The Wedding at Cana is my favorite text because there is a lot of humor in it. There’s humor in a mother approaching her son and telling him to do something without ever actually telling him to do it. There’s his pouty resistance to his mother’s non-demand while she completely ignores him and paints him in a corner. There is humor in a raucous wedding reception where the people are so “lit” that the wine has run out. And, for me, it’s particularly humorous that there’s this huge, beautiful secret of which only a few people are aware.
Those people include Jesus’ mother and the select servants who help him pull off the miracle that inaugurates his ministry. Servants are normally meant to be inconspicuous, so I wanted to focus on the servant who goes to the chief steward with a cup full of what, as far as he’s concerned, is water.
If Jesus—whose ministry has not started, so there haven’t been any wonders associated with him yet—tells you to fill jars with water and draw from the jar to give to the chief steward, what is going through your mind at that moment? I invite the viewer to focus on this servant and all his curiosity and expectation, and think of a time when you were surprised by something God did. What actions preceded the miracle? Did it make sense? What did you know, and what was hidden from you? What “secrets” might God be keeping from you now as God works clandestinely on your behalf?
—Rev. T. Denise Anderson
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Delilah/The Table on Tap
It was promising and profound to know that we are unsatisfied, but that there is water that will satiate that thirst. Jesus told this message to the Samaritan woman, and continued to share that same message to his disciples. We felt God is still speaking to us now – with the very same message. Whether we are hearing about Jesus for the first time or have grown up with him, whether we are pale or brown, Jesus can give us the living water and we wont have to be thirsty anymore.
We also found Jesus to be almost rude and funny – human? He walks up to this woman and says, “give me a drink” – it sounds demanding. Then asks her about her husbands, knowing that she doesn’t have one – but many. Almost testing her…
Verse 24 stuck out to us, as well. People have their ideas and stereotypes about Christians and church, but this verse reminded us that it is not where are when we worship or study, but that we do it in spirit and truth. Like we do at the Table on Tap.
Everyone has a story. Maybe we don’t think it is a profound and interesting as the Samaritan woman’s story, but it might be the right story for whoever you are sharing with. Sometimes, it is in the ordinary that the extraordinary happens.
There was so much more. Alot of watching over each other in love. Lots of soup, tea, cocoa and water. Lots of friends. See you next Monday.