The Wedding Feast

The Wedding Feast
Rev. Mark Schaefer
Kay Spiritual Life Center
January 14, 2007
Isaiah 62:1-5; 1 Corinthians 12:1-11; John 2:1-11

Is. 62:1                For Zion's sake I will not keep silent,
                        and for Jerusalem's sake I will not rest,
            until her vindication shines out like the dawn,
                        and her salvation like a burning torch.
2             The nations shall see your vindication,
                        and all the kings your glory;
            and you shall be called by a new name
                        that the mouth of the LORD will give.
3             You shall be a crown of beauty in the hand of the LORD,
                        and a royal diadem in the hand of your God.
4             You shall no more be termed Forsaken,
                        and your land shall no more be termed Desolate;
            but you shall be called My Delight Is in Her,
                        and your land Married;
            for the LORD delights in you,
                        and your land shall be married.
5             For as a young man marries a young woman,
                        so shall your builder marry you,
            and as the bridegroom rejoices over the bride,
                        so shall your God rejoice over you.

1Cor. 12:1   Now concerning spiritual gifts, brothers and sisters, I do not want you to be uninformed. 2 You know that when you were pagans, you were enticed and led astray to idols that could not speak. 3 Therefore I want you to understand that no one speaking by the Spirit of God ever says "Let Jesus be cursed!" and no one can say "Jesus is Lord" except by the Holy Spirit.
4   Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit; 5 and there are varieties of services, but the same Lord; 6 and there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who activates all of them in everyone. 7 To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good. 8 To one is given through the Spirit the utterance of wisdom, and to another the utterance of knowledge according to the same Spirit, 9 to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by the one Spirit, 10 to another the working of miracles, to another prophecy, to another the discernment of spirits, to another various kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of tongues. 11 All these are activated by one and the same Spirit, who allots to each one individually just as the Spirit chooses.

John 2:1   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.

I. BEGINNING

I have had occasion to go to a lot of weddings. That's bound to happen in my line of work, I admit. As much as I enjoy uniting two people in the bonds of matrimony and the celebration that follows it, I will confess that there is something a little more fascinating to me about weddings that are outside of my, shall we say... jurisdiction.

I am talking about Jewish weddings, Italian or Polish Catholic weddings, and in one spectacular case, a Persian wedding. The reason I find these weddings so interesting is that they very often contain a sense of almost reckless abandon in the celebration that is sometimes lacking in what we might consider the traditional wedding. The traditions of cocktails, toasts, first dances, dinner, followed by the electric slide, is festive and joyous--but it doesn't quite capture the same sense of abandon that you find in some of the other traditions.

In a Jewish wedding, dancing wildly in circles as the Hora plays is commonplace. They will often lift the bride and groom into the air on chairs (you can see an example of that on your bulletin cover). In addition, there is a tradition that the bride and groom are treated as king and queen for the day and at one point in the wedding reception, they will sit in chairs as their wedding guests come before them and entertain them, singing, dancing, juggling, telling jokes. It is a very enjoyable tradition.

At a Polish Catholic wedding I went to recently, I was stunned by how many people in attendance could polka. I'd never seen anything like that. And they polkaed for hours. I grew up watching Lawrence Welk every Saturday evening at my grandparents' and hadn't seen that much polkaing in all my life.

And then there was the Persian wedding. The Persian wedding starts with the cocktail hour. Around 9 pm. Then it moves into the service. And then returns to the reception hall where the bridal party and the wedding guests dance in circles for nearly an hour before anyone sits down to eat anything. And the dancing continues all night. I left at 3 a.m. and the party was still going on.

II. THE TEXT

There's a lot of wedding imagery in the Bible, Old Testament and New. And I think it's helpful to imagine not the traditional happy occasions that most weddings and wedding receptions are--but to imagine those wildly exuberant celebrations that we sometimes have occasion to experience.

The New Testament lesson we read about tonight is a familiar story--Jesus' first public miracle, according to John, the turning of the water into wine.

