Creekside Church Sermon of January 5, 2003 "Jesus, Weddings, Water, and Wine" John 2:1-11	Rev. David Bibbee
Send this sermon to a friend

Lately I have noticed a religious word used in a non-religious context. I've heard people speak of having epiphanies. Those who are into the dramatic might say they had an "epiphanous moment." People use "epiphany" as a way of describing anything from having a great idea to gaining an instant insight into a perplexing problem.

In it's religious use, epiphany means, "A manifestation, display, or disclosure." Today is Epiphany Sunday, a time for the church to explore the significance of "the manifestation of Jesus to the Gentiles." Rosanna wrote an excellent article in The Visitor explaining the background and meaning of the Epiphany Season. The story of the Wise Men's search for the King of the Jews and nasty, evil King Herod's plan to kill Jesus is often read. On Epiphany Sunday you can expect to sing , "We Three Kings of Orient Are."

The child Mary was expecting came in a way no one expected. Jesus wasn't born into royalty, but poverty. Jesus didn't come through recognized channels. He didn't appear first to the chosen people, but to pagan people who knew everything about astrology and nothing about theology. The first people to see him were not the educated or sophisticated, or the religious or social elite, but simple, hillbilly shepherds. The only ones with a clue about what was happening were the outsiders. The Magi knew royalty when they saw it. The came, they saw, they knelt, they offered their gifts, they paid homage to Jesus and paid no heed to Herod. This is the customary material for Epiphany Sunday.

But John begins his gospel as if he knows nothing about Jesus' birth stories. If he did know, he deliberately chose not to include them. John's concern with Jesus was theological. But our passage is in keeping with Epiphany's focus upon Jesus' manifestation to the world. In Chapter Two we get the first glimpse of who Jesus is by something that happens at a wedding.

I haven't counted the number of weddings I have officiated over the years, but I've done enough to know that if something can go wrong, it will. When the bride is a stickler on detail and says she wants everything to be perfect, I help her face reality. It's not a question of "if" but "when" something will backfire. One of my consistent concerns is calling the bride or groom or both the wrong name. I encourage couples to write their own vows. One couple took their assignment very seriously and gave their printed vows to me at the rehearsal, and I was going to tape them into my notes. After the wedding began, I realized I had not attached their vows. After an initial rush of panic I decided what to do. I said, "Repeat after me…" and I made up their vows as I went. Neither of them flinched. As far as I could tell they didn't catch on.

My fishing friend Dan Petry helped officiate his daughter Amanda's wedding. At the end of the service, the bride and groom turned to face the congregation while Dan was supposed to say, "It is my honor to present to you Andy and Amanda…" What he said was, "It is my honor to prevent…" I did a wedding where the ushers were having such a grand time congratulating the groom in the reception hall that they forgot to return to the sanctuary and usher people from the sanctuary. Of course, it wouldn't be a wedding without having an attendant pass out during the service. I remember the expression on the face of Karen Gilliland's bridesmaid. It seemed to say, "Something's wrong, but I don't know what it is." What was wrong was that the back of her dress was on fire. She had gotten too close to a floor candle. Fortunately, Walt Gilliland sprang to the rescue and saved the day. Then there were those times I had to wrestle control of the proceedings from the MOTB…Mother of the Bride. And I always want to know if certain family members aren't speaking to each other so they are not seated in the same pew, thus preventing a family feud from escalating into World War III.

Receptions also present challenges. Knowing the quantity of food and drink to have on hand is important. The guests won't get too cranky if you run out of mints or mixed nuts. They will even overlook it if the cake runs out. But if the wine runs out, things can get ugly. Of course, I'm not talking about Brethren wedding receptions. We get upset when the cheese balls and cocktail weenies are gone. Not wine. But this was the problem at a wedding reception to which Mary, Jesus, and the disciples were invited.

Mary said to Jesus, "Son, the wine line is long and the steward has poured the last glassful. Do something!" Why did Mary ask Jesus to address the problem? Why not the bride's parents? Why not the groom? It has been suggested that a number of people followed Jesus to the wedding and ran the barrel dry. Maybe Mary in a motherly way said, "The extra mouths came with you, so you should do something." Jesus' answer seems abrupt, almost like, "Don't bug me!" But he relents and Mary told the servants, "Do whatever he tells you." Six stone jars big enough to hold twenty to thirty gallons of water were sitting there. Jesus said, "Fill them with water. Siphon some off the top and give it to the steward." When he tasted it he went to the groom and said, "You're supposed to serve the good wine first. Wait till they can't tell the difference, then serve the poor vintage. But you have saved the best for last."

