(John 2: 1-11)

I was struck by a conversation I was having in the week with someone who comes occasionally to St Stephen’s.  I had asked him whether he would like to come on an Alpha course.  He promised to think about it and then gave his answer by email.  He said that he enjoyed coming to church.  He found me to be an inspirational speaker but didn’t actually believe in what I was saying.  This is maybe the premise for others of you – good poetry, worthwhile ideals by which to live one’s life, but not actually true?

If this were your position it would mean that the more persuasively I preached the more it would reinforce the division in your mind that the gospels were simply a morality tale.  This is an entirely illogical position to take.  If I talked of myself as the Son of God, then there would be only three ways you could respond – these are CS Lewis’s bad, mad or God.  I would rather you were annoyed rather than pleasantly compliant – come and talk, debate, think, interact, come to Alpha, have a cup of coffee with me but please do not remain benignly indifferent.

Also last week I was going through the readings for the term – Christmas to Easter is a quick turn around.  There are no parables in the lectionary between now and Easter – it is some teaching but mainly action here on in.  In the Gospels there is always a surface story and then layers of underlying meaning.  John’s gospel was written 70 years after Jesus died – he has had time enough to ponder on the significance of all that had happened.

The miracle is at a wedding feast – the obvious point to make here is that Jesus is not a poe-faced individual seeking to censure or to moralise about people’s behaviour.  There are some others less immediately apparent points that are worth noting.  The story talks of Jesus going with Mary but there is no mention made of Joseph.  This is sometimes taken to mean that Joseph has died and Mary is a widow.   There is certainly no mention of Joseph later on in the gospel and by the cross where Mary is described as standing nearby with the disciple whom Jesus loved.

Jesus came to the wedding feast with his disciples and so it may be that the extra numbers contributed to the wine running short.  If I am to comment Jesus to you as a real living actual man then I need to bring your attention to the social realities of his situation.  His behaviour first of all in bringing his disciples and then in providing the extra wine needed for the wedding is illustrative of the paradoxical attitude we have towards home and family.  At one and the same time it is the most precious place in the world, and yet it is also the place where we assume the right to be discourteous. – anything but indifference.  Jesus is happy to turn up with his disciples, yet at the same time he behaves gently but decisively ensuring no only that the host does not lose face but he gets credit for Jesus’ miracle.

Now in order to rescue this story of Jesus from mythology and to let you see him as historical and real rather than mythological and ideal, there are two points to note.  The first is that we hit out against those we care most about.  If someone behaves badly with me I am upset but I am not always disappointed.  It means that they see the relationship as strong enough to hit out against.  The reason that Jesus was crucified was because he was too close and too threatening to the Jews’ sense of well being.  It is the reason why people often behave so badly in the church (argument over homosexuality).  It means too much.

The second thing to recognise is the difference between miracles and magic.  Miracles always require some element of participation from the people involved.  It doesn’t just happen.  Here they need to draw off some water and then take it to the steward of the feast – they have to have faith that something is going to happen.  A failure to understand the distinction between these two may contain the last reason why some people see Jesus as a mythological rather than an historical figure.  People wonder why miracles don’t happen as they did in the bible.  What they are actually saying is not why are there’re no miracles, but why doesn’t God do some magic.  God in Jesus won’t do magic because he is not going to override our responsibility