November 17, 2024
John 2:1-11
I. Original intention for this sermon
-plan for this sermon was less Jesus more Mary
-shocking that’d I’d want to talk about woman, right?
-But in reality, Mary is as prophetic here as she is when learning of pregnancy
-Jump starts Jesus’ ministry
-Volun-tells him or moms him into action
-knows what he’s capable of even if he doesn’t
-one of our super powers as parents/mamas
-could do worse for theological outlook than, “Do what he tells you”
-will come back to this, but want to turn us
II. Post-election
-I feel the need to speak into space, divide election has left
-Wasn’t here with most of you last week
-We had a casual but beautiful worship time at Fall Retreat
-complete with Chel’s guitar and animal crackers for communion
-Been thinking about pastoral response for whole church
-pastoral response to those who are happy, relieved, hopeful
-pastoral response to those who are disappointed, angry, scared
-Response we can unite in
-remembering our call a Christ-followers is greater than anything that divides us politically
III. Response found in this story
-start to Jesus’ ministry in John’s gospel
-sometimes called a miracle, but as commentator Elizabeth Johnson observes, when we think of Jesus’ miracles we think of “acts which relieve suffering, which restore life, health and wholeness.”[1]
-This story is not that
-Might seem frivolous
-”there is no desperate, life-threatening need in this story, no crisis of hunger or illness.”[2]
-Problem could cut wedding short. Could embarrass hosts, “but certainly poses no immediate danger to anyone’s life or health.”[3]
-At first, Jesus is dismissive
“Woman, what concern is that to you and me? My hour has not yet come.”
-”Hour” Jesus is talking about in John is “event of his death, and ascension.”
-Has more important things to be concerned with
-But mother seems to know he’ll do something
IV. Why does Jesus perform miracle?
-In response to mother?
-Even then, why so extravagant?
-6 jars held 20-30 gallons
-Servants fill them to the brim with water Jesus then turns to wine
-Most this is 180 gallons - not just “great in quantity, but it was also high in quality.”[4]
-Chief steward comments on this 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.”
-A few people know Jesus is responsible for wine - Mary, servants, we the readers
-But still, why such extravagance?
V. Sign not miracle?
-John doesn’t call this a miracle but a sign - semeion in Greek[5]
-first of 7 signs that “point us to something beyond themselves, as road signs alert us to something that lies ahead of us or before us.”[6]
-Water to wine “points us to something far more valuable than wine itself…it points us to the source of all life and joy.”[7]
-wedding banquet often used in scripture to talk about restoration of Israel
-wine frequently used a symbol of joy
-celebration associated with salvation
-Amos 9:13, “The time is surely coming, says the Lord, when the one who plows shall catch up with the one who reaps and the treader of grapes with the one who sows the seed; the mountains shall drip sweet wine, and all the hills shall flow with it.”
-Isaiah 25:6, “On this mountain the Lord of hosts will make for all peoples a feast of rich food, a feast of well-aged wines, of rich food filled with marrow, of well-aged wines strained clear.”
-Combination of sign and miracle - Jesus’ “extravagant miracle of changing water into wine is a sign that in him, life, joy, and salvation have arrived.”
-As Jesus says later in John, “I came that they might have life and have it abundantly.”
VI. Abundant Life
-Abundant life is more than an abundance of material things or monetary resources
-more than existence or survival
-It’s knowing and being “known by the one through whom all life came into being”[8]
-It’s having faith in and a relationship with the one who “loves us so much that he doesn’t know how to stop giving”[9] like wine in this story
-not a guard against sorrow and suffering
-but in Jesus we have as Elizabeth Johnson says so beautifully,
“an abundant, extravagant source or grace to sustain us that is more than sufficient to provide where we fall short and to give us joy even amid sorrow and struggle. Abundant life means that in Christ we are joined to the source of true life, life that is rich and full and eternal, life that neither sorrow nor suffering nor death itself can destroy.”[10]
VII. Response is generosity
-Friends the response to our post-election disjointement is generosity
-not just kindness, not just giving what we have
-generosity like Jesus’ that’s found in relationships we continually choose to engage in even though it’d be easier not to
-generosity like Jesus’ in which we don’t know to stop giving to those we loved and for those we love
-generosity that pushes us to draw the circle wide rather than erect walls
-generosity that asks us to look for commonality with those we disagree with rather than demonizing “them”
-making generous assumptions about one another as Brene Brown teaches
-generosity with a backbone that gives us internal structure
-to speak out when we see people we love being mistreated or marginalized
-to reach out to those seeking a better life or to live life safely
-to stand up to those who would seek to divide or scare us because we know that the example of Christ is one of embrace and inclusion
-so much more to us than our political party and who we voted for
-not asking those who’re are hopeful to give up your hope
-not expecting those who’re scared to paste on a smile
-Am asking as your pastor that here at Northminster, this odd little enclave of last-chancers, black sheep, liturgy lovers, progressives, atheists, agnostics, seekers, queer folks, allies, veterans, former Catholics, Presbyterians, Southern Baptists, UCC, Methodists, Pentecostals, Episcopalians, founding members and folks who are still wondering what this place is, Democrats, Independents, and even the odd Republican or two, that we intentionally embrace and live out Christ’s generosity
-that we refuse to become stingy
-refuse to close ourselves off
-refuse to stop giving, stop loving, stop trying to find common ground
-If we do this I believe we will not only be like Jesus, we’ll be doing what Jesus tells us to do
[1] Elizabeth Johnson, “Commentary on John 2: 1-11,” from Working Preacher.
[2] Ibid.
[3] Ibid.
[4] Ibid.
[5] Ibid.
[6] Ibid.
[7] Ibid.
[8] Ibid.
[9] Ibid.
[10] Ibid.
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