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Let me know what you think. The church Email is: slumc@direcway.com, Phone: 480.895.8766
January
18, 2004
Sermon: "The First Call"
Scripture: John 2:1-11
Reverend Larry Gerber
Couples
today are staging some oddball weddings: At transfer stations, on suspension
bridges, in front of convenience stores. But there was nothing strange about
the wedding in Cana of Galilee … at least until the wine ran out.
Michelle — not her real name — is a Michigan woman who works at a
7-11. She loves her customers, her work and her fiancé. So she married
him on the asphalt outside the 7-11 on 7/11 — July 11th — carrying
her bouquet in a Super Big Gulp cup. At the reception, hot dogs and Slurpees
were served at reduced prices. In Washington state, a wedding was celebrated
18 stories up atop the Tacoma Narrows Suspension Bridge soaring over Puget Sound
and high above the speeding traffic whizzing by down below. The happy twosome
walked what may be the longest aisle in wedding history. In Maine, one couple
first met at their town transfer station — locally known as The Dump. He
had just starting working there. She had just brought her first recyclables.
They plan to be married where they met while standing in the bucket loader.
Town folk have been donating returnable bottles to build a honeymoon fund. The
couple is seeking ways to incorporate recycled objects into their wedding outfits.
They can't wait to say "I do" at The Dump. It's the Reno Syndrome.
Vegas vows. After all, does it really matter where weddings take place —
even if they are in exceptional or unconventional places? Many mothers apparently
don't think so. The wedding at Cana was not exceptional for its location. But
there was a minor stir when the wine ran out and that's when a Jewish mother
intervened — Jesus' mother. And that's when Jesus stepped out, of his humanity
and into his divinity, changing mediocre water into vintage wine. Don't read
too much into that statement — "Stepped out of his humanity and into
his divinity." No revision of the Nicene or Chalcedonian creeds is intended.
The point is that the gospel text itself tells us the intention of this miracle:
"Jesus did this, the first of his signs, in Cana of Galilee, and revealed
his glory; and his disciples believed in him" (v. 11). Truth be told, most
weddings, as lovely as they are, are forgettable — except your own, and
the ones on bridges, or at The Dump. Unforgettable weddings usually have an
unpredictable facet — like a fainting bride, or a cold-footed no-show groom,
or a bridesmaid who fell in the mud on the way in the door, or a smiling minister
who repeatedly and confidently calls the bride and groom by the wrong names.
Jesus, his mother and his friends attended an unforgettable wedding in Cana.
People are still talking about this one. To run out of wine before it is time
— that was an unforgettable hospitality indiscretion that would have caused
minor humiliation for the host if the problem was not hastily fixed. In short
— it could have been a social disaster. For whatever reason, Mary, 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.
We can almost hear Mary saying, "Don't worry about it, I'll talk to my
son — he can fix anything." We have here an ancient version of the
Kent family of Smallville who have a teenage super-Clark around to help with
the heavy lifting. So Mary tells Jesus, "They're out of wine." Jesus
replies "Woman, what concern is that to you and to me?" (v. 4). In
other words, "Cry me a river," or "Why don't you tell that to
someone who cares?" In a way, even though it was Jesus who performed this
first public miracle, it was Mary who saved that wedding day. She led Jesus
to it. She made the first call!!
His miracle was simple. Fill six large ceramic jars with water. Dip a cup. Take
the cup to the wedding coordinator. Let him taste. Suddenly there were 120 to
180 gallons of excellent wine. That was no doubt enough wine for the rest of
the reception. Certainly the guests tasted the quality improvement. They speculated:
"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"
(v. 10). So what does all this mean? It means that the wedding at Cana is where
Jesus "revealed his glory," and where the disciples first "believed
in him." 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 a 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 had been 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. A trip to Reno not
necessary. Vegas vows irrelevant. His disciples "believed in him."
So should we. You make the first call, as did Mary, and Jesus will answer! ```````````````````````````````````````````````````````
Source: Leslie, Candace. "Wacky or wonderful? Unusual weddings." Lovetripper.com
and The Portland Press Herald, July 15, 2003, 2B.
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Let me know what you think. The church Email is: slumc@direcway.com, Phone: 480.895.8766