John 2:1-11
On the third day there was a wedding in Cana of Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there. 2Jesus and his disciples had also been invited to the wedding. 3When the wine gave out, the mother of Jesus said to him, “They have no wine.” 4And Jesus said to her, “Woman, what concern is that to you and to me? My hour has not yet come.” 5His mother said to the servants, “Do whatever he tells you.” 6Now standing there were six stone water jars for the Jewish rites of purification, each holding twenty or thirty gallons. 7Jesus said to them, “Fill the jars with water.” And they filled them up to the brim. 8He said to them, “Now draw some out, and take it to the chief steward.” So they took it. 9When 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 10and 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.” 11Jesus did this, the first of his signs, in Cana of Galilee, and revealed his glory; and his disciples believed in him.
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When I think of an act of God, I think of big grand things. Sometimes when you purchase a ticket to travel or book a conference it will say something like, “no refunds, no cancellations, except in the case of an act of God.” And of course what they mean by that is wild fire, hurricane, earthquake, or some other grand sort of natural disaster that could happen.
When we think of God’s movement, God’s work, in the Old Testament, we often think of the plagues of Egypt or pillars of fire and smoke, we think of floods and wars being won, walls crumbling from trumpets being blown. Even in the Gospel texts, we think of some of Jesus’ most famous miracles and most of them have some sort of pizazz. Healing the demoniac with the pigs being plunged into the sea, the dramatic healing of children and servants, the raising of his friend Lazarus. They all have a very obvious element of God’s glory to them. Like giant neon signs saying “Look! God is at work!”
That’s what makes this story seem so odd. It is “the first of his signs” as John puts it. But it isn’t flashy. It takes place in the background. Jesus and his mother are basically playing the role of a really awesome catering company in this story. The wedding party needed wine and they got wine. Simple as that.
Now I am a part of a lot of clergy groups, and there is a question that comes up every time we have to preach on this text— exactly how much water did Jesus turn into wine? How big were the jars? How much would that have cost? I don’t think they’re asking this just because most of the clergy I know enjoy drinking wine. I think we are curious about this because we want to make this miracle into something bigger, something spectacular. We want to know that Jesus’ first sign really was a big huge neon sign saying “SON OF GOD AT WORK.” Maybe because turning water into wine for some couple’s wedding just doesn’t seem like a “God thing” to do.
But John says that this sign revealed Jesus’ glory.
Perhaps those of us who want to know exactly how much wine and how much it would cost are too busy looking for big neon signs, that we forget to notice that God is working among us all the time. This happens to me all the time. I spend a lot of time during the week looking for the big glorious signs and I often miss the more ordinary glories happening around me.
In every Lutheran Church I have been a part of, we have donned bright gold shirts every fall for “God’s Work, Our Hands” Sunday. In none of those churches did we send plagues on sinners, we didn’t create pillars of fire, we didn’t heal anyone’s physical disability, and believe it or not, we didn’t raise anyone from the dead.
We did things like raking lawns and painting fences, we baked cookies for firefighters and helped teachers organize their classrooms, we made blessing bags for homeless people, we collected canned foods for our local food pantry. I don’t remember doing anything particularly flashy, and I don’t remember our congregation ever being mentioned on the news. But we still called it God’s work. Because it is.
The story of the wedding in Cana tells us about our God who lives among us. Jesus celebrates with people, lives with them, goes to their parties. This story tells us about our God who is flexible and accommodating with God’s timing. When Mary says the wine has run out, Jesus says his time has not yet come. But Mary is faithful and Jesus comes through, despite his hesitations. Finally, this story tells us that God works in the every day, mundane stuff of life. Believing that, trusting it, and actively looking out for it is called faith.
And that is what we are called to— as individuals and as a congregation. We are called to faith.
In this story, we should notice Mary’s example of faith. She surveyed her surroundings, was present in the moment, realized a need, assessed the available resources, and asked God to provide. She was looking out for God’s sign and trusted in God’s glory. Even in the ordinary-ness of it all. She trusted in God’s abundance because she had witnessed examples of it over and over again in her life, in the ordinary places and in the extraordinary places.
This congregation, this church, is an example of God’s abundance and I hope this week and as you go into this journey with your new pastor, you are able to see the ordinary and extraordinary signs of God’s work. In your partnership with campus ministry, in the very fact that you have called a new pastor, in the ministries that have been flourishing here in the past few years— we can see God’s glory. It is my prayer that we can continue to be faithful like Mary, and keep an eye out for these ordinary signs that so gloriously point to Christ in our lives. Amen.
This sermon was preached by me at Mandarin Lutheran Church in Jacksonville, Florida on January 20, 2019.
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