Sermon: January 17, 2010

Throughout this past week, the world has watched in sadness and disbelief as the tragedy of the massive earthquake in Haiti unfolds. Together we have prayed for our brothers and sisters whose lives have been devastated beyond belief. Together we have rejoiced when lives have been saved. Together we have grieved for lives lost. Together we have reached out in love and concern. Many have wondered out loud: Where is God? What can we do? How can we help? How will these, the poorest of poor ever recover?

Mixed with of the images of this tragedy is the image of the wedding feast from this morning’s scripture reading. I have struggled over the past few days with just how we can experience the power of this story of the wedding celebration and the miracle of Jesus turning water into wine in the midst of the devastation of our neighbors. Does the miracle, in anyway, speak to the tragedy?

As I said at the beginning of the service, I am standing beneath a canopy that, this morning, is a reminder of a chuppah… a Jewish wedding canopy. It is considered a small sanctuary. “The space underneath is set aside as sacred.” Standing beneath the four-poled canopy with the sides open to the world, the wedding couple is reminded that on their wedding day and on every other day, “they and God work together to create sacred space.” This is the Gospel claim on our lives. Today and every other day, we must work together with God to create sacred space.

Weddings are great celebrations but at least in my experience, something usually goes wrong – the cake falls on the floor… a bridesmaid’s dress doesn’t arrive on time… a groomsman drinks too much before the ceremony and disrupts the proceedings. You get the picture.

Well, something certainly went wrong at the wedding in Cana that we read about in John’s Gospel. In those days, a bride and groom celebrated their marriage not with a honeymoon trip but with a seven-day wedding feast at the groom’s home. At this particular wedding feast they were running out of wine and this was considered a crisis for the groom’s family. They were, after all, responsible for their guests’ well being and running out of wine was simply unacceptable. They would be embarrassed by their lack of hospitality.

According to the Gospel story, it was Jesus’ mother who noticed the problem – some traditions suggest that it was her nephew’s wedding and that’s why she was involved. All we know from the story is that she went to Jesus and asked him to “fix” the situation. I doubt that she had any idea that he was going to miraculously make wine from the wash water that was stored in the large jars the family had provided for the necessary purification rituals of a seven day feast.. She probably thought that her son would send the servants out among the neighbors and friends to see if any had wine to spare and bring it back and then quietly suggest that “family hold back” so that there would be enough wine for the guests and then the party would continue uninterrupted.

We don’t know how it happened. We don’t know what Jesus did. All we do know, according to the Gospel story, is that when the chief steward tasted the water from the stone water jars it had miraculously become wine and he called out to the bridegroom saying, “Everybody I know begins with their finest wines and after the guests have had their fill brings in the cheap stuff. But you have saved the best till now!” And the wedding feast was saved along with the good name of the groom’s family.

Whenever I hear the story of this feast, I am reminded of the story of another feast where the wine was also changed. The story is told of a community in a wine-growing region of the country that celebrates the grape harvest with an annual party. According to their tradition, each household brings a bottle of their very best wine to be poured into the common vat for the enjoyment of all. Now I am sure that for wine connoisseurs this practice is unthinkable but it is the community’s way of celebrating the grape harvest without it becoming a contest to see who makes the best wine! When all the guests have arrived and all their best wine has been co-mingled, they go to the vat, fill their glasses, and lift them in celebration. The community has never forgotten the year when the first glass of wine was drawn from the vat and when tasted they discovered that the wine had mysteriously turned to water. Apparently, nobody brought their best wine. Instead, everyone brought water thinking that no one would notice just one bottle of water in the mix. Nobody would know if they didn’t offer their best.

How often we choose to bring water instead of the very best wine we have. How often we keep our best for ourselves. How often God is embarrassed by our lack of hospitality. How often we leave it to someone else to create sacred space.

Before the earthquake struck, how many of us knew that Haiti was the poorest nation in the Western hemisphere? How many of us knew that in the capitol city of Port Au Prince, more than 2 million people live in a city designed for fifty thousand, in homes literally stacked on top of each other? How many of us knew that 80% of Haitians are unemployed and live on less than $2.00 a day? How many of us knew that 80% of Haitians have no access to clean water without spending a sizable portion of that $2.00 a day to buy water? How many of us knew that 80% of Haitians cannot read or write? How many of us even really cared at all that the people of Haiti live under God’s canopy with us?

While some might say that the earthquake in Haiti was God’s doing, I cannot and will not. This was not a punishment for the past. And it was not God’s way of waking us up to our responsibility to care for our neighbors in need. The God of love that is at the center of our faith does not cause tragedies to happen. But now that there has been a tragedy in Haiti, we must work together with God and with each other to re-create sacred space under God’s universal canopy for our brothers and sisters. We must offer our best.

This canopy that I am standing under is purely symbolic. I intentionally used fabric that reminds us of the great expanse of blue sky that is over our heads. We live – all of us live – everyday under the canopy of God’s love. This canopy is open to the world on all four sides reminding us of the expanse of God’s world beyond our doors. God calls us to remember that today and everyday, we must be committed to creating sacred space for all of God’s creation. This is the Gospel claim on our lives.

So let us continue to pray for those whose lives have been devastated by the earthquake and continue to give thanks to God for the lives that have been saved. Let us donate money to the United Methodist Committee on Relief or the Red Cross or any other organization that is working to bring aid to the people of Haiti. Let us put together a health kit or two or ten or fifty and bring them here so we can get them in the hands of the people who need them. Let us find out about volunteer-in-mission opportunities to Haiti that are certainly coming and consider joining a team or forming a team. Let us offer our best so that God will rejoice in our hospitality and sacred space will be re-created with love and grace and hope.