EDITOR'S NOTE: In October 2017 I began a new venture as a synodically authorized minister at Faith Lutheran Church in Wolverton, Minn. The ride over the past 2.5 years has been an amazing journey of learning, growing and a deepening of my theological mind. This sermon took place on Jan. 20, 2019.
There are so many things that I find fascinating about today’s gospel: The wedding at Cana.
It’s a great story, isn’t it? … We’ve heard it since the days we were in Sunday school.
We find Jesus and his mother and the disciples invited to a wedding in Cana, which we can only assume was quite the social affair. … After all, Cana was a small village, and weddings tended to be events that lasted days in the first century. … What a joyous thought to think of Christ being at a wedding!
And this particular social event becomes even more special, because in addition to it being the celebration of nuptials of this young couple, but the event also becomes Jesus’s coming out party in the Gospel of John. … The wedding story actually is Jesus’s very first act of public ministry in the gospel of John. ... His first “sign” as some would call it. … His first miracle.
And in his first great public act, this man who will become our savior, turns water into wine.
Of all the miracles he could have chosen to be his first sign, he and his mother decide that it’s going to be rescuing the day at a social affair!
I also love the part that Mary plays in this story: You know, Mary and Jesus, are just hanging out at this wedding, when the host runs out of wine. And Jesus’s mother turns to him, and essentially says, “Hey, your the Son of God, aren’t you? … Well, then do something about this! These poor kids can’t suffer the embarrassment of running out of wine!” … And Jesus does, because being the good and obedient messiah that he is, he’s always going to listen to his mama!
Finally, I just love the thought of Jesus and the disciples being at that wedding. … I don’t know the connections or whom they knew to be invited. But imagine that, Jesus at such a human and joyous and everyday event such as a wedding.
Now, tell me another story of Jesus that is as light-hearted as that! … And that is what caught my imagination reading the story this time around: You just never know where Jesus is going to turn up.
As I reflected on the gospel this week, it reminded me of a story that comes from the movie “Apollo 13.” … Have you seen it? Do you know the story of the Apollo 13 mission?
In the 1995 movie, Tom Hanks stars as Jim Lovell, the commander of the Apollo 13 mission. And, without giving away too much of the movie, let’s just say that not all goes as planned in the mission.
The three astronauts that are in the Apollo 13 spacecraft find themselves stuck in space, and their return to earth isn’t certain.
Back on earth, as you can imagine, the entire nation’s attention is focused on this Shakespearean tragedy playing out thousands of miles away in outer space. And there is relentless news coverage filling every hour.
In one scene of the movie, as many friends and family are gathered at Lovell’s home, one of the interviews the news replays is a pre-Apollo 13 mission interview with Commander Lovell. In it a reporter asks him about the seriousness of space travel and whether he ever gets scared thinking about it.
Lovell thinks wistfully for a minute and then answers with a story about his fighter pilot days. Lovell was assigned to a Naval wing, and one night on a training run, all of the electronics in Lovell’s plane went out. ... Meaning he was running totally blind. … Now, I can’t imagine flying a fighter jet in the daylight without electronics, but this was during the night!
Complicating matters, the aircraft carrier that Lovell was designed to land on was running dark, meaning it also did not have on any lights that could aid Lovell in bringing that plane in. … So, just to recap, in case the gravity of the situation isn’t clear: Here he is flying a plane at night, totally blind, without any electronic aid at all, and the ship that he is to land on is also completely dark.
I can only imagine the prayers that were running through his head at that moment!
Finally, making matters just a tad worse, Lovell’s plane begins to run out of fuel after circling around the ocean blindly. … But, just as it becomes the most hopeless, he sees out his cockpit window a long, green luminescent streak below him in the ocean.
Miraculously, despite the ship running dark, the two giant rotors pushing the air carrier forward also were churning up the ocean behind the ship. And in the wash of that giant ship, also being churned up was algae that when upset appears luminescent. … So, there, laid out before Lovell, was a divine set of runway lights that led him safely onto his aircraft carrier.
I imagine at this point you might be wondering: So just what possibly does Jesus’ winemaking miracle and Jim Lovell’s divine safe landing on an aircraft carrier in the 1950s have to do with each other?
And it’s this … You simply never can tell when … or where Jesus is going turn up in your life. … It might be a first century wedding in Cana or in the middle of the Pacific Ocean? … Or it might be because the hosts of the wedding have run out of wine, or it might be to save the tail of a Navy fighter pilot who’s lost all of his electronic instruments.
This movie scene sticks with me so vividly because it took on a healing balm at one dark point in my life. In 2005, in the months after my divorce, I was a young, single dad, broke and with a lot of time on my hands. And so I turned to movies.
There were a handful of movies that I loved so much that I watched them over and over and over again. … “Apollo 13” was one of them.
It wasn’t just because I was interested in Nasa and the space race, but it was the many inspirational messages contained in the movie. … One of the most important ones being Lovell’s extreme faith in the most darkest times of his life. ... Be it flying blindly at night over the Pacific Ocean or manning a doomed space module and never knowing whether he was ever going to see his family again.
So, even though today’s gospel story is such a familiar one, it impacted me so much more this time around. … It reminds us that God’s abundance is there, all around us. And whether it’s the simple act of ensuring that a young couple doesn’t run out of wine -- the very best wine -- at their wedding or to help bring home a fighter pilot in trouble, God’s abundance is there.
And as silly as it sounds, that little story in that movie that was made nearly 25 years ago has stuck with me, and I recall it often.
At times where I feel like I’m stuck. … At times where I think the way through the current situation is impossible. … At times when I need reminding that there is always hope.
I wonder if as you’ve sat here listening to me share Lovell’s story, if you’ve thought of times something similar has happened to you. .. You were in the muck, in an impossible situation, and things looked bleak. … And somehow, someway God made a path through. He helped you find your trail of luminescent algae. … Miraculously, Jesus was right there to create more wine.
And that is why I like today’s gospel so much: It reminds me that Jesus is there, and wherever God is present there will be an over abundance. … An overabundance of fish. An overabundance of healing. … An overabundance of loaves of bread. … An overabundance of grace. … And even an overabundance of wine … the best wine when you’d least expect it.
And that is the good news for this Sunday. … Amen.
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