First Reading Isaiah 62:1-5
1For Zion’s sake I will not keep silent, and for Jerusalem’s sake I will not be quiet, until her righteousness goes forth as brightness, and her salvation as a burning torch. 2The nations shall see your righteousness, and all the kings your glory, and you shall be called by a new name that the mouth of the Lord will give. 3You shall be a crown of beauty in the hand of the Lord, and a royal diadem in the hand of your God. 4You shall no more be termed Forsaken, and your land shall no more be termed Desolate, but you shall be called My Delight Is in Her, and your land Married; for the Lord delights in you, and your land shall be married. 5For as a young man marries a young woman, so shall your sons marry you, and as the bridegroom rejoices over the bride, so shall your God rejoice over you.
Psalm Psalm 128
1Happy are they all who fear the Lord, and who follow in his ways! 2You shall eat the fruit of your labor; happiness and prosperity shall be yours. 3Your wife shall be like a fruitful vine within your house, your children like olive shoots round about your table. 4The man who fears the Lord shall thus indeed be blessed. 5The Lord bless you from Zion, and may you see the prosperity of Jerusalem all the days of your life. 6May you live to see your children’s children; may peace be upon Israel.
Second Reading 1 Corinthians 12:1-11
1Now concerning spiritual gifts, brothers, I do not want you to be uninformed. 2You know that when you were pagans you were led astray to mute idols, however you were led. 3Therefore I want you to understand that no one speaking in the Spirit of God ever says “Jesus is accursed!” and no one can say “Jesus is Lord” except in the Holy Spirit. 4Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit; 5and there are varieties of service, but the same Lord; 6and there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who empowers them all in everyone. 7To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good. 8For to one is given through the Spirit the utterance of wisdom, and to another the utterance of knowledge according to the same Spirit, 9to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by the one Spirit, 10to another the working of miracles, to another prophecy, to another the ability to distinguish between spirits, to another various kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of tongues. 11All these are empowered by one and the same Spirit, who apportions to each one individually as he wills.
Gospel John 2:1-11
1On the third day there was a wedding at Cana in Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there. 2Jesus also was invited to the wedding with his disciples. 3When the wine ran out, the mother of Jesus said to him, “They have no wine.” 4And Jesus said to her, “Woman, what does this have to do with me? My hour has not yet come.” 5His mother said to the servants, “Do whatever he tells you.” 6Now there were six stone water jars there for the Jewish rites of purification, each holding twenty or thirty gallons. 7Jesus said to the servants, “Fill the jars with water.” And they filled them up to the brim. 8And he said to them, “Now draw some out and take it to the master of the feast.” So they took it. 9When the master of the feast tasted the water now become wine, and did not know where it came from (though the servants who had drawn the water knew), the master of the feast called the bridegroom 10and said to him, “Everyone serves the good wine first, and when people have drunk freely, then the poor wine. But you have kept the good wine until now.” 11This, the first of his signs, Jesus did at Cana in Galilee, and manifested his glory. And his disciples believed in him.
THE RECEPTION WAS EXCELLENT
Here’s one of those jokes we grew up on, that kids today will never understand. Did you hear about the two TV antennas that got married? The wedding was terrible, but the reception was excellent! That’ll date ya, right along with pay telephones and party lines won’t it. Our lesson today from the St. John’s gospel is one we’re all familiar with; it’s Jesus’ first public miracle when He was pushed by His mother to transform a wedding reception from a near disaster to a roaring success. And it became a success, of course, because Jesus was there.
You know the story well. “On the third day,” says John in his Gospel, a wedding took place at Cana in Galilee. The third day John refers to is the third day after Jesus had left Judea. It was a two-day walk to Galilee, and so He and His disciples would have arrived on the morning of the third day. Cana was a very small village, about 3.5 miles from Jesus’ home in Nazareth. It wouldn’t be surprising if Jesus’ family had some close friends in Cana, maybe even some family members. This is borne out by the fact that Mary, Jesus’ mother, was at the wedding, as were Jesus and His disciples. Unfortunately, something somewhat disastrous happened at the reception. The hosts ran out of wine.
