There was a wedding, in Cana of Galilee. Jesus and his chums were on the guest list.
Being average men, I tend to think that – under their breath, in low, grumbly tones – the apostles were muttering in complaint, “Oh great! We have to go to a wedding.” Let’s be honest guys, few of us actually look forward to going to a wedding. But –
We go because our spouses or partners expect us to go; we go because we know that being there is important to another, because of friendship or relation; we go because rumor has it that the father of the bride is covering the tab for an open bar and commemorative can-coozies.
Among men’s dirty, little secrets is the griping reality that few of us go to a wedding for the sheer joy of going. To the average guy, a wedding is an ordinary event that he’d just as soon skip if he could – except maybe the open bar. But this wedding in Cana of Galilee turns out to be extra ordinary. The apostles and the other guests witness Jesus’s first public miracle in the Gospel of John – that of turning water into wine.
Listen with all your senses for the Word of the Lord. Jesus has just announced, “Very truly, I tell you, you will see heaven opened and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man.” Then, a couple days later, comes a wedding in Cana of Galilee.
Miracles shatter our conventional expectations and defy rational explanation. That’s what makes miracles so, well, miraculous! And more than a little mysterious.
Miracles and mystery go hand in hand, and unraveling the mystery of this miracle unravels the miraculous mystery of who this Jesus is, what God sent him here to do, and where we can expect Jesus to show up.
The steward is puzzled by the sudden appearance of such high-quality wine in such great abundance, and he sidles up to the bridegroom in hopes of making sense of it all. He figures that the gallons and gallons of good wine are just the bridegroom offering his guests some amazing hospitality, but generous party etiquette doesn’t even begin to explain what’s going on here.
What the disciples recognize in those overflowing stone jars is the revealing of God, and they recognize Jesus as the One who brings to them the extravagance and hospitality of God. The miracle of wine expands the limits of what they believe to be possible, and they realize that God in Jesus Christ is redrawing the boundaries and rewriting the rules. God is breaking into our lives and world in ways never-before seen or thought possible.
The steward tries to shoehorn this miracle into his old ways of understanding what’s what in the world. But the Holy Spirit enlightens the disciples to see the extraordinary transformation of water into wine as confirmation that Jesus is THE revealer of God’s power and presence.
This first of the “greater things” that Jesus promised we would see – water becoming wine – challenges our assumptions about order and control, about who’s in charge, about what is possible, about where God is found, and how God is known. God is a God of abundance, of extravagance, of transformation, of new possibilities. Water becoming wine reveals the unexpected grace and glory of Jesus – the One who invites everyone to the table.
In Jesus are unlimited, ever-flowing, full-to-the-brim gifts from God. Remember the lyric beauty that beams from the start of John’s Gospel: From the fullness of God’s Word made human flesh – from the fullness of him who comes to live among us, we all receive grace upon grace, and we have seen his glory!
We typically think that “grace” and “glory” show up in the bright shining presence of God – the white-hot holiness of the divine that is so stunning, so raw, and so real.
When we talk about “grace” and “glory,” we generally mean things that are dramatic – events and happenings that raise someone up to such heights of splendor that everyone drops to their knees in awe, adoration and praise.
Grace and glory have gravity. They are heavy-duty – weighty in the sense of being momentous. When you’re in a glorious and grace-filled mood, you sing at the top of your lungs, because you have been exposed to something stunning, something spectacular, something loaded with heavenly importance and power.
But maybe, just maybe, if we rethink what qualifies as “glory” and “grace,” we’ll start seeing miraculous and incredible things happening around us a lot more often than we might otherwise expect – which is what Jesus said we would see:
When the hungry in our community are fed; when the homeless are housed; when former rivals become friends.
When kids without means get a decent pair of shoes, or a new school backpack, or a healthy snack after school.
When the hopeless and desperate are comforted and consoled by a word of hope; when the sad can dry their tears with the Gospel comfort of the resurrection to come.
When we see these things happening all around us, we are seeing the miraculous glory and grace of God. That is, I believe, where we most often are going to find the glory and grace of Jesus – in the ordinary struggles and challenges of the every day, in the ordinary-ness of daily life.
So look up, have hope, and sing for joy!
So much of what God does in our lives happens in our routine comings and goings, and God might just be ready to do something extraordinary and miraculous in your life. Maybe not turning water into wine, but something equally amazing that you just cannot explain – like filling the stony, empty, dry places in your life with the sweet taste of lively celebration!
One of the early Christian fathers of the church, Irenaeus, said that “the glory of God is a human being fully alive.” Indeed the Lord desires us to flourish, to enjoy, and to take delight in his creation – even as God delighted in it at the dawn of time. God’s heart breaks when people in his abundant creation are thirsty and there’s nothing to drink! When folks have no reason to celebrate!
Granted, running out of wine for wedding guests who may well have had their fair share to drink already may not seem like the kind of dire want or need that would break God’s heart — and perhaps it wasn’t. But John lifts it up as an example that we can identify with and get our heads around to explain the miraculous desires of God in Jesus Christ: Wherever Christ goes, overflowing grace and abundant glory always follow.
So it went, on that day, when there was a wedding, in Cana of Galilee.
Then, in our own time, just three years ago now, there was a wedding, in Prairie du Chien, of Wisconsin.
It was a lovely early autumn affair: An outdoor service, complete with the occasional bleating of a goat and the horn-blowing of a passing BNSF freight train; an indoor reception and dinner, complete with the requisite champagne toasts for the handsome, young couple.
One of the more bubbly tributes made to the newly minted husband and wife – a rather lengthy but nonetheless sincere salute – wished for Mr. and Mrs. Ronnie and Jenna Hebel to be blessed someday with children. “Maybe a little ‘Ron Dog’” was the high-octane, here-hold-my-beer hope of toaster to toastees.
And thus it came to pass – sort of. In due time, unto them a child was born: Not a “Ron Dog” but a Hadlee Marie. The exotic handle of “Ron Dog” would have to wait for the arrival of a boy. Was that the right call? Who’s to say?! As with all of this, who am I to judge?
Because maybe, in the end, that’s precisely what Jesus promises: Greater things happening, the gates of heaven opening wide, and grace and glory falling down upon us: Bland wateriness turning into sweet drink, the holy appearing in the ordinary, the miraculous power of God showing up in the pots and pans, in 2 a.m. feedings and endless diaper changes.
Much as we’d prefer to raise a glass with Jesus and dance the “Macarena” with the Montana cousins, where we really want and need Jesus to show up is smackdab in the middle of those times and places where the Lord’s peace and grace is most urgently needed, during those seasons of wilderness experience when your thirst is great but your glass has run dry.
Maybe the best and most amazing miracle of them all is that God chooses broken and imperfect people like you and me to be the unlikely and undeserving recipients of such incredible glory and grace upon grace.
There was a wedding, in Cana of Galilee. There was a wedding, in Prairie du Chien of Wisconsin. And this morning, not a wedding but a baptism, in Waukon of Iowa.
Which is even more amazing when you consider this: God uses broken and imperfect people like you and me to be the bearers and sharers of glory and grace to other broken and imperfect people – the folks who never seem to get an invitation to the wedding dance.
And the grace and glory that you and I receive in baptism provides sufficient courage to extend the love of community to friend, neighbor, and stranger.
L’chaim! To life! Amen, and amen.
Pastor Grant M. VanderVelden shared this message during morning worship on Sunday, September 29, 2024. Commentary and reflection by Scott Hoezee inform the message. The service included the baptism of Hudsyn Hebel, son of Ronnie and Jenna Hebel. The Scripture video is from the movie The Gospel of John. The artwork is by Greg Sargent.