L'Chaim - To Life

Second Sunday after Epiphany – Year C

January 20, 2013

John 2:1-11

On the third day there was a wedding in Cana of Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there. Jesus and his disciples had also been invited to the wedding. When the wine gave out, the mother of Jesus said to him, "They have no wine." And Jesus said to her, "Woman, what concern is that to you and to me? My hour has not yet come." His mother said to the servants, "Do whatever he tells you." Now standing there were six stone water jars for the Jewish rites of purification, each holding twenty or thirty gallons. Jesus said to them, "Fill the jars with water." And they filled them up to the brim. He said to them, "Now draw some out, and take it to the chief steward." So they took it. 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 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." Jesus did this, the first of his signs, in Cana of Galilee, and revealed his glory; and his disciples believed in him.

One of the jokes about weddings that has a lot of truth in it is, “something always goes wrong.” It’s true. Sometimes it’s something that’s controllable in some way. Something that should have been planned for and arranged that somehow ended up being missed. But, most of the time it’s something no one could have foreseen or planned for. Someone sneezes at exactly the wrong time. Someone trips when walking up or down the aisle. The flower girl runs for the hills. The pastor flubs a line. Things happen. That’s life.

I actually find that those little mistakes in life are actually very relieving in moments of high stress like weddings. Once something has happened, you tend to relax a little, laugh a little, enjoy the moment a bit more. Everyone is nervously waiting for the shoe to drop, and breathes a bit of a sigh of relief when something finally happens.

Anyone who has ever been in a wedding, or helped to arrange a wedding knows that as much as we try to say it’s a joyous event, there’s a lot of stress and worry that goes along with it. You have the ceremony, the location of all the things happening over the day or two; who will take pictures? Who will preside? What about the bride’s dress? the grooms tux? Then there are all the arrangements for the rehearsal dinner, and the reception following the ceremony. Who is going to sit next to who? Are you going to serve the chicken, beef, or fish? Who makes the final decision on the wine used for the toast?

Every wedding that I’ve been to has had something in common: more than enough food. It seems as if they plan for about 20% more people than they know are coming, and perhaps they do. It would make sense. Could you imagine the mood of the reception if halfway through an announcement had to be made that the roast was done, the chicken was gone, and they were down to just a few servings of pasta. I think people would be mortified. I can just see the parents of the bride and groom huddled in the corner trying to decide which pizza delivery place to call. It would be a very uncomfortable position to be in, whether you were one of the guests or one of the hosts.

Yet, that was the situation Jesus and his mother, Mary found themselves in our text from today. They were guests at a wedding, when the wine ran out. Now, if we think wedding celebrations here are big events. In ancient Israel, they were huge. Wedding celebrations went on for a week! They were a huge community celebration. People came and ate and drank for days on end. The overflowing of food and drink was a sign of the overflowing blessings that were hoped to be experienced by the newly married couple. And the wine runs out! Talk about a disaster. Talk about a bad omen for the poor couple’s marriage. Not only was running out of wine a hugely disastrous event for the host, it was really bad karma for the bride and groom. And what was Jesus’ response to his learning of this terrible thing happening? “What concern is that to you and to me? My hour has not yet come."

Well, that’s disappointing. What about Jesus’ empathy? What about Jesus’ love and caring? Who is this person? I wonder if there was a fair amount of unspoken, unrecorded information between Jesus’ statement and the next verse: “His mother said to the servants, "Do whatever he tells you."” I can see Mary looked with a shocked and disappointing look at her son, who she knows is so much better than how he just responded. Jesus looking back, with a “What?” sort of expression on his face. Then Mary, transforming her face into the one that all children know, and all mothers have mastered: that look of disapproval that demands that you change your behavior and mood. Then Jesus, seeing his mother’s disappointment lowers his face with resignation and nods slowly. His mother turns to the servants, “Do whatever he tells you.” I know the text doesn’t say it, I know that it’s a bit uncomfortable to think of in this way, but Jesus was fully human, and that means he was just as prone to being in a not-so-good mood as the rest of us, just ask that poor fig tree he was upset with along the road later on.

In the end, Jesus performs the miraculous, and 6 huge clay jars of water are transformed into the highest quality vintage. The wedding is saved. The bride and groom retain their honor, and Jesus gets his ministry off to a good starts. John says that this was the first sign Jesus did. It’s important to note that in John’s gospel, Jesus doesn’t perform miracles, her performs signs.

