Past Sermon

Sermon Title: "Wonder at the Wedding "
Date: January 14, 2007
Minister: Rev. Charles E. Ensley, Jr.

Lesson:  John 2:1-11

Truth be told, most weddings, except your own, are forgettable.  Now, having just uttered that sentence, I know I’ve lost all of you who are now thinking back to your own wedding day.  And I, too, remember my own quite well.  But really most are forgettable.  Trust me; I know.  I’ve performed 622 weddings, and as I look over the list of names over the past 34 years, only twenty or so spike any particular memory of being much different from another.

Now, our weddings directors and I could regale you for the rest of the morning with stories about those weddings we remember.  Among mine here was the bride who, sitting in the bride’s room just before the wedding, dropped her lipstick down the lap of her wedding gown, ending up with a giant red L-shaped stain.  Remember the monogram on Laverne and Shirley’s sweaters of old?  A quick thinking wedding director knew liquid Softsoap removed grease, and I can attest it was effective, for, as the bride came down the aisle, the front of her gown was spotlessly white.

Or there was the wedding in which the groom was from a famous New York theatrical family.  Seems his mother and sister had stayed at a hotel in Bel-Air, and the limousine was having a hard time finding our church.  We delayed the wedding and delayed the wedding.  Finally, after nearly an hour and yet-one-more phone call to the concierge, the groom put his hand to his brow and informed me, “The show must go on!”  Mother and sister pulled up in the limo just as the couple exited the church.

Actually, my sweetest memory of a church couple’s wedding was ten years ago, when Chad and Jenny Stuart were married here.  They are everything you want in a church couple.  They began to attend and joined when they were dating.  They became co-chairs of Parish Outreach Commission.  They announced their engagement here one Sunday morning.  On the evening of their December wedding, Jenny’s third grade class was all seated in the balcony.  At the moment Chad kissed Jenny up at the altar, all the little girls went “Aww,” and all the little boys sighed, because the pretty blonde Miss Watson was no longer available.

Weddings are generally so forgettable that even today’s account of a wedding in Cana in the first century tells us nothing about the wedding, but all about the reception.  That’s usually where the memorable part happens.  Grandma up dancing the Twist with the best man.  Father of the bride using the wrong name for the groom in the toast.

Apparently the wedding Jesus, his mother and his disciples attended early in his ministry was just your typical, traditional wedding celebration with an average and pleasant reception, until the wine gave out.  Customarily, the better wine was served first at Galilean wedding receptions.  This makes sense, when you think about it.  You serve the good wine first, when the palate is fresh and expectant.  After a few glasses, who cares?  Both the guests and their taste buds are dull, and the “two-buck Chuck” can be brought out and most guests would never notice.

But to run out of wine before it is time—that was an unforgettable hospitality indiscretion that would have caused some humiliation for the host if the problem was not hastily fixed.  Wedding celebrations back then were known to go on for a couple of days.  Picture a stressed-out host trying to find more wine for the continuing celebration while quietly badgering his servants.  What to do?  There was no Trader Joe’s nearby. 

For whatever reason, Jesus’ mother got involved in the wine problem.  We don’t know why.  Maybe it was the wedding of a relative.  Maybe Mary thought that marriages were worth celebrating and this particular one hadn’t had enough celebration yet.  Maybe Mary wanted to placate the agonized host by saying, “Don’t worry about it.  I’ll talk to my son.  He can fix anything.”

Jesus’ response to his mother might seem rude to the modern ear, calling her “woman”, and asking what concern that was to him or her.  Further, he proclaimed, “My hour has not yet come.”

Remember we are only in the second chapter of John.  If Jesus is aware of his fate on Calvary, or even the revelation of whose Son he was, perhaps it was too early to be revealed.  But John wants the reader to know.  Hence, an aggravated Jesus might have protested having to perform his first miracle so early in his ministry.  Yet, even though it was Jesus who performed the miracle, it was Mary who saved that wedding day.  She had Jesus do it.  And we are still talking about it two thousand years later!

A rather elaborate description follows of how Jesus instructed that six stone jars, each holding 20 or 30 gallons, be filled with water.  When the servants withdrew some and took it to the wine steward, at Jesus’ request, he was surprised at the quality of the wine, proclaiming it even better than the ten-dollar bottles they had been serving before.  The steward compliments the bridegroom (not the father of the bride, you’ll note, who often foots the bill today) on saving the good wine until last.

Amidst the wondrous miracle that occurred at this unforgettable wedding, John ends the story with this editorial comment:  “Jesus did this, the first of his signs, in Cana of Galilee, and revealed his glory; and his disciples believed in him.” (2:11)

The decision to highlight the wedding banquet at Cana is John’s way of signaling us that from the very outset of his earthly ministry, Jesus is the Christ whose every activity must be understood in relation to the revelation of his glory and messianic mission.

When Jesus changes water into wine, the transformation of the world according to God’s holy purpose is becoming a reality through the presence of Jesus—the Word, the Son of God, the Messiah, the Christ.  The new wine breaks in upon and transforms the religious status quo.  Note that the water changed into wine is drawn out of jars reserved for ceremonial washing.  Literally, these were jars that held water for purity rituals.  The water is intended for the crucial religious practice of external cleansing before eating.  But Jesus uses this water to create something crucial to our internal nourishment.

So what does all this mean to us?  It means that if Jesus can change water into wine, he can change us too.  This is the miracle of transformation.

As one wife put it after her alcoholic husband encountered the transforming power of the resurrected Christ, “Jesus changed beer into furniture.”  That is, money that he had spent on beer was now being spent on the family.

Jesus can turn the sour into the sweet.

Jesus can turn bitterness into peace.

Jesus can turn hatred into love.

Jesus can turn anger into joy.

The wedding at Cana is a metaphor for new, transformational beginnings.  His disciples “believed in him.”  So should we believe in his power to change us into something even better than before.