A Sermon Preached by the

Rev. E. Scott Winnette

January 14, 2007

Bossing Jesus

John 2:1-11

 

            Friends, rather than build with some biblical studies, some story or pithy illustration, and a quotation from a famous theologian to the point of this sermon, I’m going to share it, a biblical moral from the Wedding of Cana, with you now. Are you ready? As Disciples of Christ, during every encounter in your lives you can offer a gift of grace. I repeat, as Disciples of Christ, during every encounter in our lives we can offer a gift of grace. 

 

            You can offer a gift of grace in the morning to your spouse. You can offer a gift of grace over coffee with a friend. You can offer of gift of grace to a homeless woman on the street. You can offer a birthday gift of grace to Sue Dickson today. “Happy Birthday Sue!” You can offer an appreciative gift of grace to the stream around the corner from your home. You can offer a gift of accepting grace to the strange, spiky-haired; eyebrow, lip, tongue, and nose-pierced teenager at the mall. Gift your dog with a long walk. Gift your cats with a clean litter box. Gift your grocery clerk with patience. Gift the aggressive driver with forgiveness. Gift yourself with a pat on the back. Join Jeanne Tustian in offering a gift to Darfur: God’s love for all people. Gift grace into every situation blessing everyone and everything you encounter with God’s value and love.

 

            Grace gifts are miracles. They come in different sizes. Some are large gifts of grace that forever change lives. Jesus provided 180 gallons of wine to prolong the joy of a wedding feast. Jesus provided the 180 gallons to prove that God’s love is greater than any human system of judgment. Jesus offered Lazarus a new life. Jesus redeemed, against popular opinion, short tax-collector Zaccheaus. You, against popular opinion, keep me as one of your pastors.  There are large gifts of grace that can only be given by collective effort. 5000+ men, women and children were fed bread and fish after Jesus noticed they were hungry. The gifts you give to our friends in Uganda and promise to give in Asia cannot be done by a few of us but are done by all of us.   The gift of Christian faith given to the children of this church must be given by us all. You promised to give to every baptized child a joy-filled direction in the Christian way. 

 

            There are gifts that are dangerous. Jesus’ miracle gift of grace, his love of all people, trod upon the laws of land and faith costing him his life. On that first Pentecost day, the frightened, politically-oppressed disciples shared faith with thousands of spiritually hungry people and they were all fed. Our fears of being embarrassed as we share our faith belie distrust in Christ’s promises. Our God still wants us to give the Good News of God’s grace sharing our faith with the friends and strangers of our lives.

 

            Some gifts can be small. A curving smile can bring someone a moment of peace. A joke during a staff meeting can relieve people to love one another.   A dollar in the offering plate can provide someone a meal. As Disciples of Christ, during every encounter within God’s Beloved Creation, we can offer a gift of grace.

 

            Before we can be prolific givers of grace, before we can trust in our ability to give, we need to believe that there is something to give.  We need to believe that in every moment there is enough material stuff and spiritual blessings within and around us to give some away. We need an outlook of abundance.   Paradoxically, we wealthy North Americans find it difficult to trust in abundance. Rather than appreciate the material bounty of the world and share it, we waste and hoard it. We live in a society where everything is commodified, sold and/or collected. We live where almost everything is done for an eventual self-serving purpose. We live within a culture that promotes self over other. Again and again we hold back the potential gifts. A fable from Nigeria reveals the powerful curse of selfishness. It reveals a selfish joy-draining antithesis of the moral of Jesus’ blessing at the Wedding of Cana.

 

            The Nigerian fable tells of how a tribal chief sent out messages inviting all of the men of the tribe to a great feast. "All of the food will be provided," they announced, "but each man must bring one jug of palm wine." One of the men of the tribe wanted to attend the great festival very much, but he had no wine. He paced the floor trying to think of a solution for his dilemma. Finally his wife suggested, "You could buy a jug of wine. It is not too expensive for such a great occasion." "How foolish," Ezra cried, "to spend money when there is a way to go free." Once again he paced until he came upon a plan. "Rather than wine I will carry water in my jug. Several hundred men will attend the festival. What will it hurt to add one jug of water to the great pot of wine?

 

            On the day of the feast the tribal drums began to beat early in the morning, reminding the people of the great festival. All of the men came dressed in their finest clothes, gathering by midmorning at the home of the chief. As each man entered the tribal grounds, he poured his jug of wine into a large earthen pot. Ezra carefully poured the contents of his container into the pot, greeted the chief, and joined the dancers.