A miracle is an in-breaking of God’s grace into our lives, while a sign points to something that we are looking for, or are about to experience. Each of Jesus’ miraculous signs in John’s gospel point to something of importance, something about Jesus, something about the in-breaking Kingdom of God.

One of the images of the Kingdom, and of Heaven itself that we find throughout scripture is the feast. Isaiah’s 25th chapter has a beautiful image of God’s victory: “On this mountain the LORD of hosts will make for all peoples a feast of fat things, a feast of wine on the lees, of fat things full of marrow, of wine on the lees well refined.” (Isaiah 25:6 RSV) In Revelation, we read that those who are invited to the final marriage feast of the Lamb are blessed. Throughout his ministry, Jesus used parables with feasts to teach, and used a feast on the evening of his betrayal to share with his disciples the deepest truths and purposes of his coming. A feast, a table full of good things, is a sign of the Kingdom of God, of the Reign of God breaking in.

It’s a rather unfortunate thing that for many people church is viewed as boring, as being blah, as something you go to out of duty rather than the party you want to go to. Without doubt, there are times for deep thought and solemnity in the life of the church, but we gather before an altar that also serves as a table, we break bread together, we share in the feast of Christ. The in-breaking of God in our midst, of which the church is a sign, is portrayed as a joyous feast, a party. What’s boring, or solemn, or lifeless about that?

The first sign that John presents of Jesus is the changing of water into wine that the feast, the celebration, the party may continue. It’s a sign that Jesus is the Messiah who has come to fulfill the promises of old. The One who has come to bring on the feasting. Is that the image of Jesus you have? The life of the party? The one who provides the best food and drink, the one who stands and tells the best stories and jokes, the one who gives the best toasts?

If you ever go to a Jewish wedding or celebration, there is a toast that you will most likely hear, “L’chaim!”, “To life!” I’m sure that at the wedding in Cana, as the glasses full of wine were raised for seven days of celebration, you heard it many times, “L’Chaim!” And I’m sure that on that third day, after the first wine had run out, and Jesus provided the new wine, the shouts of “L’chaim” were probably even louder. The party has begun, the feast is in full swing, and then out of nowhere the wine improves, the quality of the feast takes a step up. Jesus steps in and takes the celebration to the next level. To life!

There are many different ways to think about the life which we have been blessed with. We may think of it is a journey. We may think of it as a burden we must bear. We may think of it as a blessing. We may even think of it as a party. A party where the guests come and go, yet the party continues. A party where there is laughter and joy, yet also moments of sadness and pain. A party where we may at times feel alone, a wallflower left to look with longing at the fun being had by others. A party where we never know what is going to happen next, who is going to engage us in conversation next. A party that as good as it is, can only be improved by the one whose coming, whose first sign, enabled the party to continue. The one who makes the party even better. The one whose presence brings with it the abundance of life, the blessings of life, the joy of the Kingdom, the feast of God. Jesus, the life of the party, the reason the celebration may continue, the one in whom we find our joy and the strength to shout, “L’chaim!”

I want to close with a few words from one of the most memorable songs in Fiddler on the Roof, “To Life” sung by Tevye and the men in the village in celebration of the betrothal of one of Tevye’s daughters to the butcher Lazar Wolf. In the midst of the hard life they led, in the midst of the presence of Russain soldiers who made their lives difficult, in the middle of a party that was far from being a party, they shouted out, “L’chaim!” How much more then can we, who have been graced with the presence of the life of the party himself, shout out, “L’chaim!” ourselves, giving praise to our God that gives us the sweetest of wine to drink?

To us and our good fortune
Be happy be healthy, long life!
And if our good fortune never comes
Here's to whatever comes,
Drink l'chaim, to life!

To life, to life, l'chai-im,!
L'chai-im, l'chai-im, to life!
Life has a way of confusing us
Blessing and bruising us,
Drink l'chaim, to life,

To life, l'chaim!
L'chaim, l'chaim, to life!
A gift we seldom are wise enough
Ever to prize enough,
Drink l'chaim, to life!

God would like us to be joyful
Even though our hearts lie panting on the floor;
How much more can we be joyful,
When there's really something
To be joyful for.

To life, to life, L'chai-im!
L'chai-im, l'chai-im, to life!
It gives you something to think about,
Something to drink about,
Drink l'chai-im, to life! l'chai-im!