When the steward of the house tasted the water which had become wine, and did not know where it came from, he called the bridegroom (10) and said to him, “Every man serves the good wine first; when all have drunk freely, the poorer wine; but you have kept the good wine until now.”
In our fourth study of the Gospel of John, Jesus demonstrated that sometimes we have to get out of God’s way, so that God’s miracles can begin to take place. Jesus mother set the tone for our discipleship with the words, “Do whatever he tells you to do.” We discovered that Jabez, although born into the human condition of pain, suffering and loss, through total dependence on God, overcame the conditions of his birth and God established him in the family of David.
In reading our recent history, I discovered that in 2010, this congregation engaged the study of Vital Signs. We read that every stable growing congregation is grounded in guiding values—prayer, Bible study, a collective personality and witness guided by unconditional love of God, and an organizational life guided by God’s mission in the world. In your work, you affirmed three central values:
1. The community of faith is more important than any individual—
2. The great commission to reach the world is more important than any one community of faith—finally3. Becoming one with Christ is the way we honor and glorify God and enter into a relationship with God.
In order to focus on the way in which the first sign—water into wine establishes these core values for the church, we turn to the story of God’s miraculous blessing of Abraham. This blessing was necessary in order that God would make the covenant with him in Genesis chapter 17 verse 5. “No longer will you be called Abram, exalted father, but your name shall be Abraham, (father of a multitude).”
Yet in order for him to prove his trustworthiness for this great anointing, Abram was tested. He had taken his nephew Lot with him. By mutual agreement, Lot and his family had settled in the well watered Jordan River valley. Abraham settled in the foothills of Canaan. In Genesis 14 it came about that the kings of the city-states in the valley went to war with each other. In the process, Lot, his family and his possessions were taken as refugees by the invading kings. In verse 14 we read that when Abram heard that Lot had been captured, he led 318 trained fighters to the rescue. He traveled into southern Syria and rescued Lot, his family and his possessions. Abraham put the needs of the community first over his own individual needs.
As Abram returned victorious, we have what the biblical scholars refer to as a theophany. God appeared in the presence of a human being, a king, this king is not one of the kings mentioned in the battle. Neither is his so-called kingdom one of the city-states engaged in the conflict. The word Salem here translates as city of peace. He was the prefigure, the very the Christ, the logos made flesh, as king of the messianic Salem, the New Jerusalem.
Melchizedek, king of Salem gives us a sign, the sign of the Christ. He brought out bread and wine. He was the priest of the Most High God. Verse 19 tells us that he “blessed Abram saying, 'Blessed, highly favored be Abram of God Most High-Possessor of heaven and earth; and blessed be God Most High who has delivered your enemies into your hands.'" Abram had passed the test. He had been faithful to God, because he put Lot’s trouble ahead of his own comfort. He put down his own safety, the needs of himself, his personal enterprise, his flocks, his herds, his farming, to rescue his nephew. But he did this because he was already praying, relating to, and meditating with the most high God.
Perhaps like Jesus, Abram’s first response was, “It is not my time yet.” This is not why God called me to leave my homeland—not to engage in petty wars, not to play the great rescuer of Lot’s party or in Jesus’ case, the married couples’ reception. But when we are open to God, when we live in a full relationship with God, developing the spiritual sensitivity to do what God tells us to do, to go where God tells us to go, to stand on the principles God requires us to take a stand on, then we discover the blessing that comes from living in God’s will.
But it was not for the married couple that God had Jesus perform this sign. Verse 11 tells us his disciples saw the glory of God in the making of water into wine, and they believed on him. It was for his disciples, this small group he had recently gathered to himself, that he made himself totally available to what God wanted, even though he did not fully understand why God was asking him to seemingly “start early.”
Through Abram’s obedience on behalf of Lot, God, the Most High, became the life of the party for the coming children of God. This is the man God chose to make His agreement with, on behalf of the world: “Through you, my faithful brother, shall all the families of the earth be blessed (Genesis 17).
The water of purification was used to cleanse the hands and feet of those who came and went from the party. It was a part of the Hebrew ritual of purification. But being pure doesn’t bring joy. Being clean doesn’t fulfill the soul’s needs to know life of extreme joy. God’s joy is not about happiness, giddiness, living on a high. God’s joy is deep, satisfying, that only the wine of Joy, the life of God can bring us.
The world is looking for real joy, real peace, for real satisfaction. It seeks the heavenly party that never ends, fueled by the wine of God’s life. Through the joy that comes from living life in communion with God, we discover that God is truly “the life of the party.” So what are we waiting for? Let the party begin—let it begin.
Amen.
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