John 2:1-11 Wedding at Cana
On
Thursday it was announced that finally, for the first time since November,
winning numbers had been drawn in the Power Ball lottery. At least three
winners would split a record jackpot that had grown to something like $1.5 billion.
While
for some the news brought great disappointment because their tickets were
worthless, for many, the news came as a relief.
Not because they had won anything, but because finally, life – and conversation
- could return to “before the lottery” normalcy. Because, the truth is that
there had been little else to talk
about for the past couple of weeks. Right? I know that everywhere I went, it
was all I heard about.
Never
mind the state of the world, the growing crisis in the Chinese markets which
were causing stocks around the world to tremble and fall, or the increasingly
wild weather patterns around the world progressively pointing to the build-up
of what is perhaps a record-breaking El Niño still strengthening and growing.
Never
mind the plight of the homeless throughout the northern hemisphere where winter
is bearing down in so many areas, or the refugee crisis that continues to grow.
Never mind the growing sense of helplessness for so many who are feeling the
pinch but not the solution to the failed health insurance situation.
Rather,
in the days before the drawing, the Power Ball seemed to be on everybody’s
mind. The possibility of larger-than-life winning jackpots became an obsession.
Dreams and schemes developed. Everywhere you went you could overhear or enter
into conversations about the big jackpot.
What
would you do with the sudden windfall
of hundreds of millions of dollars? How would your life change if you fell into such a fortune? Who would be the
first person to contact you if word
got out that you had won millions? Would you work or would you retire?
Would you spend or would you save? How much of the winning money
would make you content or fill your need and how much would you give away? In the spirit of full
disclosure I admit that although I didn’t purchase a ticket myself, I did my
own kind of dreaming, and lots of it ..what
if??? It’s fun to dream, isn’t it?
Conversations
I overheard or comments I read either fell into the camp of wishful thinking like
mine, or judgment against this outlandish
form of gambling. Then of course were the often-repeated statistics and cautionary tales of the large percentage of previous
multi-million-dollar lottery winners who ultimately went bankrupt, whose lives were ruined,
those who regretted ever buying that ticket.
On the
day that the drawing took place, as the cumulative winnings for the Power Ball
jackpot grew, there was a conversation that took place in the office here at
church which reminded me of one of the basic laws of human behavior which I
learned in college in my Economics 101 class – that is the principle
(paraphrased) that just about the only things we as a people have in unlimited
supply are needs and wants. Everything else has limits, which
we interpret as scarcity. There is never
enough to go around, never enough to fulfill all of our real and perceived needs or wants. As soon as you fulfill
one want or need, another comes along to take its place – in unlimited supply – an
endless laundry list of essentials. It is the way we are wired. It is part of
our human nature.
What
catches the imagination of those who dream and scheme about winning fantastic
jackpots comes from our very human desire
for abundance. We see the possibility of winning millions of dollars for the
price of a single lottery ticket as the chance to suddenly have our existence transformed
from one framed by scarcity that frustrates
and sometimes scares us, to one
overflowing with abundance, which we are sure
will lead to happily-ever-after, where we will never want – for anything -
again.
The
gospel text this morning is also a story about scarcity and abundance. What
happens at the Wedding at Cana is considered Jesus’ very first public miracle or sign. In the gospel of John, from which the story comes, every sign
Jesus performs points to something deeper – they point to his true identity as
the Messiah, and to his role as the one who brings into the world God’s very
Word, Light and Life of grace which is abundant – in Christ, it is overflowing,
in fact.
In this
action of turning water into wine Jesus reveals himself to his disciples as God’s own sign and promise of life
abundant, of dreams fulfilled. Jesus is the
jackpot – the winning sign of God’s love and unmerited favor for God’s people,
the very finest gift, appearing at the end of the ages. Jesus is the fulfillment of the hopes and dreams of
Israel for a life full of good things and the promise of God fulfilled.