As we read the story, we hear that the wine has run out and Jesus' mother tells Jesus to do something about it. At first, he is dismissive, but she tells the attendants to do whatever he tells them to do. He tells them to fill up the ritual washing vessels with water. And when they draw forth water it has become wine. The chief steward is impressed and says to the bridegroom: "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."

Most of the commentaries focus on the miracle of turning the water into wine. The preaching helps all encourage me not to waste time trying to explain how the miracle took place and allowing it to have some mystery. Well, to tell you the truth, that's not where I was going to go with this anyway. Because, for me, the thing that stands out about this story is that it takes place at a wedding.

Certainly weddings were not the only places where wine would have been served. Jesus might have performed the miracle at any major banquet or festival. It could have, I suppose, taken place at a bar mitzvah. It could have taken place at any one of the major Jewish festivals. It could have taken place at any dinner--since wine was a far more common beverage at dinner than we are perhaps accustomed to.

But this takes place at a wedding. Curiously, we are not told whose wedding it is, or why Jesus and his mother are there-- but we are told that it is a wedding. And I do not think this is by accident.

III. THE ABSENCE OF SINGING

Weddings have particular symbolic power in the Old Testament. The prophets talk about them all the time. Many use weddings and marriage as a metaphor for the relationship between God and Israel. Often, as in Hosea, the metaphor is not flattering, as Israel is cast as an unfaithful wife who has prostituted herself out. With this image, the prophets seek to demonstrate to Israel how it has been unfaithful to God by serving other gods and by forsaking justice.

But it is not just the wedding of the Divine Lord with Human Israel that the prophets focus on. Jeremiah makes explicit reference to human weddings. First, he offers words of encouragement and challenge:

"For if you truly amend your ways and your doings, if you truly act justly one with another, if you do not oppress the alien, the orphan, and the widow, or shed innocent blood in this place, and if you do not go after other gods to your own hurt, then I will dwell with you in this place, in the land that I gave of old to your ancestors forever and ever." (Jeremiah 7:5-7 NRSV)

But then, Jeremiah continues with his indictment of Israel, and warns:

"For the people of Judah have done evil in my sight, says the LORD; they have set their abominations in the house that is called by my name, defiling it. And they go on building the high place of Topheth, which is in the valley of the son of Hinnom, to burn their sons and their daughters in the fire--which I did not command, nor did it come into my mind. Therefore, the days are surely coming, says the LORD, when it will no more be called Topheth, or the valley of the son of Hinnom, but the valley of Slaughter: for they will bury in Topheth until there is no more room. The corpses of this people will be food for the birds of the air, and for the animals of the earth; and no one will frighten them away. And I will bring to an end the sound of mirth and gladness, the voice of the bride and bridegroom in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem; for the land shall become a waste." (Jeremiah 7:30-34 NRSV)

And I will bring to an end the sound of mirth and gladness, the voice of the bride and bridegroom in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem; for the land shall become a waste.

Jeremiah talks about the devastation of the land that is coming as a result of Israel's wickedness. To illustrate that point he says that there will no longer be the sound of mirth and gladness, the voice of the bride and bridegroom in the cities of Judah and the streets of Jerusalem. It is an image utterly devoid of hope and meaning to signify desolation.

Perhaps some of you have had a chance to see the film Children of Men. It is a remarkable film that envisions a future where all of humanity is infertile, and women can no longer have babies. In the film, it is the absence of children's voices, the sound of children, that is meant to signify the hopelessness of the human race. A race without a future. It is exactly that image of desolation and of a future without hope that is meant to be conveyed in Jeremiah's description of a land without the sound of weddings. (Beyond that, the only major difference is that Jeremiah's version doesn't have Clive Owen in it).

