2nd Sunday after Epiphany

Sermon: 2nd Sunday after Epiphany, 1/19/2025

Texts: John 2:1-11

Grace, Peace, and Mercy from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.

How generous is God? It is a question with an answer in today’s Gospel reading, for the author of John’s Gospel gives us an image and a number as to how generous God is. As we heard in the story of the wedding at Cana, Jesus, His mother Mary, and the disciples are invited to a wedding. At a certain point in this wedding, the wine runs out, which means less happy guests, a big no-no for a wedding. Mary notices this, and thus intervenes on the party’s behalf and let’s Jesus know about the situation. Like any mother-son relationship, Jesus is like, really? You are asking me to do this now? And Mary seems to kind of bypass the slight and tells the servants: do whatever he tells you, meaning He’ll do something, follow His lead, don’t worry about it. So Jesus instructs the servants to fill six stone water jars with water, each holding twenty or thirty gallons, which he will soon turn into wine. So if we do the simple math here, Jesus makes around 120 to 180 gallons of wine. That in turn means Jesus made enough wine to fill nearly 1,000 bottles of wine, for just this one wedding. And it wasn’t the cheap stuff, this is the real deal, keeping the best for last. This number has made people write articles that ask the question: Why did Jesus make so much wine? Of course, to focus too much on the particulars here is to miss the point. The hyperbolic amount of wine is part of the disclosure of God’s very self in Christ. We as human beings might put a cap on how much people deserve or need to receive, often

those in power like to dictate what and which people deserve to have according to their own limited viewpoint, thus creating our current inequalities. But in Jesus Christ, God is the guest at your party that pays no expense in bringing to you the best wine, deserving or undeserving. Where Christ is, He brings with Him, not a little bit, not a moderate amount, not even more than enough, but an overabundance, an extravagant amount of joy for everybody, not just a few. So how generous is God? Overwhelmingly so.

So this God that we worship does not put limits upon Himself to shower you with His plenty. And we experience this in so many ways, starting with what we do at the beginning of every service. Even though we sin and fail constantly, God does not forgive you one day and reject you another. By no means, God forgives you seventy times seven, and beyond that until your last breath. As Paul declared in Romans 5: “But where sin abounded, grace did much more abound”. He does not tire in listening, but gladly listens to the stirrings of your hearts, not some times, but always. His grace is continuously being given to you to accept, to take hold of. Often it is not a question as to will God forgive me my sins. Rather, it is God has forgiven you in the name of Jesus Christ, what will you do next? Will you join in the rhythm of God’s overabundant grace? Will you allow yourself to be taken in completely in the workings of God in Christ?

And even then, when we enter and strive towards our Christian life, does God expand His generosity. For when we think we have to do everything, as if the world rests

upon our shoulders, does God lift up our burdens and lightens the load. Paul describes this very beautifully in 1 Corinthians 12, as he witnessed how the Spirit freely gave to the community a diversity of gifts. The life of the early church did not depend on the capacities and abundance of one single person, but rather the life of the church was enriched by the abundance of gifts among a diversity of people, each according to their talents and dispositions. Like the overabundance of wine at Cana, Christ gives us a whole community by which our lives may receive joy and rest. Let me tell you, if it wasn’t for every one of you, your contributions, your time and efforts, your gifts, this church could not be. You are the church that God has formed, through you God richly provides an atmosphere where His love can be communicated to the world. Through all of your hands, a generous God shows up indeed.

And so, this God who gives us the wine of joyful life also gives us the wine of great dreams and hopes. For those that join the wedding feast are not talking in practicalities and limitations, but rather in great strides of desires for joy and wholeness. Tomorrow we shall celebrate the memory of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. And Dr. King was not bound by the limitations of his time, he knew very well the vision that sprung from those glimpses of joy at Cana. He saw the world anew, baptized into the new world of God’s Kingdom, where justice prevailed over hatred and prejudice. And so when justice had run out in this society, Dr. King knew very well what must be lived out: “we will not be satisfied until justice rolls down like

waters and righteousness like a mighty stream.” The overabundant joy of Cana, of God’s Kingdom of justice for the oppressed, cannot be denied, it must overwhelm us and reveal in us the light of love. As Dr King desired so ardently: “If I can help somebody as I pass along, If I can cheer somebody with a word or song, If I can show somebody he’s traveling wrong, Then my living will not be in vain. If I can do my duty as a Christian ought, If I can bring salvation to a world once wrought, If I can spread the message as the master taught, Then my living will not be in vain. Yes, Jesus, I want to be on your right or your left side, (Yes) not for any selfish reason. I want to be on your right or your left side, not in terms of some political kingdom or ambition. But I just want to be there in love and in justice and in truth and in commitment to others, so that we can make of this old world a new world.”

Thus, let us drink up the wine that Christ serves. Let us steep ourselves in overabundant joy, let the world be transformed with the revelation of Cana, the wonderful and powerful life that Christ bring in Himself. Let us feast together with this Jesus, let us do as he says, and pour for this world the joy of living in love and justice and truth. That God’s generous and overabundant grace transform and enliven our lives for the sake of our community, that our unique gifts bring joy to those around us, filling the lacks with free generosity and kindness. Let the table become bigger and bigger, as there is much good wine to be shared. Let us pray: