Dear Friends in Christ, grace and peace to you from God our Father and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.
It’s a difficult task to preach a meaningful sermon at a wedding. Everyone seems a bit distracted. The bride and groom for whom the message is intended are often unaware that anything is being said to them. They are simply trying to look stunning for their wedding photos. The parents of the bride are wondering whether they really do have to pay for the no-shows at the dinner. As for the groom’s parents, they are counting their blessings and their dollars that they are not the parents of the bride. Weddings are filled with expectations, hopes and dreams. And why shouldn’t they be? Every wedding day is happy. It’s the living together afterwards that causes all the problems.
Of course, as a pastor, I believe that scripture is supposed to inspire and guide us in the difficult times of life and marriage. The question is simply what passage should the pastor choose to read at a wedding? Fifty years ago, couples might have listened intently to St. Paul’s letter to the Ephesians, “Wives, submit yourselves to your own husbands as you do to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church.” It’s not a bad passage, if you are planning on launching a cold war even before bride and groom arrive at to the reception.
There is the familiar story of creation in Genesis. Adam had no partner for working in the garden, so God put him under a deep sleep, and a rib was taken from his side to create Eve. It is a poignant lesson underscoring that the man and woman were created as equals and that God has formed the two for each other. Unfortunately, the passage ends with the melancholic scene of the newlyweds being shipped off to their new home, “Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.”
There are many meaningful choices of scripture, but often I return to the familiar story of the Wedding at Cana simply because it has a message for everyone. That is what I would like to share with you this morning.
The Evangelist St. John writes that Jesus’ first sign took place in the village of Cana about six miles from Jesus’ hometown of Nazareth. It was a simple village wedding- according to Jewish custom, though it certainly wasn’t like mine. In ancient Palestine, the wedding feast didn’t end when the bride and groom arrived at their new home. For the next week, while they were still dressed in their bridal clothes and with crowns on their heads, they would hold an open house. Here they would be treated like a king and queen and for that one glorious week their word was law.
For such a happy, successful beginning to a marriage, it was vital that everything went like clockwork, but they didn’t need wedding planners in the ancient world. They had mothers, and we read in John’s gospel that Mary, the mother of Jesus was there. Surveying the banquet, she suddenly realized that there wasn’t going to be enough wine. To stumble on the provision of such an important ingredient as wine at the wedding feast would have been a terrible omen for the young couple. Wine was an essential part of the celebration. As the ancient Jewish rabbis said, “Without wine there is no joy!”
Isn’t that exactly how disappointment often enters our lives. It is unexpected, and there is no provision that will hinder its coming. We plan and trust that life will be fair, and that it will unfold as intended. But disasters come just the same demanding more than our own strength. It was true at the wedding in Cana. Suddenly, there was no wine. And so St. John writes that, Mary turned to Jesus. She knew instinctively who to turn to, and into whose hands she should place that burden. She wasn’t too clear about what the outcome would be, but she was confident that whatever Jesus would do it would be the right thing. And so she told the servants to do whatever Jesus said.
Now there were six stone vessels set aside for the rites of purification. Now, if each of those vessels held between 20 and 30 gallons of water, then Jesus gave the party 180 gallons of wine. That may not have been what Mary was thinking. What St. John illustrates here is that when the grace of God comes to those in need, there is not just an adequate supply but an abundance. You see, there is no human or physical need that can exhaust the amazing and joyful grace of God. So why is this such an important message on a wedding day?
First of all, the story teaches us that God loves and continuously blesses marriage, families and the home. That is at the heart of the story of the wedding at Cana. He is there as the unseen guest prepared and able to do what needs to be done. God knows that there will be unfulfilled dreams in marriage. There will be moments when couples will disappoint each other, but let me assure you, God will not disappoint you. Tragically, people often complain that God is absent when disappointment and disaster enter in. My friends, Jesus cannot change your life if you do not let him in. This is my simple counsel for couples preparing for their life together, and it is true for you as well, from the very beginning of marriage welcome Christ as a guest into your home.
The story also reminds us of a second truth, that love, especially in marriage, is work, but it in that work that God offers the possibility of miracles. In St. John’s gospel, it is the faithful and tireless work of the servants at the wedding who went to the well that witnessed the miracle of the water turning into wine.
In 1957, in sermon based on the Wedding at Cana, the founding pastor of Lake of the Isles, the Rev. William Passavant Christy, underscored that message. He had happened upon this church in 1935 in his pursuit of a used organ. The church was empty and derelict. In his sermon he said,
“God has not ceased to perform miracles. If you had been with me 22 years ago when I first entered this building, you would agree that it was like an empty sepulcher. From basement to tower this church was as lifeless as the Coliseum in Rome. What has happened in these twenty years? I know only one answer to that question. God has worked a miracle here. God has filled an empty stone vessel with good wine. As in the case of all miracles, men try to explain what happened in other ways. Some would say that this resulted from the magnetic power of a beautiful building in an ideal setting. But these features existed for some years before without results. Others might say it was because church-minded and consecrated people have worked and prayed this church into being. But all such answers add up to an explanation that does not explain. The most God’s servants have done at Lake of the Isles is to fill the pots with water. God spoke the water into wine.” My friends, that is what you and I have been called to do- it is the task of husbands and wives in marriage- it is to fill the earthen vessels with water that God might perform yet another miracle.
And that leads to the final truth, with Christ as the unseen guest in love and marriage, and with hard work, the best is yet to come. Jesus can turn the imperfect to that which is perfect: Without the presence of Jesus in our lives they are often stale, flat and uninteresting. But with Jesus, life becomes colorful, sparkling and exciting. He can transform ordinary love into something wonderful and divine. If Jesus can turn earthen jars and ordinary water into the finest wine, what can he do with your life which is even more precious in his sight?
My friends, God is performing miracles every day, but don’t be surprised if you can’t see God’s mysterious hand. The bride and groom themselves were unaware of the miracle Jesus, the unseen guest had performed for them. Even now, God is bringing a message of hope and love to desperate and broken lives. That is his promise to you, for love and life and marriage. And with Jesus, the best is always yet to come. Amen.
May the peace of God which passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.
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Minneapolis, MN 55405
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