Sermon 5th July 2009
Today, Adjoa Cunnell ,who is training for ministry, preaches based on the reading from John 2:1-11
The Wedding at Cana
Wedding arrangements can be a big deal. I have to confess, at my own , as I processed up the aisle here at St Saviour’s, in my frock, completely upstaged by my children, my dad on my arm, Howard suited and booted waiting with Cameron in full regalia at the alter…. the main thought in my mind was “Hurrah! I don’t care if you’re having the chicken, the salmon or the vegetarian option, my phone is now officially switched off!!” Probably not the ideal uppermost thought to have on your mind on your big day, but the preceding months had been busy and stressful as I’m sure many of you who have prepared for your own wedding or who have helped family and friends prepare for theirs will know! So as I say, Wedding arrangements can be a big deal and if they go wrong they can add a rather sour note to what should be an incredibly joyful day. I think ours went off pretty well in the end, everyone got to eat one option or another…..We’re still married. But whether teetotal or not, I’m sure we can all imagine the frantic family at that wedding in Cana, how embarrassing, how shaming; Mary perhaps sidling up to Jesus at the wedding that she, he, his brothers and disciples had all been invited to, Mary perhaps looking a little panicky, whispering to her son ‘They have no wine left’ (They have no more wine). Disaster! Jesus come to the rescue!
On first looking at this passage I found it curious that of all the Gospel writers, only John tells us of this miracle. And why is it the first one he tells us about,?
I was struck, by that driving force in John’s Gospel, his concern, his passion that we understand who Jesus is. That’s his focus and so out of all the miracles Jesus performed, John chooses to tell us only about the ones he feels help our understanding of Jesus’ identity, as he says in John 20; 31
‘…these have been written in order that you may believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that through your faith in him you may have life’ Rpt.
‘…these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name’ Rpt.
It is no accident that in this whole Gospel we see Mary here and only once more, at the foot of Jesus’ cross. It is no accident that Jesus reply to her is ‘my time has not yet come’, the time of his crucifixion and resurrection and it is no surprise that this all takes place on the third day after the disciples have been gathered together, reflecting forward to Christ’s rising from the dead on the third day. In the miracle of the Wedding at Cana John is pointing us towards Jesus’ promise to us of a new abundant life if we have faith in him.
And this is not the promise of an insubstantial man. John makes it clear from the outset of his Gospel that Jesus is of God, verse one !
‘In the beginning the Word already existed; the Word was with God, and the Word was God.’
‘In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God , and the Word was God.’
And then he takes us on journey of understanding. First part of Verse 14
‘The Word became a human being, and full of grace and truth, lived among us’
‘The Word became flesh and dwelt among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only(Jesus), who came from the Father full of grace and truth.’
Then at verses 17 & 18 John begins to show us the different way in which after Christ’s time on earth, God is now relating to us
‘God gave the Law through Moses, but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.’
‘No one has ever seen God. The only Son who is the same as God and is at the Father’s side, he has made him known.’
‘For the Law was given through Moses, grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. No-one has ever seen God, but God the One and Only who is at the Father’s side, has made him known.’
So we begin to understand that Jesus
1) ‘is the same as God’.
Because
2)‘In the beginning he already existed’,
and then
3)‘He became a human
And
4) ‘He brings with him Grace,’ which is that love from God that loves us whether we deserve it or not, simply because we are his creation,
and
5)‘Jesus brings with him Truth’, wisdom direct from God, not explained by the Law of Moses or by the priests, Truth from the actions and teachings of Jesus, direct from God.
If we want to know God, look at Jesus. This is who promises us a new life in him.
And so we come to the Wedding at Cana.
Having gathered together his group of disciples what will Jesus do? The ‘Same as God a human being’! What will his first public action be…wow!
It could be calming a raging sea, stopping a volcano from erupting and wiping out a town, raising someone from the dead, healing a dying child, casting out demons…..or it could be Sorting out the catering at a wedding party
On the face of it…. a bit of an anti climax. The first miracle? Are you sure Gospel writer John?
