[Music]
welcome to the commons cast we're glad
to have you here we hope you find
something meaningful in our teaching
this week head to commons dot church for
more information
we have just started this long journey
to easter
and last week we gathered on ash
wednesday to remind ourselves of or
mortality
to remember that resurrection begins
with a journey through death
and that's sort of a sober way to begin
the movement towards celebration but
it's also really important isn't it
to recognize
that the story of god encompasses all of
our experiences as human beings all of
our hurts
but also our deepest joys and so that's
the journey that's ahead of us that's
why i'm wearing purple today that's
where we are headed and that's why we're
starting a new series
so what's our path forward well every
year
as we lay out the journal we look at a
number of different priorities for the
year
but during lent each year we often try
to find a way to put our focus and our
attention
directly onto the story of jesus
last year for example we followed the
travel narratives in luke as he charts
jesus physical journey as he walks
toward jerusalem
this year we've done something similar
again but we're going to trace a
particular motif that runs through the
gospel of john
john is an interesting gospel among the
four that we have in our bible we have
matthew and mark and luke and we often
call these the synoptics
that's a greek compound word and it just
means that they see together
and we use that because these writers
often rely on each other for their
stories matthew and mark or matthew and
luke clearly are borrowing stories from
mark which is probably the earliest
gospel
john is just different though
we've talked about this before but it's
important
john is written much later than the
other gospels
probably near the end of the first
century
what means is that the fourth gospel is
not so much recounting the story of
jesus the way that mark does for example
but this gospel is reflecting back on
the story of jesus
i like to think of john as sort of a
second generation text someone who has
grown up in the community that's been
shaped by jesus now looking back on what
it all means
not as concerned with what happened
as much as what it all meant
and one of the really unique ways that
the author of john does this is through
a motif that we want to look at on our
way toward easter
a series of stories that he identifies
as signs of things to come
see throughout the gospel of john there
are these seven miracles that point
toward resurrection
hints of what the author imagines jesus
kingdom to be about
and markers of what the world could be
like transformed into this new
imagination of god
and so over the five sundays of lent
through palm sunday and good friday we
are going to look at those seven signs
in john
and then on easter of course we will
celebrate the new creation of
resurrection
today however we have the first sign one
of my favorites jesus turning water into
wine before that let's pray
god who is
always ahead of us
both in our pain and in our celebration
inviting us forward with courage and
with hope
we ask that you would be near to us
today
in whatever fragile state we have
entered this room
we ask that your spirit of comfort be
gentle and close
reminding us of your presence with us in
all of the moments of our lives
might we remember today both our
constant need of you but also the
implication that that brings our
dependence on each other as well
where we can might we become a source of
encouragement and strength for each
other
might we help each other to carry the
burden of this season together
and in that
might even our lives become a sign of
things to come
a world infused with peace
that encompasses more than just the
laying down of weapons but also the
healing of our wounds
the space to be honest
and the freedom to smile without
expectation but only with deep joy
may your peace that passes understanding
takes shape not just as extraordinary
calm today
but also as justice for all
may our lives be signs of this peace to
come
in the strong name
of the risen christ we pray
amen
okay
signs of things to come today we're
going to celebrate that first sign water
into wine but on the agenda today is
apothec red familial tale stone jars and
sacred celebrations but let's start by
diving straight in and we're going to
read this story from john 2 and i'm
going to start at verse 1 i'm going to
read all the way through to verse 11
where it says this
on the third day a wedding took place at
cana in galilee jesus mother was there
and jesus and his disciples had also
been invited to the wedding
when the wine was gone jesus mother said
to him they have no more wine
woman why do you involve me jesus
replied my hour has not yet come
but his mother said to the servants do
whatever he tells you
nearby stood six stone water jars the
kind used by the jews for ceremonial
washing
each holding from 20 to 30 gallons
jesus said to the servants fill the jars
with water so they filled them to the
brim
and then he told them now draw out some
water and take it to the master of the
banquet
they did so and the master tasted the
water that had been turned into wine
and he did not realize where it had come
from though the servants who had drawn
the water knew
so he called to the bridegroom and asked
everyone brings out the choice wine
first and then the cheaper wine after
the guests have had too much to drink
but you
you have saved the best until now
what jesus did here in cana of galilee
was the first sign through which he
revealed his glory
and the disciples believed
in him
all right great story right i mean who
doesn't love a jesus that one keeps the
party going and two does that using the
good stuff i mean no apothic red
nonsense here going on and by the way if
you really like apothec red that's fine
i am just snooty so that's on me
although i bet that jesus agrees with me
and i can proof text that here in john 2
