We just heard Psalm 36 and John 2. How do we listen to these readings? Is it – we listen and then we wait for someone to help us in the sermon understand the principles inside and how that might apply to our lives, the lives of this church etc. That is an important approach but not the whole picture I’d suggest.
Yesterday I went for a walk and prayed for the service, the people involved in it, and I prayed about the scriptures being read. That God would speak through them to you. Not through the sermon alone, but when the Word is simply read. Our Scripture is God breathed; and as the Holy Spirit dwells within us and part of his role is to teach us – he is to speak to us.
I suggest for our Sundays…
As we hear the word we can come expectantly.
What Lord do you want to say to me through these two passages before Grant preaches…
How can we do this: three words – Listen, Ponder, Pray
Listen – listen to the readings and pay attention to any word or phrase that attracts you.
Ponder (Think about it) – this service may not be the time, perhaps later at home is better – but when you can ponder, ask yourself and ask the Lord, how that word or phrase speaks to your life and why it has connected with you…
Take time, this may be something you continue doing through your week, bringing it back to your QT daily to chew on it more. The aim is to get to a point where you are able to say in a sentence what that word or phrase is saying to you…
Pray – you ask what Jesus is calling from you, what is it you need to do, or what do you need to give up, or to consider, or to take on, as a result of what God saying to you in that word or phrase…
At times this can be quick – the phrase stands out, you begin pondering, and quickly you see what is happening, maybe it is something you were praying about, or worried over; and then praying reveals an action you need to take… or it may take more time.
In John, we note how Mary was expectant – do whatever he tells you – she expected something to happen. As we approach our readings on a Sunday – be expectant.
John 2.
So turning to John 2.
A wedding took place in Cana of Galilee. Cana is often mentioned in our wedding liturgies. There are two possible locations – north or north east of Nazareth, in North Galilee. Some couples will save up for years to be able to visit Israel and renew their vows there on a significant anniversary.
But when you have a closer look, we are not actually told anything about the marriage, what happened, or even the couple … in fact it is about a disaster – you could almost imagine John shared this story out of the trauma he still felt from that day…
We will journey through it, and then return for a couple of applications…
v2 Jesus was there.
In John 1 we read about the Word made Flesh. Here in v2 – the Word made flesh, God who dwells among us, he goes to wedding parties, he joins us in our everyday activities, he gets involved in human affairs, he isn’t doing ministry, he is celebrating and enjoying life. As one writer says ‘’Jesus did not abstain from wine or party festivities; he was not antisocial’’. 1 Weddings were important social events of joy and celebration. The whole community came.
How do we describe heaven? You know when maybe our child or goddaughter asks us…
When the Jews reflected on what heaven was like and what it would be like when the Messiah – God’s promised king- would come, they thought about feasts and the wedding feast was the model that came to mind most. We see that in the prophets. Psalm 36 says ‘’they feast in the abundance of your house.’’
The wedding was public, could last for a week, and it was important it went well. For example, when gifts were given, it was not about a nice gift, it was something that would bring honor to the couple and their families. Honor mattered. So for the wine to run out, it was not simply embarrassing, it was a dishonouring crisis for the family.
Mary tells Jesus and we may be a bit surprised at the response ‘’woman, what does that have to do with me?’’ It can sound rude in English. NIV has tried to soften it – dear woman – and actually they are trying to tell us that it is not rude – Jesus used the same word to the Samaritan woman, the woman caught in adultery, to his mother again as he hung on the cross and to Mary Magdalene outside the empty tomb.
Why do you involve me – what does that have to do with me. Jesus is not being rude but he is being inflexible. You know, in Ireland, it is said about the Irish mothers, they are matriarchs and they rule the house. It is possible here that Jesus is challenging his mother – she is presuming that as Jesus is her son, he should act because she asks. But his response says – he cannot act under her authority but he must follow the course God his father has set for ‘’my time or my hour has not yet come.’’
What does ‘’my hour’’ refer to. He says twice more in John 7 and 8 that it has not come, then in John 12, 13 and 17 it has come. It is about Jesus death and glorification. His crucifixion. When Jesus will not just act to help a few people, but when he will act to help the whole world…
But Mary is not put off. ‘’Do whatever he tells you.’’ Persistent. Expectant. She knows her son. Or because she knows him, he has given some indication he will do something…
Now the camera moves to 6 stone jars.
1 Burge, G. M. (2000). John (p. 98). Zondervan Publishing House.
‘’Filled to the brim’’ he commands. Then they take the now – water- turned – to wine, to the head steward. Logic, the steward says is that the best wine is served first – later when tired, full, their taste buds all messed up with the various dishes, the cheap wine comes out… but here the best has come. In fact not the best like before – this is even better than the best they began with.
John’s words – the punchline – this is better than what has come before, what was served before. He is describing Jesus ministry.
Then John ends with v11-12. He talks about signs.
A sign reveals things – I do find the Dutch approach to guiding you around road works to be pretty good, follow the big yellow A signs. The Dutchies here may think it is isn’t that great but in UK, you just get a sign – ‘’road closed’’ – and that’s all – well I can see that; but the Dutch ones usually point to something, they point to a new direction…
Here – sign – it is revelation, it reveals something about God, something that was hidden before. These signs are not just power, this shows God is at work, that God is at work in Jesus and in fact God is present in Jesus. And through these signs, Jesus reveals glory.
