ar,

.
~..

CANA BETHANY -PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH
Isaiah 62:2-5 LAFAYETTE, INDIANA
John 2:1-141 JOHN M. BUCHATIAN
JANUARY 20, 1974

The more I thought about the New Testament Lesson this morning,the
more it seemed as if it had been written and preserved down through the
centuries precisely for the edification of modern Presbyterians. The more
I thought about the text the more I found it addressing and challenging
three basic assumptions that are rather common to Presbyterian Christians.
Those assumptions are:

- God is remote -

~ God is solemn -

- God may be interested in changing the
Pentecostal and Fundamentalist types; but
the idea of regeneration, cnange, recreation,
is not very important wita us.

Now, I'm assuming that these three attitudes, or assumptions are
deeply engraved in the Presbytertan mentality, and in our self-defense, I
think we need to acknowledge that there is justification for our position -
at least in part.

Gold's remoteness - a product of our understanding of God as the Holy,
the totally other, the awesome, mysterious ground of all being and creator
of all that is. Historically, Presbyterians have held out for a God who is
God. And it has always seemed wrong theologically, and in bad taste soc-
tally to presume too much about our status with him. If God is remote to
Presh yterians, at least part of the reason 7s that wa are uneasy getting
too cozy with the "Ground of All Being”.

God’s solemnity - a product of our intellectual approach to the faith.
Qur forte, as Presbyterians, has been tneclogy - a faitn that is well-rea-
soned and thought out: a Gospel that appeals to the mind as well as the

heart: a religion that can coexist with the cademic disciplines of philo-

sophy, psychology and science in the rarified air of the University. And

CAWA - January 20, 1974 (2}
so our God - and we - have been solemn: but in the process we have done
something that no other tradition has been able to do as well.

God's power to change people - again a product of our mentality. Tra-
ditionally we have seen the Gospel's ability to change people in terms of
@ growth process; a daily becoming that takes place minute by minute, hour
by hour. And so, we've always been uneasy with the instantaneous conver-
sion: the one~shot upheaval that turns a man around in his tracks.

In all three of these basic Presbyterian positions there is a danger,
however. The danger that what we end up with is a God so remote that he
isn't real; a God so solemn that his presence is confined to suitably solemn
occasions - Tike funerals; and a faith that elliminates the possbility of
our changing in response to God, in any way whatever.

the story of Cana addresses each. S8ut first, a word about the under-
lying issue ~ at ieast for the Presbyterian mentality. Did it really
happen? Did the water actually become wine? Some people take the literal
approaci which dictates that if it's in the Bible it happened - and that's
that. Qthers take the allegorical approach and maintain tuat the story
was created in order to tell another story. And others, of course, are
embarrassed by the whole thing and simply ignore fit. It's simply so unlike-
ly, so impossible to squeeze into our categories of thinking: and then
there's all that wine.

Two points are hetpful here. In the Gospel of John miracles play a
different role from the Synoptics-Natthew, Mark, Luke. In John, miracles
are calied "signs". The emphasis is never on the miraculous act itself;
but always on that to which the sign is pointing - namely Jesus Christ. He
is the miracle - the only miracle that matters.

Second - if we understand that about the author of the fourth Gospel,
the important question is never “did it happen?" but “what does it mean? -
what does the author want us to understand? - What is God's word for me in

this story?"

CATA - January 20, 1974 (3)

Now, Tet's took again at the intricacies of what transpired, according
to John. when Jesus and his little group of followers - including his
mother - accepted an invitation to attend a wedding celebration in Cana.

They were close friends with the family. Hary knew the servants well
enough to issue an order. She was on intimate terms with the hostess -
so much so that she felt the deep embarassment of her dear friend when a
real social calamity occurred. The wine ran out. "No greater catastrophe
could strike the heart of hospitable people hosting so gala an affair", is
the way one commentator described it. They were late, obviousty. The
wedding celebration of tue time Tasted seven days: the fact that the wine
was gone means tnat the party had been in full-swing for some time.

Then, there is a difficult exchange between Nay and Jesus ~ which,
unfortunately, in English comes off too abruptly and harshly. “OQ Woman, .
what have you to do with me?" doesn't do it justice at all. The sen e of
it is - “let's not get upset about it."