The text
tells us that after this miracle at Cana, this sign that Jesus performed on
behalf of the bridegroom, this miracle that took Jesus and the partygoers from
the embarrassment and humiliation of scarcity to one awash in undeserved and overwhelming
abundance, Jesus’ disciples believed
in him. Did they know they had hit the lottery? With the coming of Jesus, their
hopes and dreams for a new life framed by this abundance of God’s love and of promise
fulfilled would be realized – but perhaps not the way they first dreamt and
fantasized – at least not at first.
In this
story that took place in an insignificant little town called Cana, not only did
Jesus change water into wine but in so doing he transformed the host’s crisis
of disgrace into a marvelous feast of generosity and joy; not only had he saved
everyone there from a miserable and embarrassing end to this story, but he did
so by giving the very finest of the fruits of the harvest – saved for the ultimate party – at the last - a
reversal of the customs of the day.
In first
century Palestine, at a wedding feast which went on at times for upwards of a
week, the host would exhaust the stores of the very finest – and most expensive
– wines first. Then with the vast majority of the guests sated and many deep in
their cups anyway, the cheaper stuff might be pulled out and served. But at this party, God’s economy places the
finest tasting wine last.
The
narrative here is not simply the telling of a nice story with a happy ending – a
fairytale in which the fairy godmother – or father - comes to the rescue,
leaving us with the joy we long for. As is the case throughout the scriptures,
this story is filled with symbolism relevant
for the life of faith and pertinent
to the community for whom it was first written as well as for us, still, today.
As Jesus
enters the human story, the old religion as it is understood and practiced has
grown stale and now fails to reflect the vast abundance of God’s love. I wonder
if the same could be said for today?
The
wideness of God’s hospitality and the vigor of religious life are gone. Many
are left out and turned away from the goodness of the mercy, care and blessing
of community as the poor and the powerless, the diseased and the
disenfranchised are marginalized – set aside - ignored. God’s people are
oppressed by the very institution that God declared should be a source of
blessing. The good wine of God’s abundance seems
to be exhausted.
Jesus,
however, brings change to the old order. Jesus transforms what was old into
something new. Jesus provides overflowing vats of wine – more than even a very
large wedding party could possibly consume. He transforms the mediocre party
into the finest of celebrations. Jesus transforms the scarcity into a blessing
brimming with an abundance of the very finest, unprecedented kind. The quality
of the wine is superb. It is unexpected. It is unearned. The finest most
abundant and generous gift is given when it is least expected.
Frankly,
it is sometimes difficult to speak of true abundance in a world where many
suffer from poverty, want, disease, injustice, hunger, terror and war. It is
difficult to speak at times about the goodness of God’s grace when the reality
is that the true scarcity of our lives resides in the depth of our broken
hearts, broken systems and broken relationships. It is difficult to think in
terms of true universal abundance when there are still so many who are shut
out.
But the
story of transformative abundance as revealed in this gospel text points to an
economy that is new and strange and wonderful. It doesn’t follow human
paradigms of extravagant abundance. Rather, God’s
measure of love and mercy and promise, present in Jesus, overflow the
boundaries of human need. God’s abundance comes to us as grace that surrounds
us and fills us with good things.
God
saves the finest gift of all to last – where we receive grace upon grace – at
the cross.
Abundance
begins for each of us at our baptism, and we are reminded of it each time we
meet together as we remember God’s revelation in human history within our
worship and at the table where we taste and see the goodness of our God; when
we celebrate the abundance of God’s grace in the forgiveness of sin. God’s
grace is not only sufficient, but it is the jackpot – the undeserved,
unmerited, unexpected goodness of life overflowing with good things.
The
richest jackpot of our lives is the one not won by chance with the purchase of
a ticket, but the one that is revealed to us through the coming of Jesus. May we
share this gift with those God places on our path and in our community, that
all may know the goodness of sweet wine, the depth of God’s love, and the
wideness of God’s mercy. May our hospitality be reflective of the abundance of
God’s grace. And may we be ever mindful of the enormous treasure we have
received through the priceless gift of Jesus
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