The story of the wedding at Cana appears nowhere else in the Bible. This signals there’s something very special about this story. John’s Gospel begins at the end of the Old Testament with the Jewish people enslaved and occupied by the Roman Empire. The people have been promised a future Kingdom of God, but they are without immediate hope, faith has cooled for many. They’re stuck. Most are waiting impatiently for the Messiah, a promised Savior who will rescue them from this desperate situation. Mary, perhaps speaking of the enslaved Jewish people as a whole says, “They have run out of wine.”
We can easily feel the same way. The Lord’s Prayer reminds us that the Kingdom is in the process of being established here on earth. And we have a role to play. We will rest in the glorious shalom, the Peace of Christ. But the Kingdom on earth is certainly not fully realized. Not yet. We look around and we see anger, greed, fear. No sign of a Kingdom under construction. We don’t experience it. We don’t live it. So we worry, we are anxious, we are stressed, we are afraid. Very much like the Jewish guests at the wedding in Cana.
Maybe like the celebrants at the wedding in Cana, we too have “run out of wine”. Jesus turns to Mary and reminds her the time and situation is not yet ripe. “What is this to you and me? My hour has not yet come.” Mary takes the initiative. She turns to the servants and says, “Do whatever he tells you to.” Something new is coming. They are unprepared for the unusual directions they are about to be given, but Mary assures them to “act on faith. Forget the old temple instructions, they have run dry. Listen to the new instructions.”
Jesus uses the old to illustrate and connect us with the new. Jesus points to the old ritual jugs, the jugs whose waters cleanse the bather from sin, and tells them to fill them to the brim. Jesus is signaling that the Old Testament Covenant is about to be transformed, supercharged. Same mission, same vessels. But it’s time for new instructions. Jesus points to the waters refilling the Old Testament ritual vessels. Look it’s now wine, great wine! The transformation begins with cleansing, the ritual repentance from sin. But then there’s something more. Not just the motions of ritual obedience, but a transformation of the heart. (Amazing what wine will do.) Jesus is pointing to a new way of life that will lead the wedding guests - and us - to the Kingdom of God.
Think of the gospel stories: Jesus was born into a Jewish family in an occupied country under the thumb of a foreign army, the Roman empire. The Jewish people were essentially enslaved by Rome, and as slaves in their own country had little hope. They were afraid. As bad off as they were, it could get worse. They were waiting for a Messiah who would free them from the Romans, an earthly king who would save them.
I can understand this because I grew up Jewish. I was a more or less typical Jewish child. My family lived on a dairy farm in a town in eastern Massachusetts. Early September meant not just the start of school, but the coming of the High Holy Days and the Jewish New Year. During these High Holidays I would get to skip a week of school and contemplate my sins. I really tried to follow the Law of Moses to the letter. The traditional way of life. It’s not easy to avoid sin as a Jew. My faith was centered on avoiding catastrophically bad consequences, on following many, many religious daily behavior rules, like keeping Kosher. Six hundred and thirteen rules in scripture; many more added by tradition. I was constantly edgy and stressed. I wanted a leader, a king, who would make everything right, who would save me. Just like the Jewish guests at the wedding.
Then Jesus begins teaching. Like the wine, it’s a new message. Jesus taught change. Dramatic change. Not at all what was expected.
Jesus’ teaching was exciting, but very strange, very untraditional. Even Jesus’ disciples had trouble believing him. The disciples were waiting for a Messiah, the One Moses said would come after him. No one really understood what this new era would be. But all agreed it would be very, very good. Many thought he would be a traditional king because God promised King David that the Messiah would come from David’s lineage, be of the House of David. But he would rule in perpetuity, whatever that meant.
Given all of this, it’s no surprise that few recognized Jesus as a King. He taught forgiveness and love, humility and awe in the face of our creator God. Where is his army? Why hasn’t he vanquished the Romans? Isn’t that how we’ll be saved? This isn’t a KING. So, there was a special sting when, at Jesus’s crucifixion, a sign reading INRI was nailed to the cross. In Latin - the language of the Roman Empire - those four letters stood for Jesus Nazareth King Jews. So there was no misunderstanding, this inscription was also written in Hebrew and Greek. Mocking. “See what happens to your king.”
But then came the Resurrection and Pentecost. The unexpected message of Jesus took quiet root. Those who heard the Good News began to share it. The Disciples were Jews who spread the word to Jews and gentiles throughout the Roman Empire. The Disciples taught in the synagogues, which were like community centers welcoming God-fearing gentiles as well as Jews. The Roman roads acted as a network for Peter, Paul, Mark, Matthew, James and other Disciples to preach the Gospel all through Europe and the middle east.
