Sermon by The Rt. Rev'd. Dr. Charles Dorrington at Holy Trinity CHurch
THE CHURCH OF THE HOLY TRINITYEpiphany 3 - 22 January, 2012
“God’s provision in all circumstances”
TEXT:- St. John 2:5
“His mother said to the servants, “Whatever He says to you, do it.”
Our Gospel reading for to-day has a lot of good stuff in it. Jesus and His disciples have gone to a wedding party. Lots of people are there. It seems that Jesus’ mother is catering the event, at least she seems to be responsible for the wine portion of it. The Bride and groom are enjoying themselves. After what has seemed to them like an eternity of waiting, through the betrothal period where they have lived to-gether, but didn’t go to bed to-gether, the time of becoming one has finally arrived.
All of the guests are dressed in their best wedding finery, and, what they could not supply themselves was often supplied for them by the father of the bride. The party is in full swing, and it appears that all is going well, that is, until they run out of wine. What a calamity!!! What an embarrassment!!! If something is not done right away, the groom will be ashamed, the bride’s father will be ashamed, and Mary will be ashamed!!!
How could this have happened??? Surely she would have planned better than this??? But no. As Robbie Burns once wrote in a poem about a wee little timorous mousie:- “The best-laid schemes o' mice an 'men Gang aft agley, An'lea'e us nought but grief an' pain, For promis'd joy!” And so, how to solve the dilemma??? Mary, like any typical mother, turns to her Son, Jesus, for help. “They have no wine!!!” Mary might not have been responsible for the wine, but, like a good Jewish mama, she certainly took on the need to solve the problem.
Jesus replies to Mary, “Woman, what does your concern have to do with Me? My hour has not yet come.” At first, His answer seems quite cold and callous, doesn’t it? But, that is to understand it as Gentiles, and not as Jews. In essence, the Greek term in the Text translated in English as “Woman” could be more rightly and softly understood as “Mother.” Jesus reveals here that He was looking into the future, to the time of His death, when He would be using wine as a symbol of His blood to be shed on the Cross for the sins of the world. Mary knew, even before Jesus was born, that He was destined for greatness. Little did she realize just what that really meant!! She had heard others prophesy about Him, and especially Simeon and Anna in the Temple of Jerusalem at the time of His circumcision. She had watched Him grow, and she had seen the things 12 years later, that had happened in the Temple at the Feast of Passover. She did not always understand this Son of hers. How could she???
Jesus’ comment here, in this episode, is to help Mary make the transition from seeing Jesus as her child, to being able to see Him as her Lord, to keep her from undue pride, and to indicate that He Himself, as Lord, sovereignly determines when He will intervene in human affairs. He does not perform miracles on demand, merely to impress His friends, nor to give His mother a sense of joy in watching her Son do something spectacular. Actually, in this sentence, Jesus both honoured and cared for His mother. In the agony of being executed, He entrusted her to His beloved disciple whom He especially loved. As a result, Mary was present, and praying with the other disciples in the Upper Room after Jesus’ resurrection. She had come to the place of knowing that her Son was also her Lord. Mary’s response to Jesus’ answer is very telling. She simply says
“Do what He tells you to do.” Obviously, Mary was neither dissatisfied nor put off by Jesus’ answer. She had received His answer in the way that He had meant it. And Jesus
did not ignore Mary’s concern. He actually granted her far more than she had asked, or could ever have imagined.
“Do what He tells you to do.” The servants did as Jesus asked, and brought the water-pots to Him, and filled them with water. In the jugs, was now a mixture of clean water and dirty water. Water from the well and water contaminated by the dirt of the streets. Water that had been untouched, and water that had been used to wash people’s feet as they entered the house. The servants and Jesus knew just what was in the water-pots. It is also quite possible that Mary and the disciples knew. But, they said nothing.
They accepted that Jesus was able to change the very substance and nature of what was in the pots. The servants gladly scooped out pitchers of the wine that Jesus had just brewed in front of their eyes, and hastened to fill everyone’s glasses. Without saying a word!!! What would you have done if you had been one of those servants??? Would you have tasted the wine first, just to make sure??? Would you have poured some for just one person, and then watched the reaction before pouring for another??? Would you have trusted this Jesus, this Son of a local woman, this carpenter’s son??? If it was just dirty water in those water-pots, these men would have been in great trouble. They would have lost their jobs. They might even have been abused and badly treated by the guests, and by the Master of the Feast. But no!!! The wine that Jesus made “Was the best!!!” The Master of the Feast said so!!!
Why did Jesus do this miracle?? Did He do it to help His mother?? Perhaps. Did He do it to save the bride and groom from embarrassment?? Perhaps. Did He do it just because He could??? I doubt it. Had He already experimented on other miracles before this moment? We don’t know, and speculation would be foolish. So why did He do it???
I believe that He did it because it was now the time for He and His disciples to begin the three years of walking the highways and byways of Israel. He had been baptized by John
in the Jordan, and He had faced down Satan in the wilderness. He had gathered a group of men about Him, and He knew that His time was beginning to run short. Now was the time to begin, and now was the time to show His disciples Who He was. They needed to believe in Him, without any doubt in their hearts or minds, if they were to follow Him all the way to the Cross.
What is it that we to-day need to be doing, if we are to do what Jesus says we are to do?? Next week is our Annual General Meeting, when we look at the past year, at what we did and did not do as a church, and where we lay out our plans for this year as to what we are planning and hoping to be able to do.
As most of you know by now, one of my favourite Old Testament readings is from the 58th chapter of the Book of Isaiah, where God points out the type of fast that pleases Him. He lists them as :- Loosing the bonds of wickedness; undoing heavy burdens; etting the oppressed go free; breaking every yoke; sharing our bread with the hungry; housing the poor; clothing the naked; and not hiding ourselves from our own families. Quite a list. This morning’s Epistle reading also offers us some suggestions and they are very similar to what is in Isaiah. We are instructed by St. Paul to treat our enemies in a very special way. We are to feed them when they are hungry, and to give them a drink when they are thirsty.
Over this next week, I ask that each person here to take some time to consider what these things mean to us as individuals, and as a church. How are we to respond
to those outside the church doors, who wish, at the bottom of their hearts, that the church would just go away and leave them alone. They want our tax shelters to be eliminated, and our buildings and properties to be used for something else. Most of all, they want us to shut up about our moral standards, and leave them alone to live in whatever manner they choose. They want nothing to do with God, and with a Saviour Who calls them to live their lives very differently. The only way that we will ever break down the barriers that they build, that separate them from us, is when we purposefully reach out to them with the love of Jesus Christ, meeting their needs, and helping them to overcome their hurts and pains.
“Whatever He says to you, do it.” Please pray this week for the guidance of the Holy Spirit at our AGM, that we might know what it is that the Lord would have us do in a very particular way, here in the Colwood/Langford/Metchosin/Sooke area. And when you have heard from the Lord, write it down, and bring it with you to the Meeting so that we can consider it, and respond as Christ would have us respond.
The servants at the wedding brought dirty water to Jesus, and He turned it into the best wine. What do we have to bring to the Lord that He might turn it into the best of wine?
Let us pray.