Sermon for Sunday, 17 January 2016: He turned the water into wine
Sermon for Sunday 17 January 2016
2nd Sunday after Epiphany
The Rev. Carrie Ballenger Smith
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Grace and peace to you from God our
Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.
Jesus turned
the water into wine. And it was a good thing he did, because the party was
about to fall apart! That’s what happens when the wine runs out. The party is always
over when the bar closes or they run out of food. The dancing stops. The people
go home. Water alone certainly wasn’t enough to sustain the traditional seven-day
wedding celebration of Jesus’ time. No wine, no party.
But of
course, the party wasn’t over in Cana that day, because Jesus turned the water
into wine. This was Jesus’ first miracle, and it comes to us at a time when we
could really use a miracle.
It’s been a
rough few months in Jerusalem and the West Bank. It’s not just the violent
attacks and the equally violent responses. It’s not just the new settlements
and the ever-expanding wall. It’s not just the hateful rhetoric from
politicians and the silence from international leaders.
It’s the
fact that it’s been this way for so many years already, with no discernible change.
We’ve drunk deeply from the wells of peace talks, protests, partitioning plans
and political rhetoric, and we are still thirsty. We are at a point in this conflict
– and indeed in the world community today—when we might just throw up our hands
and say,
“Oh well. I guess this is it.
I guess the
wall is so high and so thick now that it will never come down.
I guess
racism is just part of the human condition.
I guess
these politicians are the best leaders we can expect.
I guess
terror is here to stay.”
At this
moment it may feel like the wedding party is over. The wine has run out – along
with our energy and hope and dreams for a better world.
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| Kids getting photos with "soldiers" at the Berlin Wall Memorial Photo by Carrie Smith |
A few weeks
ago I was in Germany for Christmas break with my family. One of the things I
really wanted to see was the Berlin Wall Memorial. I expected it to be interesting,
and perhaps even a sign of hope, something that would give me renewed energy
for the struggle here in Israel and Palestine. But in fact I was overwhelmed with
a different emotion as I stood before the remains of the wall. There was a
booth where you could get your real passport stamped with a fake “East Germany”
stamp (no thank you, I thought – we have enough passport issues around here!)
And there was a little boy, nine or ten years old, who stood with two actors
dressed as soldiers in front of the memorial. One was dressed as an East German
soldier, and the other as a West German soldier. Everyone was smiling. Many
photos were being snapped.
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| Old man looking at the remains of the Berlin wall Photo by Carrie Smith |
It should
have been a hope-filled moment. But instead, I started to cry. I was crying, not
because it gave me hope, but because I was thinking how unimaginable this scene
seems for the people of Israel and Palestine. Will we really see a day when
little Palestinian boys can stand with pretend soldiers near the remains of the
Israeli separation wall?
Will we
really see a day when all the people of this land—Palestinian and Israeli,
Muslim, Christian and Jew—will live in peace and freedom and equality, unafraid
of their neighbors?
Do we still
believe it?
Can we still
imagine it?
Or has our
hope run out?
Is the party
over, or can Jesus do even this?
When the
wine ran out at the wedding in Cana, the party should have been over. The hosts
would surely be embarrassed, the guests would be disappointed, and the joy of
the wedding celebration would forever be clouded by scandal. But Mary, the
mother of our Lord, had confidence that Jesus had the power to intervene. She knew
him better than anyone else in the world, and for this reason she told the servants,
“Do whatever he tells you.”
Think for a moment
about those servants. What reason did they possibly have to listen to Mary?
They didn’t work for her. And why in the world would they “do whatever Jesus
tells them”? Jesus and his disciples were probably only invited to the wedding
because Mary was somehow related to the bride and groom. After all, at this
point Jesus and the gang were becoming well-known for their strange preaching
and unusual way of life. The guys who took only one tunic with them on the
journey might not be the guests you want seated near the head table.
I can think
of lots of reasons why I might have said no:
“No way,
those jars are way too heavy.”
“No way, I
don’t work for you!”
“No way, the
people don’t want water anyway. The party is over.”
“No way…and
besides, what can you possibly do with jars of plain water?”
But in spite
of these very good reasons to walk away, the servants did as Jesus said. They
took the heavy stone jars down to the water. They hauled the even heavier full
stone jars back to the wedding. They scooped out a cup of the same water to
give the chief steward.
And then, having
tasted the water that had become wine, the chief steward said to the groom, “Everyone
serves the good wine first, and then the inferior wine after the guests have
become drunk. But you have kept the good wine until now.”
Thanks to
Jesus, the supply of wine was replenished and the party was given new life. He
took what they had – empty stone jars – and gave them more than they could have
imagined. He gave them a miracle.
The fact
that this first miracle happens, we are told, “on the third day”, is a clue
that this was no magic trick. That good wine was only a foretaste of the feast
to come. In Cana, the party was saved. But in Jerusalem, when his hour had
finally come, Jesus would save more than a party. He would give the world more
than we could imagine. On the cross he would empty himself, pouring out his
very own life, so that all would receive a never-ending supply of the good wine
– the wine of mercy, the wine of grace, the wine of forgiveness, and the wine of
eternal life.
Thanks be to
God our faith tells us that because Jesus is with us—because he’s always
invited to the party—our hope never runs empty. Jesus’ transformational love
for you—and for the world—is always in abundant supply.
Tomorrow is
honored as Martin Luther King Day in my home country. Dr. King is remembered as
one who seemed to drink from a bottomless well of hope, strength, and courage.
He was able to articulate in such a powerful way the world so many people
desired to see, but which almost no one thought possible until he came along—a world
in which equality, justice, education, and opportunity would be free-flowing
for all people, regardless of their skin color or class or gender.
When Dr.
King was killed, it must have felt like the wine had run out, that the civil
rights struggle was over, and the people should just go home. I imagine there were
many involved in the movement who felt the dream had died along with him.
But of
course, we know the party was not over. All hope was not lost. Many others took
up the struggle for civil and human rights, and although we have not yet seen
its fulfilment, Martin Luther King’s dream lives on today. Faithful people all
over the globe continue to work for a better world – a world that MLK called
the Beloved Community, and that we might call the Kingdom of God, but which
people everywhere simply call justice, peace, equality, and abundant life.
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| A young Palestinian at a protest against the expansion of the wall into the Cremisan Valley His sign says "Praying is Resisting" and "The Wall Will Fall" Photo by Carrie Smith |
Today, we
give thanks to God for the saints of all times and places who have drunk deeply
from Jesus’ good wine of mercy, love, and grace, and have therefore been strengthened
to work for the good of all:
people like Dietrich Bonhoeffer,
and especially the many brave
Israelis and Palestinians who continue to hope and to struggle and to speak
truth to power, for the sake of peace with justice in the Holy Land.
Dear sisters
and brothers, there will be times when the struggle seems too difficult, when
the obstacles seem too great, and when we seem to be running on empty.
But when
those days come, remember that we may run out of wine,
We may run
out of ideas,
We may run
out of patience,
We may run
out of energy,
We may run out
of tolerance for the way things are,
But because Jesus
has been invited, we will never run out of hope.
Jesus takes
our empty stone jars and fills them with the water of life.
Jesus takes
our frustration with the system and turns it into action.
Jesus takes
our broken hearts and turns them into the courage to speak up for the lost.
Jesus takes our
hunger and thirst for justice and turns them into love for our neighbor.
Jesus takes
even our exhaustion, our despair, our doubt and our hopelessness, and turns
them into good wine.
For this
miracle, we give thanks.
For his
sacrifice of love, we give praise.
And for the
courage to live in faithful response to such a miracle, we pray to the Lord. Amen.
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