“Learning to See God’s Love” by the Rev. Dr. Don Wahlig, January 12, 2025, Year C / Epiphany 2 - Isaiah 62:1-5 / Psalm 36:5-10 / 1 Corinthians 12:1-11 / John 2:1-11

THEME:  Trusting that God wants us to live a life of abundance and joy, and learning to recognize that he is the source of all good things leads to a life of great gratitude and strong faith.
         

I normally do not begin a sermon by telling a joke, but in this case, I think a little humor is appropriate given the theme of today’s scripture passage. Forgive me if you have heard this one. An Irish priest is driving down a country road when a policeman pulls him over. The policeman smells alcohol and notices an empty wine bottle on the passenger seat.

He asks the priest, "Father, have you been drinking?"  "Only water," says the priest.

The policeman points to the empty bottle and says: "Then what’s that?"

The priest looks over at the bottle and, with astonishment, says: "Good Lord! He's done it again!"

When we think of Jesus’ miracles, we think of him curing someone’s illness, restoring their sight, feeding their hunger, raising them back to life, or otherwise making them whole. Compared to those, this first miracle of his seems downright trivial, almost frivolous, doesn’t it? No one’s life is in danger. No one has a seemingly incurable disease. No one is forced to beg for alms in the street because they are blind or lame. In fact, the setting for this first miracle is the polar opposite. It is a celebration, a wedding.  It is a time of great joy. There is plenty of food. The drink is flowing. Music is playing and people are dancing. Have any of you ever been to a Jewish wedding? If you have, then you know what I am talking about. Only this celebration was even bigger.

In Jesus’ day, weddings were a week-long affair. Friends and neighbors came from miles around and they stayed for a full week of festivities. Jesus, his family, and his disciples, have traveled 10 miles from Nazareth to the small village of Cana.  All is going swimmingly, until halfway through the week, when the servers realize they have run out of wine! 

When she hears this, Mary turns to Jesus and asks him to do something about it. But Jesus is reluctant. He has more important things to worry about than a shortage of wine. But Mary persists and Jesus relents. What he does is extravagant. He turns 150 gallons of water into 150 gallons of wine. Not only is the quantity great, but so is the quality. He knows this, of course. He wants the wine steward to know it, too. Sure enough, when the wine steward dips in a cup and takes a sip, he is amazed. The wine steward does not know that Jesus is the source of this abundance of goodness, but the servants know. So do Mary, his brothers, and his disciples. And you and I know, too. John’s message is that, in Jesus Christ, God is truly present. Through him we have abundant life. That is what all that fine wine represents.

John wants us to know that abundant life is more than mere existence or survival. It is more than material things.  Abundant life is to be known and loved by the One who created us, and to love him in return. It comes not from things, but from relationship. An intimate relationship with God who loves us so much that he became one of us. Who has loved us from the very beginning, and who refuses to stop loving us, no matter what we do. Out of sheer grace, in Jesus Christ, God continues to shower us with blessings. And the result is a life of unbridled joy. Just like that wedding celebration in Cana. If you were listening carefully to that parable, then you know that John leaves us with a question. Does the wine steward ever recognize that Jesus is the true source of his abundance? 

John is asking that same question of you and me. Do we recognize that God’s presence in Jesus Christ is the source of our abundant life?  And how can we get better at that? The first step is to trust that God wants to bless us. Far too often, our image of God is the angry judge. The God of wrath and punishment. It is no secret that we Presbyterians are big on sin. Somebody once joked that maybe we should have an ad campaign, “Come join us. We are Presbyterians and we are big on sin!”  But the real reason for that, is not that we are constantly fearful that God is waiting to pounce on our every misstep. In fact, it’s just the opposite. 

We take sin seriously in order to emphasize the infinitely greater magnitude of God’s grace. Whatever our sin, God’s grace will cover it. He is always ready to forgive us and draw us back to him. Sin puts distance between us and God, but no matter how far we wander away, God absolutely refuses to be separated from us. Why? Because he loves us that much. He loves us so much he even became one of us.  That is what Christmas is all about. From that love, flows a constant stream of blessings. Those blessings are both big and small. Last week Lisa talked about God winks. She gave us some wonderful examples of those little signs of God’s grace and blessing. 

There are other blessings, too. For most of us, they include having sufficient material means to keep a roof over our head, and food on our table. If we have more than enough of material goodness – and I daresay most of us do – then that too is a great blessing. God also blesses most of us with at least some measure of good health. But whether our health is good or not, we are all blessed by those who know us and care about us, those who walk with us through the highs and the lows of our daily lives.

They include our biological families – and our church family. It has been my experience that, the older I get, the more I appreciate that blessing. But friends these blessings come with a warning. If we fail to recognize their true source, we rob them of their power and their effect. The temptation is to think that good things that happen to us are just good fortune, sheer luck. But luck is random. There is no love behind a lucky turn of events, or a mere coincidence. But when we understand that the good things that happen to us are blessings from God, we unleash the power of God’s love at work in our lives. We become grateful. Study after study underscores the fact that gratitude is the key to a happy and joyful life. Grateful people are healthier, happier and have better relationships than others. They are more resilient in hard times, and they can navigate them more effectively.

On the other hand, we all know people whose sense of gratitude is, shall we say, limited. Let’s call them Negative Nellies. Negative Nellies are people who constantly expect bad things to happen. When things do go wrong, even little things, they are quick to remind us. They say, “See, I told you that would happen. I knew it would go wrong.”  Even when things go well, they are cynical. They say, “Oh, it won’t last. I just know it.” Negative Nellies are convinced that the world is against them. They are quick to get angry with others and, whether they say it or not, they are deeply suspicious of God.  As a result, they are not happy people. They are not fun to be around.

Friends, that is not how God wants us to live. And he keeps on giving us little love messages to remind us. Those messages come in the form of blessings.  When we recognize that they come from God, our natural response is gratitude. And gratitude is the fertile ground of a life blooming with joy. 

Let me close with a story. Most of you are familiar with  Handel’s Messiah. If you are, then you know it is one of the most joyous pieces of music ever written and a profoundly moving expression of the gospel. What you may not know is that when he wrote it, Handel was broke, and grieving the death of his father. Things were not going well professionally, either. His style of music had gone out of favor. He had every reason to be a negative Nellie. But Handel was a person of deep faith. Despite all his present troubles, he trusted that God was the source of all his blessings, big and small. Over a 3-week period, he wrote this masterpiece proclaiming that God in Jesus Christ is our one and only source of new and abundant life. 

And every time we hear the Hallelujah chorus, which is the climax of Handel’s Messiah, we can hear and feel the joy that his faith produces. Friends, we have all been blessed in different ways, but the one who blesses us is the same. It is up to us to recognize that in him, we have been given abundant life. When we do, our gratitude will give us joy. 

May it be so.