Saving a party was the first of Jesus' signs, and the text says, "The disciples believed in him." He turned water into wine. It was one of many signs to come. Here is a circumstance of want turned into a condition of plenty. Jesus transformed emptiness into fullness. Those that perceive and receive miracles are those who know they need them.

Some say miracles are the product of the ancient mind. What they called miracles we can explain with the scientific method. Who needs miracles today? Technology will take care of us. Better living through chemistry. A genetic engineering firm in Florida just announced that they have cloned a baby. All that we need "our" hands have provided. The problem is that we have so much that we can't see our need.

A Bishop from Africa was traveling around the United States. Back home the church was being persecuted. He himself had been tortured and imprisoned for his beliefs and social stands. At a conference he shared his story and a man in the audience expressed concern for the church's future in that country, and told the bishop, "We will be praying for your church." The bishop replied, "It is we who should pray for you. The church in my country will be fine. Persecution makes our church strong. But you have so much. You have so many distractions to contend with. It is not easy to be a Christian in the United States. We shall pray for you."

The miracles Jesus performed were done in response to recognized need, to people who knew they were lacking something. We hear a lot these days about shortages. States are facing their biggest financial shortages in history. Social Security has become Social Insecurity. Moral capital is in short supply. Our great need is to know our need. We break ground for Christ to perform a miracle when we know our shortages. If anyone understands this, it is Karen Eis. Talk about need and dependence. She has not experienced one miracle but many. In the context of her need she knows about the power of prayer, generosity, kindness, love, and the incarnation of Christ in those who take care of her daily needs. We have experienced the miracle of answered prayer. Most miracles are manifested in the ordinary acts of our lives. Water, turned into wine for a wedding party. A change of perspective, resulting in a changed life.

As we admit where we come up short, this is where Jesus does his transforming work, turning the ordinary into the extraordinary. Recognizing the deficiencies in our lives, we can experience the transforming abundance of his. And if this it true, then our text reveals something else. "Everyone serves the good wine first, but you have kept the good until now." Could this be saying that the best is yet to come?

When I clean fish, I save the big ones for last. It ends the task on a positive note. It makes me feel that I know what I'm doing. When I eat, I want the item I like most to be the last on my plate. Get the vegetables and potatoes out of the road, then dive into the entrée.

I listened to a call-in program this week where people were asked whether they were optimistic or pessimistic about the future, and why. As you might expect, the forecast is not good. Not many said the world is a better, safer place than a decade ago. Unemployment is up, the economy stinks. We are going backwards on environmental issues, we are on the verge of another war which could lead to goodness knows what. And who knows what target the terrorist's might blow up next.

There is no immediate solution for all that ails the world, and yet the gospel would have us believe in the words of Julian of Norwich that, "All will be well, and all will be well." Believing the best is yet to come can feel like walking on thin ice, but let's not simply look at all that is wrong and project it into the future. Jesus told us that not every problem that vexes us will go away. "The poor you will always have with you," he said. And the sick, the hurting, the lonely, the lost, and the suffering will always be with us, not as a sign that nothing will change, but that God has ultimate aims for which we have been recruited.

We must chose whether there is meaning to life of not. We must bet whether the future will be God's and that what we do now contributes to the ultimate end to which the future is headed.

Jesus did not perform miracles because he could. He didn't conjure them up to draw a crows. He did it for the sake of the particular person he touched, but this wasn't the sole reason. He performed miracles to point beyond himself to God's presence, purpose, and power and God's ownership of the future. Jesus performed miracles to show us that what we see all around us is not what we shall get. Everything amounts to something.

Conventional wisdom tells us to "get what we can while the getting' is good." Take what today gives you and don't hold out for something better. Today may be as good as it gets. Such thinking goes hand in hand with the bumper sticker you have seen that says, "We're Spending Our Children's Inheritance."

The steward's assessment was true. The best wine had indeed been saved till last. "And eyes have not seen, nor ears heard, nor human hearts conceived the glorious things God has prepared for us." Saint Paul also said, "Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what he sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience."

My friend Vaughn does nothing in a small way or half-way. When I told him Twig and I were getting married, he invited himself to be the best man and take care of the toasting honors at the reception.

When the reception arrived, he employed his eloquent command of language, and told the story of Jesus' first miracle at the wedding at Cana. He spoke of how we through the loving offering of our lives bring color into the world, changing the ordinary into the extraordinary like the Lord transformed water into wine.

He then held up a glass pitcher of water, poured it into a glass, and it turned the color if wine. He remembered from high school chemistry that benyl florene will turn water purple. It was a miracle.

All of the sermons that have appeared in text form on our Web Site since August 1996 are available here in the On-Line version. Use the search engine below to find the sermon you want. You may search by date, sermon title, or content. The sermons are full-text searchable.

Sermon Search:



Exact phrase    All words (AND)    Any word (OR)