First United Methodist Church
January 21th, 2025
Rev. Lauren Hall
Fill My House with Hoping
In her autobiography titled I, Rigoberta Menchu: An Indian Woman in Guatemala, Rigoberta Menchu explains the final stage of the marriage ceremony in her village. According to Rigoberta, the girl says: “I will be a mother, I will suffer, my children will suffer, many of my children will die young because of the circumstances created for us by the white men. It will be hard for me to accept my children’s death but I will bear it because our ancestors bore it without giving up. We will not give up either.” Women in Guatemala, like women in many developing countries, must find hope in even the most dismal situations.
Nicholas Kristof, co-author of the book, Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide, writes about being present at the India-Nepal border, where guards were assigned to stop the smuggling of goods such as pirated DVDs, yet no one stopped the stream of Nepali girls being trafficked into India. The officials at the border thought it was perfectly fine that illiterate, poor village girls end up being kidnapped and locked up in brothels for the rest of their lives.
Our scripture today celebrates Jesus as the hero wedding guest – the one who saves the day when the wine runs out. In the gospel of John, when Jesus encounters a potential catastrophe, there is always more than meets the eye as hope never runs dry. Just when we begin to expect the worst, Jesus reminds us that there is more good stuff in store. As Christ reveals his glory through this miracle at Cana, he begins his ministry with an extraordinary act of grace, and gives us a glimpse of what is yet to come.
If we ignore all the particulars of this passage, we see Christ taking an opportunity to glorify God by transforming water into wine. And it’s not just a little wine, either, this act transforms six stone jars of water, each holding twenty or thirty gallons (3.6). That’s a lot of wine.
The obvious message in this passage is in the transformation. When Christ transforms the water, the result was better than the wine they began the feast with. If we place our confidence in Jesus and trust that he will do what is necessary, imagine what Christ can do with us.
But I don’t want to leave this here. In the Gospel of John, there is a theme that continually shows that God’s glory is manifested in Jesus’ life and ministry. It reveals the possibilities of new life and abundance that are made available through the words and deeds of Jesus Christ, and it also shows the decisions individuals are called to in the face of these possibilities. I began today by mentioning two horrific accounts of humanity in our world today. I believe that Christ calls us to make decisions and to respond to these tragedies in the name of justice and peace.
When I traveled to Guatemala, I visited villages where women, through the help of the United Methodist Church, had rebounded from incredible adversity. One village had been invaded during the civil war and all the men and boys were rounded up by the soldiers. They locked them inside the church, raped the women and then massacred all the males. After ravaging the village for supplies they burned it, leaving the women and children alone. We visited about 10 years later, and they lived in a small co-op community, took care of the children together, farmed and made woven products for sale in the market. They were poor, but they had food, clothing and shelter. The church didn’t go in and do it for them, but instead provided the basic resources so that the women could feel safe and rebuild their lives. Other villages we visited had similar stories, and all had managed to find hope in dismal situations.
In Nepal, hope has been discovered through education. Although the women are marginalized, family planning and a growing interest in women’s issues are improving the conditions of women in this country. Kenyan women are making strides through government reform, but still have to overcome many cultural adversities that dehumanize and humiliate women. But they have discovered hope, because people are listening and women’s lives are getting better.
But none of this would have happened without intervention and aid from caring individuals. When we look at our scripture a little more closely, we see an example of intervention when Mary brings the issue of the wine shortage to Jesus. If we pay attention to their dialogue, we see two things. Mary demonstrates her faith in Jesus’ power and willingness to help and Jesus responds with a phrase that haunts me every time I read it:
“Woman, what concern is that to me and to you?”
Before I get into that, we need to understand that when Jesus changed the water into wine, he did more than simply provide a drink for the celebrating guests. In the Old Testament, an abundance of good wine is a sign of the joyous arrival of God’s new age. To run out of wine at a first century wedding would not have been just embarrassing, but disastrous. Wine was associated with blessing, joy, goodness, and more. To run out of wine would have felt like a curse, like you’d run out of blessing. And Jesus doesn’t just offer enough wine to cover the balance, but turns six huge washing basins of water into wine, providing more wine – and blessing – than they could have possibly consumed. More than that, and as the steward acknowledges, it’s the best wine they’ve had.
So, with that in mind, imagine the unwritten dialogue that probably occurred between Jesus and his mother, or the “look” that she gave him before telling the servants, “Do whatever he tells you.” Keep in mind that we are the servants. Ultimately Jesus responds, and Mary offers us a model for how believers can bring their needs and concerns to Jesus through prayer.
If you think about it, this is exactly how the Cultivate ministry was initiated. The founders were concerned about the children who didn’t have enough food to eat over the weekends and they prayed about it. The resource that Jesus pointed them to was a resource that had existed for years – caterers would also be embarrassed if they ran out of food before the event was over.
I remember working in the cafeteria in college, and during finals week we had a “breakfast at midnight” event. It was the first time we offered it, and the response was overwhelming. I remember feeling sorry for the managers and the chefs as they opened cans of ravioli and other non-breakfast foods to feed the hoards of students that came the second hour. I’m not sure what they did the next morning when it was time to serve breakfast.
Anyway, caterers tend to make way too much food for an event, and the leftover food that is perfectly fine for consumption and usually thrown out became food for children to eat over the weekends.
Just as the water that Jesus transformed into wine resulted in better wine than the host began with, the meals that are sent home through Cultivate are so much better than the cans of spaghetti and applesauce that usually go home through a backpack program, that attendance actually went up on distribution day in the schools that provided these meals.
Mary's intercession at Cana emphasizes the importance of prayer and the belief that Jesus listens to and responds to the prayers of His followers. And what did Jesus do? He didn’t simply fill some empty jars. He asked the human servants to go and get the water, and then he transformed it into good wine. The resulting transformation is a sign of what Christ can do with what we offer. When we give or respond in any way that we can to a ministry or missional opportunity, such as an UMCOR disaster response, or Cultivate, or the Community meal, we give Christ the opportunity to multiply our resources.
How are we supposed to know what to do? Our first response is to pray – to ask Christ to intervene. Our next response is to offer something – our time, talents, gifts or service – so that Christ has an opportunity to multiply it. And our third response is to listen to Jesus’ response, even when his instructions lead us in surprising directions.
So, as we prepare for our offering today, what concerns about our community would you like to lift up to Jesus? And what is Jesus asking you to do? Let us pray:
Dear God, as we read John’s story of Jesus, let us come to know you better and trust you more. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
