Fill Up
John 2:1-11

January 14, 2007


Wouldn’t you know that today’s tale is all about Methodists. The sacred space of this sanctuary is originally the Methodist space of Metropolitan Church, built originally in 1906 when the great furor around alcoholic beverages was raging in the churches. We have replaced the raging merely with other furors.

I served four small churches in a classic Methodist circuit coming out of seminary. It was a dried-out coal mining district and that had the region in an economic slump. The vestiges of coal mining life were still quite evident: steam still issued forth from the ground all over the landscape, signs on the roads warned “Beware of Sinks” or sinkholes resulting from the collapsing mines underneath the surface, and a tavern on every corner, even when there wasn’t a corner.

The manse for this Methodist circuit rider was in Eckhart Mines, and I was immediately told that barely a generation before there had been a dozen bars of alcoholic pleasure along the approximately one mile of road within the Eckhart boundaries. Now there was only one den of iniquity, just beyond the 200 yard buffer from a church supposedly required by law. In one of the other small churches in Zihlman, however, a tavern was merely 150 yards away. I was also told about a retired lay Methodist preacher who had filled their pulpits for a few years who could never preach a sermon without throwing fire and brimstone at that dastardly establishment up the road. The members of the Zihlman congregation ran out of patience with his rantings a very long time ago. I was not required to say a word about alcohol.

It was another lay Methodist preacher who came up with the big solution. Grape juice was invented by Thomas Bramwell Welch, an abstaining Methodist, who cooked up the grapes in a quest to find a non-alcoholic alternative to wine.

Promoted at the 1893 World’s Fair in Chicago, Welch’s unfermented grape juice was born “out of a passion to serve God by helping his church to give its communion as ‘the fruit of the wine’ instead of the ‘cup of the devil’.” Non-fermenting grape juice hit at the right time. Protestants around the world were just going flat out in their crusade to outlaw the manufacture and sale of all alcoholic beverages so it seemed unseemly to use alcohol in worship. Today, Welch’s Foods Inc., sells $650 million a year U.S. in juices and other products. And a good sized segment of the market is still Protestant churches, the majority of which continue to use Thomas Welch’s innovation.

The irony of it all is the understanding of the social situation in the ancient Middle East. It was the social elite who drank wine, while the common folk preferred beer. Historians find it odd that the Jesus of prostitutes, tax collector and sinners would have chosen the drink of the rich and powerful above the humble beer of the people. We always knew Jesus was Canadian. You didn’t have to tell the German churches that either.

My wife Molly’s first congregation was part of the German Evangelical Synod that had become part of the United Church of Christ. It was located in a heavily German section of town, four blocks down the street from Schmidt’s brewery. The members claimed there was a pipeline from the brewery right into the church kitchen. Sure enough, we went to unparalleled church dinners with sauerbraten and oysters, with a pitcher of Schmidt’s beer on every table. Look, they said, and all of God’s children said, Amen!

Back to another church dinner in Cana of Galilee, a resurrection story for it was on the third day that the wedding feast was held. Mary, the mother of Jesus, was there and she must have finagled an invitation for Jesus and his company. What we never hear is who was getting married? The bridegroom is anonymously drawn into the narrative, but a name we never hear. Since we seldom hear names mentioned in the Gospel narratives he is not being singled out.

Before another thought can arise, the disturbing news circulates that “the wine has failed” (RSV). I love that expression as if the wine had a mind of its own. Of course, wine does have a tendency to give its imbibers a different mind. This failing results in that surprisingly tense nagging dialogue between mother and son. We never thought a Messiah could be so testy. “Why are you bothering me, woman? My time has not yet come,” replies Jesus. John has a habit of inserting cryptic little comments by Jesus that are only understandable if you know the end of the story, if you know Jesus really is. Still, I don’t see how Jesus’ “time” needed to be taken into account at a wedding.

His mother definitely wanted Jesus to fix things, but he resisted being just another miracle worker. Jesus does eventually do something about it, so I am not sure what that says about the direction of his ministry if he could be so casually influenced. But she knows he will do something and tells the servants to be ready to do whatever he tells them. She must have had some clout in the wedding arrangements to be able to give them orders.

The servants now are at the centre of all the action, once again anonymous, but after all you and I as servants of God do most of our serving without anybody knowing. Do what he tells you, they hear. They do what he says filling up these huge stone jars meant for holding water for Jewish purification rites, not an irrelevant choice. Drawing out some of the liquid they take it to the steward or manager of the feast. Only when the steward tastes does it become wine - and the servants are the only ones who know the whole story - and then calls the anonymous bridegroom to congratulate and praise him.

The steward doesn’t really know what he is praising, but “You have kept the good wine until now” is the real theological message. Jesus is not inhuman but extra human in that his faith does not decay with use but becomes stronger.

This is the first of Jesus’ signs, giving a glimpse of his glory. But what are those? These are not just signs and evidence of a superhuman power, but indications of what kind of life Jesus is guiding us towards where the good wine comes as we mature in faith.

Most readers have been dazzled by the miracle of nature, the water becoming wine, but the real sign is that Jesus reverses the process of decay in human life and enables us to become stronger as we tend to become weaker. And the better sign is 180 gallons of excessive extravagance which demonstrates the character of God. God is not just adequate, but extravagant, not just enough, but too much - a God who is grace-full.

That steward of the feast tasted one thing, but the servants knew there was something really remarkable and extravagant taking place that he did not see at all. Presumably the first wine served at the feast was older, and therefore better. It’s still the rule of thumb that the older the wine the better. But Jesus’ wine is absolutely new and it is considered better. Moreover, the hosts of this wedding feast were obviously stingy and overly frugal - for the wine had run early in the party - in contrast to the wild excessive extravagance of Jesus. Just who was going to drink all that wine? They probably still are.

The steward and the bridegroom were amazed at all this wine, but they were pleased beyond expression. Yet they never thanked Jesus, the servants apparently did not tell them in time. Nor do we thank God for the extravagant excessive gifts of nature and its fruits.

Now I know that the spirit of Methodism is still alive in this place, and thanks to the God of John Wesley, we are still strangely warmed in his spirit, but frankly, right now we’ve got too much wine and we don’t even know it. We are so intent upon measuring our limitations, not wanting to go beyond our resources, always a half-empty cup, never taking a risk. Maybe the sauerbraten, but never the oysters. The first sign of Jesus threw all limitations out the window, the new wine is better than the old wine, and instead of filling everyone’s glass, Jesus’ gift overflowed everyone’s cup many times over. Excessive and extravagant and we don’t even notice. We don’t even recognize how much is in our cup and what potential we have. And so we don’t bother to thank God for what we’ve been given. Take another drink, Thomas Welch, the best wine has been kept back until now.

Preached by Robert Kitchen
Knox-Metropolitan United Church
Regina, Saskatchewan