Sermon by Rev Sydney Maitland for Sunday 16 January 2022.
Marriage at Cana, c. 1500, Gerard David, Musée du Louvre, Paris (Source and large image)
• First Reading: Isaiah 62: 1-5 (Promise to Zion: vindication, salvation)
• Psalm 36: 5-10
• Epistle: 1 Corinthians 12: 1-11 (Varieties of gifts but the same spirit who distributes them)
• Gospel: John 2: 1-11 (‘My hour has not yet come.’ Water into wine)
I was once told that every Sunday was an Easter Day – which was why the celebrations for Easter Day were indistinguishable from any other Sunday.
In a way, there was a sense of the ‘same old, same old’ and all Sunday worship became reduced to a predictable liturgical routine. The gloria was sung with the same enthusiasm that one might observe for a setting for a parking ticket or a rates demand. What should have been a glorious celebration was reduced to the conduct of liturgy.
And it is not as if there is anything wrong with liturgy – we do need to have a sense of order in the way we worship and even the freest of churches still maintain an order of doing things in their worship.
But if we are not excited by the resurrection of Jesus from the dead, then I do not know what would do it for us. If there is no exuberance in our rejoicing before God then what are we doing?
One answer is given by Jesus in the wedding at Cana. Jesus along with His disciples had been invited to the celebration and the wine had run out.
And His mother observed – rather carefully, I think, that the wine was out. Jesus’ response to her was sharp, even harsh, for she who had carried Him and given birth to Him was also launching Him onto the road to the cross.
People would see – they would talk, and start wanting things from Him. They would certainly remember and the stories would circulate around the district.
But having accepted that this was where the road to the cross began, Jesus then committed Himself. And this was not just a matter of giving each guest a cup of wine and then that was it. They could go home with a light heart but not a throbbing head.
No, this was far more about the desire of God to bless His people. If you compare the purification jars with a modern oil drum then you are beginning to get the idea of how much wine Jesus provided.
It was the kind of gift that was in full measure, and overflowing at that. In another context Jesus said that as we give, so we receive: the full measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over.
His desire to give is measured only by our desire and willingness to receive. It is limited by our imagination rather than His capacity. Love is not rationed and the desire to bless is eternal.
And what applied at Cana also applies in the church, the Body of Christ and it happened on the day of Pentecost.
Again the limit of God to bless was defined only by the ability of those gathered together to receive. There may have been 120 of them in the upper room as they came together to pray.
If the room was twice the size then maybe there may have been more like 250 gathered together. Yet the blessing of God, the promised comforter came in with a roar and each person there was moved in a new and unpredicted way – but praising God anyway.
Since then there have been other outpourings of the Holy Spirit on the church and the effects have been generally similar to that Day of Pentecost.
But this was far more than a temporary exuberance for those who were there. It was about the future of the church which was to be betrothed to Jesus Christ, the final wedding day of the bride being when all were gathered together in the royal banquet in heaven.
From then on, the church was about life, and structure would be secondary. It would be about the empowering of the Holy Spirit and natural aptitudes to scholarship and discovery would also take second place.
The church would be recognized as that which was centered on and defined by Jesus Christ and none other. It could and would be varied but consistent, devoted but not uniform, growing in His sense of being and reflecting the fulness of His rainbow, but not the greyness of uniformity.
The work and mission of the church would be about the glory and majesty of God in Jesus, rather than a political programme, no matter how up to date or ‘relevant’.
It would live rather than function and its fruit would be life, not just results or outputs.
And this brings me to the contrasts that are there in Isaiah where the exiles of Israel were also living – perhaps existing – in a land of greyness and alienation from their land.
But here God though the prophet is promising them a full restoration tot their land and to their faith.
Instead of being derelict, they would be planted and fruitful. Instead of mourning they would be rejoicing like newly-weds. God was going to give then a future and a hope, in place of the spiritual and emotional desolation that was their lot.
God had chastised their elder folk but was still moving to restore those who had renewed their faith and trust in Him.
As we also work to recover our life as a church, we also will wish to look towards the Lord who has preserved us amid the hazards of the pandemic.
We too may dare to seek the colours of the rainbow, the fruitfulness of the life of Jesus Christ and the fullness of the gifts and the infilling of the Holy Spirit.
For God does not give sparingly: His measure is that of Cana – great jars brimming over, not just a single glassful.