Before Christianity, the reason to be religious was to avoid angering God. Obey. Follow the rules. Jesus’ ministry and resurrection taught us a new and different picture of faith, a faith centered on love. Love of God, love of God’s creation, and love of all our fellow creatures. A new life of acting in God’s love and spreading God’s love in the world. A new world where God is present with us, universal, a God who cares for all people, not just a particular tribe. A God who loves us, forgives us and asks us to love and forgive each other. This is the new Kingdom of God of which Christ is King. The planting of God’s Kingdom. And God’s plan includes all of us, all mankind welcomed as permanent residents of this glorious kingdom. We still have a hard time believing it; we struggle to trust in this call to live and act in God’s love. But when we do act on it, the Kingdom grows here on earth.
As a young professional, I was one of the exiled people of Israel still anticipating the promised Messiah. The Waiting. I didn’t know Elijah had already returned as John the Baptist. I didn’t know the Messiah’s name was Jesus. I did not yet understand the Kingdom of God was already firmly established in heaven and was struggling to expand its beachhead on earth. I don’t think most of us truly accept that we have a role in the Kingdom. Do our children or grandchildren or neighbors trust that there is a Kingdom? Do they look around and see a Kingdom being built?
When we live as residents of Christ’s Kingdom, we can start to feel God’s shalom. The Kingdom is here and it is growing. It is growing person by person, one person at a time. Each person who joins the Kingdom grows the kingdom, and in turn each Christian grows as their struggles with life lead to deepening character and increasing faith and love and hope. This is how the kingdom grows. Each human becomes a disciple showing Jesus to those Waiting. We are all Waiting. We may not realize we are waiting or what we are waiting for until we see it. And this is exactly what happened to me.
Our farm was a rough place. The hired hands were a tough crowd. They milked and fed the cows, cleaned the barns, worked the dairy, worked the fields. They drank and they fought. The weaker were bullied by the strong. The hired men came and went, some staying a few months, some a few years. When I was an infant a Swede named Axel Carlson hired on. My mother predicted he wouldn’t last a month because he was so soft-spoken and gentle. But Axel was a Christian, a devout Lutheran. Axel was sent to us and he stayed. His example of gentleness, kindness, goodness, peace-making, serenity and charity lifted my sister and brothers and me many times over the difficult years of living as poor Jewish farm kids in an inhospitable environment. Axel broke up fights on the farm, separating the fighters and saying, “No brothers. Not what we do.” Axel sent us kids to the store with more money than necessary to buy cigarettes and said, “You keep the change.” Axel bought me my first car - my ticket to college and off the farm - and disguised his generosity by “hiring” me to drive him on a road trip to Minnesota to explore his family roots. Axel was a guardian angel to us all. Axel lived and worked on the farm for over 40 years, a biblical time span. Axel looked soft, but had enormous strength. Axel showed Jesus in his life and words and work. Axel was a Disciple who showed me Jesus.
A second person: One Sunday morning in 1967, sitting in the back of the Congregational Church in the Highlands in White Plains, the Rev. Dr. Alden Mosshammer read Paul, Romans, Chapter 12 verse 2. He proclaimed it the way scripture is meant to be proclaimed.
And be not conformed to this world, but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.
Be changed in heart and mind and action. Live the will of God. Rev. Mosshammer proclaimed the message of the Kingdom and his life demonstrated the message.
I suddenly saw the possibility this Christian message could be true. When I got a paperback copy of the New English Bible, I realized it was the Torah, with the New Testament added at the back. I read from Matthew to Revelation. I read the genealogy of Jesus’ family. Jesus is the house of David, the Son of God promised to David’s posterity. This is the Kingdom God promised to David. This is the flower of Judaism. This is the sure guide and goal for each and all of humanity. And I believed. I stopped waiting and joined the Kingdom of God as a permanent resident.
Paul spoke of the conversion of the Waiting in Romans, chapters ten and eleven where Paul teaches that the Jews who are waiting will come to know Jesus when they see the Gentiles as living examples of Jesus Christ. The same is true of all who are waiting in anxiety and stress - our neighbors, our children, our grandchildren. All those will see the Kingdom of God through us, and will want to have what we have, what they have been missing. It’s true for us all. I was called to Jesus as my King by God the Father. God did this through Axel Carlson and Alden Mosshammer, two men, each a living Christ to me.
I thank God for his call. I do my best to show Jesus as I have been shown Jesus. I urge you, each of you who are also permanent residents of the Kingdom, to be Jesus to someone. You will know to whom.
In the name of the Father, and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.