First Preached 14/1/07 Epiphany 2
1 Cor 12.1-12 John 2.1-11
Children’s Talk: Grapes. Jesus turned water in to wine. This is as close as I can let you get to wine…. [Show them a bunch of grapes, hand out a few.] … but it will do, they are a fruit that makes for fun and celebration in a way that lemons somehow fail to do. I just want you to remember Jesus came to put Joy in our hearts. So be happy and be grapeful.
Adults:
Who remembers the 60’s? Oh then you weren’t really there.
There was a lot wrong with the 60’s in fact we have spent the last 50 years putting right the damage done. But the one thing that was different was that people thought that things could change for the better. The world seemed wide open with possibilities. Not just because I was 16 then & 60 now.
Now the world all seems shut down. If you enjoy something you can bet it is bad for the environment. The image of the 60’s was a hippie, now it seems to be grumpy old men. The frightening thing is that they are the same people.
The world has lost its hope.
We have gained the whole world but lost our soul.
This passage from John is a counter blast. It is all about hope and new life and celebration. It is about a world of endless possibilities.
What did Mary expect. She says to Jesus, in effect, ‘Do something’ What did she expect him to do, pop down to Tescos for a box of Bulgarian Cab-Sav. I do not know what she expected. The most sensible suggestion I have heard was that he and his friends should go away so that there would not be so many people guzzling what was left. The daftest suggestion (Calvin) that he should have given an uplifting discourse, which would have gladdened peoples hearts and made it all right. Try that at a party – “Sorry folks there’s no more booze, but never mind we have a guest preacher here to give a sermon.” -How to make friends and influence people.
Clearly it is a cry of desperation. And the answer when it came was beyond comprehension.
The Augustinian explanation: Jesus Accelerated the process. [Water =rain = growth = grapes = wine] I find this helps me not at all. It is still beyond my experience and it wrecks all I ever learned about brewing; which is that you cannot rush it. But the one thing it does say to me is that very often when we are praying for a miracle we are not asking for a suspension of the laws of nature but a rearrangement of the possibilities.
Here is a miracle – On Tuesday I had a sore throat. I was definitely coming down with what my wife had had just had; only worse of course. We prayed and the next day it had gone. Well it is a small miracle. These things do clear up; it is not that improbable. But it seemed it when we prayed.
We frequently ‘misunderestimate’ (To quote George Bush) the possibility of a miracle, particularly if we are depressed. The odds against seem overwhelming. The reasons why there cannot be an answer seem innumerable and insurmountable.
I think that is the state of our world. A health and safety mind set, everything is too dangerous. It is depressed because it has lost faith. It trusted itself, instead of God and it let itself down. Everything is bound up in correct procedures.
Interestingly the Jars that Jesus used were all about correct procedures – ritual purification. But they were dry and empty, like many of our slogans today. Our world is full of procedures that have to be gone through; not to achieve anything, but simply to show that you have gone through the correct procedures.
Jesus transformed them he filled them with new wine – The new wine of the Kingdom, The new wine of the Spirit.
Nothing is deader or dryer than formalised religion – Lacking in power, in joy, in vitality, in transforming power.
But Jesus brings new life. Transformation, joy celebration and the overturning of possibilities.
How – to those who like Mary do not really know what they wantfrom Jesus but are sure that He can do something; to those who will ask and go ahead in faith.
Believe in miracles – surprise yourself. Astonish the world.
Filed under:Tags: Cana, John2:1, Miracle, New wine, Wedding