Oh No! We’re Out of Wine – Twenty-Fifth Sunday After Pentecost (John 2: 1-11)
There comes a point in the epic The Lord of the Rings story -both the books by JRR Tolkien and the films by Peter Jackson- where the main protagonist, Frodo, is close to giving up. Frodo has been tasked with carrying the One Ring, the emblem of ultimate power that he must destroy before it falls into the wrong hands and evil and oppression spread across the land. This is a big burden for Frodo, he gets overwhelmed by the responsibility, and by the terrible things he sees happening around him. He feels like giving up and handing the Ring over to the enemy. At that point his friend and companion on the journey, Sam, gives a speech. In the films this speech is placed at the climax of the second movie, marking it as a turning point in Frodo’s journey. In this speech Sam encourages Frodo to keep going and not give in to evil, because as he says, “There is good in this world, and it’s worth fighting for.”
We are going to hear a lot of sentiments like that in the coming weeks and months after last week’s election. We will hear a lot about how we must fight for what we believe is right and resist what we believe is wrong. We will hear calls to remain vigilant and to speak truth to power. We will hear people say that it is time to get work. And, by all means, do these things. We should work for the world we want to see. However, I might offer a slightly different perspective on that line from Lord of the Rings. And that is to say, “There is good in this world, and not only is it worth fighting for, but it is also worth celebrating.”
Six months ago, many members of this congregation gathered for a visioning retreat. We spent some time looking at where we were as a congregation, and then we spent some time thinking about what our lives together might look like in the future. Then, finally, we tried to express these realities about who we are and these hopes about what we might become by developing a mission statement. During this brainstorming session, we identified our church as a group of people who seek to follow Jesus as we encounter him and as he is revealed to us in the Gospels. To live out this identity we said we would share God’s love by embodying Christ in the world, and by celebrating all of God’s creation. I have preached on this statement a few times over the past months, usually I have focused on the embodying Christ piece. Today, however, I will call us to give attention to the part celebration will play in our chosen identity and mission as a congregation.
However, I acknowledge that there are many people -in this room and around the country- who do not feel like celebrating this week. I know I haven’t felt celebratory, and many of the people in the circles I travel in haven’t felt celebratory this week. I also know there are many who have been celebrating, and I can’t (and won’t) take that away from them. Even if I don’t agree with the reasons they are celebrating. After all, it’s to be expected, when our elections are treated as spectacle and sporting event, a game to played and a show to be watched. There will be the thrill of victory, and the agony of defeat. For some people though, it is not a game. There will be very real consequences from Tuesday’s results, and this is a source of fear and anxiety and despair for many. Those people will need our help. Those people will need us to embody Christ in our world, by coming alongside them, coming alongside the people who find themselves hurting, struggling, oppressed, and persecuted. That’s obviously something that will be needed, and that kind of work in the world, on the ground, action-oriented help is probably where a lot of people’s minds went Tuesday night or Wednesday morning. And rightfully so. An embodied, Christ-like presence is needed in the world, now more than ever (as people like to say when they really think things are terrible).
For me, though, as I was watching things Tuesday night, feeling the pit in my stomach become deeper and deeper, and more and more turbulent within, one word kept coming to me: celebration. Now, as I said, it was not because I was happy with the results I was seeing. I was worried about what the future might bring. Yet, I kept hearing that word…celebration, and I found comfort and meaning in it. Not because I thought we needed to be celebrating any one politician or political party. No, but because what we are called to celebrate is each other, our brothers and sisters and family in Christ. We are called to celebrate the vastness and the beautiful diversity of God’s creation. And having come out of an election cycle in which the main thrust of both sides’ argument was that we should be motivated by our fear – fear of the other candidate, fear of the other party, fear of neighbors, fear of the future. We live in a world where many of our leaders gain power and influence this way, by telling us we should be afraid of our neighbors and that the world is a dangerous place and we can only be happy if we are the winners, the biggest, the strongest, the richest. In a world like that, I think it is an act of resistance to celebrate who we are and what God has given us.
God has given us each other and this beautiful world. This past week, I was listening to a webinar presented by Rev. Dr. Katie Hayes of Galileo Church in Texas. Galileo is a is a relatively young church, formed to be a radically open and affirming congregation that has become a home for many people in the LGBTQ community who had not been able to find a home somewhere else. She talked about celebration the as next step, after being open and affirming. She described celebration as moving out of a defensive posture and setting your own terms. It is not just responding to acts of hate or the stoking of fear carried out by others. It is taking a stand for who you are and what you believe in. No child of God should have to defend their existence. But all of God’s creation is worthy to be celebrated. So, living from a place of celebration for who we are and what we are called to, is different from living in a reactionary way. Fear is a response to the world, sometimes a necessary and helpful response, but sometimes it gets us stuck in unhelpful patterns or ways of relating to the world. Celebration is usually more proactive. It is a way of saying what is important to us, what we love, and who we are.