Well yes he is.
Mary’s faith in Jesus
‘..do whatever he tells you.’ She says to the servants
her faith brought new life to the Wedding, our faith in Jesus can bring new life to us and we in turn can bring new life to the world around us.
Reflecting on the meaning of this first miracle, the turning of the water into wine, Cosmo Gordon Lang, Archbishop of Canterbury from 1928-1942 concluded
‘we are to take the water of life as we find it, and convert it into wine. Our lives and circumstances may seem incapable of fulfilling a divine purpose; yet it is through these (our lives and circumstances)that the divine purpose is to be fulfilled…It is not too much to say that the main business of the Christian life is to go through the world turning its water into wine.’
‘…the main business of the Christian life is to go through the world turning its water into wine.’
At Ashburnham last weekend, Andrew Rumsey came to talk to us, you may remember him preaching here not so long ago. Well last weekend he reflected on the sense of calling or vocation that the bible says all of us have, what Archbishop Cosmo called our ‘divine purpose’. We are all created in God’s image to steward the earth, to take care of it and to see that it and all its inhabitants flourish. But if we’re Christians part of our divine purpose is also to be a witness, in the way we live, to the healing/rescuing power of Christ’s love in a wounded world. My theology lecturer on the reader course I’m doing, very lovely, bit scary, big brain, says our only calling as Christians is ‘to make God’s love known in the world.’
It means we’re not to be exclusive in our faith. We are to live in the world, engaging with people and places and events, but in everything following the example of Christ’s love.
Do we follow what the Lord requires of us, as in Micah 6:8
‘to act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God’?
Are we the ones who are courageous enough to go against the flow sometimes and speak up when we sense things around us not happening as God would want?
Do we challenge BNP activists?
Do we say no to Nike and Primark because of the way they exploit child labour?
Do we forego our L’Oreal beauty products because of their connection to Nestle and that company’s exploitation of 3rd world mothers with their baby milk products?
To make God’s world flourish sometimes means the love we show is tough love. It’s hard to be the only one saying this doesn’t feel right, we must find another way.
In John 10:10 Jesus says
“I have come in order that you might have life – life in all its fullness”.
‘I have come that they may have life and have it to the full.’
How do we encourage that fullness? If we think back to the 6 stone water jars at the wedding, each one is described as being able to hold a hundred litres of water, twenty to thirty gallons that’s 600 litres 120-180 gallons of top quality wine Jesus provides the party with, life in all its fullness, indeed. And why 6 jars? Well the Jews believe 7 to be the perfect number, so 6 is an imperfect number, it falls short, like the BNP, like Nike and L’Oreal and Primark and Nestle…and like us, so here we see Jesus transforming the imperfection of 6 jars of water, to the perfection of God’s wine, offering a life in all its fullness, brim full! And that is what Jesus came to do with our lives, to fill them brimful with the wine of his love, and we, in that love. are called to be his witnesses, his hands and feet, called upon to be that transforming agent in this imperfect world , to make real in our world God’s perfect Kingdom in all its fullness.
In John 13:34/35 Jesus says
‘…love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. If you have love for one another, then everyone will know that you are my disciples.’
‘Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.’
Paul says in Ephesians 2.10
‘God has made us what we are, and in our union with Christ Jesus he has created us for a life of good deeds, which he has already prepared for us to do.’
‘ We are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.’
‘
We are called to love and to do good deeds, works.
I know I’m saying it easily up the front here and I know it’s not always easy to be the person who makes the change in a situation. Andrew asked us last weekend to look at ourselves and ask
‘Do I make people shrivel up by what I say or do I make them flourish, do I look after the things I have or do I waste them.
