In Christ Alone

For Nick and Brittany-  remember your vows and keep them holy....



In the midst of planning,  life happens...and sometimes we forget to stop and breathe and just inhale and watch the breathtaking grace of the moment...but not yesterday....

So I walked into that kitchen and asked,  "Are we cooking yet?"  Truthfully, I could smell the food and see that they were, I just wanted to double check.  She asked, "Who are you?"  I answered, "I am a bride who didn't have food at her reception and we drank koolaid and tea out of salad bowls. Oh, and Jesus wasn't on my guest list. "  On Friday, the gospel reading was "The Miracle at Cana."  (Not kidding.  This made me chuckle since I was attending a wedding on Saturday, and I guess that is why the good Lord in all his wisdom has the story written down, so we read and remember).

You remember the story.  Only the writer of the gospel of John tells it.  And maybe that is why John is my most favorite gospel. His is a theological gospel, rich with symbolism and metaphor and there is always more to the story.  He never portrays Jesus as in a hurry, like Mark's account or kingly as in Matthew account.  In John, Jesus is a lot like me, doing everyday things.  Going to weddings.  Crying.  Laughing.  Praying.  Eating.  Talking.  Slow. And the Jesus of John's gospel is deep and has rich relationships with people.  Of course, I, unlike Jesus can't turn water into wine or heal.  I can talk alot though and eat.  And I don't really like to rush through once in a lifetime events.  And I love Mary and so did John apparently.

A simple village wedding taking place one Wednesday afternoon as laid down in the Jewish Law. It certainly wasn't like my wedding, and I guess it probably wasn't like yours because it went on for days. The actual ceremony took place after the feast and at the height of the festivities. Then the happy couple would be escorted to their new home using the most tortuous route possible. They'd be illuminated by the light of flaming torches, so that everyone in the village could share in their happiness and presumably throw the 1st century equivalent of confetti. It didn't end there either, because there was no sneaking off for a honeymoon. Oh no, for the next week the newly weds would have to hold open house, still dressed in bridal clothes and with crowns on their heads. They were treated like King and Queen and for that glorious week their word was law. In a land where there was poverty and constant hard work to scrape a living from the soil, this was a week to remember for the rest of their lives.  As weddings should be.  A day to remember for the rest of  your lives. 

Mary was probably a friend of the family and was helping.  I can just imagine Mary running around making sure everything is  going well.  The bride's mother could have been a life long friend or a cousin.  We are not told.  Just that Mary wanted the wedding to be perfect. Jesus is also invited. But Jesus doesn't come alone, he brings five disciples with him, five more mouths to feed and five more glasses to fill. Maybe that's where the well laid plans started to go wrong and Mary suddenly realized that there wasn't going to be enough wine.  Who knows or it could have been like my wedding and the food that  had been prepared had been served the night before. 

I was totally oblivious to the lack of food at my wedding.  So was Vance.  But my mom was not.  She is still quite traumatized (17 years later), that guests had to drink kool aid.  My brother in law was pleased as punch (no pun intended),  and thought it so cool that we had iced tea at our wedding. He didn't know that was not on the original menu list. I laugh now and my mom does too, but our favorite wedding picture is that of guests opening up the chafing dishes and looking in puzzlement because they were empty!  My sister in law remembers the caterers chasing my dad down with two steamships of round after Vance and I had left! 

So, yesterday when I went to double check tables and play with flowers,  I just wanted to be sure the food was there.  I had no idea what I was going to do if it wasn't, but I figured since I had read the gospel the day before, maybe Jesus would show up and work a miracle or two.  Just like Mary.  She didn't know how Jesus was going to fix the problem, just that he would.

And yes, Jesus did show up, but he didn't have to cook or make wine.  In fact, he didn't have to do anything at all but smile.  And I suppose he was singing and I know he was dancing, we just can't see him in the flesh, on this side of the resurrection.  But I know he was there. 

Jesus quite simply walked in to the sanctuary of Kernersville Moravian Church at 3:30 pm yesterday and sat down and smiled.  But, he had come long before that too.  He came the day she was born.  The angels danced and sang round the throne.  And because her parents promised years before, she lived into that promise.  He came long before that too.  I am sure the groom played and laughed and grew up just like Jesus did.  He made snow angels, giggled when the girls walked past, played catch, heard the stories of King David and wondered and promised to be a man after God's own heart.  And because his parents promised years before, probably in pale candlelight too, he lived into that promise.  That is how Jesus works miracles, my friends.  He lives into promises we make on behalf of our children we don't even have names for yet.  And when the minister sang blessings upon their heads, Jesus smiled again at that blessing and promise too.  And because, we believe in that grace of that moment, the blessing one day, years from now will bear much fruit.  Some of us will see that from this side of the resurrection and some of us from heaven.  And those witnesses who have gone on before us, smiled down in joy and were dancing in heaven watching another wedding miracle take place.

All weddings are miracles of grace really.  And the piano sung it for us...the secret to success in any marriage... the glue that will hold you together...the bond that is stronger than human love...the miracle in all the promises made before God in holy moments....

We can only keep those promises when we remember this....

In Christ alone...

Only in Christ can we love our spouses till death parts us.
Only in Christ can we forgive our spouses again and again.
Only in Christ can we become humble and love them as Christ loves Church.
Only in Christ can we actually make good on that promise to choose our spouse over own self. 

Those of us ten, fifteen or twenty plus years this side of marriage, smiled and thought about all the joy and trials that are to come.  The dreams they have that will come true, the disappointment, the joys, the sorrow.  And those of us on this side of the wedding day...know this to be very true and send them out in grace to learn it...only in Christ can you actually make good on those promises.  Because, by yourself you won't do it.  You can't.  In Christ alone.

And after we all were blessed and smiled and prayed and hugged and cried tears of absolute joy of the wonder of the miracle of Cana taking place before our very eyes again...we partied just like Jesus and his five friends did that day in Cana.

We danced and ate and laughed and drank and there was plenty of food and wine....and those of us on the other side of forty even managed to dance our booties off with the those who were twenty something and young and didn't have kids yet. And it was an amazing grace to watch unfold and to know that only In Christ alone can those kind of miracles happen. And maybe it was because I read the gospel the night before and was reminded, or maybe it was the music was glorious, or maybe it because in that very room there was quite enough love for all of us, or maybe because the bride was stunning and the bridesmaids wore beautiful and maybe because the flowers and pale candlelight made everything and everyone look even more lovely and really it was because Jesus was in the midst of it all and quite certainly it was because they started there life out together with the hymn...In Christ Alone....

may you always remember your vows and keep them holy and when the two of your hearts are bursting with more joy that you can contain and when you are tired and don't know how the two of you will make it through the next day...always remember the hymn that started your journey together....and it will be ok and place it in the hands of the One who will turn the water into wine without having to know how exactly that is going to happen...


all is grace,

kathleen

to hear the hymn that should be sung at every wedding:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FsgwfliQoqg