Date: January 19, 2025
Scripture: John 2:1-12
Sermon Title: “Our Cup Overflows
Preacher: Rev. Dr. Bob Jon
I wonder how many guests came to your wedding ceremony or your children’s wedding. 30? 100? As a pastor, I have officiated at a wedding where I just had a couple with their witnesses and a wedding with a couple of hundred. Not many of us would have been to a wedding with over 1,000 guests. A man in Afghanistan walked into his wedding celebration and was surprised to find 600 more guests, totaling 1,300. These uninvited guests are strangers who just show up at any wedding to enjoy food such as lamb, chicken, yogurt, fruit, and pudding. Still, the groom had to feed all the guests because, in Afghanistan, there are two tightly held values: “commitment to hospitality and devotion to family and community.”[1]
In our gospel story today, we hear there was a wedding in Cana. According to the ancient Jewish culture, the wedding ceremony took place at the groom’s house for seven days. Can you imagine that the wedding lasts not just one day, two days, but seven days? No wonder that on the third day, they ran out of wine. If this were to happen at the modern wedding, it would not be a big deal. Maybe someone will rush to the liquor store to get some wines. If this were to happen at a Methodist church, the pastor would be in deep trouble getting a call from the bishop for allowing alcohol in the church. But in Jesus’s time, this was seen as offensive in that people considered that the wedding host seriously lacked a sign of respect and hospitality for their guests and community.
It is one thing to measure carefully, plan thoroughly, and prepare in advance. But life does not always unfold as we expect it to be. Although we all wish that our life is filled with abundance, surplus, or overflow, we often experience scarcity, falling short of what we need. Sometimes, we run out of strength, feeling defeated and frustrated. Sometimes, we run out of happiness. Some years ago, I met a couple who I thought were married happily. But they told me they were just separated and started their divorce process because they were just not happy with each other. Sometimes, we run out of purpose. I see that with my father after retirement. Unless you continue to find something that gives you meaning, it is hard to wake up with joy in the morning and go to bed with hope.
At some point, the wine dries up unexpectedly. Living in the U.S., many people may think that we have enough in this country. We are secure with our supplies. But during the pandemic, we witnessed how fragile our supply system was. How many of you were surprised when you went to Wal-Mart and Market Basket and found nothing on the shelves? Shortages in meat, baby formula, cream cheese, aluminum, dog food, and especially toilet paper. We thought that our society was overflowing with food and wine, and all of a sudden, they dried up. Meanwhile, the energy, joy, and vitality in people were drying up. People were quitting their jobs, being separated from one another, and wrestling with depression and isolation.
Mary, the mother of Jesus, acknowledges that all the wine is gone at the wedding in Cana and tells Jesus, “They have no wine.” Jesus answers, “Woman, what concern is that to you and to me?” As a Korean, I thought that this is not the way to address your mother, but I guess this is not appropriate in any culture. Can you imagine that you ask your child to take out trash, and he tells you, “Woman, what concern is that to you and to me?” Gail O’Day, a New Testament scholar, points out that although Jesus’ response might sound harsh to the modern ear, it was neither rude nor hostile. Instead, she believes that it could be a common expression in the Semitic world that Jesus used to put some distance between his mother and himself.[2]
I find it remarkable or even strange why Mary is bothered by the shortage of wine here. After all, she is not in charge of the wedding ceremony. The Bible does not say that Mary or Jesus had any relationship with the groom or bride. So, why is she bothered whether they have wine or not? “What concern is that to me and to you?” That can also be our responses when we notice a crisis in others. We hear about a significant rise in mental health among teenagers today, particularly depression and anxiety, attributed mainly to social media, stress from school, bullying, and discrimination. “What concern is that to me and to you?” We hear about refugees and migrating children. “What concern is that to me to you?”
But Mary is persistent. She believes that Jesus can do something about the crisis with no wine. Although Jesus did not tell her whether he would do something about it or not, Mary shows incredible faith by telling the servants, “Do whatever he tells you.” Although the civil rights movement is often considered a religious movement led by male ministers, James Cone argues that it was also a women’s movement. Women started it, sustained it through difficult times, and made religion its central focus. They say, “If Rosa Parks had not sat down, Martin Luther King Jr. would not have stood up.”