i bet he likes exactly the same wine
that i do however
this is still a pretty interesting story
particularly when john tells us that he
thinks
this right here all of this wine is the
first sign
of what is to come
so let's dig into this a bit and see
what we can find today
now intriguingly our story starts almost
like it's in the middle of a thought
doesn't it
on the third day a wedding took place at
cana in galilee
we have no context for this on the third
day of what we have no idea if you go
back to john 1 we get a story about john
the baptist
and then it says in verse 29 that the
next day john saw jesus coming toward
him
then in verse 35 it says the next day
john was there again with two of his
disciples and then in verse 43 it says
on the next day jesus decided to leave
for galilee and then in the start of
chapter two it says on the third day
there was a wedding
so it's possible we're just missing a
few days here in the narrative because
these days just don't really add up i
don't know what day we're on now six or
seven who knows
some scholars think that the three days
are symbolic
that because this is the first sign that
points to resurrection the three days
well maybe they point us to the three
days in the tomb maybe that seems a bit
of a stretch and it's certainly pretty
speculative though
there is however an interaction at the
end of john 1 that might shed some light
on this
a man named nathaniel comes to jesus and
declares his trust in jesus and jesus
says that's great but hold on to your
hat for you will see even greater things
than this
now we know from john 21
at the end of the gospel that nathaniel
was indeed from cana in galilee
and so maybe he was at this wedding and
maybe that's where the reference comes
from the wedding took place three days
after jesus promised to nathanael
of course we don't know for sure that's
both the beauty and sometimes the
frustration of biblical interpretation
sometimes there is just so much room for
speculation when we read
but i do like this as a possibility
because what it says to me
is that even something as important as a
sign of the resurrection started
as a personal encounter
it came about in response to a
conversation it was the result of an
expression of trust in jesus
in fact
maybe the only reason we have this story
maybe the only reason we know it is
because nathan recognized this for what
it was
a sign that his faith was not misplaced
and maybe he told this story far and
wide and maybe that story made its way
all the way to john
and over time that story
as it was passed and it was shared among
the community it became a sign for all
of us but first it was a sign for one
person nathaniel
and i think this kind of thing happens a
lot more than we realize
like i know
there are moments in my life
when small things remind me of why i
choose to trust in god
there are days when the truth is i don't
believe
it's lent it's okay to say that even if
you're a pastor
but it's those days when i don't believe
that i choose instead to trust
and those small moments those signs that
remind me that my trust is not misplaced
it's when i share those moments with
others delicately and appropriately
but it's when i invite you into my story
that my signs become your signs and vice
versa and maybe that's a bit of what's
happening here
which i just really love
the nathaniel story became john's story
becomes our story because that's how
faith and community work
even still though we don't have much
context here
we don't know who the lucky couple are
we don't know why jesus and his mom and
his disciples were invited to the party
but we do know however
that the party runs out of wine
and maybe this was just bad planning
maybe more guests showed up than
expected maybe jesus had more disciples
than they thought
maybe the crowd was just more ready to
celebrate than anyone had anticipated
either way the wine runs out and mary
finds out
and so she asks jesus to intervene
and he gives this sort of curt reply
woman why do you involve me
and that might sound harsh to our ears
if i was referred to my mom or my
partner as woman that would not go over
well i can tell you that
this is not however how this term gunai
implies tone here in greek now this was
a common term of endearment or actually
respect in greek
and actually i like the way that the
first nations version has translated
this section
it says so the mother of creator sets
free that's the name for jesus that this
translation uses the mother of creator
sets free said to him son they have no
more wine honored woman he said to her
why are you telling me this is this our
concern
it is not yet my time to show who i am
but his mother turned to the helpers and
said do whatever he needs
and i really like that
first
because it actually does a better job of
interpreting the scene
honored woman is not as technically
correct
but it is closer to the spirit of what's
actually happening here in the greek how
the term gunai would have been used
second though i love the way that this
captures the mother-son dynamic in the
scene
that jesus asks mary to intervene he
says mom don't get me involved in this
this isn't our issue but mary turns to
the helpers instead and says let's get
this done
i kind of picture mary here keeping eye
contact with jesus the whole time as she
beckons to the helpers and says help him
out
either way this sign reads kind of stiff
to me in english but in greek it just
feels a lot more playful than that maybe
more familial if that makes sense
and i think that might actually be
important
there are times
when it's really easy to start thinking
of jesus as a genie
we ask for things he grants them
and there are ways of praying that
presume upon jesus in a very
transactional unrelational kind of way
at this moment feels perhaps like a bit
of a counterpoint to all of that
sometimes we ask and sometimes jesus
says no and sometimes we ask again and
sometimes jesus relents
