A reflection on John 2:1-11
This story of the water into wine has so many delightful elements.
I love the really understandable social horror of running out of wine – this is something that I make sure never happens at my house!
I love that it is Mary who prompts her son to step into his calling as if she is saying to him – if not now, when?
I love that in response to his reluctance she just walks away with that over her shoulder comment to the servants – whatever he tells you, do it.
And I love that the water into wine is the best. That the best is saved for last.
As I was reflecting on this reading, though, the thing that stood out to me was her order to the servants:
Whatever he tells you, do it.
When I was a young Christian I remember hearing a story of a woman who would lie in bed and ask Jesus what she should wear that day. She wouldn’t get out of bed until she had ‘heard’.
I’m not sure, now, what the point of that story was. It seems mad to me – a crazy level of micromanagement and dependency. Or maybe it was a great way to rationalise a long lie in?
But I think it is a good illustration of how we can turn something meaningful and significant into something pretty silly and lightweight.
The same kind of thing happened with the What Would Jesus Do? Movement. That was a tv show and a board game back in the day, and it seemed to be intended to test the moral fibre and ethical sensibilities of Christians by getting us to imagine all kinds of situations where we have to identify a right and a wrong or choose between two competing good things.
But to my mind, it seems to miss the point entirely.
Because later in John’s gospel account, we see Jesus telling the disciples ‘Very truly, I tell you, the Son can do nothing on his own, but only what he sees the Father doing; for whatever the Father does, the Son does likewise.’
I was talking to a ministry colleague in Christchurch the other day and he was telling me about how he had been horribly busy at work, so much so that his wife had called him out on it and said that something had to change here.
And so taking that seriously, he prayed about it – having said yes to so many good things, what could he now stop doing?
This verse came to mind, about how Jesus did nothing on his own, but only what he saw the Father doing.
For the next few days, he went to work and tried to hold this in mind… what so I see the Father doing? As he sat as his computer, there was a knock on the door and a woman from the congregation was there, apologising for interrupting.
I know you’re very busy, she said, and then told him she was going to have to drop some of her volunteer roles at the church.
My friend paused for a moment, aware of the email he had been in the middle of, and all the work that was piled up behind that, and he thought…is the Father doing email?
It’s ok, he said to the woman. Come in. Sit down and tell me what’s going on….
After about three days of doing this pause and questioning, he told his wife, Well, I may have a problem, because I don’t see the Father doing much email – and I have a lot of email.
Mary’s order to the servants rings through time into our now – Do whatever he tells you. Jesus swore he was only doing what he saw God the Father doing…I guess that really begs the question: What is God up to in our world today? And, are you sure you would recognise it so that you could do it too?
The season of epiphany calls us to be aware that often we see just what we expect to see. And we can be totally blind to what we do not want to see.
Is God at work in places we aren’t prepared to recognise? In people we aren’t prepared to acknowledge? Who aren’t Christians, who don’t come to church? To me this seems a silly question, but there was a time when I would have felt differently.
Now, though, I have no doubt at all that God’s love for us – for all of humanity and for each one of us is not dependent on us. When we do baptise Leo, God’s love for him isn’t held in check until he is regularly joining us in our service of worship each week. God’s love for Leo, and for you, isn’t limited by your willingness to believe or your capacity to understand.
I believe that in the world and in each of us, God is up to the same things as always – offering us doorways into healing, restoration and reconciliation, inviting us into fullness, into wholeheartedness.
Each of us, when we came into this world, we knew how to live fully already. We knew how to laugh with our whole belly when we were delighted and how to cry with full lung capacity when we were hurt.
We knew how to be sad and how to be comforted. We did not stop to judge our feelings or our needs. We knew how to receive love and to let our own love flow like water – like wine!
God’s love doesn’t depend on us. But as we grow up, we lose the easy flow and so we lose the fullness. We are the ones who judge ourselves unworthy. We are the ones who guard and shield out of fear that the little we have left in our jar will be poured out and there will not be enough.
Jesus does only what he sees the Father doing, and when he turns water into wine there is more than enough. There is abundance. There is fullness.
So for those of us whose wine has run out, know that God can take your watery life and make even what comes last the very best.
For those of us who have forgotten how to live fully, know that the God of Love isn’t too busy to hear you and hold you.
The God of Love isn’t angry or disappointed, and has no interest in making you suffer or punishing you.
Isn’t even waiting for you to be properly sorry for whatever you’ve done wrong or to prove yourself worthy.
The God of love is instead offering you a doorway to healing and wholeness. A doorway to freedom and to connection.
I hope that you will knock, and hear the response: Come in, sit down and tell me what is going on with you…. And then whatever you hear him tell you to do….maybe check in with a few friends just to make sure you’ve recognised what God is up to in your life….and then do it.
