a sermon preached by Rev Shannon Mang
We have left behind the Christmas season where we heard the
stories of Jesus birth, and the arrival of the Wise Ones on Epiphany. Last
Sunday we experienced the story of Jesus’ Baptism, and today, Jesus goes to a
wedding.
The first chapter of the Gospel of John begins with a
prologue that sets the stage for the story of Jesus. It is an ancient hymn
about the Word/ God’s Logos…
1 In the
beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. …14 And
the Word became flesh and lived among us
The rest of the first chapter establishes the role, and
rank of John the Baptist as the one who prepared the way for Jesus, then Jesus
was baptized by John and picked up his first four disciples. And then Jesus,
God’s Word made flesh--- and his new disciples went to a wedding.
Jesus’ Mother, was present at
the wedding too. She is not named in John’s Gospel- she is identified by her
relationship with Jesus. She makes two appearances in this Gospel-- she is
present here in this early story from Jesus’ ministry, and we next see her at
the foot of the cross, just before Jesus’ death. It is curious to me that her
presence in the Gospel of John brackets Jesus’s earthly ministry. She has a
very important- and actually—a very funny role in this first story. Weddings
in Jesus’ time were important community events that often lasted many days. The
best food and wine were served first, while guest were hungry and thirsty. As
people had enough food to eat and were becoming inebriated, the everyday food
and drink were brought out.
The first action of the story is Jesus’ mother seeing that
the host family is in trouble because they have run out of wine, and it is far
too early in the party to recover from that social mis-step. This problem seems
to only be known by the servants and Jesus’ mother. She hustles over to Jesus and
tells him that there isn’t any wine… and it is implied that she expects her
unusually gifted son to do something in response to her news. Jesus says… “Woman,
what concern is that to me and to you? My hour has not yet come.” Like mom—this isn’t our problem…. But Jesus’
mom does not let him off the hook, she turns around … and His mother said to the servants, “Do
whatever he tells you.” I love just
lingering in that moment of silence between mother and son where their eyes
must have been locked in a war of wills… his mother knows that his hour had
indeed arrived, and she was there to help him step into his hour…
So Jesus instructed the servants to fill 6 massive stone
jars with water. The water jars that held 20-30 gallons of water were an
essential part of a household in a time of no running water, and in a land
where water was often scarce. The text says that the purpose of the water jars
was for the Jewish rites of purification. When the jars were full, Jesus told
one of the servants to take some of the water from one of the jars to the head
steward of the wedding. The head steward of the party had no idea that the wine
had run out, and instead of becoming aware of a big problem, he was shocked by
the quality of the wine he had just been handed by a servant-- and that was
about to be served to the guests. The steward went to the bridegroom and
congratulated him saying “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.”
The steward, the bridegroom, and then the guests would have
been thrilled at the generosity of the families throwing the wedding party. But
the servants were in on the secret-- they knew that something amazing had
happened. Jesus’ mother and the disciples of Jesus knew that Jesus had facilitated
this wonderful generous joke. The amount of VERY good wine is extraordinary. A
standard modern wine cask that many of us have seen on tours of our local
estate wineries, holds about 60 gallons. This rural wedding party would have
had the equivalent of 3 of our modern casks of wine. God clearly wanted the
party to carry on and to let the hosts get the credit for such wonderful wine
and such a great party!
There are no “miracles” in the Gospel of John- but there
are 7 signs—today’s story of the Wedding at Cana is the first of these 7 signs.
When the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, we are shown what God’s grace
tastes like, looks like and feels like. We, the listeners or readers of the
story are part of the secret knowledge that Jesus changed all that water into
the very best wine. God’s love is expressed through abundance… in this story--
an abundance of wine. This story foreshadows the 4th Sign in John-
the feeding of the 5000. That story starts with just a little bit of food that
then miraculously feeds everyone, with baskets of leftovers at the end.
The Gospel of John is just one of the places in our
scripture story that tells of God’s amazing abundance… God wants everyone to
enjoy a good party--- God wants everyone to have enough food… God wants every
person to experience healing and wholeness. Living in the generosity and
abundance of God is wonderful… and it is also frightening. The narrative of
God’s abundance is radical, because God intends the goodness of life to be for
all. There were only a few at the
wedding who knew where the abundance of wine had come from, but everyone had
more than enough fine wine to drink. Jesus lived in a country that was under
the occupation of Rome. Rome fully expected that the lands and peoples they
ruled over would provide the few in power with great wealth. That works
effectively only while whole populations are deprived of the well-being that
comes with everyone having enough—enough food, enough homes, enough land to
sustain a community. When whole communities experienced the Jesus movement, and
started to experience God’s generosity.. and then expected to live in God’s
generosity… those in Jerusalem who controlled the political and religious power
saw the leader of that movement as a very serious threat. They had to stop
Jesus who was spreading this message of God’s abundance and generosity being
for everyone. So they killed Jesus… and look what happened when his death
turned into the resurrection and entered the human story.
Our work is to continue to live out God’s story of
abundance and generosity --- not just for us, but for everyone in the
community. We have looked at the history of both the Osoyoos and Oliver United
Churches and we can see how decades of living out God’s generosity has had an impact
on these towns. We are now much smaller churches, but God’s generosity and
abundance are still a part of the DNA of these church families. Jesus is still
turning water into wine right here in our midst-- (week after week through the
Thrift Store) …(as Oliver UC continues to practise generosity meeting the needs
of our neighbours in town, and through our M&S giving). What are the new
ways we being called to share our continuing legacy of God’s abundant
generosity now—Where is Jesus continuing to turn water into wine among us? And
how are we being invited to bring our neighbours to the party?
© 2025 Rev Shannon Mang, Osoyoos-Oliver United Church
Pastoral Charge
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