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Whose wine is it anyway?
I marvel at the tasting notes that you find on some wine bottles! You know,
this sort of thing: “Ripe plum and berry fruit are plentiful with pepper and
spice fragrances combined with subtle vanilla and liquorices fruit flavors,
supported by chocolate oak influences, this is a typically rich and generous
wine.” Maybe I get a hint of one of these flavors but not all of them. Back
in 2002 a doctoral dissertation entitled "Taste: A Study in the
Representation of Chemical Substances in the Arena of Consciousness"
presented the findings of a researcher Fredric Brochet who proved that most
of what connoisseurs say about wine is well – humbug! He did three things:
he analyzed the written text of wine reviews, he carried out blind taste
tests, he even scanned brains as people tasted wine.
And the result was –
humbug! He did play some dirty tricks on his volunteers. In one tasting, he
served a white wine and elicited all the usual descriptions: "fresh, dry,
honeyed, lively." Later he served the same wine, this time dyed red. Out
came the red terms: "intense, spicy, supple, deep." For proving that the
comments of tasters are baloney, Brochet earned his doctorate! Currently he
is banned from entering France and the State of California!
This water into wine story
is a little easier for us to accept than some other miracles
such as walking on
water or healing the sick. The trouble that remains is not because we are
so modern and sophisticated and scientific, but rather because we live
careful, cautious, restrained lives. Most of us are not prone to make big
moves; we prefer the step-by-step, cautious approach. One result of this is
that since we live in this timid manner, we don’t often ask big things of
God. We hide or bury our faith, we keep our trust in the living God to
ourselves. When we are here in church, when we are thinking godly thoughts,
the faith part of our life is front and center.
But too often we are scarcely
out of the church parking lot before other things crowd out what seemed so
special just a few minutes previously. As a result our prayers get reduced.
They are chastened, cautious, and careful – maybe a tad more adventurous
than we would normally feel comfortable but not awe-inspiring,
life-altering, world-changing.
Whose wine is it anyway?
People come to me, as to every pastor, and in their own form of words, they
say, “I fear I’m losing my faith.” Some are going through a tough time in
their lives, their faith is being tested by their circumstances, and they
fear that they are about to lose the little faith they have. They are asking
what they can do to hold on to their faith? But this is to begin in the
wrong place. Our relationship with God is not a matter of what we feel, of
what we believe, of what we do. Thinking like that we will quickly come face
to face with our limits, if it is about us then we would be right to fear
because we know that our resources will soon be expended.
Whose wine is it anyway? It
is God’s wine, willed by God, made by God, given by God; that is what the
story says. So, rather than us keep on running over to Trader Joes trying to
keep our faith going, better to discover or re-discover that true, real,
lasting, growing faith, is never our achievement but instead always comes to
us a gift. Coming to us as a gift from God, a gift that God will not let run
out, a gift that God will renew to meet every situation we face. Whose wine
is it anyway? It is God’s wine, not ours.
Faith is a divine vintage, not a
human invention or achievement.
We encounter Jesus by
accepting that God accepts us as we are in Jesus Christ. Sure, God then wills
us to change and grow and follow.
But at the start and in every beginning
again, God accepts us as we are Jesus Christ. Thanks to our Lord and Savior,
God’s welcome for us is a gift beyond all deserving! Jesus, and the wedding
celebration with all the good townsfolk of Cana, is a parable of promise and
abundance, encountering Jesus comes about as we stop imagining that we can
pull ourselves up to God and allow God to give us what we need to be a
faithful, fruitful, resourceful disciples.
Whose wine is it anyway?
The record of the incident begins, “On the third day!” “On the third day….”
Now, haven’t we heard that somewhere before? This is an Easter story, a
story of abundance, a story of overflowing extravagance. In place of
shortage, scarcity and emptiness, there is now overflowing abundance.
Wherever and whenever we encounter Jesus, as Jesus encounters us, there is
abundance, an abundance of love, an abundance of glory; when Jesus
encounters us pain and hurt and death is swallowed up, life breaks in, life
emerges, life triumphs, curtains are torn, stones are rolled away, tombs are
emptied, the dead are raised, the good news is proclaimed, tables are set
with bread and wine, feasts are shared.
