Wedding Presence

This sermon was heard at the First Presbyterian Church in Berryville, Arkansas on Sunday January 17, 2010, the 2nd Sunday in Ordinary Time.

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

May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable to you, O Lord, our rock and our redeemer. Amen.

It was nearly fourteen years ago, but I can still remember Marie and me planning our wedding. I proposed on November 30th at the First Presbyterian Church in Lamar, Colorado after decorating the church for Advent. One of the things we decided to do that Christmas was to go and visit both of our families. We knew it would be a fiasco, er… adventure, and if we did it once we figured we would never have to do it again. So we went.

Working at the college, I had some time off, but Marie’s job at the travel agency put us on a tight schedule. We left her apartment in Colorado Springs heading toward central Missouri after lunch on Christmas Eve. Getting on the road, Marie smiled at me and brought out her wedding planner book and said, “I’ve got you where I want you!” and we started making wedding plans.

Of course among our plans were the plans for the wedding reception, a wonderful luncheon affair. Marie and I planned carefully. We made sure to take nut allergies into account. We went with beef, chicken, and vegetarian options for the main course and as a former bar manager, I made sure there was enough wine and beer to go around. It’s a dirty job, but hey …

In this way there is very little difference between our wedding and the wedding in Cana. Family came and celebrated. To make sure the guests were taken care of, there was a steward. Jesus even showed up for both weddings, thanks be to God. The biggest difference? The biggest difference is that in the ancient Middle East the wedding reception could go on for days and days long into the nights. Our reception ended by the time the daily 3:30 thundershower paid its scheduled visit to Colorado Springs.

So while the hospitality responsibilities were similar, in the ancient of days the bridegroom’s responsibility was far more extensive than ours. Further, the expectations of his hospitality were far greater too. The offering and accepting of the invitation to the wedding was more than an invitation to a celebration. The marriage celebration contained an implicit social contract as well.

The prospect of offering hospitality to a guest, traveler, or sojourner often formed long term reciprocal relationships. One of the most ancient scriptural examples of this is from Genesis where Abraham welcomes the three travelers and demands they stay for a meal. In return, one of the men blessed Abraham, promising that when he passed by in the next year they would have a son. Of course Abraham was described as old and Sarah as well beyond child bearing age; so this promise to the childless couple brought with it miraculous implications; implications that were fulfilled with the birth of Isaac.

So when we read about the end of the wine at the wedding in Cana, we aren’t reading about a gaffe, a social blunder that the society page of the paper will pooh-pooh in next Saturday’s edition. We read of a major breech of cultural and social taboos that will endanger the new couple’s status in the community for a long time to come. After failing with your marriage ceremony, it will be a long, long time before your neighbors will trust you with any important community responsibility.

We know the rest of the story. Jesus argues with his mom that it isn’t his responsibility to go to the liquor store and get more wine. He even barks at his mother when she suggests it. “Woman, what concern is that to you and me?” He does give his reason though, “My hour has not yet come.” Jesus doesn’t seem so concerned because it’s not his time yet, and he’s right of course. We’ll come to his time in a few weeks on Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, and Easter Sunday. So really, it isn’t his time yet. But it is the meantime, and what should he do in the meantime?

Well, what ever he does, his mother has prepared the waiters to follow his lead.

When he does act, it is not just to do enough, Jesus goes the extra mile. He doesn’t create a bunch of box wine for the wedding party, his gift to the happy couple and to all creation is the best wine ever.

Giving good gifts is important, and it is important for us that the Lord God is the giver of the greatest gifts. The Lord has given us his Son, Jesus Christ. It is the relationship between our heavenly Father and the Son which we receive. We also receive the relationship between the fully human and fully divine Jesus who is the Messiah. And the Holy Spirit comes from them.

In the Holy Trinity and in their eternal dance we are received into their relationship. We see the union between father and son. We see the union between humanity and divinity within one individual and between God and humanity. We see the union between the three who are not just three individuals but are one God revealed three distinct and inseparable ways. In God and in God’s relationship with us, we become a part of the dance. By God’s grace through faith, we receive this, the greatest gift of all.

