All Saints Church, Worcester

Morning Worship - John 2:1-11

Revealing the Heart of Jesus in Celebration

We've been through a rather busy time - it's exciting to launch a new vision and to get started with moving it forward but it's pretty exhausting too. Also we've begun looking at the heart of Jesus by taking up some pretty serious stuff like his humility, his concern for the excluded, his compassion, and it's just possible we are feeling a bit overwhelmed by the task. We've sung of God's faithfulness and constancy this morning but we may be aware of our own unfaithfulness and inconstency.

So because busyness, exhaustion and an awareness of our own weakness can dull the spirit, we are taking a break by thinking about celebration today. Even giving ourselves permission to celebrate a little too, I hope! But the really important thing is that by turning to the theme of celebration today we are not departing from our focus on the heart of Jesus. We are actually continuing our desire to get in touch with his heart. [As Paul W was suggesting the other week, to lean our own heads into his chest so that we can hear the sound of his own heart beat.] Because celebration is in Jesus' heart…

We know that because it's what Jesus first did with his disciples… Just ponder a minute what is going on in the opening 2 chapters of John's Gospel. Chapter 1 introduced us to the gospel and to Jesus - the one at its centre [the Word of God, in whom there is life and light for all people]. Years of waiting for God to act have come to an end with the arrival of Jesus on the scene. John the Baptist raises the stakes by declaring that here is one who will baptise with the Holy Spirit. The excitement mounts as Jesus begins to announce the kingdom and to gather a band of disciples around him. They hear his call and leave nets and livelihoods to follow him. Then what? What great and glorious act of God will happen? What great programme will Jesus introduce? What learning programme will he place his disciples on?

Well, actually none of that - the first thing John tells us that Jesus did with his disciples, is to take them to a party! And it's not supposed to be an anticlimax! We are a very activist people - it's part of our nature. It's part of our theology. It's part of our society. In our world, parties are good fun but they're a bit of a distraction from the main thing, and we're not always sure whether Christians are supposed to be enjoying ourselves too much. In Jesus' world - a party could be the main thing! Something to fit in first, not last. And not because he was going to get up at the end and preach, but just because celebration is part of life. Celebration means being with people. Celebration is part of his religious culture - just read up some of the celebrations of the Old Testament.

Now we have a cultural problem here - not only are we a bit activist, but we can be a bit serious too. Stephen Verney makes this cultural point. The Greek language and culture came alive to him as he served with the Greek resistance movement in Crete. He writes: The Greek for wedding is 'gamos' but when I say 'gamos' I do not see a sedate English wedding with everyone behaving formally, I see a Cretan wedding with feasting going on for three days, wine flowing freely, and the bridegroom dancing… That's more like the wedding at Cana than the last wedding you went to in this country!

Jesus' acceptance of the invitation to the wedding at Cana in Galilee and the taking along of his disciples reveals something of his heart. He wanted his disciples to catch on from the beginning something which we may not have grasped hold of yet. Jesus says: Don't take yourselves too seriously. Enjoy the good gifts I have given you in life. Enjoy the people around you. Give yourself permission to join in the celebration.

And as he began, so he continued. Sure there would be tough times ahead; serious teaching; fierce opposition which would take Jesus all the way to the cross. But also along the way he would be asked why he wasn't like the disciples of John the Baptist who fasted all the time. He would be accused of being a drunkard and a glutton; of hanging around too much with sinners. He would be seen at more parties like the one at Matthew's house, Simon the Pharisee's, Mary and Martha's place etc.

John Ortberg writes: 'Most of us seriously underestimate God's capacity for joy. We will never understand the significance of joy in the human life until we understand its importance to God.' Getting into the heart of Jesus will include letting ourselves go a little bit sometimes. Learning to appreciate God's gifts and, of course, sharing them with those around us, to draw others in, to point people towards the one who was at the centre of the best of first century weddings and parties!

This is our starting point for joining in the celebration. It's what Jesus did with his disciples then and we are his disciples now. But it goes deeper than this. If we take a look at what happened when Jesus gets to the wedding, we will see not only the first of his miracles but also something which would point the way to what Jesus does for us all. Something which not only calls us to celebrate but gives us the reason for our celebration!

In John's gospel is that there is always more going on than meets the eye. John tells the Jesus story around 7 miracles which he calls signs. When he had to choose 7 of Jesus' miracles out of the vast number of things which Jesus did [John himself admits that if we were to record all that Jesus did the world couldn't contain enough books to write them all down!] to our surprise, he chose this one and he chose this one to go first in his story!

Why did he do that? Not only because it is a real story about a real wedding which Jesus attended and performed a real miracle. But also because that miracle is a sign of the miracle which Jesus wants to perform in each of our lives. John is telling the story of how there began on earth a new world order of Love - so what better symbol for that than a marriage in which husband and wife set out together on an adventure of love in which 2 persons become one flesh without either being submerged. Marriage is the symbol of the new world order of which Jesus is the centre, within which the governing principle is love one another.

And John tells us that this marriage takes place on the third day? That's an evocative phrase isn't it? We know that at the climax of this story the third day is the day of new life through death. There was a marriage in Cana of Galilee which Jesus attended but in so doing he points us beyond the occasion itself to the real cause of all celebration - human beings entering into a new marriage of earth and heaven as we begin a living relationship with God through Jesus which in the next chapter will be called being born again from above!

This is the cause of our celebration and as we unpack the story we see what this new life means. Stephen Verney analyses the Greek language to show that John wants us to realise, and celebrate, that Jesus is taking a situation that WAS OLD and turning it around to introduce His NEW thing. Jesus and his disciples were there because they were invited. But the word used for invited is a special one - also used for being called of God. Jesus and his disciples are being called to the marriage of the old order and the introduction of the new.