Now we need to understand what a big deal weddings were for Jewish families in that day. The festivities lasted for as long as a week. We’re told that the newly married couple often kept open house for this occasion. They wore crowns and dressed in their bridal robes. They were treated like royalty and at times, for those whose families were affluent, they were actually addressed as king and queen, and their word was treated as law.
It was also customary to have so much food and wine at the wedding that there would be leftovers. Running out of food or wine was considered a cardinal sin. In some instances, the offending family could even be fined. I understand that there are actual records from Jesus’ day of families being sued for running out of wine at a wedding. So, if you ran out of wine, it was more than just an embarrassment. It was a serious problem. But that’s what happened at this wedding. Mary, the mother of Jesus, brought it to His attention. “They have no more wine,” she said.
Jesus’ initial response was somewhat surprising. “Woman, why do you involve me?” He answered. Then He added, “My hour has not yet come.” Now please understand, scholars tell us that Jesus’ answer to His mother was not nearly as blunt and seemly disrespectful in the Aramaic as it sounds to us. In the original language, it was actually quite civil. Either way, it’s obvious that Mary was neither offended or deterred. She turns to the servants and says, “Do whatever he tells you.” When you stop and think about Mary’s instruction, hers is always good advice, isn’t it? Do whatever Jesus tells us. If we did, we’d never go wrong or stray from God’s plan and intension for us.
John continues, “nearby stood six stone water jars, the kind used by the Jews for ceremonial washing.” These were large containers each holding from twenty to thirty gallons. Jesus, in obedience to His mother said to the servants, “Fill the jars with water.” So the servants filled the jars to the brim. Then Jesus instructed the servants to, “draw some out and take it to the master of the banquet.” Again, we see the result of obedience, the servants did as Jesus instructed, and the master of the banquet tasted the water that had been turned into wine. John then tells us, the master of ceremonies, didn’t realize where this wine had come from, though the servants who had drawn the water knew.
Then the master of the banquet called the bridegroom aside and gave him an enormous compliment. “Everyone brings out the choice wine first,” he said, “and then the cheaper wine after the guests have had too much to drink. But you have saved the best till now.” John concludes this story with, “What Jesus did here in Cana of Galilee was the first of the signs through which he revealed his glory; and his disciples believed in him.” As I mentioned earlier, this is a story we’re all familiar with, Jesus turned water into wine, but we need to stop and look at some lessons in this simple story, lessons we can profit from. The first is, one main purpose of miracles in the New Testament is that they are signs that Jesus is who He says He is.
Miracles don’t happen just because Jesus has compassion on someone. Jesus has compassion for everyone. If that were the only qualification, we would all experience miraculous occurrences all the time in our lives. Nobody would be sick or poor or lack anything essential to life. We would simply ask God for a miracle and He would grant it. But obviously life doesn’t happen that easily.
I think there are several reasons we don’t see miracles like Jesus did in our world today. One of those reasons is that God designed this world to operate and take care of itself. Albert Einstein may have said it best: “God doesn’t play dice with the universe.” That is, God created the natural order and He pronounced that it was good. Think about it. As far as we currently know, earth is still the only planet in the universe that supports intelligent life; or intelligent life as we understand it. We live on a magnificent planet.
It’s perfectly balanced–just enough light, just enough darkness, just enough moisture, just enough dry land, just enough heat, just enough cold to sustain the lives of billions of people. Of course, we don’t do ourselves any favors. No matter what your opinion of Global Warming or Climate Change is, no one can deny that our carelessness and misuse of our resources does have a negative impact on what God created. That can of worms aside, we must admit that God has entrusted to our care a wonderfully complex world and we need to be more mindful of how we treat and care for this gift.