IV. THE PROMISE OF DELIVERANCE

Later in Jeremiah's writings, it is the promise of wedding celebrations that illustrates the hope of redemption for the people:

"Thus says the LORD: In this place of which you say, "It is a waste without human beings or animals," in the towns of Judah and the streets of Jerusalem that are desolate, without inhabitants, human or animal, there shall once more be heard the voice of mirth and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride, the voices of those who sing, as they bring thank offerings to the house of the LORD: "Give thanks to the LORD of hosts, for the LORD is good, for his steadfast love endures forever!" For I will restore the fortunes of the land as at first, says the LORD." (Jeremiah 33:10-11 NRSV)

And so we understand that weddings in the Jewish tradition are not simply rituals of commitment of one person to another, they are a symbol of hope for the future. A symbol of God's providence and presence. At Jewish weddings to this day they sing a song called Od Yishama, Hebrew for "Again shall be heard" and they sing the verses of hope from Jeremiah that we just heard.

So, Jesus' first miracle at the wedding in Cana is no accident. It could not have been done at an ordinary dinner or at a Bar Mitzvah. Only a wedding captures what is happening--a promise about the future is being made and fulfilled.

And the miracle isn't exactly irrelevant either.

One of the interesting things about John's gospel is that he doesn't describe Jesus' miracles as "miracles" the way that the other three gospels do. In the Fourth Gospel, Jesus' miracles are described as "signs". Signs that tell us something.

Elsewhere in the Old Testament we read other prophets writing about the hope for deliverance:

The time is surely coming, says the LORD, when the one who plows shall overtake the one who reaps, and the treader of grapes the one who sows the seed; the mountains shall drip sweet wine, and all the hills shall flow with it. (Amos 9:13)

In that day the mountains shall drip sweet wine, the hills shall flow with milk, and all the stream beds of Judah shall flow with water; a fountain shall come forth from the house of the LORD and water the Wadi Shittim." (Joel 3:18 NRSV)

In addition to weddings being a sign of hope for the future, the abundance of good wine is an eschatological symbol and a sign of God's presence. And so we see that Jesus' turning water into wine at a wedding in Cana of Galilee is an act full of meaning and hope. Christ is the True Bridegroom who brings the sweetest and best wine to increase our joy.

V. SO WHAT

But so what?

What does this mean to you? To us?

Jeremiah takes ordinary, everyday weddings and fills them with meaning and significance as a sign of hope. Jesus, at one such wedding, takes ordinary water and transforms it into a sign of God's presence, and the fulfillment of God's purposes.

We can do likewise--well, not the water into wine part--but interpretation of the ordinary into signs of the promise of the divine.

A. Signs of Jubilant Celebration

What are the places in your life where you see joy? Where you find happiness? Is it in the company of friends? Is it in the fellowship we have after services? Is it the free pizza? Is it in the celebration after a favorite team's victory? What are the places of celebration and joy in our lives?

Some people think Christians are supposed to be dour and serious all the time. Many people think of Christians as being like the character "Angela" on the "The Office"--almost completely devoid of humor or mirth. And many people think that Christians are supposed to be happy all the time, and some Christians do have an almost Pollyannaish outlook on life where everything is 'just wonderful'. For me, both those characterizations fall woefully short.

For me, a Christian is one who when confronted by tragedy and sorrow, sees God in the suffering. Sees God in the wilderness places, in the brokenness.

And a Christian is one who when in a place of celebration, sees it as a sign of promise. Who sees in every joy a glimpse of that ultimate joy when the Lord will come and redeem us all. In every celebration, every joy, every happy occasion, we get a glimpse of the Great Wedding Feast--that great and happy day when we shall all feast in the kingdom of God, when the best wine will be brought forward.

We are meant to vest our joys with this kind of hope, so that our celebrations do not remain times when of our individual satisfaction--but are signs of the joy God will bring to us all. Some people are embarrassed by the presence of wine in some of the Gospel stories. But the wine is not there as an instrument of drunkenness or irresponsibility--it is there as a sign of joy, of that celebratory state of being that informs the believer's understanding of the joy of God.

VI. END

God does not promise us that we will always be happy. God promises to be with us--in good times and bad. And calls us to see the presence of God in our times of sorrow and celebration. And we know that the joys we experience now are only but a foretaste of the joy that awaits us all, because we know that our Bridegroom has kept the very best wine for last.

