Today’s service is led by the Revd Matt Stone
Introduction & Call to Worship
Welcome to our worship for this Sunday! My name is Matt Stone; I’m a URC minister in Rotherham and Doncaster. I’m the chair of GEAR – the Group for Evangelism and Renewal in the URC. As we gather to worship I’m going to share some words from Psalm 36:5-9. I just encourage you to let the words not just be something you hear with your ears but something you meditate on and allow to sink deeply into our hearts.
Your love, Lord, reaches to the heavens, your faithfulness to the skies. Your righteousness is like the highest mountains, your justice like the great deep. You, Lord, preserve both people and animals. How priceless is your unfailing love, O God! People take refuge in the shadow of your wings. They feast on the abundance of your house; you give them drink from your river of delights. For with you is the fountain of life; in your light we see light.” Let’s join together to worship God with our first hymn.
Hymn God is Love: Let Heaven Adore Him
Timothy Rees (1922) © 1970 Hope Publishing Company OneLicence # A-734713 Sung by the virtual choir of Christ Church Pelham
God is Love, let heav’n adore him; God is Love, let earth rejoice;
let creation sing before him and exalt him with one voice.
God who laid the earth’s foundation, God who spread the heav’ns above,
God who breathes through all creation: God is Love, eternal Love.
God is Love; and love enfolds us, all the world in one embrace:
with unfailing grasp God hold us, ev’ry child of ev’ry race.
And when human hearts are breaking under sorrow’s iron rod,
then we find that self-same aching deep within the heart of God.
God is Love; and though with blindness sin afflicts all human life,
God’s eternal loving kindness guides us through our earthly strife.
Sin and death and hell shall never o’er us final triumph gain;
God is Love, so Love for ever o’er the universe must reign.
Prayers of Approach and Confession
Loving God,
we join with all of creation to worship and adore you.
We love you because you first loved us,
and we see your love so beautifully,
so powerfully, and so gloriously in Jesus Christ.
Forgive us, Lord, when we have lost sight of your love,
and have not loved as you love.
Open our eyes afresh to your love today,
and fill us anew with your Spirit,
that we may be transformed and live for you alone. Amen
We join in the words of the Lord’s Prayer:
Our Father, who art in heaven,
hallowed be thy name;
thy kingdom come;
thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread;
and forgive us our trespasses
as we forgive those who trespass against us;
and lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from evil.
For thine is the kingdom, the power and the glory,
forever and ever. Amen.
Reading St John 2:1-11
On the third day a wedding took place at Cana in Galilee. Jesus’ mother was there, and Jesus and his disciples had also been invited to the wedding. When the wine was gone, Jesus’ mother said to him, “They have no more wine.” “Woman, why do you involve me?” Jesus replied. “My hour has not yet come.” His mother said to the servants, “Do whatever he tells you.” Nearby stood six stone water jars, the kind used by the Jews for ceremonial washing, each holding from twenty to thirty gallons. Jesus said to the servants, “Fill the jars with water”; so they filled them to the brim. Then he told them, “Now draw some out and take it to the master of the banquet.” They did so, and the master of the banquet tasted the water that had been turned into wine. He did not realize where it had come from, though the servants who had drawn the water knew. Then he called the bridegroom aside and said, “Everyone brings out the choice wine first and then the cheaper wine after the guests have had too much to drink; but you have saved the best till now.” What Jesus did here in Cana of Galilee was the first of the signs through which he revealed his glory; and his disciples believed in him. After this he went down to Capernaum with his mother and brothers and his disciples. There they stayed for a few days.
Hymn How Deep the Father’s Love For Us
Stuart Townend Copyright © 1995 Thankyou Music OneLicence # A-734713. sung by the choir of St James’ Cathedral, Chicago
How deep the Father’s love for us, how vast beyond all measure,
that He should give His only Son to make a wretch His treasure.
How great the pain of searing loss – the Father turns His face away,
as wounds which mar the Chosen One bring many folk to glory.
Behold the man upon a cross, my sin upon His shoulders;
ashamed, I hear my mocking voice call out among the scoffers.
It was my sin that held Him there until it was accomplished;
His dying breath has brought me life I know that it is finished.
I will not boast in anything, no gifts, no power, no wisdom;
but I will boast in Jesus Christ, His death and resurrection.
Why should I gain from His reward? I cannot give an answer;
but this I know with all my heart – His wounds have paid my ransom.
Sermon
For about fifteen years, the Boys’ Brigade was a huge part of our family’s life, because my dad was the captain of our church’s BB Company. And one of the things we used to do every year was get together with some of the other local BB companies and go on a camp. We used to cheat, because we used to sleep in church halls rather than tents, but (for the children, at least!) it used to be a really fun week. And one of my favourite memories of BB camps was going on treasure hunts. We used to be let off in teams of five or six with a leader in a big country park and we’d have to find clues, which in turn would lead us to the next clue, and the next clue, and so on, until eventually we found the chocolate treasure. Mr Wootton, the leader who designed the hunts, would plan each of the clues to be as cryptic as possible, at least as cryptic as you can get with 8-11 year olds!
