Gordon E. Ellis
January 14, 2007
THE LIFE OF THE PARTY
If you could invite ANYONE you wanted, living or dead, to a PARTY, WHO would you invite? I’D invite Robin Williams! I think he’d be a BLAST to party with! I’d ALSO invite Billy Joel for his MUSIC! WHO would YOU invite? THINK about it for a moment…. THIS is just a GUESS, but I’ll bet that NO ONE included JESUS! In fact, I bet that ALL of our GUEST lists would get very LONG before ANY of us got down FAR enough to include JESUS. Well, why IS that? I GUESS think HE’D be a pretty serious GUY at a party, WAY too INTENT on saving the world from SIN. And of course, banishing SIN from a PARTY, at least according to CONVENTIONAL wisdom, is a SURE way of making certain that NOBODY has FUN. After all: WHAT would JESUS want to DO at a party? Probably sit around swapping BIBLE verses, before calling it a NIGHT at 8:00? DON’T you THINK?
Well I think, for TOO long, we’ve looked at JESUS through the LENS of our fun-loving ancestors: the PURITANS. H. L. Mencken defined PURITANISM as: … the haunting FEAR that SOMEONE, SOMEWHERE, MIGHT just be HAPPY. And unfortunately, WE think this stems from JESUS. JESUS, on the other hand, was seems to ME to have been a person who RADIATED happiness. And how strangely WONDERFUL it IS, that according to The Gospel of John, the FIRST thing Jesus SAVES is a WEDDING reception! The FIRST thing Jesus REDEEMS is a PARTY! And wedding receptions, at that time, lasted for DAYS!
The STORY occurs very EARLY in John’s gospel and is the BEGINNING of Jesus’ PUBLIC ministry. The miracle ITSELF is SIMPLE. There are JARS nearby. The JEWS used them for ritual BATHING, in order to make themselves ACCEPTABLE for WORSHIP. And the jars are HUGE, about the size of a WATER heater, holding 20 to 30 gallons EACH. And it’s NOT an accident that there are 6 water jars, reminiscent of the 6 days of CREATION, and recalling the language of JOHN, chapter 1, when it says: He WAS in the beginning WITH God. And all THINGS came into being THROUGH Him, and WITHOUT Him not ONE thing came into being. (John 1:2-3) Well, JESUS uses these sacramental WATER jars for a NEW and HOLY purpose: NOT to overthrow what has gone BEFORE, but literally to FULFILL it. First, He TELLS the servants to FILL the jars with WATER. And they are FILLED to the BRIM! So, do the MATH! These jars contain at LEAST 150 GALLONS of water! Now, we don’t know how Jesus DID it, but the next thing anybody KNOWS, all 6 jars are FULL of the BEST wine they’ve EVER tasted. And it ALL happens in SECRET! Even FRANCK, the wedding planner, DOESN’T know where this great wine CAME from, ONLY that it’s the KIND of wine that people USUALLY serve FIRST, when the guests can STILL tell the DIFFERENCE.
SO, WHAT are we to MAKE of this wonderful story? Well, it’s a miracle of ABUNDANCE! It’s a miracle of BLESSING! AND, it’s a miracle of CELEBRATION! Now conveniently, those 3 words BEGIN with A, B, C: abundance, blessing, celebration. FIRST, let’s talk about ABUNDANCE! THIS is a story of ABUNDANCE in a situation where people THINK there is SCARCITY. And it happens on a RIDICULOUS scale. THIS is story of EXTRAVAGANT, exaggerated, OVERFLOWING abundance! God’s goodness SLOSHES all over the place, and people literally get DRUNK on it! But THIS story are not UNIQUE in the Bible. No, it harkens back to the story of God’s CREATION, where there is PLENTY for ALL, and to SPARE! It also harkens BACK to God’s FEEDING the HEBREWS in the wilderness with MANNA, BREAD that literally FALLS from heaven! AND, it reminds us of John, chapter 6, where Jesus will take a little boy’s LUNCH and feed 5,000 people, as a way of TEACHING them that, where JESUS is present, there is ABUNDANCE to meet ALL human need. Yes, God’s goodness is not just ENOUGH; it’s OVERFLOWING and ABUNDANT!
It’s ALSO a miracle of BLESSING. It’s no ACCIDENT that it takes place at a WEDDING, which celebrates the passing ON of LIFE from one generation to the next. And the presence of JESUS at the wedding bestows BLESSING on the couple and on ALL who share in the feast. Thomas Troeger, who teaches preaching a YALE, has taken a wonderful leap of IMAGINATION with THIS story. He EXTENDS the story of this COUPLE, imagining that WHEN their reception was OVER, there was still SO much WINE, and it was still so GOOD, that they must have BOTTLED UP the leftovers, so that it would CONTINUE blessing them on special OCCASIONS throughout their marriage. And THEN, they share it at each ANNIVERSARY, and when their CHILDREN are born, and to TOAST their children when THEY grow up and get married, AND to rejoice at the birth of their GRANDCHILDREN. And EACH time they SHARE it, they remember what a SPECIAL blessing they received on their WEDDING day, and the RABBI who turned the WATER into WINE. And Troeger paints a wonderful SCENE in which, IN their OLD age, they FINALLY share the LAST of the WINE. And the HUSBAND speaks: “Well, that’s it,” he says with a voice that sounds both satisfied and sad. “It’s ALL gone. NONE to pass on to the children or grandchildren now, JUST the story of our WEDDING at CANA and the RABBI who BLESSED us with WINE. Just the story, but NO wine.” “NOT to WORRY,” responds his wife. “NOT to worry. As LONG as people come to HIS table, there WILL be MORE.” Yes, it’s a miracle of BLESSING, as WELL as a miracle of ABUNDANCE.
