Jesus says, “Party on!”
It’s been 35
years since I took my first appointment. Before that, I was a blood bank
technologist. But about 4 years in, I realized I didn’t want to do that for the
rest of my life. After months of self-doubt and conversation with others, I
admitted that I was avoiding a call to the ministry. So, in my late 20s, I attended
Duke Divinity School on grants and scholarships, and worked at the Duke
Hospital to pay the bills that kept me housed, fed, and clothed. After graduation,
with my MDiv in hand, I moved to Summerville, SC, to become an associate
minister at Bethany UMC.
I’ll admit,
I was shocked at how much my life changed. In addition to everyone thinking I
was a biblical and theological encyclopedia, I was no longer anonymous.
Everybody knew my name and most of my business. If I walked into a room, conversation
stopped. People would hide their wine glasses or beers in a social setting and
apologize for their “salty” language – yes, it was a military town. At the grocery
store, they would examine the contents of my cart, where I learned never to go after
mowing the grass, and to buy my wine coolers in the next county (it was the
90’s). In short, it was a bummer. I just wanted to be Deb, but to everyone
else, I was “other” – holy, knowledgeable, but also a party pooper. I wonder if
that is how Jesus felt when, early in his ministry, he attended a wedding with
his family. Did people even know who he was?
Setting
the Stage: This is
the first story in our series on the gospel of John, commonly referred to as
Jesus’ first miracle. But our writer John doesn’t use that word. He refers to
them as “signs.” These actions point to something more.
It’s
interesting that Jesus’ first miracle was something as ordinary as changing
water into wine. Why is this one of the first stories John tells? Sure, running
out of wine at a wedding in the first century – that was bad. Hosts were
expected to meet their guests' every need for the multiple days of the wedding
celebration. To run out of wine so soon – it wasn’t life-threatening, but still
very embarrassing. I’m sure the host was upset on multiple levels… everything
from “The wedding is ruined,” to “How will I ever face these people again?!”
But he’s not
the one who goes to Jesus for help. It’s Jesus’ mother who suggests a solution
to the problem. Mary to Jesus – DO SOMETHING. When he resists with a legitimate
refusal, she ignores him and tells the servants – JUST DO WHATEVER HE TELLS YOU
TO DO.
So, Jesus,
the good Jewish son, gets to work. He has the servants bring out six stone jars
of water, each holding 20-30 gallons of water, and without any grand gesture,
the host draws wine from the jars, not water. And not only was this wine – it
was the best wine – the kind that you serve at the beginning of the party, not
the end when people have already been drinking. The result? The party was
saved. The wedding guests now see the host as extravagant. His reputation is
saved, even though it is Jesus who saves the day.
So, what do
we take from this story?
First, Jesus
doesn’t do anything halfway. Jesus’ extravagance happens in the middle of an ordinary celebration.
At first glance, we think this is just about the wine saving the party. But
this is not a new concept, but echoes a story they know. The Hebrew Bible
prophets, Amos and Isaiah, wrote of banquets and wine as symbols of the abundant
joy of God’s salvation. Jewish listeners and readers would likely have made that
connection. The gift isn’t that Jesus saved this wedding from disaster. It was
that Jesus replaced failure with joy.
To be clear:
When Jesus, at a wedding banquet, turns water for ritual purification into (gets
calculator – 6 x 120-180 gallons) more than 3000 glasses of wine, people
looking for the Messiah would have paused and thought, “Maybe this is about
more than the wine… What if it’s not that salvation and joy are coming…
maybe they’ve already arrived.” This extravagant miracle is actually a sign of
things to come. In chapter 10, Jesus says it explicitly – “I have come that
they might have life, and have it abundantly” (10:10).
Second, Jesus’
teaching about abundance isn’t about having the most stuff. Yes, Jesus made a lot of wine, but
again, it’s about quality, not quantity. Abundant life isn’t “whoever dies with
the most toys wins.” As I get older, I realize that my stuff is just stuff –
and most people won’t want it when I’m ready to let it go.
Abundant
life also doesn’t come as the result of living a perfect life – there will be mistakes
and sickness, accidents and struggles. In his book, Falling Upward,
Father Richard Rohr writes that the process of growing in faith and moving
through life is often confusing and painful – our faith in God and Jesus
doesn’t take that away. He says, “Before the truth can set you free, it will
often make you miserable.”
