Acknowledgement of Country
We would like to acknowledge, the Traditional Custodians of the land on which we gather today, the Dharawal people. We would also like to pay our respects to the Elders past, present and emerging.
The Traditional Custodians are stewards on behalf of our Almighty Creator.
We promise to walk softly and gently on this land.
CHRIST CANDLE
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of all humankind. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. (John 1:1 – 5)
We light the Christ candle.
Hymn: O worship the Lord in the beauty of Holiness (Tune: Was Lebet)
O worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness!
Bow down before him, his glory proclaim;
with gold of obedience, and incense of lowliness,
kneel and adore him: the Lord is his Name!
Low at his feet lay thy burden of carefulness,
high on his heart he will bear it for thee,
comfort thy sorrows, and answer thy prayerfulness,
guiding thy steps as may best for thee be.
Fear not to enter his courts in the slenderness
of the poor wealth thou wouldst reckon as thine;
truth in its beauty, and love in its tenderness,
these are the offerings to lay on his shrine.
These, though we bring them in trembling and fearfulness,
he will accept for the Name that is dear;
mornings of joy give for evenings of tearfulness,
trust for our trembling and hope for our fear.
O worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness!
bow down before him, his glory proclaim;
with gold of obedience, and incense of lowliness,
kneel and adore him: the Lord is his Name!
Confession
If we say we have no sin,
We deceive ourselves,
And the truth is not in us.
If we confess our sins,
God if faithful and just
And will forgive our sins
And cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
O God,
We confess the blindness that is not even aware of sinning;
the pride that dares not admit that it is wrong;
the selfishness that can see nothing but its own will;
the righteousness that knows no fault;
the callousness that has ceased to care;
the defiance that does not regret its own sins;
the evasion that always tries to make excuses;
the coldness of heart that is too hardened to repent.
God, we are sinners; be merciful to us,
Amen
Assurance
This is the best of all:
when we are empty, God fills us;
when we are disheartened, God is compassionate;
when we are wounded, God brings healing;
when we confess our sin, God forgives.
In Christ, through Christ and because of Christ,
our sins are forgiven.
Thanks be to God.
You refill the cup of life, O God.
In Christ, we find refuge and strength.
When we are crushed like grapes, we cannot think of the wine we will become.
–Henri Nouwen
By engaging deeply with him [Shakespeare], we come to a better understanding of ourselves, and our potential to be greater than we are. In the words of Ophelia:
‘Lord, we know what we are, but know not what we may be.’
John Bell
Notices
Bible reading
Isaiah 62 1-9
John 2:1-11
Response: This the Word of the Lord.
O taste and see, for the Lord is good.
(Psalm 34 v8)
Reflection
View Heather with this week’s message here (19mins).
Based the evidence from church historians and John’s Gospel itself, we know John’s audience was primarily a group of Hellenistic Jews and Gentile God-fearers who lived in Asia Minor (modern-day Western Turkey). That means they were either Jews who grew up in a Greco-Roman world with all of its religious beliefs, or Gentiles who had developed a deep appreciation for elements of the Jewish faith.
What’s important for us to know is that this group of people in Asia Minor grew up walking by Greek temples and going to festivals that honoured Greek gods. The ceremonies and secret rituals that they participated in to secure divine favour got pretty eccentric, but people didn’t know where else to turn for truth, protection, and eternal life. And one of the most popular festivals at the beginning of every year had a direct link to Jesus’ miraculous wine-making. That’s why John decided to tell his unique audience this unusual story.
Why did making wine demonstrate Jesus’ unique reflection of the Father’s glory? You may first think Jesus is re-enacting an ancient miracle that God performed for Israel. However, in the Jewish Scriptures you will not find any stories of God turning water into wine. No ancient poem or prophecy depicts Israel’s God demonstrating his divine greatness that way.
Jesus’ miracle only makes sense when you place it in a Greco-Roman context. In the Greco-Roman world they told stories about how wine was created. The details changed, but the main actor remained the same. The god Dionysus was the originator. Picture Bacchus is the Roman equivalent name.
Ancient historians (which you can look up on Wikipedia) talk of fountains of wine that flowed by themselves from the ground and of spring water from Dionysus’s temple which had the flavour of wine on festival days.
So John had a message for the Greeks. They had similar stories, including an ancient legend about Dionysus, and a ceremony that involved three empty kettles being placed inside a building, which was then sealed in the presence of the people. The following day when the seals were broken the kettles were found to be full of wine.
