"A Dream Deferred" San Williams
Isaiah 62:1-5, John 2:1-11
In Toni Morrison’s novel Beloved, a mountain girl named Amy Denver aids pregnant Sethe as she escapes slavery. Seeing Sethe’s bloody back torn from the whip and deeply troubled by the extent of her injuries, Amy utters, “Come here Jesus…Wonder what God had in mind.” That’s a good question for us to ponder today: What does God have in mind…for us and for our world? Look at all the ways people struggle today—people who are out of work, out of funds, out of food. Especially in the aftermath of the devastating earthquake in Haiti—with Amy Denver we ask, “Wonder what God has in mind?” Well, our scriptures today answer that what God has in mind is and abundance of steadfast love, overflowing generosity, unbounded grace. This then is the fundamental dilemma with which people of faith must struggle: On the one hand we experience a world in need, and on the other hand we worship a God of abundant goodness.
Look first at the theme of God’s abundance that sounds forth from today’s scriptures. Psalm 36, our call to worship this morning, sings of God’s steadfast love for all of nature, animals and humans alike. The Psalmist uses images of a feast and a fountain to evoke the overflowing abundance that comes from God.
Similarly, our reading from Isaiah expresses a God who treasures people the way a bridegroom cherishes his bride, a God who establishes a covenant that will bring forth a harvest of fruitfulness. “You shall be called My Delight Is in Her, and your land Married; for the Lord delights in you, and your land shall be married.”
And our Gospel reading from John picks up on this theme of God’s abundance. It tells about a wedding feast at Cana where Jesus reveals God’s overflowing goodness by turning water into wine—and not just a little wine—more than 120 gallons, far more than anyone could possibly drink. Added to this is the quality of the wine—better, than the wine the crowd started out with. Given that the over-consumption of alcohol is a major problem for human beings, we may be disturbed that Jesus’ first act of ministry was to produce a super abundance of wine. But the point of the passage is clear: Jesus came to bring abundant life. In him the steadfast love and goodness of God overflow like wine at a wedding feast. So we start this morning with a fundamental affirmation about what God has in mind: God has in mind a world that will bring forth an abundant harvest of love, peace and justice.
But if this is what God has in mind, why then do suffering, violence, injustice and, natural disasters continue on such a large scale? Surely that’s a hard question, and one without a simple answer. Yet look with me a couple of the details recorded in the episode of the wedding at Cana. John gives us some information that is at first troubling, but perhaps ultimately illuminating and even empowering. I’m not thinking about the miraculous nature of turning water into wine. While miracles are a problem for some, the more troubling issue is why did Jesus hesitate to offer help? Granted the specific need—the wedding hosts were out of wine—was not a life and death matter. However, in that day it was an unthinkable faux pas for the hosts to run out of wine. Such a social disaster would bring shame and humiliation upon the family. Yet when his mother asks Jesus to respond to this need, he hesitates. “Woman what concern is that to you and me.” Why does Jesus hold out? If he is God incarnate, the one in whom the abundant goodness and love of God are revealed, why does he balk at this opportunity to meet an obvious need?
Of course, we know how John presents Jesus as one who acts on God’s timetable. “My hour has not yet come,” Jesus says. There is a plan and everyone must be patient as it unfolds. Fair enough. Still, the mother of Jesus—who in John’s Gospel plays the role of the first disciple—believed in Jesus as the one who could bring abundant life to those in need. Yet when summoned, he hesitates precipitating what some have called “the scandal of divine reluctance.”
And don’t we side with the mother of Jesus? In a world where for so many there is no clean water—let alone fine wine—where is the extravagance of God? In a world where a devastating earthquake has brought horrific suffering to a country that was already among the poorest of the poor, why the divine reluctance? Given how so many mothers must say to their small children, “we have no food” why has the hour not yet come? Like the mother of Jesus, we want to point to all the pressing needs in our world. We want to tug at Jesus’ sleeve, and say, “Excuse me. They have no wine.” We’re not the first to struggle with the discrepancy between God’s generosity and the realty of a world in need. Mary, the first disciple, speaks for disciples today when she cries, “They have no wine!”
Yet the reluctance of Jesus in this story is only half the scandal. Here is the rest of it: the mother of Jesus is a catalyst to Jesus’ extravagant generosity. Jesus did act, but it took the prodding of Mary. While we can’t know the mind of God or understand the mystery of God’s will, this episode at Cana prompts us to at least wonder: Is God’s providential care of the world so structured that we human beings are included as an essential part of it? I don’t believe that God refuses to act out of any cruelty or lack of love, but perhaps because God is love, God has made us partners, and that God’s generosity is inexplicably intertwined with the efforts of those who believe in and work with God.
Tomorrow is Martin Luther King Day, so we’re particularly mindful of his life and message in our worship today. King dreamed of a world full of God’s abundance—a world transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice, where all people sit down together at the table of brotherhood. But one of the reasons we venerate King, is that he didn’t just make beautiful speeches about God’s dream of a world transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice, he put his own life on the line, his shoulder to the wheel. He marched on the streets, he prodded governments and city councils. He was a drum major, a catalyst, for the justice he believed was at the heart of God’s will.
Our own John and Suzi Parker give us a very personal illustration of people who are catalysts for the outpouring of God’s love and generosity. John and Suzi wouldn’t be in Haiti if they didn’t believe that God does offer abundant life and help especially to the neediest.
‘At night we sleep in the yard behind the hospital,” Suzi wrote in an e-mail on Friday. “There are two or three hundred people sleeping there. They sing hymns until almost midnight, and we wake up to a church service, with hymns, a morning prayer, and the Apostles’ creed. The evening sky is glorious. In the field there is a real sense of community. I have never understood joy in the midst of suffering, but now it do. The caring I have seen, the help we have received from the Haitians, the evening songs and prayers---all are wonderful. The people here will survive, though many will die. Please pray for us, that we and the hospital can be of help to the people here.”
While no one knows all there is to know about the mind of God, the prodding, the nudging, the selfless service by people of faith may well affect the ability of God to work in the world. Put it this way: God’s covenant with us is such that our faith in God’s goodness empowers us to love others, which, in turn, furthers God’s ability to bring healing to the world.
Friends, we come to Christ’s Table which is itself our sharing in the feast of God’s abundant goodness. We know that in Jesus God’s abundant life is available to us and we joyfully receive it now. But we take only a piece of bread and a sip of wine. Why so little? Because we know we still await the promised feast, when all God’s children will sit down at the table of peace and brotherhood. Too many in our world still have no wine. And as long as people suffer, as long as children are hungry, as long as there is need in the world, we will work with God as catalysts for the outpouring of peace, love and justice…which, after all, is what God has always had in mind.