 

            When all of the guests had arrived, the chief commanded the music to cease and ordered the servants to fill everyone's glass with wine. He wanted all of the guests to celebrate their life as a community. As the chief spoke the opening words of the festival, all of the guests raised their glasses and drank. Suddenly a cry of disbelief arose from the crowd, and they quickly drank again. What they tasted was not wine, but water. It seems each guest had decided that his one jug of water could not spoil the great pot of palm wine.[1] 

            As Disciples of Christ, our faith demands that we fill our jugs with the best we have. We fill them with our greatest hope in each other and in God. Instead of bringing jugs of worthlessness to each other we bring jugs filled to the rim with costly grace. As Disciples of Christ we train ourselves to believe in God’s amazing, extravagant material and spiritual grace. And praise God, we are not alone in the difficult task of learning grace-filled generosity. We have each other. We can train each other to believe in God’s amazing, extravagant grace. We can help each other to trust and give. We can even boss each other around, strongly reminding each other to give of God’s grace.   

 

            I watched an episode Friday night of the sitcom, That 70’s Show. The daughter of the family said she was moving out of the home and in with a girlfriend. Her protective father worried that her apartment did not have a smoke detector. He got one and rushed to install it. At the door her male roommate/lover opened the door.   Furious that his daughter had lied to him; furious that his daughter was engaged in pre-marital sex; furious that she had grown up, the father stormed home.   He treated her as if she did not exist to him anymore. After several scenes of rejection by the father of his daughter, the mother confronted him. She clearly told him that he was being a bad father. She demanded that he forgive his daughter, that he offer her a gift of grace. The father paused and then went downstairs to reconcile with his daughter. 

 

            Today’s Gospel passage is about an extravagant, mother-encouraged gift of grace.   Friends and family had gathered for a wedding celebrating, eating, and sharing for seven days.   Jesus’ mother noticed they were out of wine. She called for Jesus to do something. We don’t know what she expected; she just expected him to do something helpful. But he resisted. 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. In that story the Gentile woman bosses Jesus into realizing that the grace God has called him to share is for her and her daughter too.   She demands a gift of healing and Jesus heals her daughter.   

 

            Today’s story reminds me of the story of the poor persistent widow and the judge. She just kept going again and again to the judge’s door knocking and demanding justice until he remembered his true vocation. At the Wedding of Cana, even the divine son needed to be reminded of God’s gift of grace and God’s demand that it be shared without discrimination in all occasions.  

 

            Of course we too, we humble children, need to encourage each other, demand each other to give gifts of grace in every occasion.   For it is easy for us to forget our true vocations as Disciples of Christ. Jesus, like us, was on a faith journey, he was just out of the gate, like just out of college, just starting his ministry and surely, surely he thought 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 expects him to do something. She just bosses him into it, telling the servants to help her son do whatever he eventually decides to do.

 

            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. That our God of abundance yearns for us to be generous people always giving grace and hope to each other.   His job was not only to heal bodies, ease physical hunger, and fight for justice. It was also to draw people closer to God and each other, to destroy the dividing walls between us. So he told the servants to fill the six large stone jars with water. He performs a miraculous object lesson. The six large jars were to hold the waters of purification.   The water was used to ritualistically cleanse the people of their spiritual un-cleanliness. The rituals were intended to encourage reverence of God, to honor God’s holiness. Tragically, the practices grew to separate the people from God as filthy and undeserving. They grew with the laws that were intended to encourage wholesome community life, into chasms between God and neighbor. 

 

            In John’s gospel the amount of water is exaggerated. No family would need 180 gallons of water for the purification rituals. 180 gallons represents an infinite amount of water empowered to cleanse. And Jesus commands them to fill them with this over-abundance of 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 turns the 180 gallons of misguided ritual into a gift of grace, to prolong a party. He proves that God is more interested in our love of each other than our observance of legalism. He proves that God yearns for our love more than our fear of the divine. He offers the wedding party 180 gallons of grace. 180 gallons of joy. 180 gallons of unity. 180 gallons of hope. 180 gallons of forgiveness. 180 gallons of living water. 

 

            180 gallons of God’s extravagant abundance is available to us. Adopt a perspective of abundance. Adopt practices of generosity. Grow into Disciples of Christ who give gifts of grace every moment of your lives. Those 180 gallons are ready to well up within us. We can share the living wine in drops if the situation allows a drop. We can share the living water as a refreshing mist if all the situation allows is a sprinking. We can share the living grace as a refreshing mug of life. We can even as the occasion allows share the living love of Christ as a healing pool or a calming stream or a cleansing rainfall.   Be prepared to remind each other of the high calling of discipleship. Be prepared to be bossy if necessary. I will eventually be glad if you come to me and instruct me away from any miserly act.  I will be eternally glad as you help me be a part of the community who is bringing God’s Ultimate Grace into the world. Disciples of Christ, during every encounter in our lives can offer a gift of grace. Amen.

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