Humor and joy are two of the best things in human life. They are gifts from God, who, according to our lessons for today also enjoys these capabilities. Our God is a god of gladness and delight. In fact it is the creation, including us humans, in which God delights.
Listen to Isaiah’s words:
You shall be a crown of beauty in the hand of the Lord, a royal diadem in the hand of your God… The Lord delights in you…As a young man marries a young woman, so shall your builder marry you, and as the young bridegroom rejoices over the bride, so shall your God rejoice in you.
What a contrast to some of the descriptions of humanity we hear and say. Compare the images– an adornment for God’s beauty, like a necklace on a beautiful woman, a crown on a good and just King –or the words we hear so often, we are by nature sinful and unclean, in bondage to sin and cannot free ourselves, unworthy, broken, sinful…
Those words of confession are true. They describe part of who we are. But the words of Isaiah also express part of the truth of who we are. According to God, we are really something special, precious and beautiful like jewels. God delights in us! Get the image clearly in your mind. This God of ours is as glad as a young bridegroom head over heels in love with his bride, ready to brag about her to anyone who will listen.
Think of someone who is newly in love. I’m not talking about infatuation, but real deep-down all enveloping love, love that overshadows every other thing in life and fills the days with grins and happiness.
That is the picture Isaiah gives us of God. God is a God of gladness, a God who wants a relationship with us as close and joyful as that of a couple of blissful newlyweds. The picture of ourselves that we get from this same passage is an uplifting one. God loves us. God grieves when we turn away from this wonderful love that is offered to us. God will not rest until we shine like the dawn or like a burning torch, filled with divine love and adoration.
The second lesson expresses another cause of gladness. Paul tells us along with the Christians at Corinth that we are all gifted. In schools sometimes there are programs for students identified as “gifted.” These programs select a few individuals for special opportunities. According to 1st Corinthians each and every one of us is gifted. No one is left out. Every person has something wonderful about them, some God-given talent. These talents are given for the common good and are to be celebrated and enjoyed and developed.
The image of God we get from Paul’s words is one of a generous giver of good things. God, our maker, the same one who delights in us, blesses us with talents and abilities and then activates them in us for the good of all.
The God we see in the gospel lesson is again a God of gladness and one who gives lavish and wonderful gifts. Jesus was at a wedding feast. It was a celebration, a special time in the life of a family and the community. The family would plan long and hard for such a celebration. They would scrimp and save to secure all the best provisions. Friends and relatives would gather to surround the newly married couple with support and join in a weeklong celebration of good food, wine, and music. Hospitality was a very crucial value in that culture and they would have purchased the best food and drink available and affordable.
Jesus was there with his friends and family to join in the fun. In the middle of this happy celebration, a problem arises. The wine has run out. Jesus saved the day. He transformed something good into something outstanding.
Water was and is precious in the Middle East. It had to be drawn from a limited number of wells and then carried and stored carefully. Water was something special. The wedding celebration was something special. Jesus begins his ministry with this miracle of transforming what is already special and precious and joyous into something wonderful beyond comparison.
There is more to this miracle than Jesus fixing a household shortage with an outstanding batch of wine. This miracle is the first sign in John’s gospel of who Jesus is and what he has come to do. Jesus comes to transform all of life, to bring about goodness and gladness and joy beyond all comparison.
There is a detail noted in this gospel that is well worth noting. Jesus made 6 jars of wine, each holding 20-30 gallons. That’s 120-180 gallons of wine. My goodness! When our Lord does something he really does it up right! Not only was it exceedingly good wine that Jesus made it was an enormous overabundance of this outstandingly good stuff.
Our God is a God of Gladness, a God who delights in us, who makes us all gifted, talented people. That might have been enough. But God doesn’t stop there. Jesus created a special vintage of wine there in Cana, about 150 gallons of it. He kept that celebration going. He joined in the joy and gladness of the party. But more than that he showed what he came to do and continues to do among us. He transforms even the good and precious and valuable in life into something beyond comparison.
Jesus came to Cana and changed water to wine, he did the first of his signs there and revealed his glory. The disciples watched and saw what happened and believed in him. They “read the sign” as best they could, because at that point they had no way of knowing that through his broken body and spilled blood, Jesus would transform even the dead into new and living beings. We can “read the sign” of what he did in Cana even more clearly than the disciples can. For we know that those who drink the wine at Jesus’ table receive a very special vintage, the best wine of all, and wine that will never run out, wine of pleasure and joy because of what this God of gladness does.