It's great to be back from vacation and find myself with you in this second Sunday of Epiphany, hearing today the third of the great manifestations of God in Christ Jesus. The first ... the arrival of the Magi. The second ... his baptism in the River Jordan. And today the third, his gracious action at the wedding in Cana, changing water into wine for the joy of the wedding party. This is a story of celebration and extravagance. A story of generosity and abundance. A story of love overflowing and lives transformed from mere water into wine.

The theme of the season of Epiphany is that of showing the world who Jesus is, and what he's come to do, and who he is in relation to God. Changing water into wine is the first of his miracles, this one a sign to his first disciples of what his ministry is to be. Jesus' miracle at the wedding is a sign that what God has in mind for us, indeed, for the whole creation, is a restoration of the bountiful goodness that existed from the beginning of creation. Through Jesus Christ, God wants us to know that, indeed, we have life and have it abundantly.

This revelation is intended to lead us to into great joy. Today's miracle at Cana is an enactment of the good news of great joy for all the people of which the angels sang at Jesus' birth.

We are expressing and singing this joy in a variety of ways this morning in music from different centuries and in different styles. I've asked our organist extraordinaire, Tom Harmon, to help me illustrate or shall we say "sound out" our theme of joy.

The first of these is "Jesus, joy of our desiring" which we sang from our hymnal a bit earlier. Tom tells me that this is the concluding chorale of Cantata 147 entitled: "Heart and Mouth and Deed and Life," expressing in a variety of voices and moods the truth that the entirety of who and what we are is to be validated through Christ, without fear, because he is God and Savior. A more literal translation from the German of what we sang today would express it this way: "Jesus remains my joy. He is the strength of my life. Thus I will never depart from Christ. I will not turn my heart or countenance from Christ."

Tom will show us how Bach expresses "joy" in an abundance of notes! (Music)

The Gospel of John launches Jesus' public ministry with this wedding story of celebration and joy. We have leapt rapidly from the birth of Jesus to his baptism as an adult and now to the inauguration of his public ministry. Perhaps this is an especially important story for us American Christians to hear on this Sunday as we look to the inauguration of a new president and wonder what his leadership will bring to our nation. In our scripture reading this day, we are given the gift of knowing what God intends for this world and for our lives-a world of generosity and gladness, lives of joy and justice . . . and perhaps that knowledge can give us some perspective to evaluate what earthly rulers would seek to do.

Now, it's a strange story to be sure, and stranger still that John chose it to inaugurate Jesus' ministry. Jesus has come of age, he's selected six of his disciples and they, together with his mother, Mary, have all gone to a wedding in Cana. The details are sketchy as to why they were there, just who was getting married, that sort of thing, but then details are not John's main concern in writing this story. No, John was more wanting to give us a sneak preview of all that is to come, of Jesus and his ministry and, more grandly, of God's intent for the redemption of the whole of creation.

A funny thing happens at this wedding in Cana.  Mary, who we may recall, has since her son's birth, been pondering all kinds of things in her heart through the years of his growing up, now seems to sense before he does that it's time to jump in. She provokes him to ministry, as one preacher puts it, observing wryly, "They have no wine."

Now, we could stay on the level of how awful it is to be a bad host and not provide appropriately for one's guests. We could speak of a young couple disappointed that their first real party seems destined to flop. And we could conclude that Jesus is just basically the kind and thoughtful sort of friend who comes to the rescue in a pinch, someone we'd love to know, someone handy to have around to bail us out when we're in a tight spot.

But all of that would miss the point and power of this story. Because what Jesus does is way beyond all that. Five or six hundred liters of water become wine, the finest wine. What an extravagance! This story is meant to remind us of the incalculable measure of God's love. From the creation 'til now, love overflowing, a land of milk and honey, our cup running over with goodness and mercy, our feet anointed with the finest oil. Loaves and fishes for all who are hungry, with some to spare. What a wonderful world! A celebration of the abundance of God's love for us. By the way, you can get the flavor of this sweet exuberance in the delightful new movie "Chocolat," from the book by Joanne Harris.

If we could place ourselves among the astonished wedding guests and simply enjoy this thing that has come to pass, we could live free. We could be so confident in God's abiding care for us that we would stop worrying and enjoy the wonderful world and look forward to a continuation of the party in the life to come.

