Readings

Children’s Sermon

Today’s Gospel reading: what was your favorite part? That short dialogue between Jesus’ mother and Jesus: What is Jesus’ mother saying/doing? What might Jesus’ reply mean? Jesus’ mother then talks to the servants: what’s that about? Does Jesus’ mother get what she asked for? What might have happened if Jesus’ mother had let Jesus’ first  response end the conversation? (So we keep at it, even if we don’t quite understand what’s going on.)

Adults’ Sermon

There are any number of things we might notice in today’s Gospel; I’d like to focus on two. The first is what the children and I were looking at: how to respond when Jesus’ response sounds conversation-ending. Today’s Gospel isn’t the only place this question comes up. The most notorious case: Jesus’ response to the Syrophoenician woman’s request to exorcise the demon from her daughter: “Let the children be fed first, for it is not fair to take the children’s food and throw it to the dogs” (Mk. 7:27). The woman could easily have let that end the conversation. She chose not to, and in the end Jesus does what she asks. Why Jesus gives these odd responses: that question is probably unanswerable. What we should do when we think we’ve gotten one of these odd responses: texts like today’s give us a clear answer: don’t throw in the towel.

Had we read just a couple more verses in our first reading we would have heard:

Upon your walls, O Jerusalem,
I have posted sentinels;
all day and all night
they shall never be silent.
You who remind the LORD,
take no rest,
and give him no rest
until he establishes Jerusalem
and makes it renowned throughout the earth. (Isa. 62:6-7)

Jesus’ mother would have liked that text. And it’s like that strange parable Jesus tells about our needing “to pray always and not to lose heart” (Lk. 18:1): be like the wronged widow who wears out the unjust judge with her persistence. So, when we think we’ve gotten an odd response from Jesus, we don’t throw in the towel. That’s not the point of today’s Gospel reading, but something we might learn from it.

The second thing we might notice in today’s Gospel reading: how unexpected it is after all the solemn pronouncements in the previous (opening) chapter. Recall some of what we hear in chapter 1:

“And the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of a father’s only son, full of grace and truth.” (Jn. 1:14)

“No one has ever seen God. It is God the only Son, who is close to the Father’s heart, who has made him known.” (Jn. 1:18)

“The next day [John the Baptist] saw Jesus coming toward him and declared, ‘Here is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!’” (Jn. 1:29)

“And [Jesus] said to [Nathanael], ‘Very truly, I tell you, you will see heaven opened and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man.’” (Jn. 1:51)

All this sounds very solemn, very serious. Then the first thing Jesus does out the gate is gift the wedding party with about 150 gallons of high-quality wine. Maybe we run back to John the Baptist: this Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world makes really good wine! Looks like John the Evangelist (the author) has chosen to give us a friendly warning: don’t assume that you know how chapter 1’s solemn and serious language is going to play out. Be prepared for some surprises. Be prepared for some surprises.

We could easily stop there; but let’s look at one way we might take it a bit further. In our Isaiah reading we heard

“For as a young man marries a young woman,
so shall your builder marry you,
and as the bridegroom rejoices over the bride,
so shall your God rejoice over you.”

Yes, in the Gospel Jesus is a guest, not the bridegroom. But John the Evangelist plays with the image and in the next chapter has John the Baptist say “He who has the bride is the bridegroom. The friend of the bridegroom, who stands and hears him, rejoices greatly at the bridegroom’s voice. For this reason my joy has been fulfilled. He must increase, but I must decrease” (Jn. 3:29-30). So John the Evangelist’s decision to put this wedding story at the start of chapter 2 may be a heads-up that all that language in chapter 1 may be pointing to the joy of a wedding.

The image of Jesus at the door has captured our imagination: “Listen! I am standing at the door, knocking; if you hear my voice and open the door, I will come in to you and eat with you, and you with me” (Rev. 3:20). After today’s Gospel perhaps we should pair it with this text from the Song of Songs: “Listen! my beloved is knocking. ‘Open to me, my sister, my love, my dove, my perfect one…’” (Cant. 5:2).