Whining and Dining with Jesus
Pastor Mathew Magera – 1/17/16 – Sermon 139
St. Thomas Lutheran Church, Trufant, MI
To God be the Glory!
Grace and peace to you from
God our Father, from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit.
Amen.
Have you ever been to a
restaurant and had the chef come and talk to you, ask you how your food was?
Did they go around the restaurant looking for compliments on their efforts?
This doesn’t happen all that often but it may happen occasionally. Often times,
they cook you your food, it comes to your table, you eat it, you pay for it and
you leave. Do you really even know who cooked it for you?
When I was in seminary, I
had two campus jobs. For one of those jobs I worked in our campus cafeteria. This
job at the seminary cafeteria was a stress relief for me. While the job ranged
from cashier to kitchen prep to dishwashing to short order cook, I really
enjoyed every minute of the work, but mostly the cooking. As I cooked up
sandwiches and burgers, chicken, eggs, pancakes, omelets, I talked to people in
line. When it was busy, I challenged myself. I kept things organized and I was
flipping spatulas and burger buns, making a cheap show out of it. I really had
fun with what I did. Some people really enjoyed it but for the most part, I
never really knew what people thought. They came in, I cooked, they paid, left
and ate. Did they like their food? Did they enjoy the service I provided? The
conversation? I never really knew. In some ways, it was thankless work. Not
much glory to the work. But, I enjoyed it.
Interesting word, glory,
isn't it. Makes you think of a lot of things. Especially in church, right? We
use that word a number of times. Glory to God in the highest! Glory to you, O
Lord. All glory be to God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, now and forever. To
God be the glory, now and always. When we think of glory, chances are you're
thinking of something big. Something visible. Something flashy, catchy, bright
that grabs your attention. Glory is obvious and out there. In this sacred
space, especially on Easter and Christmas, we can feel the intensity of God's
glory. When we think of miracles we think of God's glory. The parting of the
Red Sea, the raising of Lazarus from the dead, the resurrection of Jesus, the
feeding of the 5,000. God's glory is very visible, public and loud, so to
speak.
But this wedding at Cana is
very different. It's not the typical miracle of Jesus but it tends to be
regarded as his first and it's the first of seven in the Gospel of John. I
don't think anyone would doubt this is a miracle of Jesus but I do wonder if we
really understand exactly what is going on here. If we really knew what it is
that Jesus is doing, I'm not sure we'd be all happy and rejoicing over this
particular miracle. I am about to ruin this story for some of you.
Weddings today are very much
like weddings during Jesus' time. They were large celebrations but they may
have lasted more than one day. A typical guest at these weddings much like ours
today is alcohol, or wine. In fact, it is this particular guest that might be
the center of attention at these celebrations. Now, in traditional format, in
preparation for the celebration, one would serve the good wine first. The good
wine would be served during the toasts and the meal and during the important
parts of the celebration. Once the formalities are over and the real
celebration begins you can bet that at some point the good stuff would run out.
I mean, it’s expensive and all. And what happens in Cana when you run out of
the good stuff? Yeah, you go right down to Meijer and grab bottles of Yellow
Tail, Barefoot and Arbor Mist and you bring them back to the party. By this
time, everyone is likely drunk as skunks, so giving them a glass of the cheap
stuff wouldn't cause a problem. They wouldn't blink an eye unless their glass
was empty. But, after awhile they start to run out of the cheap stuff. Empty
bottle after empty bottle and there is no more left and Meijer is closed. Now,
you tell me, do they really need any more?
Of course we get two answers
out of this. Jesus’ mother says yes, we, at this point, might say no. Jesus'
mother Mary seems to think so. Jesus, they have no more wine. Mary is so certain
that Jesus can and should do something about this and probably doesn't think
she even needs to bring it to his attention, given he is God and all, but she
comes up to him, Jesus, they have no more wine. Think of the tone she might
have used. Of course, we don't know but Jesus doesn't seem to react to it very
happily. It could be that she was whining to him about the lack of wine at the
party. Jesus, they have no more wine.
So, on this one hand Mary
whines about the lack of wine and on the other Jesus actually fills the void,
and with the best most expensive stuff too. Now we begin to whine. Jesus,
couldn't you have performed your miracle elsewhere or at least given the people
cheap stuff. They're not going to care. No one is going to come up to him and
ask him about it. Hey everyone, Jesus is serving a Merlot from 15 B.C. that he
made himself. Nobody would notice. What a waste, Jesus. Where is the grand
display of glory here? If Jesus wants to grab someone’s attention here, he’s
certainly not going to get it by serving wine to a bunch of people who have
already had their fair share of it. If he wants to show them he’s the Son of
God, these people are in no mental condition to receive it. He’s preaching to
the choir.
