John Ch 2 v 1 – 11

Come on let’s celebrate -

I love this Gospel reading, for it seems to fly in the face of all who think church should always be serious, that it’s wrong to celebrate. That there shouldn’t be laughter. Give the impression that Christians are dreary people who spend all their time telling people what’s good for them, don’t understand about the need to enjoy life..

My family, originally from the Highlands, were Wee Free, and if they knew one thing in life it was that alcohol was a sin, and did they go on about it. Jesus’ instructions to ‘judge not’ didn’t seem part of their faith but not touching alcohol was the 11^th commandment. I did once ask a relative how she could account for this miracle, but she insisted it could only have been grape juice. Now my interpretation might have been wrong but as a young person I really believed they thought religion should be miserable - what message do we give?

But the disciples weren’t stupid , and, sinner that I am, I believe it was a jolly good full bodied red wine, for Jesus wanted the guests to have a joyous celebration, for weddings are a time to celebrate. Not that I would ever encourage anyone to over imbibe, and indeed neither is this passage, for the guests were called to rejoice and celebrate and you can’t do that if you get legless.

But to go back to celebrating, do we the Church, portray celebration and happiness, or are we seemed more as a bunch of dreary, do-gooders? If we were to go into a local pub would the non-church goers there find this miracle of Christ turning water into wine practically unbelievable.

But what an excellent reading for the beginning of a new year. We have Jesus going with his mother Mary to the village wedding, a new beginning; and as mother’s do Mary asked her son to do something. Jesus, as at other times in his ministry, tried to avoid performing a miracle.

and as all son’s do Jesus tried to avoid his mother’s request but in the way of mother’s she persisted and in the end she won.

We don’t know why Jesus changed his mind, but Jesus always wants to spare people suffering, and without a doubt to run out of wine at a wedding would have been a cause of great embarrassment to the parents, and probably would be seen as a bad omen to the bride and groom.

Not only was the wedding a new start, for, for Jesus it was the beginning of his earthly ministry, a ministry which no one at that wedding could have foreseen. But which Jesus was preparing for – interestingly it would seem that Mary obviously knew what Jesus was capable of doing, (for why else would she have told him about the wine running out) – perhaps giving us a small insight into his childhood about which we know so little.

So here was Jesus beginning his ministry - a ministry which would bring hope out of despair, and the joy of the resurrection and the promise of salvation out of the apparent hopelessness of the crucifixion. And here is a very powerful message for us. For when things seem hopeless all is not lost for the Holy Spirit is with us, and we do not know what good he might bring out of sadness; out of apparent hopelessness.

We must keep faith, celebrate what is good, be confident that hope is not lost. However difficult things are, how ever much suffering there is - not celebrating when there is something to celebrate doesn’t help. Times were very hard for the people of Israel when Christ began his ministry but he didn’t say ‘you mustn’t celebrate for people are suffering around you’ he provided more wine for the celebrations to continue.

How can the Church talk of hope for the future when it doesn’t give a message of joy, if all we talk about is conflict and doom - we appear negative all the time, not wanting to seen as enjoying life..

As Paul says in the Epistle ‘Now to each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good.’

Last week we celebrated the Magi seeking out the infant Jesus and taking their gifts to him. And Paul talks of each of us being given different gifts by the Holy Spirit, gifts which we are called upon to use, which we must use to serve Christ, to build up his church, his kingdom here on earth. And if we had read the Old Testament reading for today from the prophet Isaiah we would have heard ‘as a bridegroom rejoices over his bride so will your God rejoice over you. God loves us all deeply has given each one of us special different gifts to use to his glory. Isaiah goes on to say ‘give yourselves no rest and give the Lord no rest until he establishes Jerusalem and makes her the praise of the earth. From the beginning of time we have been called to show hope, seek the kingdom and work for that kingdom.

So we may not know the answer to the question why was this Christ’s first miracle, why was it at a peasant wedding in a village, what had this to do with the proclaiming of The Word, but it has a message for us, it wasn’t just something that happened for no reason.

Through this miracle, this first sign in Galilee his disciples believed in him and people were amazed. But as in later miracles Jesus didn’t call attention to his act but got the servants to take the wine to the head steward, his message was of hope, to us it is the message of not allowing not having something, as an excuse to do nothing. Turn to the Holy Spirit for with God’s blessing anything can happen, if we think we cannot succeed in life we may well not, but if we keep faith, trust in the Holy Spirit, we will achieve things, perhaps not overnight rapid change but a slow and steady improvement. To say we cannot change anything is denying God, denying all that Jesus taught us, denying truth. For the truth is that the Light does shine through in the darkness, that growth of everything does continue , that we must never give up hope, for God is with us and with faith we will see change, improvement.

And that is what we must celebrate, and portray happiness and joy, each and everyday, and in a way which people outside the church understand as celebration. We know the kingdom will come. That it is worth working for. But it no good only celebrating this within these four walls, God is in the outside as much as in the church and by appearing drab, cut off from what society enjoys how can we hope to attract and keep young people into the church. God Bless. Amen