A Sermon Preached by: E. Scott Winnette

September 3, 2006

            Any excuse will do.   I will have a party to celebrate a friend’s new job. I will have a party to celebrate a birthday. Every year I hold a Christmas party and a Halloween party. This year when I got enough produce in my garden, I held a neighborhood come-eat-my-vegetables party. We BHPC staff have parties to say hello and parties to say goodbye, parties to say thanks for years of service, little parties to say happy birthday, and parties to thank the office volunteers.  As a church we have parties after weddings. We have parties giving thanks for life after memorial services. We have cake for confirmands and other new members. We have parties every month that we call Communion. We have little parties every Sunday that we call Fellowship. We will have a party next Sunday and we are calling it our Welcome Back Meet the Interim Pastor Brunch.   How do I define a party? You might say, “pretty loosely.” I define a party, as any time people gather with some food, and something special to drink, to hang out and enjoy each other.   It’s kind of like the old sit-com Cheers, a party is where everyone knows your name. At a party everyone belongs.

            Today’s Gospel passage is about a wedding party.  Now back in Jesus’ day, they knew how to party.  Friends and family would gather for a wedding and celebrate, eating and sharing a special drink, for seven days.  I would like some back story, a little more information. I have a lot of questions about this party. How far were they into the party when the wine ran out? How many guests were there? Did they run out of wine because the disciples crashed the party? Was it red wine or white?   Did they drink all of the 180, 180 gallons of good wine Jesus made? Was the source of all this wine, kept a secret from the partiers? How long did Jesus stay? Was the couple’s marriage a good one?   

            Unfortunately, I will never get answers. What we do know is that Jesus, his mother and those disciples he had just called to follow him, went to a party. Jesus’ mother notices that they have run out of wine.    A sure way to end a party is to run out of food or drink. This would be horribly embarrassing to the host family. I actually read somewhere that it might have been grounds for a lawsuit. Can you imagine being sued for poor hospitality?   We don’t know if they ran out of wine because of poor planning, lack of family resources, or if there were just too many overindulging guests.  

            She notices they are out of wine and calls for her son to do something. He resists. I believe for a moment Jesus considered this scarcity of wine, not his affair, not his problem, not within his messianic job description.   For a moment, like the moment where Jesus almost refused to heal the Syrophoenician woman’s child, he pauses considering the boundaries of his work. Jesus was just out of the gate, like just out of college, just starting his ministry and surely, surely his work had nothing to do with catering. But, Mary had raised Jesus to care for his friends. She’s not even going to let him mount any high-horse. She doesn’t argue with him. She just asks the servants to help her son do whatever he decides to do.

            This story is about need, hunger, and thirst.   Later in the Gospel of John we hear the story of Jesus and how he noticed the hunger of that great crowd who listened to him preach. He noticed their hunger and with the gift of a little boy’s lunch he fed them all and had baskets of fish and bread leftovers.   Do you remember Maslow’s hierarchy of needs? Five levels: the top of the pyramid is self-actualization. Second from the top is the need for self-esteem. The middle tier is belonging, a social need to be a part of something with others. Below that there is shelter and security. The most basic need is food and health. Jesus fed the 5000 realizing their need for basic nutrition.   Today’s story tells of a different hunger. Today’s need rests in Maslow’s hierarchy around the middle. It is a hunger for belonging, for companionship, for others, for celebration, for joy, for hope, for downtime with friends. 

            Imagine living in a world where worry and work reigns supreme. Conflict, division and violence surrounds. Fears for security abounds. We just had new locks put in throughout the church building after three break-ins. Imagine a world where everyone seems to compete for a bit of you; your time, money, love, and spirit. Imagine this world so long ago where a family wants to celebrate a wedding. They invite all their friends to leave behind their hard work, the worries of the next weeks, to leave behind their fears of the Roman occupying forces, to leave behind, just for a little while, their purity laws, their strict religious codes. They gather together to party.   They gather at a home and rest, and laugh, and wink at the newlyweds, and remember their lives, and eat, and mingle, and drink. And then the wine ran out.  And then the spirits of play and fun were gone. And then the last drop of that symbol of relaxation, the symbol of celebration, the symbol of joy and hope and promise falls into an empty glass. 

            Do you ever thirst for joy, for hope, for laughter, for company? Do you ever feel surrounded by work, worry, fear, and need?  Sure we all do.  Tuesday was a thirsty day for me. I woke up early and was working on a schedule to finish out my Doctor of Ministry in Preaching. You have probably realized by now that I am studying social justice preaching. I have preached on racism, sexism, homophobia, poverty, homelessness, and able-ism. Each sermon involved my study of the oppression of different groups of people.   I have one more Doctoral sermon to give and this one is to be on white supremacy.  But I’m tiring of the calls to care, the calls for compassion, of worrying for the world. My day started heavy, and then I read the heavy paper. And then I came to work, and worried a bit about you all, your lives. I worried about the church’s budget.  I worried about finding a replacement for Kara Lucas. I worried about the interim pastor and how to best welcome him.   In the late afternoon, I came home and immediately left for a needed run, and I ran past the police with another dead homeless man.   Enough all ready.  I don’t get depressed easily, but I got pushed down pretty fast Tuesday.  Anthony’s been away for five weeks.    I thirsted for some companionship, some laughter, some light, some joy. So I called neighbors who were moving homes the next day and offered to help them pack. They said sure come over. I got to their house and we left for Popeyes’ chicken. When we returned we sat with glasses of wine, and Popeyes. We talked. Then we watched their favorite silly reality show, Big Brother. We didn’t pack a thing.   I left their house after some good down-time lifted up. I drank deeply Tuesday night of God’s grace with friends.

            Jesus hesitated. He said to his mother, that the scarcity of wine was none of their affair. He hesitated for a moment and then realized that it was his affair. He realized that our God of abundance yearns for us to be happy, to celebrate, and to gather together in hope.  He realized that his job was not only to heal bodies, ease physical hunger, and fight for justice. It was also to create community and lift up the hearts of the people. So he told the servants to fill the six large stone jars with water. Fill them to the brim.   Fill them with as much cool water as they could hold. And he did his first miracle, turning the 180 gallons of water into very good wine. He offers the wedding party 180 gallons of grace. 180 gallons of joy.  180 gallons of unity.  180 gallons of hope.  180 gallons of living water.  180 gallons of excuse to just be together.  It’s like he was saying, “Party On! In this dark and scary world, party on!”  

            I believe Jesus declares in this act that camaraderie is as important as charity, companionship is as important as compassion for others.    So, in the face of life’s problems celebrate life, feast together, play together. So, let’s gather together at the table for nourishing bread and joyous wine. Let’s gather after worship for coffee and conversation, laughter and lightness.   Come next week and sit around tables together, sharing life, and leaving your worries elsewhere. Drink deeply. May it be so for you and for me. Amen.