First, let s get to what is most important in this passage: the meaning of turning

Transcription

1 John 2:1-11 Life Goes On First, let s get to what is most important in this passage: the meaning of turning water to wine. It wasn t just to show off- I can t think of a single instance where Jesus did that in the gospels. Now it may have been to help out an embarrassed friend- running out of wine at a party in those days was a huge social blunder. But to the author of John, the meaning of this sign, as he calls it, is to show that Jesus is bringing in a religious new age. We should understand that the feast and the wedding and people drinking wine together are all symbols of God s coming Kingdom, and that Jesus presence there and this miracle he performs represent a dramatic shift in the way religion is done. We must notice the containers for the wine, jars used previously for Jewish ritual cleansing, but now, instead of being instruments of the old religion, they hold the wine to celebrate the coming of the Messiah s. Now, let me explain the sermon title. I have never liked the phrase, life goes on. Of course it does: the sun comes up every day, the seasons change, nations go to war, men and women marry, babies are born, and people die. But numbers on the pages of a book. But our lives don t just go on naturally, in perfect order, things change, the unexpected happens (the Cowboys win a playoff game!),

2 you meet someone or you lose someone, and life may take off in a completely different direction. In our passage the author shows us a pivot point, a pivotal point, where religion makes an abrupt turn. Jesus changes the water to wine. And I think we need to see here the comparison John makes of Jesus to Moses, and recall the words he wrote in chapter 1, that the law was given to Moses, but that grace and truth have come through Jesus Christ. The law is like water in jars, good for cleaning up, but grace and truth make for eternal life. The point seems to be that Jesus was turning the old self-gratifying, supremely self-conscious religion- Do this! Don t do that!- into an enlivening and liberating and joyful religion. Here, wine is a symbol of God s Spirit moving, and of God doing a new thing- think of Noah, who plants a vineyard as he begins a new age of humankind after the great flood; and the prophets who speak of God s people returning from exile and re-planting the vineyards of the Holy Land. And here God is doing a brand new thing in Jesus, and the sign of that is this wine he creates. I m sometimes confounded by the strangeness of life, the twists and turns and the coincidences, some might say. On Wednesday, Kathy Jordan brought a

3 couple by the office who are being married here next weekend, and they were so cute, almost giddy with the excitement of the upcoming event; and then, that very afternoon, I learned that a great lady and dear friend had died. And these past few days I have spent mainly working on this sermon, about a wedding, and a sermon for a funeral, which I preached yesterday. And I thought how these two ceremonies are so obviously different. One is a joining together and the other, a separation. We think of the one as a joyous occasion and the other as a time of mourning. But I also considered how there are similarities: family and friends come together; there is food at weddings and also often after a funeral; the church generally understands both as services of worship to God; and to those of us of faith, they are both celebrations. At the wedding we celebrate two lives brought together in love and commitment and joy; at the funeral we give thanks to God for a life well lived, and rejoice that we knew such a person. At both occasions we should recognize the importance of taking seriously our life on earth. The purposes of marriage are, after all, the propagation of our species and the natural desire to complete oneself by loving another and so, to make life sweeter. The purposes of a funeral are to give opportunity for grieving and to help complete our relationship with the departed by remembering.

4 I believe that we sometimes think a wedding is supposed to be all fun and laughter- maybe that s when you get the handfuls of cake in the bride s and groom s faces (I can t help but think there is trouble down the road for those couples!); or at funerals, we are supposed to be weepy and miserable- maybe that is when we forget to proclaim the hope we have in Jesus Christ. Well, I have two examples of the juxtaposition of the emotions we normally expect at these two ceremonies, where life didn t just go on, but was turned upside-down. The first is an episode of The Mary Tyler Moore Show, the famous Chuckles, the Clown episode, in which the star of the children s show on Mary s TV station, Chuckles, has died. And for the next few days, Mary is upset with her co-workers as they make all kinds of silly jokes at the expense of the dearly departed clown. But then at the memorial service for Chuckles, as all the people sit somberly in their places, and as the minister begins to talk about Chuckles and his work, telling them of those times when Chuckles slipped on a banana peel, and the pie fights, reminding them of his big shoes, and his shiny red nose, Mary begins to laugh, and she can t hold it back, and now everyone is upset with her for spoiling the proper mood for a funeral. And when the minister notices Mary s

5 laughter, he says, That s right, laugh, giving joy and laughter is what Chuckles lived for. And at that point, Mary begins to cry. And the second example comes from Charles Dickens novel Great Expectations, with Miss Haversham, the old lady in that gloomy house, bitter and mournful that her groom deserted her on their wedding day. And every day since that time, for years, she had put on her bridal dress, now torn and yellowed and stained, and she would sit in the banquet hall at the great table still set for her guests, the wedding cake, uncut and still on the platter. Maybe here s the point. Life is serious, and even a wedding wouldn t be happy if not behind it was the deep commitment of two people, and the vows they speak to one another. And death is serious, but close by, closer than breath as one great preacher has said, in all these times, is Jesus our Lord. And his presence is cause for great joy. Jesus is present at this wedding John 2, where all the wine has been consumed. Some scholars have written that too many people showed up- that Jesus was invited, as the scripture says, but it isn t clear that his disciples were. It could be that Jesus mother comes to him as a reproach, blaming him that the wine was gone because he brought his friends. But even if true, it doesn t matter,

6 because when people gather in his presence, there is never any lack. It could be the wine he provides to gladden men s hearts, as the Psalmist wrote; it could be the bread of life he provides to feed the multitudes; or it could be the grace and comfort he gives to those who mourn. When we are together with him, he will fill us and he will not leave us. It is not only religion that we see being changed right before us in this passage. It is people too, all of us, if we will. We have the opportunity to behold his glory as Jesus goes about changing lives, filling up the empty stone places in our hearts with the new wine of fellowship and hope and joy, and to drink is to participate in the life of Jesus Christ and to know the grace and truth he gives. Here finally is life that does go on. Life that has experienced the great change, a heart that knows his mercy; life that need not change evermore, life that does not end, surrounded by the love of God, and surrounded by those who love God. Of course, there are people who will have trouble with this passage because it s wine- alcohol. Remember the preacher who ended his sermon, with the injunction that they should rise up, and take all the liquor and beer and wine and throw it in the river, and the song leader stood and began to lead the congregation in a

7 spirited rendition of Shall We Gather at the River. I don t know that emptying all the bottles in town would really be that helpful, but gathering- at the river, or here or anywhere, is what we are all about. As I offered the eulogy yesterday, I thanked the people for coming, because both grief and joy are emotions best shared. And I said that when the church comes together, Jesus Christ is present. That is what we do here, we share the things of our lives, in the presence of our Lord. I think it is important to see in the passage that the disciples were with Jesus, sharing this happy (and yet serious!) event. But perhaps the story is not over; maybe we should continue the sermon text to include verse 12, where we would read that Jesus went on to another town, and going with him were his mother and his brothers and the disciples. That is what we are called to do, also. We share with one another the good things he gives, and the sorrows that come; and we go to the places he goes. And so, life goes on wherever he goes on; life, with all its variety and strangeness and excitement, with its pleasures and challenges, hurts and joys; his life with us, with promise and hope.

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