This is what John wants us to see. Jesus is not merely a man; he is more, he brings the presence of God in the world – Word made flesh – and ‘’since he radiates the presence of God, he appropriately shows God’s glory.’’ (Burge, John).
Applications.
Our applications are about: Mary and the Disciples.
Mary.
Mary turned to Jesus for help.
As Richard Burridge puts it: ‘’when we come to the end of our human resources, and we simply have nothing left to say, or do, or give in a situation, so too we can turn to God in prayer and tell him what has happened.’’ John, p.46.
First point here – practical need. Mary’s example to bring practical needs to him.
You know when I was in OM, at the church where we worked, we were preparing a mime production.
Lots of the teens were involved. And in mime, as you know mime is where you work without objects.
Well we had a tree in the story, about fruit being taken and corrupting the entire group of people, and well the tree kept moving where the mimes were reaching up. So we figured we needed a real tree. So Jani – my flat mate – and I had the idea to head up into the hills around where we lived, to look for a tree we could bring back. After we were walking for a bit, I remember us praying and asking God for a tree – and 5 minutes later, we saw some tree fallen down by the side of the path which was perfect…
Now, as I tell that story – you may ask ‘really to bother God about a tree’ – is he that interested? I mean practical needs like: you don’t have food yes, you don’t have enough for a mortgage yes, but a tree.
Mmmhhh. I believe he is. That tree helped a production, helped young people to be confident in that part of the mime and actually, it gave a great visual, the audience remembered what they had seen in part 1 as they watched the rest and actually, at the end we portrayed Christ being crucified and on one side was the tree and the other the cross…
Is there something you would not ask God to provide? If so, why not?
Gary Burge says – ‘’It is easy for us to spiritualize the work of Christ today and conclude that he is only in the business of saving souls and renewing lives. But is he really interested in the commonplace events of my life? Is he really interested in the simple conundrums of everyday living? The Cana story says “yes.”
We can invite Christ into dilemmas that seem embarrassingly inconsequential—dilemmas that seem ridiculously practical—and ask him to help.’’2
Second Mary was expectant. Mary turned to Jesus for help. Mary simply expects that by explaining the situation to Jesus, her son will do something about it.
That is the challenge of prayer. To believe he listens. That he will do something with what we are praying.
That he has not switched to voicemail. That he can. He encouraged us to pray and to bring things to him.
Yet, how he answers is his choice. When he answers is his choice as well.
But we can face the silence of God, and we have the sometimes painful challenge of prayer being like red, green or amber. Green – go, the answer comes quite quickly or when we need it; there is red – when God says no – it may be it is not good for us – Ruth Graham said, wife of Billy Graham, said “God has not always answered my prayers. If He had, I would have married the wrong man — several times!”. But there is also AMBER – wait – and that waiting can be a long hard time.
Expectancy – that he listens, he cares – his love reaches to the heavens and his faithfulness to the skies – and he has the power. He can.
Third, Mary asked, Jesus answered and someone else became the answer – the stewards. At times I will be Mary asking, and at times I will be the servant – doing what Jesus wants and becoming the answer to someone else’s prayer. In God’s Smuggler, Brother Andrew tells a number of times, when people sent him monetary donations because they were prompted to by the Spirit – yet he had not said anything. It
reminds us to be sensitive in our Quiet time to that voice of the Spirit – how through our obedience we may become the answer to a person’s prayer – to give, to act, to go.
So Mary – practical needs, expectancy, becoming the answer.
The Disciples.
His disciples put their faith in him.’’ They responded to what they had seen and heard. If you would not call yourself a Christian, what have you seen and heard of Jesus so far? What do you need to help you make that step. The Alpha Course reminds us of who Jesus is – how he lived, the direct and indirect claims he made about himself, about his death and resurrection, a death and resurrection he said would happen – telling us, that he can be trusted in everything else he said. So are you responding to what you
seen and heard?
2 Burge, G. M. (2000). John (p. 102). Zondervan Publishing House.
The disciples put their faith in him. No one could force them or make them. John says why he included his signs – ‘’these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.’’ There is a choice to believe. And in the gospel many did not but some did. John 1 says– the world did not recognise him, his own did not receive him.’’ But then we hear ‘’yet to all who received him to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become
children of God.’’ You heard the formula – those who received him, those who believed, became children of God. They chose.
The disciples put their faith in him. It was not a group exercise. Each of them had to make a personal decision. That is the same for each of you here. You need to make your own choice. You become a child, when you believe in him and receive him.
So the disciples:
they responded to what they had seen and heard.
they made a choice.
it was a personal choice for each one of them, as it remains for each of us today.
Where are you at today?
The passage in John ends with that word about putting faith in Jesus, I want to end in a prayer.
You may want to pray this prayer silently in your heart as I say it…
Lord Jesus Christ, thank you for dying for me on the cross.
I’m sorry for the things in my life that have been wrong.
I now turn away from everything that I know is wrong.
And I now receive your gift of forgiveness.
I put my trust in what you did on the cross for me.
And I ask you, please, to come and fill me with your Holy Spirit,
to give me the strength to lead the kind of life that deep down I’m longing to lead.
Thank you, Lord Jesus. Amen.
If you have prayed that prayer do tell someone; you may instead prefer to pray this with someone, and
perhaps our prayer ministry team during Communion or at the end may be a suitable place.