Notes on Wine-Tasting
John 2:1-11
by Sue in Cuba, NY

Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial Sunday Psalms 36:5-10, Isaiah 62:1-5 , John 2:1-11 & 1 Corinthians 12:1-11

If I were still in Evansville I would at Grace Lutheran Church because today the choir would be doing their Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial. The Lutheran congregation is 80% African American people with various other folk fixed in. The Civil Rights struggle is very alive and important to these people. The benefits of the Civil Rights movement is very evident as the 30-40 year old generation has prospered and done well.

They are solid middle class people. Their children still face discrimination but not nearly as violent or fearful as they did. Peggy told me about her 13 year old daughter's problem at school with another student. The boy had written nasty words about Blacks on his notebook. This disturbed girl, she complained to a teacher. Peggy went to school to complain to the principal when the teacher had done nothing. Peggy told me that things are better. She said, "My mother would have been to afraid to do anything. Also when I was a student the teachers were worse than the students." What does this have to do with people in North Central Kansas?

Hatred, prejudice, and discrimination are rooted in fear. Fear that there isn't enough, fear that to rise one must step on another. Perfect love casts out fear. The Corinthian passage speaks of the value of different gifts. God has created humanity in great variety. Why? To keep things interesting. When we live in love, we can appreciate the differences, celebrate another's gifts, cheer for another's victory knowing that God is more than able to supply what is needed.

In the John passage today Jesus provides the finest wine for a small town country wedding. Or as Paul tells us in Philippians 4:19, "My God will supply all your needs according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus." Another problem in small towns happens because of apathy and indifference to newcomers. When we moved to Chase, Kansas both Jennifer and I experience being the outsider. Jennifer was in a small class, 7 children. The others had known each other most of their lives. They didn't need a new friend and treated Jennifer badly. In small towns, people have full social lives and do not feel a need to invite the newcomer into their lives. It isn't intended to be cruel but it is. People want to be treated with dignity and respect not be ignored or overlooked.

There are very talented singers at Grace Lutheran Church, their choir has toured professionally as the Sounds of Grace. Years ago they were on tour, one stop was in Houston, Texas. The Pastor had hear a tape of the Sounds of Grace but had not seen them when he extended the invitation. The Pastor arrange for members of his congregation to put the choirs members up in their homes. Mary Moore's eyes fairly sparkled as she remembered the event. "O Pastor Sue, you should have seen their faces when we walked in. We had gotten there late on Saturday and wanted to practice and test the acoustics. We went right to work as our hosts sat in their sanctuary listening and worrying about what their friends would think. O the Lord is so good, the Lord knew that the only other time a black person walked into these peoples' homes was to clean or cook. I know the Holy Spirit chuckled at their discomfort. But by the end of the weekend, we were friends. I still send a Christmas Card to my hosts.

Lucien is a retired from the Whirlpool plant. As a Deacon he is often at Grace fixing this or that, cutting the grass and many other things that need done. I asked him one day why he always cut the grass. He answered, "I can't sing." If Lucien could sing, who would cut the grass? All the gifts, talents are needed to build the kingdom of God. Alas, all people are sinful and fall short of the glory of God. I couldn't get middle class people at Grace Lutheran Church to pick up poorer relatives to bring them to church. "Well, Pastor Sue, she doesn't have a phone. How do I know when to pick her and the children up?" Write her a post card and ask her to call you. A week later and a week after that and then months passed and no contact had been made. Poor relatives embarrassed them and reminded them where they came from.

There is more than racial discrimination in the United States, there is also class discrimination. As we live in a nearly all white area of the US, we need to be sensitive to the class differences and the judgmental spirit that looks down on the poor. If we follow the example of Jesus we will greet each person as a child of God, a brother or sister. In this Meditation (New Wine: Meditations on John 2:1-11) by Deborah Smith Douglas Jesus helps in a surprising way, life affirming way. The Maidservant Remembers: It was all so quiet. Nobody knew, then, what had happened, except for his mother and us servants. I am not even sure myself what happened, even now. Much less how. He never touched the water. He never touched the jars, or the cup I filled at his command. He didn't even say anything special. There was the brief exchange between the two of them, mother and son, and then a sort of stillness in the midst of the noise of the party. (Thank goodness nobody realized we had run out of wine.)

All I know is, I did what he told me. Miriam and I carried water from the well to fill the big stone jars, empty now after the ritual cleansing before the meal. We filled them to the top. I remember how the water swelled and trembled at the brim but did not spill. It was perfectly ordinary water, I swear; I carried it myself, and poured it in. I didn't know what he meant to do; I just did what he told me. An when he told me to, I drew it out again, a cupful to take to the steward of the feast. Only then it wasn't water any more. It was wine. I nearly dropped the cup when I saw it. I didn't say anything, but Miriam and I stared at each other, and then turned to stare at him. His eyes met ours, and there was laughter in them, and exhilaration and resignation, too.

Almost as though more than the water had been changed. As though something even bigger than that had happened. As though something was beginning, really--for him and for us all. I know it sounds strange, but I couldn't help feeling, holding that cup of new wine that had never been grapes, that some everything had changed forever. Something had started that could not be stopped, and nothing would ever be the same. All I know is, I did what he told me. And you know what? I thing the water did, too.

At the beginning of Jesus' ministry he went out and collected students - disciples. In John first two of John the Baptists follow Jesus. Andrew goes and invites his brother Simon Peter. Jesus calls Philip to follow him. 1:45-51 Philip found Nathanael and said to him, "We have found him about whom Moses in the law and also the prophets wrote, Jesus son of Joseph from Nazareth." 46 Nathanael said to him,

"Can anything good come out of Nazareth?" Philip said to him, "Come and see." Fortunately Philip set aside his prejudice about the unimportance of the people of Nazareth and went to see for himself. This is about what Nathanael might remember: I never thought it would begin like that. Of course, I scarcely had time to think at all. It was only the day before that the whole thing had started, when Philip hauled me over to meet him. It was knowing about that business under the fig tree that made me realize who he must be.

Knowing who he was I would have followed him anywhere, even the ends of the earth. I knew the others felt the same. We were ready for anything. But the first thing we did, the very next day, was follow him to a hometown wedding. It didn't seem auspicious really--not even much of a party. I've know those two kids all my life, and naturally I wish them well, but as wedding feast go it wasn't exactly festive. They even ran out of wine.

And that is when it happened. I don't think anybody else saw it, except for his mother--it was her idea--a couple of the servants, but Philip and I were leaning against the wall next to the water jars, nursing the last of the sour local wine that was all poor Jacob had come up with. We saw it, all right. We saw the servants fill the jars with water; then we saw them take out wine. But if we hadn't seen it, we would never have know where it came from. I felt Philip stiffen beside me. They were drawing the wine out by the pitcherful now, and someone splashed a bit on his tunic, where a stain spread dark as blood. "

So much, Lord?" I heard him whisper, and for a second--I was pretty flabbergasted, you understand, and not quite thinking straight--I thought he was talking about the blood, not wine. But there was much wine indeed--all six jars, each up to my shoulder, filled to the brim with the best wine Cana has ever tasted, before or since. It was far more than enough--Judas always shook his head disapprovingly when he heard the story--and far better than it needed to be. A strange way for the whole thing to begin.

Water and wine and small town weddings and low-key miracles were not our idea, in those days, of the way to establish a kingdom. But it was the beginning and it was enough. Just for a second there, just as Jesus had promised--right there among the wedding guests and the wine cups and the water jars--I had a glimpse of heaven opened, a glimpse of angels going up and down. And so it began. Amen.