The eCrozier

Feasting, that is, eating and drinking, is a common occurrence in the Gospel narrative. Just about every story of Jesus or teaching from him centers around food and drink. People are throwing feasts and parties all the time in the Gospel. It was central to showing hospitality to people and it was also an occasion for community and fellowship.

The wedding at Cana in Galilee is our Gospel lesson for this Sunday. It was clearly a great feast. The consumption of wine was a part of the celebration. And why not? Two young people were just married. This wedding feast was an opportunity for the townspeople to celebrate, an opportunity that they no doubt did not have very often.

I like knowing the first sign Jesus made was changing water into wine because it gives fits to those who think the Christian faith is dreary and all about the things one cannot do. Those who define Christianity as a set of rules restricting fun and celebration have trouble dealing with a Lord who changes water into wine and who saves the party by helping the celebration continue. But besides helping the party continue, Jesus was offering a sign of the presence of God’s Kingdom. Wine became water, and the celebration continued. Water became wine, and best of all, the abundance of God’s love was manifest. God’s kingdom, Jesus tells us, is like a wedding celebration; it’s like a feast thrown by God to all who show up.

The Gospel is full of this image. In the parable of the Prodigal Son, when the son returns home, what does the father do? He throws a feast in his son’s honor to celebrate his return. Some of the most important teachings of Jesus come while he’s with his disciples or other folk gathered at a feast. One of the most powerful parables in the Gospel is of a wedding banquet that a king throws for his son’s wedding. He invites all the local people of stature and importance. They all give excuses why they cannot come, so the father instructs his servants to go out into the streets to invite everybody to the feast. In another parable, Jesus outrages the local keepers of political correctness by attending a feast given by a notorious sinner and tax-collector named Zacchaeus.

There are many other examples of feasts in the Gospel. So, it wasn’t out of Jesus’ character to show up at this wedding feast in Cana of Galilee. In fact, it was totally consistent with it. It was at such feasts that Jesus drew people into a new vision of what God was up to in the world. This vision proclaimed that God’s Kingdom is like a party where all people, regardless of who they are or where they come from, are invited to celebrate and dine with God’s Son.

If God’s Kingdom is a feast for all people, then we ought to be focused on that invitation. It’s both a birth announcement and a wedding announcement. It is what God has given birth to as well as what God has promised to do (like a marriage vow) in this world. It is also what God will continue to do in the life of the world.

So, let’s get invitations out. Jesus is the True Life of the Party.

+Scott