Party!

At my mom’s house, right when you walk in is a table. It was bought in Sugarcreek. Amish-made, simple style. A brown table. I remember when it was new. Now it’s worn on the side. There are lines on the table from homework and doodles over the decades. It seems every major life event or discussion happened around that table. Holiday dinners and birthday parties. Family and friends were fed and stories were shared. It’s where I found my chore list, my mail (Columbia House CDs, bills, and my acceptance letter to Ohio University), and notes from my mom. It was central in our house and when I think of the house I grew up in, the table features big in the stories.

Jesus is always around the table. It is central to his ministry. So central, it led the Rev. Dr. George Bell to state, “For me, the central image of Christianity is not the cross, but the table.” Jesus knew the power of the table. We will take the next few Sundays, and engage in Table Talk. Three honest sermons which involve a table, food, and our life together. And Jesus is the host of this party!

I’ve found it is difficult telling people that I’m a pastor. Even after 7 years, I sometimes hesitate telling people what I do because it conjures up all sorts of images and assumptions in them that I then have to deal with. Once people know what I do, they feel the need to give me every opinion they ever had on theology. It’s why I don’t attend wedding receptions. I officiate the ceremony and then disappear like Batman. I let the people party. Many people don’t know how to act around a pastor.

Yet the British pastor J. John has a great way of telling people what he does. He sat down next to a stranger on an airplane. They exchanged pleasantries, as to where they are ultimately heading and he asked what she does. She told him, and then she asked what he does and he said, “WELL…

“I work for a global enterprise.
She said, “Do you?”

“I do! We have outlets in nearly every country of the world.”

She said, “Have you?”

“Yes, We have! We have hospitals, hospices, and homeless shelters. We do marriage work. We’ve got orphanages and feeding programs. Educational programs. We do all sorts of justice and reconciliation work. Basically we look after people from birth to death and we deal in the area of behavioral alteration.”

She said, “WOW!” which was so loud lots of people turned around and looked at them. And then she said, “What’s it called?”

And J. John said, “It’s called the church. Have you heard of it?”

I love how J. John reframes the conversation! He shatters conventional explanations and expectations by making the church sound fun and important and on the move, which it is and has always been. There are twelve festivals that mark the life of faith for every Torah observant Jew.

There are a few downers, like the lament of the Temple and Yom Kappur, the day of atonement, but it ends with the forgiveness of sins and a big party. Yet others are more festive, more a party atmosphere. Like Sukkot, festival of the tents, where you have dinner outside with friends. There’s Purim which is a massive party to celebrate Esther saving the Jews. There’s Hanukkah, 8 nights of presents. The life of faith was something to be celebrated. Yet sometimes, faith can devolve into obligation and ritual. There are also occasions of funerals and weddings. In today’s Scripture, we read of Jesus going to a party and turning water into wine. Jesus kept the party going. Yet for 2,000 years, it seems the church has been trying to turn the wine back into water.

Back in the first century, weddings would last for a few days. It was a big party for the whole town. Jesus arrives in Cana, about 7 miles from his hometown of Nazareth.[1] Mary informs Jesus that they have no wine, and Jesus tries to play it cool. He’s just picked up some new disciples, maybe he’s trying to be cool in front of his new friends. “So?” he essentially says.

Mary, being a good mom who won’t take no for an answer, turns to the servants, “Do whatever he tells you.” These instructions echo those of Pharaoh in Genesis, “Go to Joseph, and do whatever he tells you.”[2]

Standing there were six empty stone water jars for the Jewish rites of purification, each capable of holding twenty or thirty gallons. This is 120 to 180 gallons of water. Obligation, ritual, cleansing… Here is one of the conventional understandings of religion. That religion is here to make people pure and perfect. Everything in moderation. No drinking, dancing, or fun of any kind. Yet I like how scholar Gail O’Day talks about this sign. He states, “it is inaccurate to describe this miracle as Jesus’ rejection of the waters of purification and hence a rejection of Judaism. Rather, jars stood empty, waiting to be filled. Jewish vessels are filled with a wondrous new gift. This miracle is thus neither a rejection or a replacement of the old, but the creation of something new in the midst of Judaism.”[3]

They took the jars, filled them up with water, and took them to the chief steward. When he tasted it, the steward called the groom over. “Hey man, you don’t serve the good stuff last. You serve it first. Then you give the guests the cheap stuff when they’re too drunk to tell the difference. What’s wrong with you?!”

