After reading the Gospel, I was letting my imagination just have at it for a little while. I had never wondered this before, but I started thinking about what could have happened at this wedding for them to be running short of wine. I wasn’t playing out a blame game, but just curious. Did they not have enough money to fund a week long open bar party? Did more than expected show up? Did containers get broken? Supply chain problem? Vendor mistake? Who knows? Looking for causes or blame from texts doesn’t usually move us forward because we don’t have the details, and placing blame was not what Jesus’ ministry was about. But I am very glad that I did spend the time thinking about it because that daydreaming made a connection for me that somehow I had never noticed. I actually can’t believe that it took me thirty years of marriage to connect the events of our wedding to this reading. Wedding Day! Who gets married on the last day of final exams? Me, that’s who. I got the exams taken care of, but i’ll say caring as much as you should was definitely a hurdle. It really only started when I walked out of the last exam. It was in the time before cell phones and I don’t remember the specifics, but I got locked out of the place I was living and my car. I think in two separate instances. A bridesmaid came to my aid and informed me I wasn’t driving myself 30 minutes to the church. She made sure I had what I needed. My problem was the sheer excitement. I felt like when you see those folks get adrenaline injected into their hearts on TV. We got to the church and started getting ready. As time was getting near I was ready to go. That’s when they came and told me. They had already told Pam sometime before. Before I continue, here’s the deal. I was a music major for my first two years in college, so Pam and I had a lot of really awesome and very talented friends that wanted to gift us with their gifts of music at our wedding. Some really awesome stuff was lined up. The lynch pin was my home church’s director of music and organist. He had been a mentor and friend for many years. I played many times in church with him and he watched me grow up as my mom worked at the church. He had helped us plan the night and he is an incredible musician and my friends were very excited to get to play and sing with him. So the night was planned to be a feast of sound. Everyone was there and ready to go and I was calming down a bit, that is until they told me what they had told Pam. The organist was really, really sick. Unable to even sit upright. Pam recalls, they didn’t ask me, the former music major. In a panic, they asked her what to do. She remembered a friend that worked at the college, who was also an organist, had mentioned that he was coming to the wedding. Somehow in the time before cell phones, they reached him and he literally lit out, as we say in the south, to Lincolnton. He wouldn’t discuss how he had gotten there so quickly. He arrived well in time to be a spectator, but needed an extra 20 minutes to set up and prepare. Every bit of the music happened with the exception of the Corelli Trumpet Concerto, as he had never accompanied that before, but they all knew the Vivaldi Trumpet Voluntary and subbed it in. We have a video, now on digital and the music is amazing. These are the facts of what happened at our wedding. Surely that Jewish couple told their story and told it with the fondness that I tell our story. How it took me 30 years to notice the similarities is kind of amazing. I guarantee that there was some sincere panic and helplessness at that wedding. But on the heels of fear, sadness, and disappointment came something amazing. When it was all over, our substitute organist, the one with no notice whatsoever, that accompanied soloists, duets, trios, singers, congregational singing and played the Hallelujah Chorus, (it was Christmas time) came and apologized for not being comfortable with that one piece. His concern was that it would all be good and make us happy. That was unbelievable and over the top and crazy generosity in that apology. We were the ones awestruck with what he and the others had done. Our hearts overflowed in the midst of our wedding, not because of how the decorations looked, but the love of the family member that did them, or the sound of the music but because of the love those folks were giving us by employing their gifts, their effort and their presence. The only thing that has rivaled the joy and thankfulness that I have felt was the birth of our son. The wedding Jesus was at was most likely a week-long affair, given the culture, and running out of wine would have been the topic of a lot of gossip and shame. I’m glad we didn’t have that pressure, but more than that, the wine had a symbolic meaning at the wedding and that meaning was joy. I’m not going to pretend that I have any idea as to what the interaction between Jesus and his mother was about, but I do understand the math, and I think you’ll see from some pretty simple math that Jesus’ intent was not just for the couple and the people not to just have sorrow turned to Joy but for it to be unbelievable and over the top and crazy joy, joy that overflows. Think about this young couple’s story. Oh no, we’re about out of wine! Cousin or aunt Mary tells you not to worry her son will take care of it. Jesus asks for the purification jars to be filled with water and the hometown somalia proclaims it the best wine. This entire story smacks of being “over the top” in so very many senses. There is an extravagance here, almost an element of luxury, that seems to burst the narrow confines of the event at hand. It’s as though someone asked for a bottle of water and Jesus gave him the Pacific Ocean. It’s as though someone asked for $50 to buy her child a toy and Jesus gave her an Amazon toy warehouse. The actual numbers are about 908 bottles of the best wine for a family party in Cana. We can argue about what the best wine is, or you can, as I had to look up how to spell somalia, let’s assume for this example that price is the indicator. The world record for a bottle is $177,175 but let’s tone it down to a thousand. That $908,000 dollars in wine after the party is a good way over, for some unnamed relatives, from the carpenter’s son that was born in a barn. Now that’s extravagant. Unheard of. Where have you experienced this kind of grace? Remember, the wine had meaning and represented Joy. Where have you seen someone wanting you to experience that much Joy. What our friends did for us was incredibly gracious and filled us with inexpressible thankfulness, but it was within the realm of a human undertaking,despite Pam’s and my belief of the unbelievability of how they could have pulled that off. This was miraculous, it truly was unbelievable and over the top and crazy generosity. When have you seen it? Every Sunday we pour the waters of baptism and I add just 2 more gallons, but the more realistic amount is an ever flowing fountain. The good news of today’s gospel is that Jesus shares with us God’s unceasing Joy, grace and forgiveness. The thankfulness that we felt on our wedding day is a tip of an iceberg comparison, yet that is where our call to action lies. We can’t repay God for it, but our thankfulness can propel us to give of yourself in love to others. To share our gifts with others like our friends did with us in order to increase their Joy. As we give graciously and lovingly from ourselves we change the world, we participate in God’s kingdom and show the world the extravagance of God’s love. We will bring light to the darkness, joy to where there is fear and sorrow, love and compassion to where there is hurt and anguish, and freedom where there were only chains and bondage.
Lord God, source of every blessing, you showed forth your glory and led many to faith by the works of your Son, who brought gladness and salvation to his people. Transform us by the Spirit of his love, that we may find our life together in him, Jesus Christ, our Savior and Lord.
Amen.
Turning water to wine at the wedding at Cana is described as the first of Jesus’ signs. Through many such epiphanies, Jesus reveals that he bears God’s creative power and joyful presence into the world. John 2 On the third day there was a wedding in Cana of Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there. Jesus and his disciples had also been invited to the wedding. When the wine gave out, the mother of Jesus said to him, “They have no wine.” And Jesus said to her, “Woman, what concern is that to you and to me? My hour has not yet come.” His mother said to the servants, “Do whatever he tells you.” Now standing there were six stone water jars for the Jewish rites of purification, each holding twenty or thirty gallons. 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.” Jesus 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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