Perhaps John was saying to the Greeks “You’ve got stories and legends about your gods, but they’re only that – stories. Jesus came and did what you’ve always dreamed your gods could do… but this is reality, not the stuff of dreams and legends.”
And three jars becomes six, which is an awful lot of wine.
And two asides from Wiki, the cult of Dionysus was also a “cult of the souls”; his female attendants feed the dead through blood-offerings, and he acts as a divine communicant between the living and the dead. He is sometimes categorised as a dying-and-rising god.
2. His attribute of “foreignness” as an arriving outsider-god may be inherent and essential to his cults, as he is a god of epiphany, sometimes called “the god that comes”.
No matter how the wine appeared at these Greek festivals, the presence of wine meant the presence of the god. The one who brought fertility to the ground, who made thick clusters of grapes grow on vines, and who taught humanity to make wine was among his people. Everyone knew when water turned to wine or tasted like wine, god was there. That is precisely what John’s audience knew when they heard the story of Jesus’ miraculous wine-making. God was there.
So what would Jesus’ creation of wine out of water have meant to John’s audience? The answer is simple and clear once you know what John’s audience knew. They lived in a Greco-Roman world that associated miraculous wine-making with the benevolent presence of the god Dionysus. Although Jesus’ first Jewish audience in Israel would connect the new wine to OT prophecies of God’s saving presence returning to his people (Isaiah 25:6-9; Hosea 14:7; Joel 2:18-27; Amos 9:11-15), John wanted his audience to see another profound truth: Jesus is the real God, not Dionysus.
I have found that after more digging, there is less satisfactory explanations of the role of Jesus’ mother in this story, but the idea of My time has not yet come is a thread running through John’s gospel worthy of another sermon. It comes up at least ten times.
I referred earlier to us coming to a deeper understanding of our faith. This book is called Water into Wine and is basically an account of American pastor Brian Zahnd’s midlife crisis – when the old answers did not stand up to a more complicating lifestyle and black and white became grey. (pp.7; 189; 54 Walk in Holy Land: L’Chaim)
L’Chaim!
Water turned to wine
The miracle is the time
That it did not take
For common to turn extraordinaire
Tap water transformed to carménère
Drawn from pots of ritual purity
Taken to the master of the party
Hints of plum and kingdom come
Salute!
In Nazareth he was called the carpenter
In Cana he became a master vintner
Sommelier said it’s a hundred point wine
The miracle-worker did it without a vine
A whole barrel of vintage year thirty
Better than the best from Cape Verde
All so the feast would not cease
A toast to Mary for her idea
L’chaim!
We walked from Nazareth to Cana
In the fall of my fifty-fourth year
Talking Jesus all along the way
Took us the better part of a day
Every other store up and down the line
A Christian selling some kind of wine
Call it a entrepreneurial witness to—
Jesus’ first miracle
Cheers!
Water turned to wine
The mystery is the time
It takes for my own transformation
A slow and painful fermentation
With a soul like crushed grapes
I’m a dusty bottle in God’s cellar
But the winemaker knows his craft
He makes all things beautiful in their time
Hallelujah!
So let’s fill our glasses and toast Victoria and Ian! Oh no, wrong piece of paper!! Let’s fill our glasses (appropriately filled for a former Methodist church) and drink to Jesus the God – who gives us abundant, amazing life. To Him be the glory. Amen!
Offertory
Knowing that each member of Christ’s body contributes to the whole, we bring our gifts as our share in the unity and diversity of Christ.
Hymn
Brightest and best of the sons of the morning;
Dawn on our darkness and lend us thine aid;
Star of the East, the horizon adorning,
Guide where our infant Redeemer is laid.
Cold on His cradle the dewdrops are shining;
Low lies His head with the beasts of the stall;
Angels adore Him in slumber reclining,
Maker and Monarch and Saviour of all!
Say, shall we yield Him, in costly devotion,
Odours of Edom and offerings divine?
Gems of the mountain and pearls of the ocean,
Myrrh from the forest, or gold from the mine?
Vainly we offer each ample oblation,
Vainly with gifts would His favour secure;
Richer by far is the heart’s adoration,
Dearer to God are the prayers of the poor.
Prayers of the People
Sending Out
Now to Him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we can ask or conceive, by the power which is at work among us, to Him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all ages. Amen.
The Love of the Lord Jesus draw us to Himself, the power of the lord Jesus strengthen us in His service, and the joy of the Lord Jesus fill our hearts;
And the blessing of God almighty, The Father, Son and the Holy Spirit, be among us and remain with us always. Amen
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