christopherhildreth

In lieu of the comments from Sunday’s message I feel compelled to bring up the story of Jesus and the wedding in Cana. In spite of the church’s need to display Jesus as a party pooper, he was nothing of the sort. Jesus was, in fact, the kind of guy you would want around if you were to throw a party.

Jesus’ ability to turn water into wine, although very handy, is not the reason I chose to give my allegiance to him. Jesus embodies hope and gives me a reason to wake up in the morning. He sees all of life as a sacred celebration. This story is full of implications that when life seemingly runs out of joy/hope/peace/meaning (wine) he is there to bring it back. When everything seems lost and the party is doomed, look for Jesus like Mary did and he’ll bring the abundant life back to your party.

The biggest thing this story can teach us is seen as John mentions that it took place on the third day. The third day is typical of resurrection, and if so, the first day would be the wonderful – everything is OK  good Friday. The second day would have to be those liminal spaces where we are anything but settled, but the third day is significantly different. With Jesus’ response, the third day becomes a day filled with expectancy and hope.

For us the significance of this story has to go to the jars of water. Prepared for a sacred service they are transformed into functional jars for the service of the people. How much of our own religious world is filled with sacredness. So much so that we overlook it’s functionality to service. If the service needs to change from Sunday to Thursday let’s change it. If we need to sit on the floor instead of pews, let’s do it. If we need to have a true conversation instead of a talking head let’s do it. Certainly in the church there are issues of practicality, but ultimately everything that we do has the ultimate end of bringing people into the abundant life Christ has given to us. Everything is a means to that end – not an end to itself.

Mary knew that the party didn’t have to end. She knew what resided in Christ -and so do we. As we look toward our future, let our response be that of Jesus. Crank up the music, tell the baby-sitter you’ll be late, smile and grab your partner, this party isn’t near over. The best really is yet to come!

This entry was posted on September 17, 2008 at 12:23 pm and is filed under Awareness, Belief, Context, Creativity, Influence, Kingdom of God, Life, religion. You can subscribe via RSS 2.0 feed to this post's comments. You can comment below, or link to this permanent URL from your own site.