Whose wine is it anyway? It is
God’s
wine of a new life, with new hope and new love, enough for all.
Whose wine is it anyway?
This moment in Cana, this first miracle, contains more than a little irony!
As we read the Gospels, we get used to seeing and hearing Jesus obey His
Father, as we did last week in His Baptism.
But here Jesus obeys His mother,
and a miracle results! A miracle, a moment in which we encounter the power
of God to renew, and restore, and to transform situations and circumstances
in which we find ourselves all too often, when we rely on our limited
capacities, rather than accept, embrace and receive the abundance of God.
Whose wine is it anyway? It
is wine for the celebration: a celebration not only for the invited elite
as is so often the case in our modern weddings, but a festival that included
the whole town, not just the immediate family and a few special friends. The
reputation not just of this family, but of the whole community was at stake,
as the last of the vino evaporated in the afternoon sunshine! The actions of
Jesus saved not just the reputation of one family, Jesus’ actions redeemed
the whole town. Jesus’ intervention allowed the party to continue and to be
all the more appreciated as this new wine was shared. This new wine tasted
better than what had gone before! Compared to the three buck chuck that
everyone had been enjoying until it ran out, thank you very much, this
latest wine was fully free and generous.
This new wine had a real intensity.
It was provided and received freely, shared with an overwhelming
gratitude. Just imagine the headlines in the Judean Times, if the grateful
citizens of Cana had not encountered Jesus: “Cana canned can’t carnival!”,
“Cana: The Town that ran dry”, “Wine debacle mars Wedding Celebration”,
“Sober Cana sobs!”
Whose wine is it anyway?
The wine Jesus offers is the wine of the Kingdom of God that declares to us
that, despite all the odds, in life and death we belong to God! In feast and
famine, in sadness and joy, in joy or sorrow, we belong to God now and
always! Those jars now overflowing with new wine turn the focus not on what
has ended, but what has started anew. Our encounter with God in Jesus Christ,
offers us the opportunity to live intoxicated with God’s Living Water, God’s
New Wine. Living no longer for ourselves, but for God and for others! Living
not in fear, but freely! Living more simply
that others may simply live!
Living not to avoid death, but to share life! Living as the resident aliens
that we all are, welcoming all our neighbors.
The promise of this new
life and new wine makes us very aware that God expects us to live changed
lives, and living changed lives, to go on to change the world around us. It
ought not be the only way to mark the legacy of Martin Luther King Jr., but
the holiday we mark tomorrow celebrates the life of one of God’s servants
who tasted the new wine of deliverance and living a changed life, embracing
peace and rejecting violence, sought to change the world, in accordance with
God’s desire for justice and harmony and healing of the nations.
Whose wine is it anyway?
The words from
Isaiah 62
we read today demonstrate the abundant joy and love that God has for God’s
people. The prophet was speaking a word of comfort to a hurting and desolate
people, returning home after their exile in Babylon. The promise of a
homecoming came with a new name from God, the assurance that all over again
God was encountering them, welcoming them, restoring them, forgiving their
past failures and granting them a new beginning.
Whose wine is it anyway?
Yes, God’s love is a scandal! God’s love comes to good and bad alike,
the wine of love and forgiveness is poured out for all of us equally.
Yet this is God’s way:
God loves all of us equally! God loves all of us equally 110%!
Whose wine is it anyway?
My friends, I see God splashing wine on us as we are launched into a new
chapter of faithful living!
Whose wine is it anyway?
By what name will you be known in this New Year:
faithful servant, returned wanderer, difficult disciple, willing helper? By
what name will our church be known: careless lover? Friend of the
friendless? Blessed and gifted? Slow to care? People of Joy? Community of
compassion? Devoted disciples? Having heard the promise and tasted that God
is good,
let us resolve to continue the celebration of God’s love in who we are and
in all we do!
Amen. |