I would add, would everyone know that we are Christ’s disciples in the deeds works we do, in the way we love the world around us. Jesus says ‘As I have loved you, so you must love one another’ not that we should love the world around us because the world deserves it, rather we should love the world around us because we are loved, through Grace, loved by God whether we deserve that love or not.
That’s powerful love. Love that changes peoples lives. Brings them to a new life. It’s the kind of love I saw in South Africa, when I was there recently. There was an organisation called Learn to Earn, working in the black townships of the Western Cape, a Christian organisation who believe they are to be God’s Hands and Feet. So they are based Khayelitsha and Hermanus townships where the unemployment rate is between 28 % and 32 %, with 82% of the unemployed under the age of 40. Where many people living in corrugated iron shacks, with no sanitation, running water or electricity. And Learn to Earn trains and supports people into work, placing them with companies, supporting them in their own businesses and even starting up LtE companies. They say ‘Our vision is to see the injustices committed in the past, in South Africa, as well as in the rest of Africa, reversed. Through providing a programme that recognises human dignity and the human right to live a meaningful life, we aim to assist individuals to regain their self-respect. We do this by empowering them to provide for themselves and for their families.’ I went to Khayelitsha to meet some of the people being trained, and getting jobs. I met the women who sew bags like this one, who from these sales are feeding their families, sending their children to school and even to college. That’s how Learn to Earn are turning the water of those peoples lives into a wine filled future, full of hope and possibility. This bag is God’s wine.
We may not all be able to make such dramatic changes in the lives of others but we can pray for God’s strength to guide us in how we relate to other people, how we spend our money, how we behave at work, how selfless we are, how generous, how much we take notice of others around us who may not be in our ‘circle’. God loves us. God’s gracious love is to be shared like wine and we are here to extend the wedding party in all its rich ness to all of God’s creation in all we do as individuals and as a parish. If we are committed to Christ’s mission in our lives we can be alert for the whisper in our ear like Mary at the wedding, In God’s strength we can make the party flourish as God’s loving agents for change, pouring the wine of God’s heavenly Kingdom all around us. That’s my prayer for us all this morning. Amen
The Wedding at Cana
Wedding arrangements can be a big deal. I have to confess, at my own , as I processed up the aisle here at St Saviour’s, in my frock, completely upstaged by my children, my dad on my arm, Howard suited and booted waiting with Cameron in full regalia at the alter…. the main thought in my mind was “Hurrah! I don’t care if you’re having the chicken, the salmon or the vegetarian option, my phone is now officially switched off!!” Probably not the ideal uppermost thought to have on your mind on your big day, but the preceding months had been busy and stressful as I’m sure many of you who have prepared for your own wedding or who have helped family and friends prepare for theirs will know! So as I say, Wedding arrangements can be a big deal and if they go wrong they can add a rather sour note to what should be an incredibly joyful day. I think ours went off pretty well in the end, everyone got to eat one option or another…..We’re still married. But whether teetotal or not, I’m sure we can all imagine the frantic family at that wedding in Cana, how embarrassing, how shaming; Mary perhaps sidling up to Jesus at the wedding that she, he, his brothers and disciples had all been invited to, Mary perhaps looking a little panicky, whispering to her son ‘They have no wine left’ (They have no more wine). Disaster! Jesus come to the rescue!
On first looking at this passage I found it curious that of all the Gospel writers, only John tells us of this miracle. And why is it the first one he tells us about,?
I was struck, by that driving force in John’s Gospel, his concern, his passion that we understand who Jesus is. That’s his focus and so out of all the miracles Jesus performed, John chooses to tell us only about the ones he feels help our understanding of Jesus’ identity, as he says in John 20; 31
‘…these have been written in order that you may believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that through your faith in him you may have life’ Rpt.
‘…these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name’ Rpt.