No one but the servants, Mary, Jesus and his disciples knew what happened. And the party continued, but the disciples believed in Jesus.

Wedding at Cana shows God’s abundance, turning the ordinary into the extraordinary. Jesus made ordinary fishermen into a global enterprise with outlets in nearly every country in the world. Jesus shatters conventional explanations and expectations. He comes and keeps the party going with an embarrassment of riches. More than a hundred gallons of the good stuff.

The number one complaint about Jesus when he was alive was that he was always at the table with all the wrong people. “Who is this man who meets with sinners and eats with him?”[4] “Look at this glutton and drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and of sinners!”[5] And this reputation carried over into the early church. Early Christians were known as being too joyful. They were always having feasts, and they hung out together. Just what are they doing? They are entirely too happy. These weirdoes even sing at funerals! How bizarre! Everyone know that at a pagan funeral, you are supposed to weep and cry out and be loud in your grief. Just let it all out. Or in Jewish funerals, you’re supposed to wear all black, cover mirrors, sit in mourning for a month. But singing? No. Normal people don’t do that.[6]

Jesus and the early church shattered all the conventional thinking. Yet somewhere along the way, we got too serious. We became too professional. Our tables set for a feast were changed and were set for the board room. We became concerned about being clean and orderly. A whole new generation views Christians as hypocrites and sticks in the mud who have no fun.

When you ask pastors if they prefer weddings or funerals, the majority of my colleagues will say “funerals.” In mourning, people have a better sense that they aren’t in control. That God is indeed present and in the life of the deceased. Pastors know how to care for people

If I had to pick, I would choose weddings. No one has to die for the event to take place. Families get together, but I get why my clergy colleagues would choose a funeral. There can be too much drama at a wedding. Expectations can be sky high. Obligations, rituals, purity and perfection. it’s why I like to set the bar low with my couples. I say, “As long as you’re married by the end of the day, it is a successful day.” I love the festive atmosphere of a wedding. It’s a party! And in this party, I can point these couples toward the holy. Many couples want to talk about the wedding, I want to talk about the marriage. One is a day, the other is a lifetime. There are Christians who just think church is one day a week, not 24/7/365. They come on Christmas and/or Easter. Those are days. I’m looking for those who understand their faith as a life-long commitment. I think that’s what Jesus was doing at the wedding at Cana. It’s why it’s the first sign in the Gospel of John. It is the invitation of God to see something new within the old vessels. And this new thing is top-shelf quality. It will really get the party going!

Church, wouldn’t it be great if we were known as a place where we have too much fun? A place that has fun in its global enterprise! We have hospitals, hospices, and homeless shelters. We do marriage work. We’ve got orphanages and feeding programs. We have educational programs from Sunday school to founding Harvard and Yale and in our state, Heidelberg and Defiance Colleges. We do all sorts of justice and reconciliation work. Basically, we look after people from birth to death and we deal in the area of behavioral alteration. We bring life. We keep the party going.

We do amazing things, and God is not done with us yet! May this impact our living together, to laugh and take joy in one another. This life of faith is not something to be mourned, it’s something to be celebrated! For when we gather around the table, our holiday tables, or a funeral luncheon, a wedding reception, or our dining room table, God is there with us, making all things new, turning water into wine and every table into a communion table.

[1] Anchor Bible page 100.

[2] Ibid.

[3] New Interpreter’s Bible, page 538.

[4] Luke 15:2

[5] Matthew 9:11

[6] A great resource and history for Christian funerals is Accompany them with Singing, The Christian Funeral by Thomas G. Long.

J John Video can be viewed here.

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