Celebration
from Helen
I love weddings, and have been a bridesmaid 5 times. It is something that I think I was quite good at. However, at the second wedding where I was a bridesmaid I almost stole the show… according to my cousin who was the bride ! I was 7 years old and I had a very pretty dress with a net petticoat which was very itchy. During the service my bottom was very itchy and so I tried to work out how I could lift my dress and have a scratch. I waited and then there was a prayer. I saw this as an opportunity, after all when you prayed you put your hands together and closed your eyes. As the prayer started I lifted my dress and had a good scratch !! strangely enough not everyone had their eyes closed !
This morning we heard in the gospel (John2:1-11) about Jesus’ first miracle in Cana of Galilee. It was at a wedding, a joyous time, but this wedding went a little wrong. At the wedding they ran out of wine. This was a planning nightmare, running out of wine would suggest that the hosts of the wedding were not very hospitable, there was a problem that needed to be dealt with.
This was the first of Jesus’ miracles and in the gospel of John every miracle is called a sign. This is because in the miracle Jesus was showing a sign of who He was. In this case Jesus turned a bad situation into something amazing, as He turned water into wine.
Now as a popular miracle goes, that is very high up. I like the fact that Jesus showed His power in a way that helped people to enjoy life. Every one of the signs or miracles that Jesus did turned a bad situation into something good. Every miracle or sign showed something of who Jesus was and I think that it is not a small part of the story that Jesus was at a celebration and He made it better.
God likes to see people enjoying themselves, He is God who likes to celebrate.
God as a God of celebration makes sense to me. Celebrations are supposed to be happy occasions, and they usually are but they are also the times when both the best and worst things can happen. One of the things that the Gospel today tells us about God, and His ability to celebrate is, that in every situation God is there.
I think life can seem like a celebration at times. The times when everything is going well. The times when we feel that God is on our side, the times when everything seems perfect.
At times like this it’s easy to praise God and to see that in life God is with us through the good times. We like to celebrate good things and good moments. I think that the idea of celebration suggests happiness, and so when life is not so perfect, when things are not going the way that we would expect, the idea of God being a God of celebration can be unhelpful.
God is always with us and He understands when things are tough, how it can be hard to celebrate. In all our hard times of life the one thing we can always rely on, is God’s love for us.
In the gospel reading when Jesus turned water into wine He didn’t turn the water into cheap wine, but into wine that was so good no one had tasted any wine as good as that before. I
f you go to Cana in Galilee you can of course buy wine, it’s quite a popular attraction in the gift shops. I have known people who have bought some and tried it. The unanimous comment has been that it isn’t very nice wine. Clearly, you need Jesus to make it better.
Going back to the sign, the miracle, it is clear that God is God of quality. He is gives us the best, He gives us quality and quantity. Jesus filled the jars with the equivalent of 150 gallons of wine, from no wine to an overflow of wine, Jesus provided not just quality but quantity.
God offers us the best and not in small amounts but bigger and better than we could ever imagine on our own.
The celebration of God’s love is to be shared and reported upon to others. To the world around us, in despair, we can offer something so wonderful. We can share the joys and celebration that knowing the love of God can bring.
This doesn’t mean that we can dismiss the problems around us, problems of fear, conflicts throughout the world, injustice that we see and hear of happening,unemployment, homelessness, addiction, and the list could go on as we think of all the social problems around us, all the people for whom life is far from perfect. For whom celebration seems a long way away.
Celebrating can seem so far away for us as well at times, but we have seen that God is with us, we believe. Celebrating God and His love for us doesn’t mean that we have to be happy all the time but it does mean that we can know that God is with us. That somehow everything will work out in the end.
Our Old Testament reading (1 Kings 17:8-16) we heard of the widow who had very little and who wanted to keep the little food she had left for herself and her son. God through Elijah changed this and gave her all that she needed for herself and her son to eat. God changed things for her.
In the gospel reading Jesus met the needs of the couple, He saved the day. God reaches out to us and even when we don’t feel like it He is still there waiting for us to turn to Him.
When we think of our relationship with God and His love for us, as we think of those who are in despair so we remember the call of God on us that we are to celebrate His love by showing that love to others. Making a change in our lives and in the lives of people around by showing them that God loves them.
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