[Propertalk] 2 Epiphany - Jan. 17, 2010 - Sermon quotes - Part 3

[Joe Parrish]

The nice little blessing of marriage which wedding liturgies often cite using this passage is rather more like Jesus, the barman, ensuring the party goes on. What it blesses incidentally is a full blown party drenched in wine. At this level the story may even need to be restrained somewhat; don't tell the teenagers this is what was happening! But the story is not really about promoting excessive drinking. As many of Jesus' parables reflect raw, uncensored life, so here the symbolic celebration has created its wild incidentals which are not for emulation at a literal level (but that does not mean we deny the positive attitude to celebration and wine).

http://wwwstaff.murdoch.edu.au/~loader/LkEpiphany2.htm

William Loader
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Jesus' Jewish momma sizes up the dilemma and tells her boy about it. The implicit command is: "Fix it!" Of course, you can almost hear Jesus' sigh. It's kind of like a pastor being on vacation and showing up as a visitor at a congregation whose pastor suddenly calls in sick. So the congregation's president stands up and says: "Is there a pastor in the house?" And the pastor's spouse leans over and says: "Honey, you've got to help them out." And the response is a look that says: "Great! It's my first Sunday off in months, and I'm supposed to work."

You notice that Mary doesn't take no for an answer. Like all mothers, she's used to being obeyed. In fact, she says to the servants, "Do whatever my son tells you."
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In fact, the great joy for those at the wedding of Cana was all wrapped up with God's people keeping the faith and passing along the faith to the next generations that were going to come out of this new union. 

http://www.predigten.uni-goettingen.de/archiv-9/070114-5-e.html

Samuel D. Zumwalt
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Why couldn't Jesus have found a better purpose when he performed his first miracle? Why couldn't he have intervened in some of the many political conflicts of the time and put an end to war? Why couldn't he have done something with the world's food supply and put an end to world hunger? Why did he choose a small town wedding where he had to provide some more wine? These people had been partying for days and they had probably had enough to drink already. Why does Jesus choose to provide wine at a rural wedding when he would reveal his glory?
This story tells me that Jesus' concern is to help individuals and make them happy.   <>        
In our Norwegian tradition we tend to think of abundance as something that is too much, something that is unnecessary, almost immoral. But if you do a search in the Bible for the word "abundance" and similar words, you will soon find that one of God's blessings is that we have abundance.
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When Jesus provides an answer to our prayers, the answer is often more glorious than what we were able to expect. By giving us something other than exactly what we were expecting for, he is able to give us more. He provides a solution that is better than what we even could imagine.    
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My mother was able to teach me a lesson about this once, when I was in Junior High. I had just started at a new school, and these transitions to a new school are not always easy. In my case, I was picked on by some of the other kids. Especially one of them turned out to be very annoying and at times I thought it was absolutely terrible to be at school because of this individual. My mother and I used to pray together every night and when I had told my mother about this very annoying kid, my mother suggested that we pray for this boy and that we pray that he and I became friends. Now, at this point, I realized that my mother and I had a serious communication problem. Because she had clearly not understood what a jerk this fellow was. And my mother's suggestion was more than stupid. But I couldn't very well object, either. So I went along with this praying, confident that it could not possibly yield any results whatsoever. This boy was simply beyond what you could pray for. Maybe it was possible that he might leave me alone. That was something I could imagine. But becoming his friend? No way. Not in this world and definitely not in the next. Can you imagine what happened? We became friends. We became very close friends.  We used to hang out all the time. I would go over to his house and we would hang out together. 
http://www.sigurdgrindheim.com/sermons/abundantly.html
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One of the great musicians in history was a composer named Puccini. He wrote some of the great operas like Madame Butterfly and La Tosca In 1922 Puccini learned from his doctor that he had cancer. He declared that he wanted to write one final work: Turandot. His students said, "But, master, what will happen if you're not able to finish the work?" Puccini answered, "My disciples will finish it for me." In 1924 Puccini died, and the work of Turandot was not yet finished. But his disciples completed the work. The first performance of Turandot was given in Milan in the La Scala theater. It was directed by Puccini's greatest student, Toscanini. Toscanini directed the music through to the point where the master lay down his pen and answered the call to eternal life. At that point, Toscanini stopped the orchestra, laid down his baton, turned to the audience, and said, "Thus far, the master wrote, and then the master died." After a long pause, he picked up the baton, addressed the audience, and said, "But his disciples will finish the work." Toscanini directed the music to its conclusion.

My friends, we are the disciples of the Master. We are called to complete the work he began, and so I say to you, "Let us be about the task of giving evidence everyday that we are God's living people. 

http://day1.org/480-gods_living_people

Robert Sims, 2004
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