Now why do I tell you this? Because in some ways John’s gospel is planned to be a kind of treasure hunt, with careful and sometimes cryptic clues laid out for us to follow. The word John uses for ‘clue’ is ‘sign’. He’s setting up a series of signposts to take us through the story, and these signposts tell us both who Jesus is and what Jesus is about.
When Jesus called Philip and Nathanael to follow him in John 1:51, Jesus reveals a startling truth: “I am telling you the truth: you will see heaven open and God’s angels going up and coming down on the Son of Man” In other words, those who follow Jesus will see heaven and earth meet. They will see Jesus doing amazing things, heavenly things, God-like things. The signs or clues are the moments when that happens. They are significant, significant displays of power that point beyond themselves to deeper realities. They are moments when heaven is opened, when the transforming power of God’s love and Kingdom burst into the present world. The Jews believed that happened in the Temple, the place on earth where God lived. But Jesus shows us that he is the new Temple, that he is a person and a place where heaven and earth meet.
Now the first sign, the first clue is the story we’ve heard this morning, and like all of the signs, the story of the wedding at Cana is really a story of transformation. Whenever heaven and earth meet, something is transformed; something of God’s eternal Kingdom breaks through the cracks of our fading earthly world to surprise us, to give us a glimpse of what is ahead, to draw us in to the mystery of God’s plan and future. So what do we learn from it? We’re going to look at three parts of the story:
First of all, the Master of the Banquet (v.9)
Jesus and his mother, Mary, and some of the disciples have been invited to a wedding. 2000 years ago, weddings would have been even bigger affairs than they are now. The whole village, along with family from further afield, would get together and celebrate every day for a week or more. With this in mind, we realise what a huge disaster it was to run out of wine just a couple of days into the wedding! The party looks like it’s already over – and shame would have fallen on the couple, their family, and especially on the Master of the Banquet, who had the job of making sure that everyone had a great time.
The good news is: Jesus steps in to rescue the couple, the family and the master of the banquet from that shame. Now why would Jesus do that? Imagine for a moment that you are standing for political office, or that you’re an entrepreneur launching a new product, or a musician releasing your first major recording. In every case, you would choose your first public presentation with enormous care. Each detail would be carefully controlled so that every single thing you said or did would convey the message of what you are about. Why would Jesus then choose a wedding as his launch? Nobody’s dying. Nobody’s sick. Nobody’s starving. Why would his first miracle – his first sign – use supernatural power to create 800 bottles’ worth of the finest Chateau Cana?
I believe it’s because Jesus is saying that He is the true Master of the Banquet. God’s master plan is to bring joy and healing to a broken and shameful world – in the present, and in the future. That’s what Jesus is about. That is why Jesus has come.
Jesus is also looking ahead to His own wedding, which we can read about it in Revelation 21. We will be united with Jesus forever, and there will be an everlasting celebration. On that day, God, “will prepare a feast of rich food for all peoples… he will swallow up death forever. The Sovereign LORD will wipe away the tears from all faces; he will remove his people’s disgrace from all the earth” (Isa. 25:6-8).
St Teresa of Avila was reputed to have said that the reality of heaven will be so astonishing, the joy so incredible, the fulfilment so amazing, that even the most miserable life will feel “like one night in a bad hotel.”
Jesus is all about transforming our suffering and shame into joy!
The second part of the story I want to focus on is: the water (v.6)
Jesus is going to bring transformation and joy. But how will he do it? Using these great jars of water that the Jews used for ceremonial washing – and that’s significant. The Jewish washing rituals vividly got across the idea that God is holy and perfect, but we are flawed and broken – and so we need to be washed clean if we are to connect with God. We can’t just walk into God’s presence. We need forgiveness, we need a fresh start.
Now most of us don’t like to admit that we are sinners. But deep down we know, don’t we, that something is not quite right. We don’t love others as we should. We put ourselves first. We can be addicted to bad attitudes or unhealthy behaviours.
Adolf Eichmann was one of the Nazi architects of the Holocaust and after the Second World War he fled to South America. But in 1960 he was caught and put on trial in Israel. He was tried, found guilty and executed. But during the trial they brought forward a witness, Yehiel De-Nur, who had seen Eichmann working in a concentration camp. When DeNur came to testify, he saw Eichmann in the glass booth and immediately he broke down in tears, he fell to the floor sobbing and there was pandemonium in the court. Sometime later DeNur was interviewed and asked why he broke down in tears: Was he overwhelmed with hatred or painful memories? DeNur said no – he said he was overcome by the realisation that Eichmann was not some demon but an ordinary human being. “I was afraid about myself… I saw that I am capable to do this… exactly like he.”
