Longing for the wedding feast

Short sermon preached at 8am Eucharist at St Alphege Church, Solihull
Sunday 17th January 2009, Epiphany 2

Readings: Isaiah 62: 1-5 [1 Corinthians 12: 1-11] John 2: 1-11


Our readings today have a theme of celebration. They are about weddings and rejoicing. They speak of great joys to be shared, and of a party.
In our reading from Isaiah God speaks to his chosen people and tells them that God will rejoice over his people a bridegroom rejoices over his bride. God will deliver his chosen people from their desolation and forsakenness and make them to be a crown of beauty, a royal diadem in the hand of God. This Isaiah reading has the same theme as the last part of the book of Revelation where it talks about the wedding feast of the lamb. The Church is portrayed as the bride of Christ, the New Jerusalem, purified and made new and to be joined to the lamb, to Christ, forever. As Christians we are called to this great and wonderful destiny, the greatest of all celebrations.
Although promised, the celebration is not yet. And similarly in the gospel reading we have a wedding feast, a celebration which is struggling to happen because the wine has run out. The lack of wine is being felt, and there is a desire, a longing for more wine so the celebration can continue. And in our human lives we are so often aware of things that are lacking and inadequate. If we think about Haiti we become painfully aware of the instability and fragility of our earthly lives. We are aware of the great sufferings, and the inadequacy of any human response. And I think, to some extent at least, we all long for and thirst for the great banquet in heaven. We want to live in the New Heaven and New Earth that God is to create, free from the suffering and pain of the old world. We want to see fulfilled the wholeness, the harmony, the blessed rest of the long promised kingdom of God. And this desire is a very good thing because our desire for these things helps us to walk towards them, it help us to play our part in their realisation. Jesus says, “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.” (Matt 5: 6).
But the gospel story is also very good because it shows how these desires are brought to fulfilment. They come to fulfilment when they are brought to Jesus. And Mary is the agent here. She brings the need, the thirst, the longing to Jesus. She also tells the servants “do whatever he tells you”. And this is the pattern for us too. We bring to Jesus our thirsts, our longings, and the needs of the world, and then we seek to do whatever Jesus tells us. Two things are required. Trust in Jesus, that he will resolve problems that are brought to him, and obedience to Jesus, such that we play our all part in the resolution.
Now an interesting aspect of this story that the need, the desire, for more wine is not presented directly to Jesus by those organising the feast; it is presented by Mary. In prayer we can, and should, approach God directly and ask him for the things we need. However we also can, and should also, approach him indirectly, through the prayers of other people, our friends, our families, the saints. And in my experience this approach through other people is often works better than the direct approach. In this approach the desire, the need, has to be owned by other people before it is presented to God. In this way the request depends on the charity of others, so it comes to God purified of some of the selfish and individualistic intentions that might accompany a direct prayer. And the granting of the prayer becomes a gift that not only helps the individual with the particular need, but also strengthens community through the sharing of needs and desires and prayers. It promotes a spirituality in which we think about others and help others, because only through others are we helped. It reminds us of the importance of praying for others people, because that is how we are prayed for. It reminds us of the importance of empathising with others people, so we know their needs and know what to pray for. It encourages us to use our time, our talents and our gifts in the service of others in the church community, because this is how we ourselves are served. And all this builds true communion; true sharing of the gifts God give us, above all in the gift of eternal life. Amen.