Many of us
have been told that asking, “Why?” or other questions is bad – that it
indicates a lack of faith. But what if abundant life comes to us through our
questions? I think that’s what the process of discipleship is all about. It’s
about learning, and unlearning, and then putting our faith into action, over
and over again. Our ADC put together a survey to find out where you think your
growing edges are. Your participation can help us find the classes and groups
where you can feel safe asking questions and figuring out where you are called
to put your faith to work.
Abundant
life IS about knowing and being known… being loved by God for exactly
who we are, in all our beauty and plainness, in all our successes and failures.
It is framed within the intimate relationship we have with God and fostered by
our willingness to grow, change, and be in community with one another as we
walk the road of life – toward God – trusting God – together.
This life is
ours to claim. And one lesson we learn along the way is that joy and happiness
are not always the same thing. Faith teaches us that happiness is fleeting, but
joy is everlasting.
Last, God
is always transforming our world. How, you ask? Through us. We are most often God’s agents of
change. Jesus didn’t offer to do the host a favor on his own. He was enlisted
by his mother, to whom he could not say “No”. When we feel like we have run out
of wine, like we are going through the motions, or at risk of giving up, there
may be someone close by who recognizes our struggles and says, “Let me give you
a hand.”
Mary tells
the servants, “Do whatever he tells you to do.” We have the same command from
Jesus, “Love God and neighbor in all you do.” Irish poet Oliver Goldsmith said,
“You can preach a better sermon with your life than with your lips.” Even if we
don’t have the right words, we can do the right thing. Or in words attributed
to John Wesley, "Do all the good you can, by all the means you can, in all
the ways you can, in all the places you can, at all the times you can, to all
the people you can, as long as ever you can."
Jesus often
comes into our lives disguised… hidden… or on the fringes. And while we think
we want the righteous anger of Jesus turning over tables (which happens right
after this), or the miracle of being raised from the dead, Jesus isn’t just
there for the drama. He is there in all the ordinary days – in the work we do
together, like Family Promise, and Rides for Rubbish, and welcoming everyone
who comes through our doors.
His presence
is felt in our homes, and while we are handing out sleeping bags at Christmas
in the parking lot… in our preschool helping littles learn their numbers and
letters and colors… in the sacraments of holy communion and baptism, for sure, and
also in the music of the organ and choir, and in the singing with a guitar at 9
am service, or in a small conference room when the sanctuary seems too big and
foreign to be comfortable. In classrooms
and conversations... Jesus is there for all of it.
I’ll close
with my favorite story from Tony Campolo, an American Baptist minister and
professor of sociology at Eastern College in PA. He was in Hawaii for a speaking
engagement, and on the first night there, he couldn’t sleep, so he went to an
all-night diner near the hotel. About 3 in the morning, a group of women came
in, laughing and joking together. Overhearing their chatter, he learned two
important things: that they were professional escorts finished with their
night’s work, and that one of the women would turn 39 the next day.
After the
group left, Tony talked the diner owner and his wife into throwing a birthday
party for the woman the next night. 24 hours later, the diner was decorated
with streamers and balloons, with customers sticking around to help with the
surprise. As the ladies entered the building, everyone shouted, “Happy
Birthday, Agnes!” She was in shock. People laughed together and hugged her, and
after being reminded to cut the cake, she begged them to let her keep it as a
reminder of that moment. “I’ve never had a birthday cake before – please let me
take it home to show my kids.”
As surprised
as they all were, they couldn’t think of a good reason to refuse her request,
and so she left with the cake still decorated and uncut, as if it were the best
gift in the world.
Tony says he
broke the awkward silence in the room by saying, “Why don’t we pray?” and he prayed
for Agnes, asking God to bless her on her birthday, bring peace into her life,
and save her from all that troubled her. After the “Amen,” the owner said, “You
didn’t tell me you were a preacher. What kind of church do you preach at?” Tony
thought for a minute and said, “Well, I preach at the kind of church that
throws birthday parties for prostitutes at three o’clock in the morning.” To
which the owner replied, “There’s no church like that. But if there was, I
would join it. Yes, I would definitely join a church like that.”
We hope for
signs and miracles in moments of crisis. But God doesn’t just show up when
things are going badly, or when we experience the worst of the worst. Jesus
brings joy and abundance and extravagance to every day. In the big things and
the small, God is always present in our interactions with everyone we meet.
This story teaches us that God is not stingy with God’s blessings.
He doesn’t call an end to the party because the wine has run out. Nor does he
refuse to help in a moment of minor distress. Instead, Jesus gives them and us
more than we know to ask for, and helps keep the party going. And he brings the
good stuff, reminding us to party on - the best is yet to come.
Amen, and amen.
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