So we have these two
viewpoints. Mary whining about the lack of wine and then the subsequent whining
when we discover Jesus wasting a miracle on a bunch of drunks at a party. What
seemed like an innocent miracle of turning water into wine has now just turned
completely upside down. And would you believe that is exactly what is supposed
to happen?
I mean, think about it this
way. Imagine Jesus were coming to town for this year’s Jubilee. Jesus, we
really need you here for the Jubilee. Please come and help out, there are many
things we need you to do. Yet when he comes, where do we find him? Jesus is
down in the hospitality tent buying rounds of beer for people. Seriously,
Jesus? There are people at our church booth or at the Abelskiver breakfast but you
decide to spend your time buying round after round for people who may not even
notice? I mean they’re making pyramids out of empty beer cans and listening to
the band. So, what, Jesus, this is where you’re going to spend your time? And
then he looks right in your eyes and says, “You bet I am.” Why, Jesus?
Jesus certainly wouldn’t get
much glory hanging around in the hospitality tent. Jesus doesn't get any glory
out of what he did that night in Cana. People would go home from that party
having never known what had happened. It's not like the feeding of the 5,000 where
the people saw the five loads and two fish or the raising of Lazarus when they
knew he was dead for three days and then watched him walk out of the tomb. But
it was still Jesus. I mean, don't we expect Jesus to do things we don't understand?
Yet, we often times still find it offensive and whine about it. But, let’s
think about a miracle for a second. The essence of every miracle that Jesus
does it to shatter all conventional explanations and expectations. I don’t know
about you, but I think this qualifies. We struggle with how this miracle of the
water into wine explains to us who Jesus really is. It doesn't fit with the
other miracles and healings. We try to simplify the story by just saying that
Jesus essentially just saved the best for last. But it's not about just that.
The master of the party who exclaimed that Jesus saved the best for last missed
the fact that Jesus not only transformed a social protocol of serving the good
wine first but that he actually made it himself, several hundred gallons of it.
We might tend to reduce this story to mere hospitality but it can't be just
that. This miracle challenges us because it "challenges conventional
assumptions about order and control, about what is possible, about where God is
found and how God is known."[1]
By turning the water into
wine at this particular time and place, he works an unprecedented act. "It
is a miracle of abundance, of extravagance, of transformation and new
possibilities. The grace the miracle offers and the glimpse of Jesus' glory it
provides run outside conventional expectations" and places us at odds with
how we thought the world was ordered. We shouldn't be asking why Jesus decided
to give such a good wine in such great amounts to these party goers, because
the more we do that the more it will just not make sense. We simply have to
accept it and receive it. Jesus turned water into wine at a wedding feast in
Cana. It was a miracle. It was a gracious act that we may not ever understand
for if we keep trying we will just continue to whine about it. God's abundant
grace is for everyone, not just for people who care or for people we choose.
Regardless if they notice it, are thankful for it, use it wisely, or not. God's
abundant grace is for everyone. God may not receive glory for it but God freely
gives it anyway. God reveals his glory through the miracle, even if the people
who receive it don’t give a care in the world. We don't try to explain the
resurrection, do we? We believe it. Let's stop trying to explain his miracles.
Let's let them be for us what they are meant to be, a sign of God's amazing
love for each of us, a sign that he refuses to be locked in our theological
boxes, a sign that God's grace is given regardless even in our lack of
understanding. For us, it's a call to receive God's grace and to ensure God's
grace is shared in all places. We don't do it for the glory. We do it to reveal
God's glory because that's what this miracle is. It's about Jesus revealing his
glory, the first miracle, and it wasn't for someone who was sick, or for
someone who was possessed by demons, or by someone who was dead, or starving,
or hurt. No, it doesn't make sense. But that's what makes it a miracle. In
fact, this miracle performed at that wedding is just a speeded up version of
what God does every year, raining water into the vineyards flowing inside of
the vines and transforming into grapes and into wine. God continues to share
that abundance with us even today even as Jesus lifts the cup and declares it
his blood shed for us. It's God's grace, it's God's glory. For everyone. That
means you too. And it’s a pure miracle. To God be the glory, now and always.
Amen.