With that in mind, let’s look at a celebration in the Bible. Let’s go to a wedding. A wedding in Cana. Jesus is at this wedding, with his mother and his disciples. The wedding has a problem, though. They are out of wine. This means it must have been a great wedding, but now the fun is almost done. Unless someone can get more wine. This is when Jesus’ mother has an idea. She turns to Jesus and points out the lack of wine. Jesus’ response comes off a bit surly. He doesn’t come off as the life of the party. He wonders why he should worry about this and reminds her that his time has not come yet. Even at this wedding, he has his sights set on the time when he will be crucified and rise again. A wedding celebration seems trivial compared to something of such universal and eschatological importance. Still, his mother does not take no for an answer. She knows who Jesus is and what he can do. She knows he can help, and she thinks this celebration is worth his effort. So, she simply tells the servants to do whatever he tells them.
So, they carry out Jesus’ instructions, filling the jars with water. Soon the water has been turned to wine, and the jars are filled to the brim. There is now nearly 150 gallons of wine. The people are amazed that the bridegroom would save such good wine for so late in the evening. The celebration can continue, bigger and better than before. So, it is at this celebration that Jesus reveals who he is to the public. It is in an act of celebration that he is revealed. Also, it should be noted that it is not just any celebration, it is a wedding. A ceremony that celebrates the coming together and union two people. It celebrates the beginning of a new life together, just as we are called to new life together in Christ.
However, Jesus is not just revealed because he decided to work this miraculous sign, and he did not do it because he wanted the party to go on forever. It is also because of his mother. Jesus is revealed because his mother knew what he could do, and she felt like celebrating. Not just the wedding, but also celebrating her son. The way a parent celebrates and takes joy in seeing their child be who they are and doing what they do best. Without her encouragement Jesus might have continued to sit by while the party ended. Waiting for his appointed hour. His mother however knew what he could do, and she nudged him, telling him to show the world what he could do and to use his gifts for celebration.
Not only does this sign point to what Christ can do in the world, in performing this act he reveals what his life and work means, in the eschatological sense. The best wine is saved for last. Through Christ’s death and resurrection, we know the extravagant love of God. So, let us celebrate that we enter new life with Jesus. Celebrate that the best is yet to come, and that there is joy in the saving act of Christ, there is joy in this life we have been given, and in the new life we are called to. We can celebrate that none of that changed on Tuesday night.
So, I think that when members of this church envisioned celebration as something we wanted to be about, that is a valuable thing. There are a lot of people in the world who feel as if they are out of wine, and that their cup is empty. Some have been enjoying the party, some have not, and some were never invited, but in any case, many people are feeling the wine is gone, and the party may be ending. So, the work of celebration is work worth doing. And I think that remains true, now more than ever. Because we have also heard lots of people expressing their anger and their fear about what is happening in our country and what is yet to come. In a world like that, celebration can be an act of hope. Celebrating who we are and how God has made us, in all our uniqueness and beloved-ness, can be how we imagine a new way of living in the world. We can fill those cups with new wine. Fill them to the brim.
We choose to celebrate who we are, who we are made to be. This is vital in a world that tries to wear us down with fear and apathy. So, celebrate the diversity of God’s creation, do not fear it. Celebrate who you were made to be and who you are as a child of God. As Jesus’ mother does, we can celebrate others in a way that encourages them to share their gifts. Celebrate not just when you win, not just when your bank account is large, not just when you are “successful” in the eyes of the world. Celebrate your story, and your community’s story rather than the myth of the solitary hero who will come and fix all our problems, or the stories designed to make us fear our neighbor, or the stories that tell the only way we can be happy is if we are on top. In a world where there is so much fear, and division, and suffering, and struggle, there will be time enough to embody Christ through acts of resistance, or by speaking truth to power, or by naming what is wrong. These are, after all, other ways that Jesus performed miracles and revealed himself to the world. For today, though, remember that extravagant celebration can also be part Christ-like living. And extravagant celebration can look like radical acceptance of all God’s children. So, celebrate joy rather than vindication. Celebrate the gift of life and the promises we have in Jesus. Let the world know who we are and why we are here by what we celebrate and how we celebrate it. Because there is good in this world, and it is worth celebrating. And no one can stop that celebration, because we always know where to find new wine.
Amen.