The Russian dissident Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn put it like this: “Gradually it was disclosed to me that the line separating good and evil passes not through states, nor between classes, nor between political parties either — but right through every human heart — and through all human hearts. This line shifts. Inside us, it oscillates with the years. And even within hearts overwhelmed by evil, one small bridgehead of good is retained. And even in the best of all hearts, there remains … an un-uprooted small corner of evil.”
The good news is that Jesus has come to help. He wants us to have eternal joy, and so he uses the ceremonial water jars to draw our attention to our need – to what’s stopping us from receiving joy. And then Jesus draws our attention to what he’s going to do about it, and that brings us to my third point:
Jesus’s conversation with Mary: “My hour has not yet come” (v.4)
When Jesus refers to his ‘hour’, he’s talking about his death on the cross. So what does that mean in the context of a wedding? Why does Jesus connect a request for wine with the hour of his death?
The author Timothy Keller suggests that Jesus is looking beyond his mother, beyond the bride and groom, and past the whole wedding scene. He’s seeing the great wedding feast of heaven, but He’s also thinking about what needs to happen first.
Surveys show that many people, including the non-religious, see Jesus as a good teacher or a role model – even if they don’t believe He’s God or see any significance in His death. The problem with that view is that Jesus did not come primarily to be a good role model – and I’m really glad He didn’t, because He’s too good, too perfect. It would be impossible for us to copy Jesus in our own strength. If we tried, we would just end up despairing. Like a high jumper looking at an impossibly high bar, Jesus’ standard is well beyond us.
But in this sign we see that He didn’t come to tell us how to save ourselves, how to achieve His standard… He came to save us Himself. If at a wedding of all places, at the start of his ministry, Jesus was thinking about his own death, then He was probably nearly always thinking about his death. Jesus’s death is the primary reason Jesus came. Jesus’ death didn’t just happen because the Jewish leaders had had enough of Him, and the Romans wanted to keep the peace. John’s Gospel makes it clear that Jesus gave up His life of His own accord, and it was the plan all along. In the very next chapter, Jesus says to Nicodemus, “the Son of Man must be lifted up [on the cross], so that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life. For God loved the world so much that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not die but have eternal life.”
In other words, Jesus came to wash us clean, to bring us forgiveness and to make us right before God so that we can receive the joy and fullness of life God wants us to have.
So to summarise:
blessed to be a blessing, for the sake of your kingdom and glory. Amen
Offertory
Maybe Jesus didn’t set off for the wedding at Cana intending to save the day by the gift of turning water into wine. Maybe he thought he was just there to celebrate but, in response to His mother’s prompt, he saved the day and the embarrassment of the host! Often we give in unexpected ways in unexpected places – the surprise in finding our shoulder is a good place to cry on, the listening ear for pain we’d not anticipated, the gift to a charity that catches our eye. God, of course, planned the miracle at Cana and, of course, encourages us to both plan our giving and to be ready for the unexpected. Now, at this point in worship, we bring our gifts, the planned and the surprising, and give thanks for them and for all that they represent. We thank God for the giving direct to the bank and in the plate, for the gifts of time and talent and love and laughter. Let’s pray.
O God, may Your grace come close to those whose grace is spent.
Let our gifts give love when hearts are tired or sore and hope is bruised or bent. Through these gifts may Your will be done, and all know that Your grace is here to stay embracing those who walk Your way. Amen.
Hymn Blessed Assurance, Jesus Is Mine
Fanny Crosby, Public Domain sung by members of the Northern Baptist Association
Blessed assurance, Jesus is mine! Oh, what a foretaste of glory divine!
Heir of salvation, purchase of God, born of his Spirit, washed in his blood.
This is my story, this is my song, praising my Saviour all the day long.
This is my story, this is my song, praising my Saviour all the day long.
Perfect communion, perfect delight, visions of rapture now burst on my sight.
Angels descending bring from above echoes of mercy, whispers of love.
This is my story, this is my song, praising my Saviour all the day long.
This is my story, this is my song, praising my Saviour all the day long.
Perfect submission, all is at rest I in my Saviour am happy and bless’d,
watching and waiting, looking above, filled with his goodness, lost in his love.
This is my story, this is my song, praising my Saviour all the day long.
This is my story, this is my song, praising my Saviour all the day long.
Blessing
May Jesus fill your life with His transforming presence,
bringing you grace and mercy, love and joy,
each and every day.
And may the blessing of God,
the Father, Son and Holy Spirit,
be with each and every one of us,
today and always. Amen.