Jesus and Mary at Cana

 Scripture John 2:1-11 NRSV 

2 On the third day there was a wedding in Cana of Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there. 2 Jesus and his disciples had also been invited to the wedding. 3 When the wine gave out, the mother of Jesus said to him, “They have no wine.” 4 And Jesus said to her, “Woman, what concern is that to you and to me? My hour has not yet come.” 5 His mother said to the servants, “Do whatever he tells you.” 6 Now standing there were six stone water jars for the Jewish rites of purification, each holding twenty or thirty gallons. 7 Jesus said to them, “Fill the jars with water.” And they filled them up to the brim. 8 He said to them, “Now draw some out, and take it to the chief steward.” So they took it. 9 When the steward tasted the water that had become wine, and did not know where it came from (though the servants who had drawn the water knew), the steward called the bridegroom 10 and said to him, “Everyone serves the good wine first, and then the inferior wine after the guests have become drunk. But you have kept the good wine until now.” 11 Jesus did this, the first of his signs, in Cana of Galilee, and revealed his glory; and his disciples believed in him.

12 After this he went down to Capernaum with his mother, his brothers, and his disciples; and they remained there a few days.

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Darmok and Jalad at Tanagra  

Shaka, when the walls fell.

Temba, his arms open.

No?  

 What if I said, 

Naomi and Ruth in Moab 

Rahab at Jericho, when the walls fell 

the Magi at Bethlehem

Most of you will understand what I’m talking about, right?  Those phrases will connect in your minds with stories you know well.  These stories have the same meaning as the ones I first named - people working together toward a common cause, the defeat of a great city, and the giving of useful gifts.  But the last three are more familiar to us than the first, because they come from our culture, our literature, even our history.

Communication is a tricky thing.   

In this Star Trek episode Captain Picard of the Federation Starship Enterprise and Captain Dathon of the Tamarians, are suddenly stranded together on a planet and hunted by a beast, with no common ground for communication.  Captain Picard speaks as we do while Captain Dathon speaks only in metaphors, using well known stories from his culture to communicate matters of vital importance.   It takes a while but Picard, who is really gifted at diplomacy, is eventually able to understand Dathon well enough to form an alliance that saves both their lives.  It turns out that Darmok and Jalad at Tanagra is the story of two strangers, potential enemies, who come together to defeat a common foe.  Which is exactly what these two starship captains must do.  And of course they succeed, because Enterprise Captains always succeed by the end of the hour.

But even when we speak the same language, cultural differences can result in lack of understanding.   I grew up with European fairy tales, nursery rhymes and Aesop’s Fables, so I would use them as illustrations in conversation.  Then I married a Navajo who had alway lived mostly among Hispanic folk. He didn’t know the stories I knew.  I didn’t  know the stories he knew.  The things I grew up to think of as “norms” were totally different from his “norms.”   It made communication a struggle, sometimes.  (Of course, it was his opinion that any marriage between a male and a female was a mixed marriage, because we tend to think entirely differently anyway . . .)

When I say, “Jesus and Mary at Cana” almost all of you will immediately think of the wedding feast where, at his mother’s insistence, Jesus changed the water into wine.  Some of you might not know the reference right off hand, but you probably can figure it out pretty quickly.  This would be because everyone here has some familiarity with the Bible.  Not because other people have told you about the Bible, or because you heard some of the stories in church, but because you have read it for yourself.   

Jesus and Mary at Cana.  Jesus has recently been baptized and has selected his first four disciples. He is about to embark upon his ministry, his mission from God.  But before he leaves Galilee he goes to a wedding, where they run out of wine and his mother says, “They have no wine.”  And Jesus says, “it’s not time yet.”  And Mary ignores his protest, because she is his mother and she has made her desires clear.  “Do something, son.”  Why?  No one knows for sure. Changing the water into wine is Jesus’ first miracle, and the one that has more people scratching their heads than any other.   Certainly, turning water into wine so that people can get more drunk at a wedding doesn’t seem to be quite on a par with healing lepers and casting out demons, raising the dead and giving sight to the blind.   And there is a lot of speculation about why he did this particular thing.  And I could probably wax eloquent on the significance of using water that is intended for purification, and the hint forward to the Last Supper and the new covenant (except that John doesn’t tell that story in quite the same way the other Gospel writers do).  But I won’t.  Jesus himself never explains it.  He just does it, lets the bridegroom take credit for the great wine, and the next day heads off to Capernaum with his four disciples, his mother and his brothers, where they spend a few days.    Jesus changed water into wine, because his mother asked him to, and to show his four new disciples that he was, indeed, what John the Baptizer had proclaimed about Jesus to his own disciples, “Here is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world! . . .And I myself have seen and have testified that this is the Son of God.” (John 1:29, 34)  And because it is a model, a metaphor if you will, for doing nice things for others just because you can, and not taking credit for it.  

But we all know the story.  People use it as permission to drink, especially when defending themselves to Christians who proclaim that drinking alcohol is a sin.  I’m not quite sure where they get that rule.  There are some warnings about drunkenness in  Leviticus, Proverbs, Luke, and Galatians, and elsewhere, but so far as I know, there is no specific prohibition against the use of alcohol in moderation.  Believers are free to use alcohol or not, as Paul said, “whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do everything for the glory of God.”  (1 Cor. 10:31).

Jesus and Mary at Cana.  A reference we all recognize.  A story we all know.  But how about people who have a sort of vague understanding of some of the things that can be found in the Bible and can even quote some bits, but are also likely to think that some of Benjamin Franklin’s sayings and quotes from Shakespeare are Biblical in origin.   What happens when we use particularly Christian language around people who have never read the Bible, or had much exposure to church?  Our definition of some words may be entirely different from the way the rest of the world understands that word.  

Have you ever found yourself in a conversation with someone in which it becomes clear that you are using the same words but meaning entirely different things?   Some of you here may not always know what I’m talking about, or why we do things the way we do them in worship.   In fact - the very word worship may mean something different to you than it does to me.  To some, worship is that portion of the Sunday service spent singing praise songs.  To me, however, worship is the entire experience, from the lighting of the candles to the final Amen.   To some, God’s kingdom simply means heaven, a place they will go after their time here on earth is done, where they will meet all those who have gone before.  It may or may not be a place where Frances Shaw gets to cook casseroles for her husband again - which is what she was looking forward to - but it will be a place of beauty and peace.   To others, God’s kingdom is also a way of living. When I speak of God’s kingdom on earth, I am speaking of a world where oppression no longer exists, where those with a lot are willing to share with those who have little, where no one must live hungry or lonely, where no one is hated or excluded.  When I speak of God’s kingdom, I am talking about the Beloved Community the Martin Luther King, Jr. spoke of, a society based on justice, equal opportunity, and love of one’s fellow human beings.  

Darmak and Jalad at Tanagra.  A metaphor for people working together for a common purpose.

Jesus and Mary at Cana.  A metaphor for doing something nice for someone for no  particular reason, just because we can.  And doing it without seeking recognition.  

It is one of many metaphors that we recognize easily.  But maybe it’s one that other people don’t know or understand, as with Captain Picard and Captain Dathon.  Maybe we need to tell those stories, and talk about what they mean to us, why they are important.  How they change our lives.   So that others may understand, and be drawn to the one whose stories we tell.