In any case, Jesus told the servants to fill six stone jars witn
water. The text contains an explanatory note at this point: the jars were
for the Jewish rite of purification. Simply put, when a guest arrived he
bathed in the water. It was a social custom and a religious Taw. The fact
that they were empty is another indication that the party was several days
old.

So the jars were filled - somewhere between 120 and 180 gailons ~ quite
a bit when you think about it: a fact that has always driven the temperance
peopte to distraction. For if there is anything more untikely than serving
up 186 gallons of wine at a party - it is serving that volume of unfermented
grape juice. |

The Steward, a professional maitre de and toastmaster, took the first
sip and discovered immediately that it was wine - good wine. Sa good that
he couldn't resist a jab typical of professional snobs. “This isn’t done!

You don't keep the best till last - yeu serve it first. And aftzr your

CAHA - January 20, 1974 (4)
guests have drunk freely you pull out the inferior, cheaper variety. At
that point they don’t know the difference. "

And the party proceeded, with Jesus and friends as participants. Wow,
lay that beside the three assumptions to which I called you attention
initially.

First - God's remoteness. It's not too difficult to think of God being
concerned about the establishment of peace in the Middle East. It's not tao
difficult ta pray for the success of the United Nations and to see God's
beneficence descending on that global institution. But we have a little
trouble understanding God in terms of the conflict we are having with our
children or our neighbor. It's not too difficult to understand God's
compassion for the masses of hungry, suffering humanity. But somehow that
doesn't always connect in our mind with a family that depends of the Welfare
Department and Food Pantry for sustenance.

But here is Jesus, in this story, getting involved in a problem that
is terribly trivial. It was embarassing, to be sure. But certainly, we
can't call it a major calamity for anyone but the hosts. And that, I think,
7S precisely the point. God cares about us - and what matters most to us.
There is nothing trivial in his eyes about something that causes us to hurt.
Our prayers, that is to say, don't have to bo decorated with flowery,
Shakespearian phrases, focusing on grand designs and universal hopes. They
are quite legitimate - and quite audible - if they simply hold up to our
Father God those matters that concern us most.

That's the point: that's the miracle. One writer put ijt this way....
"the great God of heaven, identifies with the beer-drinking, bonanza-watch-
ing, atl-in-the-family consumer, the inconsiderate guests, the fastidious
caterer,the distraught host, the buzZZing servants.”

That's first: God is awesome, mysterious and holy. But he came among
WS ~ not in a philosophic thesis, but in the flesh: in the life of a man who

cared about sonething so trivial as the wine running out.

CANA - danuary 20, 1974 (5)

God's solemnity. The story is an eloquent commentary on God's attitude
toward life. It was a real party - a real celebration ~ ai seven day,
joyous, feast - that needed 180 galtons of wine just tokeep it going, John
the Baptist wouldn't have ben caught dead at that affair. And neigher
would many contemporary followers of Jesus. Somewhere along the 2,000 year
line of Christian history we came up with the idea - borrowed from Greek
philosophy, actually - that religion and pleasure, physical pleasure - eat-
ing, drinking, feeling good pleaseure ~ are contradictory. Somewhere we
got the idea that having fun and feeling good is incompatible with Christian
Faith. The monks in the Middle Ages did everytying possible to make them-
selves miserable - on the assumption that we're closer to God's will for us
when we feel bad. And while we don't go to. that extreme - in fact, we are
rather enamoured with the pursuit of pleasure - we don't make the connection
in ar mind that God graces our high and joyous moments as well as the low
and sad moments.

How would you paint the face of God? This story portrays a God who can
laugh, deeply, heartily: anGod with a twinkle in his eye who Tikes it then
life is affirmed and enjoyed. Certainly our Presbyterian insistance on
solemnity and sobrietyis important: but not to the point that our God is
grim. For here is his son at a party - with old and good friends, sharing
their joy at one of the really important and happy times of life.

