January 19, 2025 ~ Human Relations Day
Rev. Beckie Sweet
Pastor David Clark tells the story of the most recent visit he had with his parishioner, “Old Al Lunde.” Al was a long-time member of the congregation, who loved to talk about any subject under the sun. There were some apples sitting on the kitchen table, and so the conversation turned to apples and apple cider. David had heard that Al made his own cider, and so he asked, “Al, can we have a glass of YOUR apple cider?” Al obliged, and walked over to the refrigerator and pulled out an old jug labled “vinegar.” He took the jug over to the table and reached up to a cabinet and pulled down champagne glasses. David thought that was a bit strange to drink cider from such fancy glasses. Al poured the cider into the glasses. Since Al had celebrated a birthday a few days before, they decided to toast to his birthday. Then they sipped the cider! David says, “My eyes popped. May taste buds budded. My salivatory salivated. My eyes watered. This wasn’t apple cider. This was apple champagne. Fresh. Sharp. Full bodied. Al’s eyes danced with laughter at my response!”
When Jesus turned water into wine at the wedding festivities in Cana of Galilee, the steward in charge of the festivities spoke in amazement of the quality of this wine, the wine which Jesus had produced from water! It was better than the family’s best wine which had been served earlier at the party!
I often wonder why John placed this account of Jesus’ first sign or miracle in such a prominent place in the gospel. According to John, this is the first sign that Jesus offers as proof of his identity as the Son of God, the Messiah, the one infused with the power of God. In the other three Gospels, the first thing Jesus does is preach and heal – important stuff. He gives hope, relieves suffering, and solves problems. But here in John’s gospel the first problem Jesus addresses is … that the wine has run out at a wedding party!! Some wonder why it is so important for Jesus to come to the rescue here when there are children in the world who are starving!
Initially, Jesus seems to have the same reaction when his mother comes to him in the midst of the wedding party at which he, his mother, and the disciples are all guests. “They have no wine,” she tells him, with the implication that he should use his powers to do something to fix the problem. While Jesus indicates that he may be annoyed at her expectations of him, in the end, Jesus acts so that the party might go on; so that the celebration may continue without the hosts suffering embarrassment due to the shortage of wine.
It is, as John says, the first of the signs Jesus did. He’ll do six more before he’s done, all of which are more like the sort of things we expect Jesus’ miracles to be about. John calls them “signs,” not miracles. They reveal something. That’s why this story shows up in the season of Epiphany. It reveals God’s glory. John’s gospel begins with the great assertion that the WORD which was present when all of creation was brought into being, has become flesh. Jesus is the WORD become flesh. In Jesus, our eyes are opened to grace upon grace – the wonder of God’s abundant blessing that is knit into all creation. And in seeing this, we experience JOY, the thing which wine symbolizes.
If we ask ourselves, “What is the big challenge/problem of life?” The response that many give is that the big problem in life is that it includes so much pain and suffering. But this story at the outset of Jesus’ ministry invites us to see the big problem differently. The problem isn’t so much the presence of pain as the absence of joy! Life in this world is woven together with both pain and joy. Life in the world to come will be undiminished joy, love, light. But in this world pain and joy come side by side. It is the experience of joy that sustains us in the struggle that is life. Joy is what makes the struggle worth it. The great tragedy of life is missing the joy that is woven into ordinary life. Is our culture experiencing a Joy Deficit?
People who spend time in far more impoverished cultures without all our high-tech pleasure-inducers testify that despite the hardships there, there was far more joy present. Some people are far less inclined to question the inherent value of life.
This weekend, we remember Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and the civil rights movement. More than five decades ago, well-intentioned white people from the north would travel to the deep south to lend a hand to the movement. They wanted to help to alleviate suffering, but they would often get frustrated when they attended the long worship services that were so important to the people suffering under racial oppression. It was there in the singing and swaying and praying that the people got in touch with the joy that sustained them in what they knew better than the folks from the north would be a long, hard struggle. As Dr. King said,
But with patient and firm determination we will press on
Until every valley of despair is exalted to new peaks of hope,
Until every mountain of pride and irrationality
Is made low by the leveling process of humility and compassion;
Until the rough places of injustice are transformed
Into a smooth plane of equality of opportunity…
When heartbreak strikes, such as a fire, flood, accident, storm, or crime, suddenly our eyes are opened to what we’ve been missing all along. It is almost as if we need this kind of tragedy to open up our eyes and hearts to the extraordinary gift every person is to us. But it doesn’t have to be this way. Jesus has come to awaken within us our capacity for joy. So, as in today’s text, Jesus appears at an ordinary event in order to reveal the extraordinary joy that is hidden within it. The wedding steward enjoys the delicious wine that Jesus made, but does not perceive what the disciples glimpse: the joy that infuses all of life.
Dorothy Cotton said, “If a house is burning and a bucket of water is thrown on the blaze and doesn’t extinguish the fire, this doesn’t mean that water won’t put out the fire. It means we need more water. And so with nonviolence.” I would add, and so with joy.
Of course, the wine is a metaphor for joy. At Cana of Galilee there is a fabulous, extravagant amount of extraordinarily good tasting wine. Why, we might wonder, aren’t we Christians more joyful? There is joy in Christ to be shared. There is good food to be savored. There is dancing to be done. There is music to be enjoyed. And then there is laughter. Real laughter is a holy exercise. So give yourself permission to experience joy. Do so knowing that God’s will for us to have joy!
85 year old Nadine Stair gives us some thoughts about what a more joyful life might look like:
I’d like to make more mistakes next time.
I’d relax. I would limber up. I would be sillier than I have been this trip.
I would take fewer things seriously. I would take more chances.
I would climb more mountains and swim more rivers.
I would eat more ice cream and less beans.
I’ve been one of those persons who never goes anywhere without a thermometer,
A hot water bottle, a raincoat, and a parachute.
If I had to do it again, I would travel lighter than I have.
If I had my life to live over, I would start barefoot earlier in the spring
And stay that way later in the fall.
I would go to more dances. I would ride more merry-go-rounds.
I would pick more daisies.
What is the best part of weddings? The JOY! What is the best part of life? The JOY!
What is the best part of faith in Christ? The JOY!