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*The Wedding Feast* Rev. Mark Schaefer Kay Spiritual Life Center January 14, 2007 Isaiah 62:1-5; 1 Corinthians 12:1-11; John 2:1-11 Is. 62:1 For Zion's sake I will not keep silent, and for Jerusalem's sake I will not rest, until her vindication shines out like the dawn, and her salvation like a burning torch. 2 The nations shall see your vindication, and all the kings your glory; and you shall be called by a new name that the mouth of the LORD will give. 3 You shall be a crown of beauty in the hand of the LORD, and a royal diadem in the hand of your God. 4 You shall no more be termed Forsaken, and your land shall no more be termed Desolate; but you shall be called My Delight Is in Her, and your land Married; for the LORD delights in you, and your land shall be married. 5 For as a young man marries a young woman, so shall your builder marry you, and as the bridegroom rejoices over the bride, so shall your God rejoice over you. 1Cor. 12:1 Now concerning spiritual gifts, brothers and sisters, I do not want you to be uninformed. 2 You know that when you were pagans, you were enticed and led astray to idols that could not speak. 3 Therefore I want you to understand that no one speaking by the Spirit of God ever says "Let Jesus be cursed!" and no one can say "Jesus is Lord" except by the Holy Spirit. 4 Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit; 5 and there are varieties of services, but the same Lord; 6 and there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who activates all of them in everyone. 7 To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good. 8 To one is given through the Spirit the utterance of wisdom, and to another the utterance of knowledge according to the same Spirit, 9 to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by the one Spirit, 10 to another the working of miracles, to another prophecy, to another the discernment of spirits, to another various kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of tongues. 11 All these are activated by one and the same Spirit, who allots to each one individually just as the Spirit chooses. John 2:1 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. I. BEGINNING I have had occasion to go to a lot of weddings. That's bound to happen in my line of work, I admit. As much as I enjoy uniting two people in the bonds of matrimony and the celebration that follows it, I will confess that there is something a little more fascinating to me about weddings that are outside of my, shall we say... jurisdiction. I am talking about Jewish weddings, Italian or Polish Catholic weddings, and in one spectacular case, a Persian wedding. The reason I find these weddings so interesting is that they very often contain a sense of almost reckless abandon in the celebration that is sometimes lacking in what we might consider the traditional wedding. The traditions of cocktails, toasts, first dances, dinner, followed by the electric slide, is festive and joyous--but it doesn't quite capture the same sense of abandon that you find in some of the other traditions. In a Jewish wedding, dancing wildly in circles as the Hora plays is commonplace. They will often lift the bride and groom into the air on chairs (you can see an example of that on your bulletin cover). In addition, there is a tradition that the bride and groom are treated as king and queen for the day and at one point in the wedding reception, they will sit in chairs as their wedding guests come before them and entertain them, singing, dancing, juggling, telling jokes. It is a very enjoyable tradition. At a Polish Catholic wedding I went to recently, I was stunned by how many people in attendance could polka. I'd never seen anything like that. And they polkaed for hours. I grew up watching Lawrence Welk every Saturday evening at my grandparents' and hadn't seen that much polkaing in all my life. And then there was the Persian wedding. The Persian wedding starts with the cocktail hour. Around 9 pm. Then it moves into the service. And then returns to the reception hall where the bridal party and the wedding guests dance in circles for nearly an hour before anyone sits down to eat anything. And the dancing continues all night. I left at 3 a.m. and the party was still going on. II. THE TEXT There's a lot of wedding imagery in the Bible, Old Testament and New. And I think it's helpful to imagine not the traditional happy occasions that most weddings and wedding receptions are--but to imagine those wildly exuberant celebrations that we sometimes have occasion to experience. The New Testament lesson we read about tonight is a familiar story--Jesus' first public miracle, according to John, the turning of the water into wine. As we read the story, we hear that the wine has run out and Jesus' mother tells Jesus to do something about it. At first, he is dismissive, but she tells the attendants to do whatever he