All of that to simply say that God created this world perfect and He now seems to be reluctant to interfere with the wonderful mechanisms of the natural order. This may be one of the reasons we fail to see genuine miracles today. I’m talking about miracles that completely defy the laws of nature. I think it’s also important for us to note that even the miracles that Jesus did performed conformed to God’s natural laws. Take the turning of water into wine for example. When you stop and think about it, in a way this phenomena happens in vineyards every year here in North Carolina.
Think about that for a moment. Water is being changed to wine all over the world, in grapevines and then through the process of fermentation. It’s a natural process in perfect harmony with the laws of nature. In C. S. Lewis’ book titled Miracles, Lewis points out that in every one of Christ’s miracles, Jesus remained true to the laws of nature. He simply short-circuited the natural process. For example, it takes a long time to produce wine from water using grape vines and fermentation tanks. Jesus simply did instantly what nature does over a longer period of time. Jesus’ marvelous acts were within God’s natural order. I challenge you to find an instance when He broke God’s natural law.
As I said, even God seems reluctant to interfere with the wonderful mechanisms of the natural order. This universe in which we live is itself a miracle. God created it to be wondrous, bountiful, producing everything we need to sustain life. But it is bound by certain laws. For example, if you step out in front of a speeding car and pray that the laws of gravity and momentum will be suspended momentarily so that you won’t be crushed, it’ll probably be your last prayer in this life. Imagine, if you will, the chaos that would reign, if the law of gravity were suspended even for a short period of time? Airliners would be flung into space. Things that weren’t tied down would float off.
God, for good reason, doesn’t play havoc with the wondrous laws He created. This could be why God doesn’t perform more miracles in our lives, the side effects could be devastating. Now to be clear, I’m not saying God never performs extraordinary miracles.
Scripture testifies that He does. They are however, rare and they always happen within the boundaries of God’s law. They also happen to remind us of God’s presence in our lives. People of faith will always have beautiful things happen in their lives that they cannot explain. After all, God is at work in our lives and He is in control of the natural order. God simply chooses, in His wisdom, to not break His laws, He chooses instead to work through His laws.
One such miracle is recorded in one of The Chicken Soup for the Soul books. Patricia S. Laye tells of visiting a businessman’s office, and while they talked, she noticed that he constantly twirled a small paperweight with a dime in it. Curious, she asked him about it. And he told her a story of a miracle.
He said that when he was in college he and his roommate were down to their last dime. His roommate was on a scholarship, while he had earned his tuition by working in a cotton field and a grocery store. They were the first two members of their families to ever attend college, and their parents were extremely proud of them. Each month their families sent them a small allowance to buy food. That month, however, their checks hadn’t arrived. It was a Sunday, the fifth of the month, and between them they had one dime left.
They used the solitary dime to place a collect call to the businessman’s home five hundred miles away. Obviously, this was many years ago when you could make a call for a dime. When his mother answered he could tell from her voice that something was wrong. She said that his father had been ill and out of work, so there was simply no way they could send any money that month. He asked his mother if his roommate’s check was in the mail. She said that she had talked with his mother. They also couldn’t raise the extra money that month either. They were sorry, but it looked like the two boys would have to come home. They had put off telling them, hoping for some solution.
“Were you disappointed?” Patricia Laye asked. “Devastated,” the businessman said. They both were. They had one month remaining to finish the year, then they could work all summer to earn their expenses. He said his grades were excellent, so he had been guaranteed a scholarship for the next term. “What did you do?” Laye asked. This is when the miracle occurred.
The businessman said that when he hung up the telephone, they heard a noise . . . and dimes started pouring out of the pay phone. It was crazy. They were laughing and holding out their hands to catch the money. Students walking down the hall thought they were out of their minds. They discussed taking the money and using it for their expenses. Nobody would know. But then they realized they couldn’t do that. It wouldn’t be honest. He said they tried to return the money. He called the operator back and told her what had happened. She said that the money belonged to the telephone company, so to replace it in the machine. They did, over and over again, he said, but the machine wouldn’t accept the dimes. He finally told the operator that the dimes kept falling back out. She said that she didn’t know what else to do, but she’d talk to her supervisor.
