Party Time

Isaiah 62:1-5

For Zion's sake I will not keep silent, and for Jerusalem’s sake I will not rest, until her vindication shines out like the dawn, and her salvation like a burning torch. The nations shall see your vindication, and all the kings your glory; and you shall be called by a new name that the mouth of the LORD will give. You shall be a crown of beauty in the hand of the LORD, and a royal diadem in the hand of your God. You shall no more be termed Forsaken, and your land shall no more be termed Desolate; but you shall be called My Delight Is in Her, and your land Married; for the LORD delights in you, and your land shall be married. For as a young man marries a young woman, so shall your builder marry you, and as the bridegroom rejoices over the bride, so shall your God rejoice over you.

Psalm 36:5-10

Your love, O Lord, reaches to the heavens, and your faithfulness to the clouds. Your righteousness is like the strong mountains, your justice like the great deep; you save humankind and animals, O LORD. How priceless is your love, O God! All people take refuge under the shadow of your wings. They feast upon the abundance of your house; you give them drink from the river of your delights. For with you is the well of life, and in your light we see light. Continue your lovingkindness to those who know you, and your favor to those who are true of heart.

1 Corinthians 12:1-11

Now concerning spiritual gifts, brothers and sisters, I do not want you to be uninformed. You know that when you were pagans, you were enticed and led astray to idols that could not speak. Therefore I want you to understand that no one speaking by the Spirit of God ever says, “Let Jesus be cursed!” and no one can say “Jesus is Lord” except by the Holy Spirit. Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit; and there are varieties of services, but the same Lord; and there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who activates all of them in everyone. To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good. To one is given through the Spirit the utterance of wisdom, and to another the utterance of knowledge according to the same Spirit, to another faith by the same Spirit, and to another gifts of healing by the one Spirit, to another the working of miracles, to another prophecy, to another the discernment of spirits, to another various kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of tongues. All these are activated by one and the same Spirit, who allots to each one individually just as the Spirit chooses.

John 2:1-11

On the third day there was a wedding in Cana of Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there. Jesus and his disciples had also been invited to the wedding. When the wine gave out, the mother of Jesus said to him, “They have no wine.” And Jesus said to her, “Woman, what concern is that to you and to me? My hour has not yet come.” His mother said to the servants, “Do whatever he tells you.” Now standing there were six sone water jars for the Jewish rites of purification, each holding twenty or thirty gallons. Jesus said to them, “Fill the jars with water.” And they filled them up to the brim. He said to them, “Now draw some out, and take it to the chief steward.” So they took it. When the st******eward tasted the water that had become wine, and did not know where it came from (even though the servants who had drawn the water knew), the steward called the bridegroom and said to him, “Everyone serves the god wine first, and then the inferior wine after the guests have become drunk. But you have kept the good wine until now.” Jesus did this, the first of his signs, in Cana of Galilee, and revealed his glory; and his disciples believed in him.

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In the famous words of that great classic movie "The Princess Bride": "Mawwage. Mawwage is what bwings us togevah today. That dweam within a dweam. And wove. Twue wove…." We've got a beautiful set of stories about marriage today. The best kind of marriage, too, that between God and God’s people.

I’ve been thinking about marriage off and on lately, as a single person who is preparing to guide a couple in Hudson through pre-marital counseling and bless their union in April. I mean, what in the world do I have to offer these two individuals? What could I possibly bring to that conversation except maybe some of my favorite songs from Stephen Sondheim musicals? Being a pastoral counselor usually means just asking questions and doing reflective listening, though, so I don’t pretend to have any answers or formulae to predict how well any marriage will last. I do have the occasional longing for someone close at hand to share my innermost life with, from the mundane everyday to the big existential questions, but I’ve also read enough to know that even having a best friend isn’t the same thing as having someone who 100% understands everything going on in my head, because most of the time I don’t get it 100%. Sometimes having the expectation about finding the one who fills every need only serves to make us more lonely. But by daily living together, sharing moments and working through emotions together, we build the relationship, practice the patience and wonder of giving the bulk of our attention to the welfare of somebody else. As selfish as humans can be, as we buy and sell fear and anxiety for profit, it’s pretty near a miracle that we could think of someone else more highly than ourselves, on a regular basis, without getting possessive or resentful. And the crazy wonderful thing about love, be it friendship love or marriage love, is that mutual experience of being both the lover and the beloved.

