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<DIV><FONT size=4>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).</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4><A
href="http://wwwstaff.murdoch.edu.au/~loader/LkEpiphany2.htm">http://wwwstaff.murdoch.edu.au/~loader/LkEpiphany2.htm</A></FONT></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4>William Loader</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4>- - - - -</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4>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.”</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>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.”</DIV>
<DIV><></DIV>
<DIV>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. </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV></FONT>
<DIV><FONT size=4><A
href="http://www.predigten.uni-goettingen.de/archiv-9/070114-5-e.html">http://www.predigten.uni-goettingen.de/archiv-9/070114-5-e.html</A></FONT></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4>Samuel D. Zumwalt<BR>- - - - -</FONT></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Times New Roman, serif"><FONT style="FONT-SIZE: 11pt"
size=4><FONT size=4>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</FONT> <FONT size=4>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?</FONT> <FONT size=4>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?</FONT></FONT></FONT></DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0.2in; MARGIN-LEFT: 0.2in; MARGIN-RIGHT: 0.2in"><FONT
face="Times New Roman, serif"><FONT style="FONT-SIZE: 11pt" size=4><FONT
size=4>This story tells me that Jesus’ concern is to help individuals and make
them
happy. <> </FONT>
</FONT></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4>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.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4><></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4>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. </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4><></FONT></DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0.2in; MARGIN-LEFT: 0.2in; MARGIN-RIGHT: 0.2in"
align=left><FONT face="Times New Roman, serif"><FONT style="FONT-SIZE: 11pt"
size=4><FONT size=4>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.</FONT> </FONT></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><A href="http://www.sigurdgrindheim.com/sermons/abundantly.html"><FONT
size=4>http://www.sigurdgrindheim.com/sermons/abundantly.html</FONT></A></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4>- - - - -</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4><FONT size=4><FONT size=4></FONT></FONT></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4><FONT size=4><FONT size=4>
<P>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.</P>
<P>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. </P>
<P><A
href="http://day1.org/480-gods_living_people">http://day1.org/480-gods_living_people</A></P></DIV>
<DIV>Robert Sims, 2004</DIV>
<DIV>- - - - -</DIV>
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