When she returned, she said that the boys would have to keep the money, because the company wasn’t going to send a man all the way out to the school just to collect a few dollars. The businessman looked over at Patricia Laye and chuckled, but there was emotion in his voice. He said they laughed all the way back to their dorm room. After counting the money, they had $7.20. They decided to use the money to buy food from a nearby grocery store and to go job hunting after class.
When they told the manager of the grocery store what had happened as they paid for their purchases with their dimes, he offered them both jobs beginning the next day. Their money bought enough supplies to last until their first paycheck. To make a long story short, the businessman and his friend were able to finish college–the first in their families to do so. And they traced their accomplishment back to that miracle in a phone booth which this man believed was an act of God.
Was it really an act of God? I’m sure there are those who would argue, I’m not one of them. Miracles do happen. God does act in our lives, oftentimes in ways we can’t always fully explain. God chooses to act through other people. God works miracles by assisting us in ways we normally wouldn’t be able to accomplish on our own, and He works in ways that we’ll never be able to explain. I just find it interesting, that people of faith are particularly prone to these kinds of experience. However, we’re never to think of God as the magic genie in a bottle.
We’re never to think that just because we ask, God will immediately grant our wishes. What I’m saying is we’re not to depend on miracles. What we are to do, is to depend on God’s love, mercy and grace and instead focus on living like Jesus and to trust that God will provide us with what we need. God has entrusted to each of us gifts, talents, intelligence, family and friends and we’re to use these blessings to honor God. And when we do witness or experience a miracle, we’re to count it as a sign of God’s presence and give thanks.
The story is told of Millard Reed a college president, was on a speaking trip in South Carolina when he suddenly fell ill and was rushed to the hospital. His liver had stopped functioning. His system was shutting down. The doctors said he would die. But a lot of people prayed, and when the doctors found a new liver for him and implanted it, he began to recover. “One day, when Millard was back in Nashville at home, he was feeling a little depressed and he decided to go for a walk around his neighborhood.
It was springtime and there were flowers growing in a neighbor’s yard. Millard stopped to look at them. A bumblebee was buzzing from one blossom to another. Now Millard knew about bumblebees and how aerodynamically challenged they are, with those heavy, cumbersome bodies and the tiny, insubstantial little wings. But suddenly this bumblebee did something truly amazing. It headed straight at Millard. And then before it got to him, it suddenly did a perfect loop‑de‑loop, like a stunt plane, and went back to the flower where it had started! “This took Millard totally by surprise.
He remembered the Book of Job, and how God at one point had asked Job if he could make a horse or if he could make a whale or any of the other magnificent creatures that God had put in the world. Millard said he could almost hear God saying aloud to him, ‘Millard, if I could make that crazy bumblebee do that, I could give you a new liver.’ And Millard began to cry. He was still crying when he went back to his house a few minutes later. His wife was alarmed. She thought something was wrong. ‘Oh no, honey,’ Millard said, ‘these aren’t tears of sadness, these are tears of joy. I am so happy to be alive in God’s beautiful world!’”
Millard Reed had seen God in a bumblebee doing loop-de-loops. He had seen God in his physicians finding and implanting a new liver into his body. He had seen God in all those people who had prayed for him. He knew that each of these were miraculous signs of the presence of God. I hope each of us can examine our lives and see God’s work in unexplainable ways.
When these things happen, it means that you have experienced the presence of God in your life. Most miracles occur within the events of everyday life within the confines of God’s natural order. That’s the way God has chosen to work, but He does work. I think each of us need to pay closer attention to the extra-ordinary things, the hard to explain, the miracles, that occur in our lives. If we would, we would then begin to see more miracles and God’s wonderful work and in our lives.
Amen
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