This gift is followed by more gifts, the gifts of the Spirit mentioned here in 1Corinthians. And while there are many gifts, there is only one who gives them. There are many different types of service, but only one Lord. There are many different types of activities, but only one God who activates them. According to scripture, each of us is gifted, but there is only one who gives such wondrous gifts.

Yet the gifts God gives are not only the charismatic signs; the gift is in the work done with the gift as well. We are joined to God in three persons for more than just the joy of being connected to God. This joining is glorious, but it’s not all. Our Prayer of Illumination this morning helps show us what this connection means to us individually and as the church of Christ:

Your Son turned water into wine,
delighting all who were there.
Transforming our hearts by your Spirit
that we may use our varied gifts
to show forth the light of your love
as one body in Christ.

We are joined in union with the Lord not just for our piety; we are joined to be God’s instruments in the redemption of all creation. We are to be transformed by the Spirit not just to accept God’s good gifts, but to benefit all God has created and continues to create. We are to shine God’s love not just as a million points of light, but as the one body in Christ.

Using the marriage passage from our Isaiah reading, scholars point to the union between the bride and groom in this passage as a model for the way we are to respond in union with God. Marriage is the model of the re-ordering of humanity into its original state, the state known before the fall. This coupling between bride and groom represents the relationship between the Heavenly Father and the Holy Son, between the two natures of Christ, between the three persons of the Trinity, and between God and us. It is this coupling; it is all of these couplings that Jesus celebrates in Cana with the greatest vintage known.

It’s also kind of cool that there is a “Lone Ranger/Who was that masked man?” quality to the whole thing. No one knew where the wine came from; the steward complements the bridegroom on bringing out such great wine. But, the steward may also be wondering if the bridegroom isn’t casting pearls before drunks. Why wait so long to bring out the good stuff?

Why wait indeed? This is the first of his signs in Cana. You gotta start somewhere.

You gotta start somewhere.

God chose humanity long ago and continues to choose us today. This is where God starts and has always started. As foreboding as this sounds, here’s the good news, all are gifted. Paul was writing to the church when he said each is gifted. He did not say the pastor is gifted. He did not say the Elders are gifted. He said each is gifted as the Spirit chooses. And the gifts are given to the church for the common good. The Spiritual gifts are given this way; the Spirit gives the church the necessary gifts and they are given for an intended purpose. If misused, they are not effective, but when God gives a gift and it is used as God wills, the gift is perfect.

The Spirit then makes people capable of using the gift putting us in places to use the gifts. Not only are all gifted, but the Spirit prepares us, enables us to use those gifts. If this seems difficult, don’t worry. If Jesus can change water to wine, imagine what he can do with us.

In this part of the body of Christ, I see people pray, and sing, and play. I have seen people serving at times of joy and times of grief. I have seen people act with great compassion, and most of the time this isn’t done by active session members, it is done by members acting with might exercising the gifts of the spirit to fortify the church and to glorify God. The gifts are given to the entire church for the world by God for God’s glory.

This is not unlike the servants at the banquet. While their roles seem quite limited, they were in direct service to Jesus, delivering the fruit of his first public miracle. Imagine the banquet master: Not only did he announce the miracle; he announced it to the groom with joy and bravado. But he makes the announcement with qualification; the gift will not be fully appreciated by those who receive it. This reigns true for us today. We receive gifts that we don’t expect or don’t recognize—and we aren’t fully aware of what they are, or their value, or what to do with them. But Jesus accounts for this. He knew the wine would be perfect and he knew it would not be properly appreciated. And he gave, Jesus gave.

It reassures me that Jesus seemed reluctant to exercise his power. When his mother tells him there is no more wine, he asks, “What’s that to you and to me?” Then he tells his mother that it’s not his time, not yet. Yet his mother persists, telling the servers to do whatever Jesus tells them to do. Then he exercises the power and miracles happen.

When we use the gifts of the Holy Spirit, we are able to do so much more than we can without these gifts. We can do miracles. They may not even be noticed. They certainly may not be appreciated on earth, but when they are exercised, miracles happen for the glory of God, not just by the ordained, but from all members of the church. Not just for the church, but for all of creation.

Just as the banquet master proclaimed this wine to be the best, we must glorify the name of the one who provides the wine, and all that the wine represents. The gifts are important, what we do with them is also important, and thanking the one who gives them is vital.