What Do You Do With 180 Gallons of Wine?
John 2:1-11
February 12, 2005
It is two days before Valentines Day and I thought that it would be a good time to focus on marriage this morning. This sermon didn’t come without some real discussion with myself. I debated whether or not to speak about marriage because I realize that there are those in this congregation who are not married. We have single people here. We have people who have lost their spouse through death. This sermon may not impact everyone here today.
But I realize that not every sermon touches every person. Not too long ago, I had a couple of different comments about a particular sermon I preached. One person told me that it was exactly what was needed that day. That person told me how satisfying and helpful the sermon had been. Another person wondered if I had taken leave of my senses. According to this person, the sermon made no sense and the worship service was a complete waste of time.
I wondered if I had preached two different sermons that day. And in fact, I had. Oh, yes, the words were the same, but the reception was different. God was working in the heart of at least one person in the room that day. Somehow, the Holy Spirit allowed me to speak to one particular need. I am always amazed and humbled by that.
B
There were other folks in the room apparently, who didn’t need to hear the sermon. The Holy Spirit was working differently in their hearts that day. There may come a day - I hope – when the roles will be reversed, and the people who received nothing that day will come away with at least a glimpse of the way God is working.
I say that as introduction because I know there are people here today who may find that this sermon doesn’t apply to them. Toni and I had a long discussion this past week about this. On Thursday she conducted a funeral of a woman in her congregation and she asked me what I would do if that were me and the husband showed up at church today.
I said that I would probably begin by acknowledging the existence of pain, loss, and heartache. We preach to people who have lost their spouses, who are divorced, or who have never been married. That is reality. It hurts. It often brings despair. But I would also point to the God who hurts right along with us, the God who heals, and the God who understands our pain.
Even though we might not understand, I would point people to God who loves us enough never to leave us. I would ask people who are single, o single again to relax in the promise of the love of God. But I hope that we all can marvel at the miracle that is marriage, hold it up for celebration, and rejoice with those for whom it is real.
Ask any preacher about funny things that happen in parish ministry, and he or she will no doubt tell you a wedding story. Fairly early in my ministry, I officiated at a wedding which I still remember. Most weddings I have forgotten, but not this one.
The processional music was playing, I had come in with the men, the bridesmaids had made their way down the aisle, and even the flower girl had come down with no problem. But as the processional music ended, there was still no bride. So the organist began the music again. Once again, it ended and there was no bride. I was starting to get a little worried, so I left the bridal party at the altar and walked back to the church’s narthex to try to find out what was going on. There I found the bride’s mother frantically trying to pin her daughter’s wedding dress back together. The zipper in back had split all the way down from top to bottom. I told them to take their time and get it fixed because we would wait for them. When I walked back down to take my place, the groom had a look of pure horror on his face. I whispered that things were fine and we would carry on in a minute or two. And we did. The rest of the ceremony went off without a hitch, but I know that they still talk about the day when the zipper exploded.
My sister got married back in the early seventies over at Forest Park United Methodist Church. One of the groomsmen was from Goshen. When the guys started to get dressed for the ceremony, he discovered that he had left the pants to his tuxedo back home. There was no time to drive the 120 mile round trip to retrieve the pants, so they went ahead anyway. There in all of the wedding pictures is Jay with his green and yellow plaid pants.
These stories are great fun to tell because everyone can relate because most weddings have some sort of goof or unplanned event that shows up on the video or in the pictures. When they happen, they are embarrassing, but later on become fun to remember.
I guess that it shouldn’t surprise us too much because things have been going wrong at wedding celebrations for as long as people have been getting married. Even Jesus ran into trouble at a wedding.
The chronology of the gospel of John has it this way. In chapter 1, Jesus calls his first two disciples, Simon Peter and Andrew. They, according to the gospel, had first been disciples of John the Baptist, but decided to follow Jesus when he was identified by John as the Lamb of God. The next day, Jesus called two more, Philip and Nathanael.
The next day, there was a wedding at Cana in Galilee. Cana wasn’t too far from his boyhood home of Nazareth. Speculation has often been that this wedding was that of a relative of some sort, maybe even his brother James. We don’t really know, except Mary was there along with Jesus and his four friends. There is one clue that something holy is going to happen. That clue is that there was food.
You wonder why I talk about food so much in the life of the church family. That is because food is important. I challenge you to go through the gospels and find the references to food. Chances are that if food is involved and Jesus is present, something holy and important is about to happen.
Weddings back in that day and age were great and glorious affairs. The party would go on and on. So imagine the scene if you can. This was a great wedding party. There were guests standing everywhere. I don’t know if there was a DJ or not, but there may have been music. Perhaps there was dancing going on over in one corner. People were trying to engage in polite conversation and yet be heard above the assorted noises from the other guests. They were trying not to trip on one another’s feet and balance their food and drink at the same time.
And then a problem arose. They ran out of wine. This was a real problem. Who knows why? Perhaps there had been inadequate preparation for this multi-day party. Maybe more people showed up than was expected. Whatever the reason, this was incredibly poor hospitality, really rude, and an embarrassment for the groom.