In January 1956, in the early weeks of the Montgomery bus boycott, Martin Luther King Jr. received a midnight call threatening to blow up his house if he did not leave the town in three days. As he was concerned about not just himself but also his wife and their newborn baby girl, these threats affected him, forcing him not to have the same conviction and vigor. An elderly woman named Mother Pollard confronted him and said, “I know something is wrong. Is it that we ain’t doing things to please you? Or is it that the white folks is bothering you?” Even before he said anything, she said, “I don told you we is with you all the way. But even if we ain’t with you, God’s gonna take care of you.”[3]
And at the goading of his mother, Jesus ordered the servants, “Fill the jars with water.” They filled all the jars with water up to the brim. He said to them, “Now draw some out and take it to the chief steward.” When the stewards tasted the water, it was not the water anymore. It became wine and people did not know where it came from. Only the servants who drew the water from the jars knew where it came from. But the steward called the groom and told him something I find very remarkable here. “Everyone serves the good wine first, and then the inferior wine after the guests have become drunk. But you have kept the good wine until now.”
Human beings always want to impress others in the beginning but wane out later. A young man gives many gifts to his girlfriend to impress her and show her how much he loves her. Well, it becomes a different story after they get married. As people apply for a new job and fill out their resumes, they list so many things to impress their boss and coworkers, but they often turn out to be exaggerated or even false. Many politicians promise to the public so many things that we know they cannot deliver later. Everything comes down to who wins the power and position at the expense of the truth and promise. It is human nature that we want to be seen as bigger, better, and higher than we are, trying to impress others. And what a disappointment it is when the truth is revealed later.
But God is not like that. The steward tells the groom, “You have kept the good wine until now.” In the same way, God desires to give us something more wonderful, more abundant, and more growing to us. John Wesley taught people that God initiates God’s love for us by surrounding us with God’s grace. When we recognize our sins and brokenness and accept the love of God, we are saved from our sins. We do not live our lives as captives to our sins and death anymore. We are called beloved children of God redeemed by the love of Christ. For some people, that is good enough for them. I know some evangelical pastors who often challenge their parishioners by pounding on the altar, “You need to be saved!” But Wesley believed that the grace of God does not end there. If we are open to the grace of God, God will pour God’s love into us more. We grow in our love for God and love for neighbors in the ongoing journey. We call this sanctification.
Back in 2019, this country had the longest government shutdown, which was 35 days. At that time, the federal workers and their families had to suffer no paychecks. And here is a story that I heard. If we go to the airport, people toss into plastic bins in airport security lines. People put computers, phones, shoes, car keys. But at Portland Jetport in Maine, other items started showing up in those bins: Hannaford gift cards.1 According to officials from the airport, federal workers aren’t supposed to accept cash or gift cards that exceed $20. So, with the generosity of passengers who left the gift cards in the security plastic bins, managers at the airport were buying lunch and grocery supplies for their employees and setting up a food pantry in the office. What people thought as a crisis with shortage turned into an opportunity to show generosity from their neighbors.
As we walk in the season of Epiphany which reveals the divinity of Jesus, the writer of John tells us that Jesus is the living water who gives us infinite joy and happiness. He is the one who gives us a new life. In this time of pandemic when we witness many wines are dried up, people try to find some self-improvement books that teach, “A half-empty cup is only a matter of perspective. It is also a half-full cup.” For us who believe in the grace of God, we sing God as our Shepherd who walks us with us even in the darkest valley. And because of Him, we fear no evil. Even in the presence of our enemies, powers, and principalities, we praise God who set a table before us and anoints our heads with oil. And we sing, “Our cup overflows.” Even in times of anxiety, scarcity, division, and war, Jesus fills our cups with his generosity of love, grace, and mercy.
Amen.
[1] Joseph Goldstein, “At Afghan Weddings, His Side, Her Side and 600 Strangers” in The New York Times, (https://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/19/world/asia/at-afghan-weddings-his-side-her-side-and-600-strangers.html, accessed on January 15, 2025)
[2] Gail O’Day, The New Interpreter’s Bible, (Nashville: Abingdon Press), 537.
[3] James H. Cone, The Cross and the Lynching Tree, (New York: Orbis Books, 2017), 78.
RAIN OF GRACE 