And what happened? The wine fell short; ran out; was gone. This is a comment on the emptiness of the old order - on any life lived without Jesus. On a physical level the bottles of wine had run out. On the spiritual level, the old pre-Christ order is not bringing joy and inspiration any more. Jesus' words to his mother at this point - Dear woman why do you involve me - more literally - what have you and I in common - are a bit of a mystery but they make sense if they are highlighting that we are at the junction between the old and new which are completely distinct from one another. The old order is about to become the new order. There is a little death between them out of which a new relationship will be born.

We might recognise what it means to be living a life without Jesus which has gone a little flat; a life where the wine has given out; where things simply fall short or are inferior - all ideas behind the Greek word here. We might be experiencing that because we have never let Jesus and his new order in. We might be experiencing it because we have let our relationship with Him slip. Leaving out the celebrating and pouring ourselves into the hard work of the kingdom, the king has slipped out of the picture.

The crunch moment between the old and the new comes when Mary responds to this challenge by trusting Jesus unconditionally and letting go of her authority over him. She abandons control of the situation and transfers all authority to Jesus with the mantra which we would all do well to employ: "Do whatever he tells you to do." The crunch moment for us to let Jesus back in or simply in for the first time, comes when we loose our tight grip on human control, when we decide to trust in him unconditionally, when we agree to do whatever he tells us to do.

So what does Jesus tell them to do? Fill the jars with water. These were the stone pots used for Jewish ceremonial washing - part of the old order. Jesus doesn't say smash those and start again but instead says, fill them up with water - water which is the very stuff out of which we are made, water which in John's gospel also often speaks of the Holy Spirit. The stone jars are filled to the very brim. Jesus' command is that the human nature is to be filled to the very top so that we can be filled with his Spirit in all transforming power. This too is what we have to celebrate!

The master of ceremonies notices the difference which Jesus' transformation makes. When the servants draw out the liquid and take it to he is amazed, declaring, "You have done something different from anyone else. You have saved the best wine till last." The wedding was saved and Jesus ensured that the celebration went on at full swing! But John wants us to notice that there is more going on than this so he concludes the story by saying, this was the first of Jesus miraculous signs. What happened that day pointed beyond itself - [it is the first sign, the controlling sign, literally the archetypal one, the key to all the signs which will follow.] This sign tells us that we have something to celebrate because Jesus is about transformation. As water is transformed into the best of wines, so we also are transformed, and this is done not by our being crushed, but by our being filled up to the brim, and exposed to the transforming power of the Spirit.

And we discover the reality of that newness, that transformation as we follow the same pattern of the water which only became wine as it was drawn out. So this transformed human nature has to be poured out and given away to others. It cannot be otherwise with Love. The love which does things so differently, behaving in a new way as we save the best wine till last. Let me quote from Verney again: "In the old order, things deteriorate - as you get older your teeth fall out, your eyes won't focus, your joints grow stiff, your memory becomes like a piece of elastic that has lost its stretch and its grip. But in the new order the best is always now. The physical deterioration will continue, for the water pots are the same, but it will be seen and experienced in a new light… if life is lived to the full in the present moment, with spontaneity and generosity, then through each present moment can come that new quality of life which is called eternity." This is the glory which Jesus revealed at the wedding of Cana in Galilee. It was only the third day his disciples had been with him but they began to see shining out from him the transforming truth of a new order, and they put their trust in him.

Celebration is the first thing Jesus got his disciples involved in after their first call to follow him. We have something to celebrate because in our decision to put our trust in Jesus we experience the beginning of the transformation which occurs when our old watery lives become transformed into the best wine of all! And the last thing to say about celebration is that it is what we are being prepared for. It's what Jesus is waiting to do with us! Look at the stories Jesus tells and the imagery he uses about heaven and the end times. Yes, there is plenty in there about strife and judgement. But there is also plenty in there about banquets, parties and weddings. Ultimately his coming again to usher in a new heaven and a new earth is about the final wedding to end all weddings - the meeting between the heavenly bridegroom and his bride the church. And as we have heard from this story already, if Jesus is involved with a wedding there will be celebration indeed!

Part of what we are doing on this earth is preparing for the ultimate party in heaven. Let's use at least some of our time on earth to practice for the heavenly banquet which is to come! Christina Baxter - one of the senior lay women in the Church of England and at times a very serious lady indeed who you wouldn't want to cross, wrote a book about heaven - she called it Are you ready for the party? How ready are we for the party? I wonder sometimes whether we will be so serious when we get there that we will be like the prodigal's older brother still moaning too much to enter in.

[John Leech, formerly head of Anglican Renewal Ministries tells the story of the time when he joined a choir which was to sing in Coventry Cathedral. They were due to sing a setting of the Te Deum - his favourite piece of choral music, which used to set his hairs on end with its beauty. For weeks they practised this music down in the depths of the Cathedral basement - in itself a wonderful experience of worship and fellowship with his fellow choir members. But then came the day of the performance itself - and as they came to sing their piece John found that the cathedral had been set out so that they were facing the East end. If you know Coventry Cathedral you will know that at the East end is a massive tapestry of Christ so big that there is a 6 foot man who just about comes up to Jesus' ankles. As John came to sing, he realised that after all that practising down in the basement he was now going to sing out God's praise looking straight at this marvellous image of Jesus and as his heart celebrated that fact so he realised that this was a picture of life itself. We are down in the basement having choir practice. One day we will be up there doing the real thing looking into the face of Christ and that will be the greatest celebration of all.]