tells them to do. He tells them to fill up the ritual washing vessels with water. And when they draw forth water it has become wine. The chief steward is impressed and says to the bridegroom: "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." Most of the commentaries focus on the miracle of turning the water into wine. The preaching helps all encourage me not to waste time trying to explain how the miracle took place and allowing it to have some mystery. Well, to tell you the truth, that's not where I was going to go with this anyway. Because, for me, the thing that stands out about this story is that it takes place at a wedding. Certainly weddings were not the only places where wine would have been served. Jesus might have performed the miracle at any major banquet or festival. It could have, I suppose, taken place at a bar mitzvah. It could have taken place at any one of the major Jewish festivals. It could have taken place at any dinner--since wine was a far more common beverage at dinner than we are perhaps accustomed to. But this takes place at a wedding. Curiously, we are not told whose wedding it is, or why Jesus and his mother are there-- but we are told that it is a wedding. And I do not think this is by accident. III. THE ABSENCE OF SINGING Weddings have particular symbolic power in the Old Testament. The prophets talk about them all the time. Many use weddings and marriage as a metaphor for the relationship between God and Israel. Often, as in Hosea, the metaphor is not flattering, as Israel is cast as an unfaithful wife who has prostituted herself out. With this image, the prophets seek to demonstrate to Israel how it has been unfaithful to God by serving other gods and by forsaking justice. But it is not just the wedding of the Divine Lord with Human Israel that the prophets focus on. Jeremiah makes explicit reference to human weddings. First, he offers words of encouragement and challenge: "For if you truly amend your ways and your doings, if you truly act justly one with another, if you do not oppress the alien, the orphan, and the widow, or shed innocent blood in this place, and if you do not go after other gods to your own hurt, then I will dwell with you in this place, in the land that I gave of old to your ancestors forever and ever." (Jeremiah 7:5-7 NRSV) But then, Jeremiah continues with his indictment of Israel, and warns: "For the people of Judah have done evil in my sight, says the LORD; they have set their abominations in the house that is called by my name, defiling it. And they go on building the high place of Topheth, which is in the valley of the son of Hinnom, to burn their sons and their daughters in the fire--which I did not command, nor did it come into my mind. Therefore, the days are surely coming, says the LORD, when it will no more be called Topheth, or the valley of the son of Hinnom, but the valley of Slaughter: for they will bury in Topheth until there is no more room. The corpses of this people will be food for the birds of the air, and for the animals of the earth; and no one will frighten them away. And I will bring to an end the sound of mirth and gladness, the voice of the bride and bridegroom in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem; for the land shall become a waste." (Jeremiah 7:30-34 NRSV) And I will bring to an end the sound of mirth and gladness, the voice of the bride and bridegroom in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem; for the land shall become a waste. Jeremiah talks about the devastation of the land that is coming as a result of Israel's wickedness. To illustrate that point he says that there will no longer be the sound of mirth and gladness, the voice of the bride and bridegroom in the cities of Judah and the streets of Jerusalem. It is an image utterly devoid of hope and meaning to signify desolation. Perhaps some of you have had a chance to see the film Children of Men. It is a remarkable film that envisions a future where all of humanity is infertile, and women can no longer have babies. In the film, it is the absence of children's voices, the sound of children, that is meant to signify the hopelessness of the human race. A race without a future. It is exactly that image of desolation and of a future without hope that is meant to be conveyed in Jeremiah's description of a land without the sound of weddings. (Beyond that, the only major difference is that Jeremiah's version doesn't have Clive Owen in it). IV. THE PROMISE OF DELIVERANCE Later in Jeremiah's writings, it is the promise of wedding celebrations that illustrates the hope of redemption for the people: "Thus says the LORD: In this place of which you say, "It is a waste without human beings or animals," in the towns of Judah and the streets of Jerusalem that are desolate, without inhabitants, human or animal, there shall once more be heard the voice of mirth and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride, the