Meditation for January 7, 2009

From The Rev. Peter A. Munson

John 2:1-11

1 On the third day there was a wedding in Cana of Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there.  2 Jesus and his disciples had also been invited to the wedding.  3 When the wine gave out, the mother of Jesus said to him, "They have no wine." 4 And Jesus said to her, "Woman, what concern is that to you and to me?  My hour has not yet come."  5 His mother said to the servants, "Do whatever he tells you."  6 Now standing there were six stone water jars for the Jewish rites of purification, each holding twenty or thirty gallons.  7 Jesus said to them, "Fill the jars with water."  And they filled them up to the brim.  8 He said to them, "Now draw some out, and take it to the chief steward."  So they took it.  9 When the steward tasted the water that had become wine, and did not know where it came from (though the servants who had drawn the water knew), the steward called the bridegroom 10 and said to him, "Everyone serves the good wine first, and then the inferior wine after the guest have become drunk.  But you have kept the best wine until now."  11 Jesus did this, the first of his signs, in Cana of Galilee, and revealed his glory; and his disciples believed in him.

Having Fun With Jesus

I know that this is a famous story of one of Jesus' miracles, or "signs", as John refers to them in his gospel.  And I know that these signs of Jesus are designed to lead people to faith, as they often did (see verse 11).  But I would like to take a different approach to this story.

Many people know that the shortest verse in the Bible is "Jesus wept." This is also in John's gospel, when Jesus arrives to console Mary and Martha after the death of their brother, Lazarus.  (John 11:35)  But it has always struck me as a very unfortunate thing that we don't have in the Gospels a corresponding verse:  "Jesus laughed."  For that matter, we have almost nothing passed on to us about Jesus' childhood, and in the little that is there, we have nothing about Jesus playing.  Yet we know these things happened. 

We know that he laughed.  We know that he played.  We know that sometimes he danced and celebrated.  For Jesus was a human being.

Perhaps the story that comes closest to telling us that Jesus had fun is this story about the wedding in Cana.  In the culture at that time, wedding festivities lasted for a full week.  It was a party!  It was a celebration!  And Jesus was invited.  So he must have been a fun guy.  He must have been someone that folks wanted at a party.  It's too bad that in all the Gospel stories about Jesus, we don't have any of him dancing or telling jokes or putting his head back and just laughing until he cried.  But it happened.  We need to "fill in" the missing stories about Jesus, because we know that in addition to being fully divine, he was also fully human.  He shared our humanity.

Sometimes you and I take ourselves too seriously, and we forget to laugh at ourselves and some of the absurdities of life.  Sometimes I take myself way too seriously, and I forget to have fun.  I forget at times that God wants us to have fun.  One of my main resolutions this year to have more fun.  I've decided that if I'm not having any fun at all doing something, maybe I shouldn't be doing it!  I continue to pray, "Lord, trusting in you, I choose complete abundance in love, faithfulness, money, creativity, giving and receiving appreciation, and having fun."  I want to have more fun in worship.  I want to have more fun in my daily dealings with the other members of my staff, and with the Vestry.  How does "fun Vestry meetings" sound?  More and more, this is happening - thanks be to God!  I want to have more fun with each of you.  I want to read the comics more often, laugh more with my wife and children.  I want to take time - maybe especially in the middle of a serious or heavy conversation - to listen for the funny moment, that moment where the tension can be cut with a knife, and suddenly someone says something, and it all shifts, and gets reframed.

As far as we know, Jesus may have taken seven days out of his ministry to party with a bride and groom in Cana.  At that time, nothing else was more important than being with them, celebrating their union as husband and wife, and having fun.  He drank wine with them.  He danced with the bride.  Maybe he danced with the groom.  He danced with his mother.  He danced with his friends.  He laughed.  Who knows?  Maybe he even had a little too much to drink.  Am I being sacrilegious?  We would probably only think that if we have trained ourselves to believe that Jesus never had any fun.

Let's have more fun together in 2009.  Life is too short to be serious all the time.  Jesus had fun at a wedding in Cana.  He may have partied for a full week.  I think maybe God is trying to tell us something.