And it’s ALSO a miracle of CELEBRATION! WHEN we realize the OVERFLOWING abundance of ALL that we NEED, and WHEN we feel BLESSED to be in the presence of the DIVINE, we can’t HELP but CELEBRATE and share WINE with our FRIENDS and loved ones! Now, I suspect that SOME of you are troubled that the Bible OFTEN uses WINE as a symbol of ABUNDANCE and CELEBRATION, especially when problems with alcohol in OUR society contribute to broken HOMES, shattered LIVES, and TRAFFIC deaths. But it’s DIFFERENT in the BIBLE. You see, in OUR culture, we DON’T usually USE wine to CELEBRATE life. WE usually use alcohol to FLEE from life. OUR partying takes on an air of FRENZY as we seek to ANESTHETIZE ourselves. For US, alcohol is a way of FLEEING from REAL life into a world of ILLUSION. As Randy Newman sings so HAUNTINGLY: It takes a whole lot of MEDICINE for me to PRETEND that I’m somebody ELSE. Well, that’s NOT what this WEDDING feast is about. It’s about a whole COMMUNITY of people who, day after day, SHARE very DEEPLY with one another the struggles and the passages of LIFE. And ONE of those passages is a WEDDING! SO, they gather to CELEBRATE it -- AS a COMMUNITY! And WINE is PASSED, NOT as a way of getting INTOXICATED and STUPID, but AS a way of sharing the JOY, celebrating their ABUNDANCE, and REJOICING in the BLESSING of God’s PRESENCE. And it BEAUTIFUL!
Well, AFTER this miracle, the disciples see Jesus’ GLORY! They SEE that Jesus reflects the LIGHT and the PRESENCE of God. And they BELIEVE in Him. Well, that word, believe, comes from the GREEK word, pistis, which means MORE than BELIEF. It’s NOT that the disciples believe something about Jesus; it’s that they believed in Jesus! It’s that they TRUST Jesus! It’s that they give themselves OVER to Jesus! And THROUGH Jesus, they know GOD. They AREN’T just intellectually AGREEING to something! They actually FEEL it, and it BRINGS them JOY! You know: WE tend to see FAITH as the rule-enforcing, life-denying, party-pooping, clenched-jawed STANCE of RIGID and BORING people! That’s why we AGREE with Billy JOEL when he sings: I’d rather LAUGH with the SINNERS than CRY with the SAINTS, cause SINNERS are much more FUN. It’s a common THEME in literature that EVIL is FUN. But let me TELL you: the ONLY thing SILLIER is the notion that FUN is EVIL. Friends, LIFE is a GIFT! And it’s a GIFT to CELEBRATE, and to live FULLY and COMPLETELY! SO, we who have faith OUGHT to be JOYOUS! Our journey OUGHT to be FUN!
Now, I KNOW that this is DIFFERENT from what the church OFTEN tells us. But the CHURCH has LONG been a part of the PROBLEM! As my teacher and mentor, William Sloane Coffin said: each week WE work Jesus’ miracle in REVERSE, taking the strong, heady WINE of the Gospel and turning it BACK into WATER, making it DULL and insipid. The BLAND leading the BLAND: shame on US! And he was RIGHT! WE in the church NEED to start ENJOYING our FAITH, AND our LIVES! WE in the church NEED to do more PARTYING and CELEBRATING!
However, DON’T get me WRONG! I’m NOT suggesting that we follow the WORLD’S way of partying! It’s true: the world’s way of partying IS different! The WORLD says: HOARD the good wine! KEEP it for YOURSELF! GET everybody plastered and then pass off the CHEAP stuff! GIVE, in order to keep others OBLIGED to you! Get AWAY with anything you CAN! TAKE whatever you can GET! And look OUT for YOURSELF! The WORLD says: there’s never ENOUGH, so we should PARTY and CELEBRATE when we get MORE than our SHARE. Jesus, on the other hand, says that there is MORE than ENOUGH, IF we would ALL just learn to SHARE it. And when we DO share it, we’ll REALLY have something to celebrate, WITHOUT having to make SURE that the SECURITY system is armed and the GUARDS are in place. For the WORLD, you see, it’s all about COMPETITIVE consumerism: MY toys are bigger than YOUR toys! But JESUS calls us into loving COMMUNITY, where we ALL can SHARE our toys and ENJOY them TOGETHER! Yes, it’s a NEW way: this living from a mindset of ABUNDANCE, rather than a mindset of SCARCITY. But, it’s SO important! AND, it takes FAITH!
AS they WITNESSED the miracle at the WEDDING reception, Jesus’ disciples FOUND faith! They grew to TRUST Jesus, and were DRAWN to the wonderful, MAGNETIC power by which He ENGAGED life, and LIVED His life. And WE must grow to trust Him TOO! And WHEN we DO, we will REALIZE that the ONE who came that WE might have LIFE, and have it ABUNDANTLY, is HIMSELF the LIFE of the party. HE DOESN’T change WINE into WATER. He changes WATER into WINE! And it IS a miracle of ABUNDANCE, BLESSING and CELEBRATION! SO, friends, let us CELEBRATE our BLESSINGS! Let us CELEBRATE the PRESENCE of the DIVINE and ALL the ABUNDANCE God PROVIDES. And let us CELEBRATE it by SHARING it and ENJOYING it TOGETHER! For Jesus has TAUGHT us that the Kingdom of God is a great big PARTY, a BANQUET of new life, and NOT just for SOME, but for ALL God’s children everywhere. Thanks be to God. Amen
(With thanks to my colleague, David Ruhe)