It's Not My Job

Sermons - FUMCO

John 2:1-11

There was nothing quite like a good feast to get a celebration off to a great start. Food has always had a way of giving meaning to life! The festivities at this wedding at Cana were typical of those enjoyed by villagers who were thankful for a respite from their daily hard labors of scratching out an existence.

It was an old rabbinic saying that where there was no wine, there was no joy. To cut a long story short, this party ran out of joy! The laughter and gossip of the guests who still had something in their cups, conveniently drowned the anxious whispers and controlled panic that was taking place backstage. In a culture that esteemed generous hospitality, it would have been a shameful humiliation for the hosts to run out of anything, but especially liquid refreshment.

And then Mary made a beeline for Jesus and whispered, “They have no wine!”

If there was one thing that was utterly irresistible to Jesus it was faith. The nature of the mother-son relationship had to be in a new context—there was something more than maternal meddling going on. Jesus responds to Mary’s faith, with all its possible vagueness and whimsy. She models two basic responses that should not only be present at every wedding, but foundational to every relationship and every life:

• She turned to Jesus.

• She trusted Jesus.

This is the beginning of a Community of Love.