It is no accident that in this whole Gospel we see Mary here and only once more, at the foot of Jesus’ cross. It is no accident that Jesus reply to her is ‘my time has not yet come’, the time of his crucifixion and resurrection and it is no surprise that this all takes place on the third day after the disciples have been gathered together, reflecting forward to Christ’s rising from the dead on the third day. In the miracle of the Wedding at Cana John is pointing us towards Jesus’ promise to us of a new abundant life if we have faith in him.
And this is not the promise of an insubstantial man. John makes it clear from the outset of his Gospel that Jesus is of God, verse one !
‘In the beginning the Word already existed; the Word was with God, and the Word was God.’
‘In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God , and the Word was God.’
And then he takes us on journey of understanding. First part of Verse 14
‘The Word became a human being, and full of grace and truth, lived among us’
‘The Word became flesh and dwelt among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only(Jesus), who came from the Father full of grace and truth.’
Then at verses 17 & 18 John begins to show us the different way in which after Christ’s time on earth, God is now relating to us
‘God gave the Law through Moses, but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.’
‘No one has ever seen God. The only Son who is the same as God and is at the Father’s side, he has made him known.’
‘For the Law was given through Moses, grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. No-one has ever seen God, but God the One and Only who is at the Father’s side, has made him known.’
So we begin to understand that Jesus
1) ‘is the same as God’.
Because
2)‘In the beginning he already existed’,
and then
3)‘He became a human
And
4) ‘He brings with him Grace,’ which is that love from God that loves us whether we deserve it or not, simply because we are his creation,
and
5)‘Jesus brings with him Truth’, wisdom direct from God, not explained by the Law of Moses or by the priests, Truth from the actions and teachings of Jesus, direct from God.
If we want to know God, look at Jesus. This is who promises us a new life in him.
And so we come to the Wedding at Cana.
Having gathered together his group of disciples what will Jesus do? The ‘Same as God a human being’! What will his first public action be…wow!
It could be calming a raging sea, stopping a volcano from erupting and wiping out a town, raising someone from the dead, healing a dying child, casting out demons…..or it could be Sorting out the catering at a wedding party
On the face of it…. a bit of an anti climax. The first miracle? Are you sure Gospel writer John?
Well yes he is.
Mary’s faith in Jesus
‘..do whatever he tells you.’ She says to the servants
her faith brought new life to the Wedding, our faith in Jesus can bring new life to us and we in turn can bring new life to the world around us.
Reflecting on the meaning of this first miracle, the turning of the water into wine, Cosmo Gordon Lang, Archbishop of Canterbury from 1928-1942 concluded
‘we are to take the water of life as we find it, and convert it into wine. Our lives and circumstances may seem incapable of fulfilling a divine purpose; yet it is through these (our lives and circumstances)that the divine purpose is to be fulfilled…It is not too much to say that the main business of the Christian life is to go through the world turning its water into wine.’
‘…the main business of the Christian life is to go through the world turning its water into wine.’
At Ashburnham last weekend, Andrew Rumsey came to talk to us, you may remember him preaching here not so long ago. Well last weekend he reflected on the sense of calling or vocation that the bible says all of us have, what Archbishop Cosmo called our ‘divine purpose’. We are all created in God’s image to steward the earth, to take care of it and to see that it and all its inhabitants flourish. But if we’re Christians part of our divine purpose is also to be a witness, in the way we live, to the healing/rescuing power of Christ’s love in a wounded world. My theology lecturer on the reader course I’m doing, very lovely, bit scary, big brain, says our only calling as Christians is ‘to make God’s love known in the world.’
It means we’re not to be exclusive in our faith. We are to live in the world, engaging with people and places and events, but in everything following the example of Christ’s love.
Do we follow what the Lord requires of us, as in Micah 6:8
‘to act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God’?
Are we the ones who are courageous enough to go against the flow sometimes and speak up when we sense things around us not happening as God would want?
Do we challenge BNP activists?
Do we say no to Nike and Primark because of the way they exploit child labour?
Do we forego our L’Oreal beauty products because of their connection to Nestle and that company’s exploitation of 3rd world mothers with their baby milk products?
