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Gospel centred sermons, based on the lectionary often in advance.

Jan 16, 2019

John 2:1-11 the wedding at Cana

In late 2015 my mum came to stay with us and there were stories on the radio and TV about the power of music in a dementia patient’s treatment and enjoyment of life. Mum loved the Medical Mission Sisters’ Joy is like the rain album so I found the album for her, downloaded it and was reminded of the lyrics of many of the songs. Today I think of the words to “Come Down Lord” It’s based on the healing story of the Centurion’s servant in Matt 8. He says to Jesus “do not come to my house I’m unworthy... for when your word ...is spoken it shall be done.” It and I think all the songs on the album are wonderful, but today’s reading from John 2 and all of the New Testament go much further. They tell us that, the Lord, God as revealed to us in Jesus does come to our house whether we are worthy or not, bringing hope, healing, courage, and if there is a party, God joins in. God even arranges his own drinks, not just for himself but more than enough for all. God may be in heaven but God is also at home with us.

Questions for thought and reflection
If God is in your home how then will you live? If God is at your party what is God doing?

 

Link for the song refferd to in the sermon: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tXcBTf1ZVJ4 (Also at the right place in the text below.)

******************** Text of Sermon below *************

Make yourself at home JesusMake yourself at home JesusIn 2015 my mum came to stay with us because she had become too frail and confused to be able to stay by herself. She had been newly diagnosed with demantia and around that same time there were stories on the radio and TV about the transforming power of music in a dementia patient’s treatment and enjoyment of life. Mum loved the Medical Mission Sisters’ Joy is like the rain album. I found the album for her, downloaded it and rediscovered the album and it’s lyrics for myself. Today I want us to reflrct on the words of “Come Down Lord”. It’s based on the healing story of the Centurion’s servant in Matt 8 and the story of the healing of the Royal official’s Son from John 4.  In the Matthew 8 story the official says to Jesus “do not come to my house I’m unworthy... for when your word ...is spoken it shall be done.” It and I think all the songs on the album are wonderful, but today’s reading from John 2 and I think all of the New Testament go much further than those this song and those two healing stories. The song reflects an understanding of God which always places God apart from us, loving us, interested in us but not really with us, not at home with us. This is not to say that it is not a wonderful picture of God but it is incomplete. Listen to the song and reflect on the words as you hear it.... [lights off - play song video clip].

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tXcBTf1ZVJ4

On the one hand it is a song about faith. We don’t have to have God with us, we just need to believe, do and follow and with a word from heaven God will do all that is needed. On the other hand the song reflects a longing that I think we all have. We do not want God only to be in heaven we want God with us not only in our hearts and souls but in our relationships our church and in our homes.  We want God to be with us. If our son as in the story or our daughter,  husband or wife, our friend or our mum is ill then we want God to be with us, not just send a word, as effective as that may be, to bring healing. If we are facing some difficult decision, some personal anguish, some grief, some loss, some fear then we want God to heal our hearts and our souls not from far away but from within and alongside. When we see the ills of our world, natural disasters, disease, but especially war and division we want God to bring reconciliation, friendship, and restoration, not as in the Bette Midler song from a distance but from close by. God placing the hands of enemies together with his own hand. We may be unworthy. We may be imperfect. We may fail to live up to the commandments to love our neighbour as ourselves, to love God with all our heart and soul and mind and strength, and we certainly fail to love one another in the church as Christ loved us. We may be unworthy of God coming into our house but that is what we long for. Today’s reading tells us that this presence of God we long for is true... is real. God has and does indeed come to our house. It would be a whole other sermon to talk about whether God has a God space, whether there is a heaven a place where God is and we are not. (I believe there is.) That kind of Heaven is not the topic of this sermon or of this story of the wedding at Cana.  In their own very different ways the Gospels tell us that wherever else God might be God is in our churches, our homes and our lives, no matter how meagre or unworthy or limited they. In every aspect of our lives, The Kingdom of God, heaven has come near. The sick are healed the blind see, the dead are raised, God sits with us at the banquet, the meal and the communion table. God is with us in the celebrations, even at the parties and wedding parties, and helps out when the wine runs dry. We could get side tracked on the miraculous. John’s gospel is sometimes called the Gospel of signs. A lot of scholars try to make it seven signs, and all agree that this story of water turned into wine is the first. Part of John’s purpose with his signs is to show Jesus is divine, powerful, sent from God, but that is very far from the only purpose of this story or this sign. We need to see but also look beyond the miracle for this story is about the miraculous, but it is also about who Jesus reveals God to be.  If Jesus is God incarnate, God as one of us, we see a picture of God being at a party. A party where there is wine, alcohol! Perhaps the family did not provide enough or perhaps the guests are too fond of a drink but drink there is, and celebration. Even though this is not his core business in one sense, Jesus helps the couple out. Jesus honours his mother and he honours the newly married couple and their families by being there and by doing what was not required of a guest - providing for the celebration. In a world built on honour and shame, where a family would be shamed and lowered in honour if the wine ran out at a wedding banquet Jesus not only saves the shame but brings greater honour, by providing much better wine in vast quantities. It is estimated estimated that the amount of wine in this story would have been somewhere between 545 - 818 litres. Or between 727 - 1091 bottles of wine. In other words assuming 100 guests that's somewhere between 436 and 654 glasses of wine each. And not just any wine - the best wine, the gloriious new wine. God not only enters the house, and joins the party, God makes the party. This is a picture of generosity which is beyond measure and God is not far away, but is one of the guests. Quite literally the life of the party. If this is the character of God at a wedding banquet then what is the character of God in the home of a sick child? What is the character of God when faced with a hungry crowd? What is the character of God when faced with the death of a loved one, a close friend for instance? What is the character of God when seeing a crowd, a people without a compass with sick souls, wandering like sheep without a shepherd, and what is the character of God when brought to trial and faced by executioners, deniers and betrayers? You know the stories of the gospels, you have heard enough of the stories of Jesus, and God who he speaks of and reveals. It is God who forgives, feeds and teaches in the wilderness. It is God who eats with sinners, weeps over a friends death, and brings a marginalised Samaritan woman, not only wholeness but a mission. It is God who declares that the kingdom of God is near, is among us, who joins with us in celebrations too, bringing life to the party as well as the whole world. It is God who called and still calls this congregation into being, who has a purpose for our lives, who calls us to be salt and light in our community, in our families, in our work places, and among all our neighbours. Sometimes it’s hard to see exactly what God is doing among us or escatly what God wants us to do as individuals or as a congregation, but like Jesus at the wedding God is here still being the life of the party, even wen we may feel unworthy.
These Biblical stories tell us that the Lord, God as revealed to us in Jesus does come to our house whether we are worthy or not, bringing hope, healing, courage, and if there is a party, God joins in, even bringing his own drinks, not just for himself but more than enough for all. God may be in heaven but God is also at home with us.
As a church and as individuals and families I want us to reflect: If God is in our home how then will we live? If God is at our party what is God doing?