and i know that is not a very satisfying
theology of prayer
but maybe that's the
the point
is less a transaction where we say the
right words and we get the right
outcomes
and more like a family encounter with
sideways glances and inside jokes
and i think what i take from this is a
reminder to treat my prayer more like a
conversation with my mom and less like a
contract to employ
regardless
now we get to the heart of this scene
nearby stood six stone water jars the
kind used for ceremonial washing each
holding 20 to 30
gallons
so jesus said to the servants fill the
jars with water and they filled them to
the brim
now 20 to 30 gallons
times six stone jars
means we are talking about up to about
180 gallons or for us canadians 680
liters or perhaps a more useful
comparative here that's about 900
bottles of wine
and i have no idea how many guests were
at this party but this is shall we say a
lot to drink
especially considering
that this was already round two that the
guests had already finished off
everything the host had expected them to
drink
and in fact john goes out of his way to
mention that the helpers were asked to
fill the jars to their brims or
literally as far as their upward edge
so
this is wine
overflowing it probably sloshed about
and splashed on the ground even as they
tried to draw a sip for the hose to
taste
but not only that it was good wine the
best wine to boot
and john says this this massive
overflowing quantity of really good wine
meant to keep a party going long into
the night that this was the first sign
of things to come
except
i'm not actually sure the wine is the
point
now before the sommeliers storm the
stage let me explain
there's this really interesting motif in
john
water where it comes from is a really
big deal
in the next chapter
jesus will talk about needing to be
baptized in both water and spirit to
enter the kingdom
in chapter four jesus will meet a
samaritan woman at a well and talk to
her about the gift of living water
in chapter 5 jesus will heal a man at
the pool of bethesda a man who hopes
that the waters can heal him and in
chapter 6 jesus will walk on water you
get the idea
you would expect
that in a story about this much water
and this much wine that the source of
that water would have some kind of
attention
but instead it's actually the vessels
these six stone jars that seem to really
capture john's focus
so what's going on there jars used for
ceremonial washing is this for doing the
dishes well actually sort of but also
not really
these were used for cleansing dishes
but they were largely used for cleansing
your hands and maybe even sometimes for
cleansing your feet
and this idea of cleansing this is a
category that can be tough for us to get
our heads around sometimes
we've probably all heard about the idea
of something being clean and unclean in
judaism or perhaps in islam
this does not necessarily mean dirty or
bad
in english
we often associate a value judgment with
language like clean and unclean that's
not necessarily what's going on in
judaism
my son
has a really good friend who is muslim
and they were comparing diets one day at
school
my son is a vegetarian and he found out
that his friend also does not eat pig
and he was very excited about this
but he came home one day and he said to
me dad you know we're vegetarian well
it's a good thing we don't eat pigs
because my friend told me that they are
dirty
now i knew who he was talking about so i
clarified exactly what did your friend
say here
and then we had a conversation about
unclean in the religious sense and dirty
in the hygienic sense and now pigs are
actually quite clean animals we just
don't eat them in our house the same way
his friend doesn't for religious reasons
and by the way enjoy your bacon just
keep your memes to yourself i've already
seen them all i know what i'm missing
it's fine i'm kidding just send me
whatever you want
in judaism though
a lot of things could make you ritually
or ceremonially unclean
if you touch the grave for example or if
you had touched blood if you were a
woman who was menstruating if you had
even walked across certain lands these
things could render you ceremonially
unclean
that did not mean dirty or bad though
and there were rituals like a mikvah
that would rectify that and cleanse you
but unclean wasn't bad
it wasn't like unclean separated you
from god's love and cleansing brought
you back into god's good graces in fact
in judaism it was expected
that you would become unclean regularly
just by going about your daily business
and that you would then
cleanse yourself regularly to remind
yourself of your connection and your
commitment to god
that's what the rituals were meant for
not good and bad but rhythms of
commitment it's actually quite beautiful
and misunderstandings of these practices
have been caricatured in far too many
christian sermons and that's to our
shame because we haven't learned and
listened to our jewish neighbors
but along with
more elaborate ceremonies like a mikvah
or a baptism
jewish people would also often
ceremonially wash their hands after
something like coming home from the
market
or before enjoying a meal
now
that does seem to be a bit of practical
hygiene and religious observation
combined together
but that's what these six stone jars
would have been primarily used for at
the entrance to a party
a ceremonial religious ritual cleansing
that also had a very practical hygiene
element to it
in fact
john points out that they were made of
stone precisely because stone as a
non-porous material was protected from
becoming ceremonially unclean as part of
the jewish teaching
that's why you would use these types of
jars specifically
to wash your hands or to wash your
dishes no
as with any ritual
it was always possible for the meaning
to be swallowed up by the practice right
that jesus is quite critical of his
fellow pharisees that went through the
motions and lost sight of the purpose
in matthew 23 he says woe to you