voices of those who sing, as they bring thank offerings to the house of the LORD: "Give thanks to the LORD of hosts, for the LORD is good, for his steadfast love endures forever!" For I will restore the fortunes of the land as at first, says the LORD." (Jeremiah 33:10-11 NRSV) And so we understand that weddings in the Jewish tradition are not simply rituals of commitment of one person to another, they are a symbol of hope for the future. A symbol of God's providence and presence. At Jewish weddings to this day they sing a song called Od Yishama, Hebrew for "Again shall be heard" and they sing the verses of hope from Jeremiah that we just heard. So, Jesus' first miracle at the wedding in Cana is no accident. It could not have been done at an ordinary dinner or at a Bar Mitzvah. Only a wedding captures what is happening--a promise about the future is being made and fulfilled. And the miracle isn't exactly irrelevant either. One of the interesting things about John's gospel is that he doesn't describe Jesus' miracles as "miracles" the way that the other three gospels do. In the Fourth Gospel, Jesus' miracles are described as "signs". Signs that tell us something. Elsewhere in the Old Testament we read other prophets writing about the hope for deliverance: The time is surely coming, says the LORD, when the one who plows shall overtake the one who reaps, and the treader of grapes the one who sows the seed; the mountains shall drip sweet wine, and all the hills shall flow with it. (Amos 9:13) In that day the mountains shall drip sweet wine, the hills shall flow with milk, and all the stream beds of Judah shall flow with water; a fountain shall come forth from the house of the LORD and water the Wadi Shittim." (Joel 3:18 NRSV) In addition to weddings being a sign of hope for the future, the abundance of good wine is an eschatological symbol and a sign of God's presence. And so we see that Jesus' turning water into wine at a wedding in Cana of Galilee is an act full of meaning and hope. Christ is the True Bridegroom who brings the sweetest and best wine to increase our joy. V. SO WHAT But so what? What does this mean to you? To us? Jeremiah takes ordinary, everyday weddings and fills them with meaning and significance as a sign of hope. Jesus, at one such wedding, takes ordinary water and transforms it into a sign of God's presence, and the fulfillment of God's purposes. We can do likewise--well, not the water into wine part--but interpretation of the ordinary into signs of the promise of the divine. A. Signs of Jubilant Celebration What are the places in your life where you see joy? Where you find happiness? Is it in the company of friends? Is it in the fellowship we have after services? Is it the free pizza? Is it in the celebration after a favorite team's victory? What are the places of celebration and joy in our lives? Some people think Christians are supposed to be dour and serious all the time. Many people think of Christians as being like the character "Angela" on the "The Office"--almost completely devoid of humor or mirth. And many people think that Christians are supposed to be happy all the time, and some Christians do have an almost Pollyannaish outlook on life where everything is 'just wonderful'. For me, both those characterizations fall woefully short. For me, a Christian is one who when confronted by tragedy and sorrow, sees God in the suffering. Sees God in the wilderness places, in the brokenness. And a Christian is one who when in a place of celebration, sees it as a sign of promise. Who sees in every joy a glimpse of that ultimate joy when the Lord will come and redeem us all. In every celebration, every joy, every happy occasion, we get a glimpse of the Great Wedding Feast--that great and happy day when we shall all feast in the kingdom of God, when the best wine will be brought forward. We are meant to vest our joys with this kind of hope, so that our celebrations do not remain times when of our individual satisfaction--but are signs of the joy God will bring to us all. Some people are embarrassed by the presence of wine in some of the Gospel stories. But the wine is not there as an instrument of drunkenness or irresponsibility--it is there as a sign of joy, of that celebratory state of being that informs the believer's understanding of the joy of God. VI. END God does not promise us that we will always be happy. God promises to be with us--in good times and bad. And calls us to see the presence of God in our times of sorrow and celebration. And we know that the joys we experience now are only but a foretaste of the joy that awaits us all, because we know that our Bridegroom has kept the very best wine for last. Back to Sermons page Back to AU UMC Home Copyright © 2007. Mark A. Schaefer. No part of this text may be reproduced or otherwise disseminated without the express written consent of the author.

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