To make God’s world flourish sometimes means the love we show is tough love. It’s hard to be the only one saying this doesn’t feel right, we must find another way.
In John 10:10 Jesus says
“I have come in order that you might have life – life in all its fullness”.
‘I have come that they may have life and have it to the full.’
How do we encourage that fullness? If we think back to the 6 stone water jars at the wedding, each one is described as being able to hold a hundred litres of water, twenty to thirty gallons that’s 600 litres 120-180 gallons of top quality wine Jesus provides the party with, life in all its fullness, indeed. And why 6 jars? Well the Jews believe 7 to be the perfect number, so 6 is an imperfect number, it falls short, like the BNP, like Nike and L’Oreal and Primark and Nestle…and like us, so here we see Jesus transforming the imperfection of 6 jars of water, to the perfection of God’s wine, offering a life in all its fullness, brim full! And that is what Jesus came to do with our lives, to fill them brimful with the wine of his love, and we, in that love. are called to be his witnesses, his hands and feet, called upon to be that transforming agent in this imperfect world , to make real in our world God’s perfect Kingdom in all its fullness.
In John 13:34/35 Jesus says
‘…love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. If you have love for one another, then everyone will know that you are my disciples.’
‘Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.’
Paul says in Ephesians 2.10
‘God has made us what we are, and in our union with Christ Jesus he has created us for a life of good deeds, which he has already prepared for us to do.’
‘ We are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.’
‘
We are called to love and to do good deeds, works.
I know I’m saying it easily up the front here and I know it’s not always easy to be the person who makes the change in a situation. Andrew asked us last weekend to look at ourselves and ask
‘Do I make people shrivel up by what I say or do I make them flourish, do I look after the things I have or do I waste them.
I would add, would everyone know that we are Christ’s disciples in the deeds works we do, in the way we love the world around us. Jesus says ‘As I have loved you, so you must love one another’ not that we should love the world around us because the world deserves it, rather we should love the world around us because we are loved, through Grace, loved by God whether we deserve that love or not.
That’s powerful love. Love that changes peoples lives. Brings them to a new life. It’s the kind of love I saw in South Africa, when I was there recently. There was an organisation called Learn to Earn, working in the black townships of the Western Cape, a Christian organisation who believe they are to be God’s Hands and Feet. So they are based Khayelitsha and Hermanus townships where the unemployment rate is between 28 % and 32 %, with 82% of the unemployed under the age of 40. Where many people living in corrugated iron shacks, with no sanitation, running water or electricity. And Learn to Earn trains and supports people into work, placing them with companies, supporting them in their own businesses and even starting up LtE companies. They say ‘Our vision is to see the injustices committed in the past, in South Africa, as well as in the rest of Africa, reversed. Through providing a programme that recognises human dignity and the human right to live a meaningful life, we aim to assist individuals to regain their self-respect. We do this by empowering them to provide for themselves and for their families.’ I went to Khayelitsha to meet some of the people being trained, and getting jobs. I met the women who sew bags like this one, who from these sales are feeding their families, sending their children to school and even to college. That’s how Learn to Earn are turning the water of those peoples lives into a wine filled future, full of hope and possibility. This bag is God’s wine.
We may not all be able to make such dramatic changes in the lives of others but we can pray for God’s strength to guide us in how we relate to other people, how we spend our money, how we behave at work, how selfless we are, how generous, how much we take notice of others around us who may not be in our ‘circle’. God loves us. God’s gracious love is to be shared like wine and we are here to extend the wedding party in all its rich ness to all of God’s creation in all we do as individuals and as a parish. If we are committed to Christ’s mission in our lives we can be alert for the whisper in our ear like Mary at the wedding, In God’s strength we can make the party flourish as God’s loving agents for change, pouring the wine of God’s heavenly Kingdom all around us. That’s my prayer for us all this morning. Amen
posted by Parish Administrator at 12:35 pm
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