Now, we all have mothers, and we know how mothers are. Mary was no different here. She found out that the wine was gone and told the servants to do whatever they were told to do by Jesus. But Jesus wasn’t ready for this. I can imagine him looking at Mary and saying, “Mom! What are you doing? I don’t want to do this. It’s not time.” He wasn’t ready yet to reveal exactly who and what he was.
But for some reason, no one really knows why except Jesus himself, he relented. There were six stone jars there which would hold somewhere between 120 and 180 gallons of water. The water would have been used for ceremonial washings and ritual baths. Jesus told the servants to fill up the jars, and then take a cup to the chief steward. When they did that, it was discovered that it had turned into wine. And it wasn’t just any old wine. It wasn’t Boone’s Farm or anything like that. It was good stuff.
The steward found the bridegroom and lavished praise on him because of the quality of wine. Most people, he said, serve the good wine first. After people have had enough of it and they really don’t care what they drink, the cheap stuff is brought because no one knows the difference. But in this case, the good wine was saved until the end.
This was the first of the signs and miracles of Jesus in the gospel of John, and because of it, he revealed his glory and his disciples believed in him.
It is hard to say what really happened that day. We are so good at doubting. We like to pretend that we are not at all like Doubting Thomas who wouldn’t believe the resurrection until he was able to feel the wounds in the side and hands of Jesus. We like to say that we would not have been that way; we would have believed right away, we would have been different. But I’m not sure that we really would have been. We’re very good at doubting.
But throughout the gospels we have evidence of miracles: the lame walk, the blind see, the deaf hear, and lepers are cleansed. A little girl is raised from the dead, a woman is healed from her flow of blood, and five thousand people are fed with a couple of sardines and a few crackers. John is no less certain here that a true miracle occurred.
But the miracle is not the point of the story. Miracles never happen just for the sake of the miracle. They always point to a larger truth about God. The larger truth here is seen in the demonstration of the power of Jesus. Through him, we find the impossible becoming possible. Those things that have no chance suddenly become reality.
I want to talk just for a few minutes now about marriage. Marriage is a very interesting estate, isn’t it? Much of what I have to say today is inspired by Frederick Beuchner. He says that by all laws of logic, marriage makes no sense. Marriage means to give yourself away to another and to give yourself away ought to mean that you have less of yourself. But in the marriage relationship, just the opposite is true. To give yourself totally and completely to another is to come fully alive.
When I am engaged in pre-marital counseling sessions with couples, somewhere along the line I will always say something like this. There will be days when it will seem next to impossible to keep the promises you make to each other. There will be days when your spouse will get on your very last nerve. There will be days when you wonder why you ever got married in the first place.
That’s when love kicks in. That’s when the promises become paramount. That’s when you remember that you stood before God on your wedding day to pledge yourself to each other no matter what: for better or worse, richer or poorer, in sickness and in health, until you are separated by death.
Now just so I am not misunderstood, I am not talking about marriages in which there is either emotional or physical abuse. I am not talking about marriages in which there is unrepentant infidelity. I’m not talking about marriages which were entered into through manipulation or coercion. I am talking about marriages in which the two partners are devoted to each other and who love each other to the very depths of their souls. But even in these marriages, there are days, aren’t there, when you forget the promises you made. There are days when you wish your partner would go away for awhile and leave you alone.
Perhaps I am the only one in this room today who has felt this. Perhaps you never get angry at your spouse or disappointed or tired. Perhaps you never wonder what in the world you were thinking about back in 1975. Perhaps I am the one with the problem here. But there are days when I find the promises so hard to keep. And since I realize that I am not always all that easy to live with, I know that Toni has those same kinds of days.
That’s where the miracle kicks in. The impossible becomes possible. That is when you realize that when men and women give themselves to each other, they sacrifice their own needs to the needs of the other.
One of the Scripture texts that women dislike when I read it at their weddings is that one from the fifth chapter of Ephesians. It is the one that says, “Wives, be subject to your husbands…” (Ephesians 5:22). I always tell couples to read the verse that comes before that one. It says, “Be subject to one another out of reverence for Christ” (5:21). Miracles in marriage occur when each partner goes out of his or her way to put the other first and to sacrifice their own needs and wants for the sake of the spouse.
The miracle points to the truth of God. God heals our relationships. God provides life. God makes the love of husbands and wives grow and mature and evolve. As Jesus gave himself totally and completely to others, the miracle of marriage makes it possible for us to do the same for each other.
In Jesus, we find the power to turn water into wine. Through his miracles we find the power for abundant living. Through his actions at Cana of Galilee, we discover the power of God to enter our relationship and make us better in spite of ourselves.
When I wonder what in the world to do with 180 gallons of wine, I realize that that is not the point. The point is that with Jesus, the impossible becomes possible and little by little we become more human, more loving, and more whole. That is the miracle. That is why the wedding at Cana is so important. Through the miracle of Christ, our hearts are transformed into true beauty and love. Our marriages are made stronger and we become better people. Thank God for miracles and new life.