teachers of the law and pharisees you
act like hypocrites
you clean the outside of the cup and
dish but inside you are still full of
greed and self-indulgence blind teacher
first clean the inside then the outside
will be clean as well
basically he's saying the ritual
is meant to help us remind us to keep
our hearts pure
but if we don't do that what's the point
of the ritual
this right here is just good old
pharisaical teaching that any teacher of
the law would have agreed with
jesus is just calling out his
contemporaries for not following through
on the intent of the law
all this to say
when jesus arrived at this party
he would have in all likelihood drawn
water from these same six stone jars
washed his hands and then entered the
celebration just like any other jewish
guest
except
that when jesus is asked with some help
with the wine he chooses these same six
stone jars and that's not just a
coincidence
remember
the whole reason
that mary has approached jesus is
because all the wine has run out in the
first place that means there are
literally empty wineskins lying all over
the place just waiting for their miracle
if he had wanted to he could have kept
the party going in a far less
conspicuous manner
instead he chooses intentionally these
jars of this symbol as the sign through
which he would make himself known
and think about that
jesus takes a symbol of our personal
piety
how those who knew god reminded
themselves of god's quiet presence with
them daily
how they set themselves apart in
connection to the vine trusting that it
would help them become better persons in
their lives and jesus transforms that
ritual
into a ruckus party that shook the
neighborhood late into the night
and for john i think
the symbolism of that moment the sign
was quite stark no longer are we
reminding ourselves of god's presence
with us
but now god is declaring divine goodness
among us
god is celebrating divine generosity
around us god is taking it upon god's
self to turn
our piety
into god's party
and at this moment
this was no longer just the celebration
of a random wedding in cana of galilee
this was no longer just a promise to
nathanael that he would see greater
things this was now the reminder that
every wedding
and every party and every the top moment
of unadulterated unconstrained joy all
of these are now signs of everything
that is to come
because jesus is saying
that family is united
and neighbors invited outsiders welcome
with more than enough to go around for
anyone who happens by
that itself is the story of god and
every time we enact that we point toward
what is to come
one of my favorite quotes
from one of my favorite authors one that
i have read here before it comes from
robert ferrara capone who writes this
what we are watching for is a party
but that party is not just down the
street making up its mind when it's
going to come to us it is already hiding
in our basement banging on the steam
pipes and laughing its way up the cellar
stairs
the unknown day and hour of its final
bursting into the kitchen and roystering
through the whole house is not dreadful
it is all part of the divine lark of
grace
because god is not our stuffy relative
come to see whether the wedding present
china is chipped
god is the funny old neighbor with a
salami under one arm and a bottle of
wine under the other and we do in need
need to watch for god's arrival
but only because
it would be such a pity to miss out on
this much fun
that's what the sign is about
this is jesus reassuring all of us that
our rituals are not a waste
that our attempts to be kind are not
overlooked that every time we commit
ourselves to the good trusting that god
will bring that story to completion that
in itself
is an image of the world made right
in joyful celebration
and perhaps
right now
at this moment in history just as it was
in jesus day that hope feels very far
off
but the point of the sign
especially as we begin our movement
toward the cross is not to deny all of
that hurt or to ignore what is happening
in the world or even in your life right
now
the point of a sign is to remind us to
hold tight to the ritual of celebration
and joy
to trust that even in the moments where
we struggle to believe celebration is
blessed and gladness is holy and that
when we make sacred our parties
we can find the strength to return from
them
committed even more to the work of
justice that the world so deeply needs
and so as we begin
our movement together toward both the
darkness of the cross
and the light and joy of the
resurrection
might we all remember somehow that every
moment of joy
that breaks in anywhere in our life this
is a sign of things to come
and that when we
learn how to dance and celebrate and
drink late into the night we can be
strengthened for the work of healing the
world around us
let's pray
god
for all the ways that you show up in all
of our lives
reminding us that you are present and
near comforting and guiding but also
knitting back your world together
we thank you for those signs
but also we thank you for this sign
the story that started at a party as a
response to a conversation and became a
story that was included in our gospels
that has
founded and grounded the church for two
thousand years now
to remind us that our movement towards
your kingdom starts with joy
that all of the work that we do in the
world both internal work
to become the people you imagine us to
be and the work we do for peace and
justice around us in our relationships
all of that work is grounded in
celebration
trusting that the world has a
destination
and that destination is your love and
embrace your kingdom that transforms
everything
might we trust in the renewal of all
things
believing that you are already at work
and we are part of that story
as we begin this movement toward easter
help us to prepare our hearts well
for the depth of good friday
and the celebration of resurrection
in the strong name
of the risen christ we pray
amen