God's ability to change people - I think this is the most important
meaning in the story. George Eliot expressed impatience with “those whose
celestial intimacies seem not to improve their domestic manners.” The
Gospel of Jesus Christ has always been enfeebled by the fact that it seems
to have made no difference in the lives of many of its adherents. The story
of Cana describes a God whose primary business with men is to change then:
to recreate them: to take the tepid tater of their spirits and change it
into zestful, colorful wine. Tre story of Cana tells of a God who has the

power to do just that.

CAHA - January 20, 1974 (6)

IT think we need occassionally to be reminded that the Gospel of Jesus
Christ has powerfully infiuenced the history of civilization. William
Barclay reminds us that Christianity - God working through his people -
altered history by holding out for the worth of every human being. Barclay
points out that in pre-Christian Rome, forty infants were abandoned nightly
on the steps of the Forum to be picked up in the morning: the boys to be
raised in the school for gladiators ~ the girls fr the brothels. And that
1@ was no big thing for a master to crucify a slave for drawing the bath
water too hot. Overly dramatic? Not really. Because Jesus Christ and his
people changed it.

But it's at the intimate personal level that we do our stumbling. A
first grade church school class had been talking about the men who followed
Jesus. Reviewing the lesson the next Sunday the teacher asked what these
people were called. One child eagerly raised his hand, “The recycles" he
exclaimed. (Alive How - Jan/Feb. 74. P.6)

And that is what he did with those men: took the raw material of their
lives and remade them into useful, corageous and joyful servants. That's
what the story of Cana holds up for us. The people of the New Testament
keep bunting in on us, crying "We're found it! The thing for which the whole
would is looking - we've found it and it works" (A.J. Gossip, Interpreters
Bible)

But we keep it at arms Tength. We're not sure about it. We're not
Sure we want to be disturbed - changed - re-created. We may not be alto-
gether happy with who we are; but we're very uncomfortable with the sugges-
tion that God himself might make us into something else,

Frederick Nietzsche stood outside the faith throwing his brilliant
barbs at the lack of integrity he saw at precisely this point. He wrote;
"They must sing better songs ere I learn belief in their Savior: his disci-

ples must fook like the saved." {Thus Spoke Zarathustra, P.82)

CANA - January 20, 1974 (7)

That's the issue, ard it always will be. We touch it - weekly - ever.
so gently "If aman is in Christ, he is a new person altogether. The old
is dead and gone: everything has become fresh and new...Friends, believe the
Good news of the Gospel..... In Jesus Christ we are forgiven". Ever so
gently: but there in that sentence is the very essence of the Gospel -"If
aman is in Christ he is a new person altogether.”

I watched the first part of a Television series on Religion in America
last Sunday night, partly out of a Sense of duty. The first segment was
ok Pentecostalism, and it showed much of what I find distasteful and excess-
ive and wrong in that approach to the Gospel. But near the end it included
an interview with a young woman, painfully unrehearsed. She wasn't very
literate: she was too cute - but she talked openly about the change in her
life caused by her religious experience. She said: "it seems such a shame
that a man like him had to die for me" and then she broke down and wept,
quite unprofessionally.

When fast were you moved to tears by Jesus Christ? When last did you
allow your religion to get at you at that level? We're embarrassed by that
degree of intensity - that level of honesty - that simplicity that says
"I bong to Jesus Christ - and I intend to be his disciple."

And so the Pentecostal Shurches are full - and we sit smugly in our own
half empty sanctuaries, And across the world Pentecostalism is expertencing
incredible growth, as the Presbyterians bring home one hundred more
missionaries.

"We will be listened to," Arthur John Gossip once said. “when we demon-
Strate to those outside that we have something infinitely valuable that they
Tack. “ (I.B.P.494, Vo1.8)

God is near. God graces our high moments and shares our joys. God
can enrich our lives - bringing peace, meaning, joy. He can change us.

That is the Gospel. AHEN

CANA - January 20, 1974 (8)

Father, our intentions often outstretch our courage. We mean weit, but
we hesitate to be open - all the way - to you and your love and your will.
Help us to overcome that. Help us to learn your closeness; vour presenca
in our nign moments and ¥ low moments. And give us that courage to be

your willing aad faithful people: Through Jesus Christ our Lord. AMEN