John 2:1-11 Epiphany 2, Year C - Sunday, January 18, 2004 The Rev. Diane Livingston, Interim Chaplain and Deacon Church of the Resurrection, Starkville, Mississippi Though many stories abound about Jesus in the Bible and different ones affect us or teach us depending on where we are when we read them, I have found this story of Jesus at the Wedding of Cana to be more significant than I ever had previously. Only the writer of John includes this miracle story and he places it at the start of Jesus' ministry and makes it specific that the miracle at the Wedding at Cana points to Jesus' glory. The sign at Cana is identified as the "first" because it begins Jesus' self-revelation and models what is still to come. In Matthew, Mark and Luke the revelation of God's glory in Jesus is embodied in the story of the transfiguration; in the fourth Gospel there is no story of the transfiguration. God's glory is continually manifested in Jesus' life and ministry. This wedding story includes everything we need to know about Jesus: Jesus/God/Holy Spirit is present in ALL parts of our lives including the happy, fun times and there is ALWAYS an abundance of grace and love for us and others. God's desire for creation is abundance. Whether offering hope to the broken and destitute people of Isaiah's time (as in our first reading) or changing water into wine at the wedding in Cana, God brings extravagant renewal to those most in need. Think about what is happening in the Gospel story: Jesus, his mother and his disciples are all in Cana to attend a wedding. In that culture wedding celebrations went on for a week. It was a grand gathering with lots of fun. Family and friends came together; there was laughter and good food and lots of wine - all typical of Jewish culture at that time. Can you imagine Jesus there laughing and having fun with his friends and family? It is Mary, Jesus' mother, who notices that the host has run out of wine and she mentions this to Jesus. We have conversations like this in our family - maybe you do too. I will point out some detail that needs attention and mention it to Bill; usually he will lean over and say that he is not in charge and wonders if I am in charge. You get the picture, I'm sure. To the modern reader, Jesus' words to his mother may sound harsh but they are neither rude nor hostile. The greeting of "Woman" was not unusual at that time. It is unusual for Jesus to address his mother in this way because it plays down the family relationship. We must remember that Jesus lived his life with a freedom from all human control and not even his mother had a privileged claim on him. Notice though that Mary seems to believe that somehow Jesus will take care of things because she says to the servants, "Do whatever he tells you." Next what happens is a miracle - even for those of you who may be skeptical of miracles possibly having seen some fake ones on television. The essence of any miracle is that it shatters conventional explanations and expectations. As readers and hearers of this story we must struggle with what this miracle says about Jesus. There are two different responses in the story: the steward was very perplexed and he had to summon the bridegroom to make his comment. He used conventional reasoning to explain how there was now a bountiful supply of wine in all of the six stone jars. The steward attributes the wine to the unprecedented hospitality of the host. In contrast, Jesus' disciples see in the miraculous abundance of good wine a sign of God's presence among them. They recognize Jesus as the one who brought God to them. The miracle of the wine shatters the boundaries of their conventional world and the disciples are willing to believe in Jesus as the revealer of God. No doubt we can see ourselves in either or both of these ways of responding. The steward tried to reshape the miracle to fit his usual way of thinking and living while the disciples allowed their way of thinking and living to be reshaped by this extraordinary transformation of water into wine. This miracle story challenges conventional assumptions about order and control, about what is possible, about where God is found and how God is known. Think for a moment about the idea of abundance which is God's desire for creation. When there is any need - small like running out of wine at a wedding or large like people or races being treated unjustly, God offers us not just a little help but rather extraordinary extravagant abundance. In Parker Palmer's book, The Active Life, he states that the quality of our lives depends heavily on whether we assume a world of scarcity or a world of abundance. Do we inhabit a universe where the basic things that people need - from food and shelter to a sense of competence and of being loved - are ample in nature? Or is this a universe where such goods are in short supply, available only to those who have the power to beat everyone else to the store? The nature of our action will be heavily conditioned by the way we answer those questions. In a universe of scarcity, only people who know the arts of competing will be able to survive. But in a universe of abundance, acts of generosity and community become not only possible but fruitful as well. Palmer presents that many of us and our institutions have chosen the scarcity assumption for how else can you explain the fact that competition (a way of allocating scarcity) rather than cooperation (a way of sharing abundance) is widely regarded as the only way to conduct our affairs, to make things happen? How else can you explain the fact that our country so fearfully clings to its habit of over consuming the world's resources, as if letting other people have a fair share would mean national suicide? At every level of our lives the assumption of scarcity, not abundance, threatens to deform our attitudes and our actions. There is a powerful correlation between the assumption of scarcity and the decline of community. If we allow the scarcity assumption to dominate our thinking, we will act in individualistic, competitive ways that destroy community. If we destroy community, where creating and sharing with others generates abundance, the scarcity assumption will become more valid. Let's consider some concrete examples of what I am talking about: last summer while participating in staff training for a Camp Bratton Green session one of our leaders often reminded us as we planned activities for the campers to think big, with no limits. Don't, he warned us, think that something is not possible and either not suggest it or discount it. So many things are possible and the ideas suggested may end up being some of the neatest and most meaningful things that the campers will experience. Basically he was encouraging us to think in the abundance approach versus the scarcity approach. While living in Austin, I worked at Caritas, a social service agency where we served many of the poor. During the time I worked there, the staff began to evaluate how we were doing things and why. We had a procedure that we could issue funds to help with 3 Ids each morning. Picture state Ids were very important in getting jobs and many other resources in a big city. This number had been determined a long time ago based on how much money we had for the whole year. This limitation resulted in a chaotic number situation that was used to help determine who the first three persons were who wanted an ID. Don't worry if you are getting lost - many of our clients were confused by the rules too. At one of our staff meetings, I will always remember one of my co-workers named Shirley asking why 3?, why do we limit the Ids we can give to 3? Her question began a process of changing the procedure that indeed allowed Caritas to help with more than 3 Ids per day and much chaos and competition and arguing ended. Definitely it was the abundance theory versus the scarcity theory. I think of the time when Bill entered seminary in Austin where everyone there had left their jobs to follow their call to come and study for 3 years. Families' incomes and life styles, in many cases, drastically changed and budgets were bare-boned. Definitely people experienced scarcity but through the seminary community that we became involved in we experienced an abundance unlike anything we had known before. Life was simple and it was good; competition disappeared; there was sharing and creativity galore. Indeed it was one of the best periods of our family's life - a sentiment independently declared by our teenaged sons at that time. Jesus transformed the water into wine that day in Cana and seeing this happen transformed the lives of the disciples. Jesus offers us an abundance of gifts still today. It is our response that is so critical. We can read the scriptures and talk about them forever but if we do not respond with our lives we have not completely received the gifts. We have needs and there is no doubt that the world out there is also filled with needs. Our parish - YOU and I - may be the response that the world is waiting for as we seek to serve one another and those in the world who hurt, who are hungry, who need a safe house to live in, who want to be included in a church family so that they can experience community and love. The water has been changed into a good rich wine. The abundance of God's love and hope is clearly available. What will our response be? Will we be rational and see only scarcity in this wonderful gift or, like the disciples, will we see what happened and believe and go into the world to offer God's gifts to others?