I'm Ready to Party!

I’m Ready to Party!

John 2: 1-11             The Wedding at Cana

MLK Sunday           January 20, 2013       Rev. Karla Miller

It’s the third week of January. 

It’s cold.  (not as cold as it could be, I know).  

That’ s a good point--it’s not cold enough to hold snow, to be beautiful, but it’s just kind of mushy out there, and it is weird, isn’t it, that there isn’t much snow, AGAIN for two years in a row? 

It’s flu season.  I think about how thousands of germs are plaguing every surface of every thing, and my hands are getting chapped from washing them so much and another thing, 

it’s not getting bright enough outside fast enough.  

I know, 

I am whining.  

And it’s not the wine of grace found in our gospel story today.   

Frankly, I am ready to party. 

Party!

You know, let go, enjoy, shake it all off and be JOYFUL!  What about you?

What are some of the best things about a party for you?  Or party-ing?

(wait for answer)

In John, there are 7 signs  that supposedly reveal who Jesus is, and what his ministry is about....

and the very first sign of Jesus’ public in the fourth gospel, 

is a wedding party.  

Not a return to his home-town, like in the gospel of Luke, or a Sermon on the Mount as in Matthew, nor an exorcism as in Mark, but party where Jesus turns water into wine.  

Why the writer of John introduce Jesus ministry with a party, 

a party where his mother nags him, and so he makes more wine for the all ready inebriated wedding guests?  

What are we supposed to see about Jesus, what deeper reality about God is the Christ  revealing--because isn’t that the point about Jesus?  That who he was and did pointed to revelation about God? 

Perhaps the writer of John chooses this story to illustrate what true grace is.   

Grace.  

The word grace only appears 4 times in John, and the first is in the first chapter of John, which is like a prologue, a setting up of the book.   In John, the prologue is really an ancient hymn about the Word becoming Flesh, and it notes from  that fulness we have all received, grace upon grace (1:16)   (Karoline Lewis, Working Preacher, Epiphany 2) 

But really, does that mean--grace upon grace.  I can say it, you can hear it, it sounds nice, but...it’s illusive.   John sings that Christ is the Source of Grace, but knowing that is a bit esoteric,

the second chapter sets out to show us what “

“grace tastes like, looks lie, smells like, sounds like, feels like? “ (Lewis)

And what the writer wants us to know that abundant grace tastes like the best wine you have ever tasted--an exquisite surprise when you are actually expecting the super cheap stuff.   Or, when you are expecting frozen fishsticks, and you are treated to line caught striped bass so tender it practically melts in your mouth, and you actually can have seconds!   Choose your taste metaphor, but the abundance in this text can not be over looked.  

Really--Six water jars--25-30 gallons, filled to the brim in and of itself is amazing, but the best wine on the last day of a wedding celebration that had been going on for several days?Typically that’s the point you bring out jugs of Gallo or boxes of wine.  

But no--Jesus isn’t just going to do what is simply asked of him--make more wine--if Jesus is going to make more wine, it is going to be over the top, luscious, juicy, extravagant wine.   Something to really remember, really experience. j

I think that’s the point, don’t you--if you are going to do something, do it with pizzaz, with a flourish, have a good time with it.  Be joyful!   We see this same flourish and abundance in the feeding of the five thousand-- instead of everyone getting enough to eat, well, there are baskets and baskets left over.   It’s a party, all over again.     Can’t you imagine it---sitting on the grass, no bugs, just your friends and family and others who are captivated by this Rabbi with hope! humour!  drive!  

It’s the original Beloved Community.  Abundantly JOYFUL!

I’m ready to party!  Aren’t you?

I need to say, I am not talking  over-consumption here, beloved.   We live in a first-world culture where spiritual hunger and thirst are filled with stuff--too much and too many of everything where we over-consume and live in excess, which either leaves us still empty or so drunk we are dulled in our “physical and spiritual perceptions” (Ernest Hess, Feasting on the Word Year C, Vol.1) to the point of denial and heart-sick and despairing.  In short, I am not ready to PAR-TAY, numbed by life or cynical about the state of things.

A few weeks ago, I participated in a wedding, in this very sanctuary.  It was incredibly moving and satisfying to bear witness to the relationship of the brides, and to the community they had gathered over the years, from different pockets of their lives that brought them to the day they chose to enter the covenant of marriage.  It was a disparate group--most of us had only the connection of our friendship with one of the brides.   At the wedding party, they were sparkling, filled with abundance, and pronounced, each of you represents the best part of our lives.   

That was a party. 

That was Beloved Community.   

Sisters and brothers, we are beloved community.   But I sense there is a thread of fatigue, a lack of lightness in our air.   We have a LOT going on, and I certainly don’t want to appear flippant at all about the hard work that is before you---Search Committee, Leadership Council, shaping our future, commission work, lack of volunteers,  not enough hands to do things, 

besides what people might be experiencing personally--loss, grief, fear, sadness, overwhelmed-ness....

besides living in a world where we are three years into a new decade, 12 years into a new century, and we are reflective of where we are in our “hour”.   Polls show the first ten years of this century were experienced as the worst decade for many--we struggle with war, economic devastation, global warming, violence in our streets that goes unregonized, and in our first grade classrooms.   We don’t know what lies ahead--what changes are coming?  

At Eliot, we have had a myriad of changes--

and questions abound--

who is God calling to be the next spiritual leader of this congregation? 

what is exciting about our future? 

who will be our next office manager?  

who will be called to serve in lay leadership?   

It gets heavy doesn’t it?  

Indeed.  

But let’s not reverse the miracle of abundance.  

Let’s not turn our wine back into water (Kierkagaard)

There is so much wine, so much joy to be had by just being Beloved Community--doing the best we can, laughing when we don’t, 

forgiving when we fall short, 

and trusting in the love of God and love of one another.   It’s time to lighten up, and party.  

You need it.  We need it. 

I am going to play Mary now. Honestly, I believe she is the most important character in this story, because she is the one who nudges Jesus to take action--about something that seems so incredibly insignificant.  Or at least, not important as far as life and death issues are concerned.  

But she knows her child.  She knows the potential, she knows the deep, deep, deep special-ness of this person who was formed in her womb, and birthed into a world of oppression and hope.  

She knew it wasn’t time for the party to end.  It was time for it to begin.

She Knew that the hosts would be embarrassed to run out of what was essential to the wedding feast.  

She knew that it was time,

and all Jesus needed was nudge.   

So I am nudging you now.  It’s TIME, Eliot.  It’s time for the church in the 21st century to just be amazing, satisfying, full.   It’s time to reveal all and even more what we have...it’s time to lighten up, to not worry, 

and just Be Love.  

Just Be Beloved. 

The Beloved Community.  

I am ready to Party!!!

Are you?

Amen.
   

Sören Kierkegaard, 19th century
"Christ turned water into wine, but the church has succeeded in doing something even more difficult: it has turned wine into water."