We could relax into joy, and cherish each precious moment of this life. We could love magnanimously and extend hospitality to all. We could rest content with an appropriate share of the earth's resources and thereby ensure that there would be enough now and for generations to come.

Tom plays "What a Wonderful World" (Music)

Recognize that music? If you've been watching the fabulous Ken Burns social history on "Jazz" this week, or if you love Louis Armstrong, you'll know the words: "I see skies of blue and clouds of white. The bright blessed day and the dark sacred night. And I say to myself: What a wonderful world."

Without a doubt, that music of the 20th century, like Bach's of the 18th century, gives expression to the feeling of gratitude and joy that pervades today's scripture readings and this season of Christmastide and Epiphany.  Thanks to the birth of Christ, the coming of the Messiah, those glad tidings of joy for all the people, we know that this is, indeed, a wonderful world.

But, but . . . it's hard for us, isn't it, to really believe that there's more than enough of everything? We live amidst God's abundance, yet we operate out of the myth of scarcity. We are too fearful, too timid, too faithless, to accept God's true generosity for us, and instead we consume with a voracious appetite to assuage our fears and fill up the emptiness inside. And we wonder why we so rarely experience true joy.  We sense the emptiness that a hymn writer once described . . . that we are "rich in things but poor in soul."

Let me share a fascinating statistic I came across just recently. If the world's population was shrunk to a village of 100 people, with all existing human ratios remaining the same, here's what we'd see:

• 57 Asian
• 21 European
• 14 from Western Hemisphere, North and South Africa
• 52 female
• 48 male
• 70 non-white
• 30 white
• 6 would possess 59% of the earth's entire wealth, and all 6 would be from the United States
• 80 would have substandard housing
• 70 would be unable to read
• 50 would suffer from malnutrition
• 1 would be near death
• 1 would be near birth
• 1 would have a college education
• 1 would own a computer

The biblical scholar Walter Brueggemann observes that "we who are now the richest nation are today's main coveters. We never feel that we have enough; we have to have more and more, and this insatiable desire destroys us. Whether we are liberal or conservative Christians, we must confess that the central problem of our lives is that we are torn apart by the conflict between our attraction to the Good News of God's abundance and the power of our belief in scarcity-a belief that makes us greedy, mean and unneighborly. We spend our lives trying to sort out that ambiguity."

As we move now into this new year, this new millennium, this new presidency, this new church year, we must again decide where our trust is to be placed. And how we will live.

At that wedding in Cana, the mother of Jesus challenges our Lord, observing: "They have no wine." They have no provisions. And they have no joy. This mother who sang the Magnificat before her son's birth. This mother who saw into his future and knew that he would be the one to lift up the lowly and fill the hungry with good things and scatter the proud in the imagination of their hearts. She had pondered thirty long years and now at this wedding party she simply observes: they have no wine. And after some hesitation, Jesus turns the water into wine. And his ministry is inaugurated. His reign of love and justice. His kingdom without end. His good news of great joy for all the people.

The text of the Bach piece Tom will play as our postlude this morning puts it in these words: "In thee is gladness. Amidst all sadness, O Thou Sweet Lord Jesus Christ. Through Thee are given the gifts of heaven. Thou the true redeemer art. From shame thou deliverest us. Our bonds thou breakest (you'll hear that in the pedal). We cling to thee in life and death. Nothing can harm us. Alleluia."

(Music)

Dear brothers and sisters, we that love the Lord, Christ Jesus has come that we might have life and have it abundantly. That in that abundance we might live free, neither hoarding nor clinging to the things of this world.

At the very beginning of his ministry, John gives us a sneak preview of everything that God intends in Christ Jesus. That all might live through amazing grace, joy unending, mercy without end, love with no limits.

In this new year, may our lives show forth the joy that dawns in the coming of our Lord and Savior, as we sing now our joy in the mode of this 19th century gospel hymn, "Marching to Zion."

NOTES

1. Deep Memory, Exuberant Hope. Walter Brueggemann. Minneapolis, Augsburg Fortress, 2000.
2. Sojo Mail 1/05/01. Sojourners@sojo.net.

© Patricia E. Farris, 2001. Permission is given for brief quotation with attribution. All other rights reserved.