That’s what worship is, by the way. Worship is like a marriage between heaven and earth, a joining of the lover and the beloved and a mystery of who plays which part when we gather in songs of praise and prayers of intercession and sharing the meal Jesus gave us. So it’s no wonder the first sign John’s Gospel gives us of who Jesus is takes place at a wedding. It’s a week-long party, and economic resources being what they are, it could potentially be cut short when the wine runs out. Not only wouldn’t there be clean water to drink, but the embarrassment of the families who invited the party and couldn’t provide enough for everyone would sure put an awkward spin on what should have been simply joyous. It’s like it’s time for the father daughter dance but the DJ still hasn’t arrived. 

Mary his mother seems to know that Jesus can handle a party foul like this, so she sort of elbows him in the ribs with a “go ahead and take care of this, you. Show us a foretaste of the feast to come, already.” I imagine Jesus reacting like a kid whose mom keeps bragging about him in public, when he’s just trying to be cool but mom won’t shut up about his Odyssey of the Mind trophies. “Woman, can’t I just be a person for awhile? Do I have to be the Son of God at cousin Ned’s wedding, too?” But it’s so ingrained in his nature to keep the party going, it’s completely in character for Jesus to bypass the rules that say the party’s over, to ignore the finality of what should be the end of things.

John says this is the first sign of Jesus’ glory, and I think that’s where it’s pointing to: The end of things, the hour to come, the crucifixion that ought by laws of nature to be the last call on life, the wine running out, just isn’t the end when Jesus is at the party. Just because those stone jars for purification have run empty doesn’t mean there isn’t enough yet to go around, either. God’s mercy is from everlasting, after all, and so even when the water we have gathered has run dry, there is always more.

It’s like those days when you wake up on the wrong side of the bed and can’t even smile at the good things that do happen during the day because everything is out of whack. You’ve given all you can give and it still doesn’t seem to be enough. Like putting lotion on hands so dry they just soak it all up and still crack for want of moisture. Or scrolling through the news feed and having your heart break again and again at another death, another family tragedy, another environmental disaster, and there just isn’t enough compassion to feel anything for the world’s pain, let alone taking the time and care for your own grief or loneliness or confusion or anxiety. And if somebody else expects one more thing of you it will be the last straw and time to throw in the towel and go back to bed for a week until it all goes away.

We all have days, sometimes weeks or even months, like this. Especially in small communities where so much needs to be done and only so many people have so little time and so few resources to take care of it all. We want to do so much more, to be so much more, to have more to show for all of the work we have done, but seem to keep coming up just shy of enough. We seem to feel, like the land in Isaiah, as though our name has become Forsaken. Or like the family of the bride and groom, that our best intentions weren’t even enough to keep people in a happy stupor until we can clean up our mess.

So fill the stone jars with water, Jesus says. So call the land by a new name, says the prophet Isaiah. Sixty gallons of water under the watchful eye of Jesus aren’t just plain water anymore. The land in Isaiah is now called “My Delight is In Her,” and God’s delight is in those stone jars, turning emptiness into a celebration beyond what we could have imagined being able to afford.

When we are run dry, out of resources, empty, tired, overburdened, even the best of what we can put into ourselves is not quite enough, not quite right, not quite what the Kingdom is calling for… except. Except God turned that water into wine. God turned the ultimate failure of death on a cross into a sign of new life. A burial plot on Easter Sunday burst open to show the power of life over and above and beyond the threats and the realities of death.

Then God fills us all with those Holy Spirit gifts, those blessings for sharing in and among the community, those gifts of wisdom and healing and faith and knowledge — which are for building up the whole body of Christ on earth, on earth where we servants can take to the stewards that water turned wine and do so in confidence of where it came from. We hold up our best and our worst, our emptiness, in the light of Christ, and God makes it shine with the radiance of a newlywed who just made and heard those life-long vows. God has renamed us, has remade us, has filled us with the Spirit of Life and continues to transform us. That same God who has created us with so many diversities, of color and skill and ability, takes delight in all of our differences as they come together like jewels in the crown of our King. Yes, even us, even you. For God’s delight is in you, in the wedding feast for all creation. Now we join in the feast of this table that we share, open to all, a foretaste of life never-ending.