christian life.  There is definitely cost – giving when we’d rather keep for ourselves, helping when we’d rather keep to ourselves, intervening in the difficult situations of our neighbors when it may feel like we’re barely holding our own lives together.  Following Jesus can bring about downward mobility in society.  But today’s story reminds us that following in the way of Jesus brings joy and not only cost, blessing and not only burden.  

“Do whatever he tells you”, Mary told the servants.  And Jesus told the disciples to fill up some large water jars – on the face of it, seemingly a silly request.  How could jars of water help with a wine shortage?  And sometimes in following Jesus, it may seem like we’re being asked to do things that are silly, things that are too small and weak and foolish to change anything.  But Jesus turned the water into wine – the story almost has a prankish quality – not quite spiking the punch, but close.  And Jesus can use even our seemingly small, weak, foolish efforts to help bring about the reign of God.  When we feel a clear leading from God, our task isn’t necessarily to try to make sense of the call – even though we might check the call out with a few fellow believers for confirmation.  Our job is to respond to the call, do whatever Jesus calls us to do, however seemingly silly, and trust God for the results.

“Do whatever he tells you”, Mary told the servants.  May we take Mary’s words to heart, and may we be surprised by joy as we follow in the way of Jesus. Amen.