The best pilsner

 I went to a wedding a long time ago now, long enough ago that the couple's children are teenagers.  And this wedding was for a couple, half of whom came from Medicine Hat. Medicine Hat, for those of you who don't know, is quite close to the Alberta / Saskatchewan border. And if you're anywhere close to Saskatchewan, you're close to what we affectionately refer to as 'Pil Country.'

Now weddings have changed since the time of Christ, but not by much. In fact, certain features still remain, one of which is that God has given us, according to Psalm 104

How Many Are Your Works, O LORD!
…14He makes the grass grow for the livestock and provides crops for man to cultivate, bringing forth food from the earth: 15wine that gladdens the heart of man, oil that makes his face to shine, and bread that sustains his heart. 16The trees of the LORD have their fill, the cedars of Lebanon that He planted,…

God gives these things to us as blessings, and it seems to be pretty clear, according to the scriptures, that wine, does in fact, gladden the heart. And at the wedding at Cana, just like the wedding at Calgary that I went to, wine, or pilsner, was gladdening hearts.  The best moment came when the MC for the wedding, a good friend of mine as well, came out and announced 'before we say grace, I feel like I should announce that we have already run out of Pilsner.'  

Before grace.  Before the meal, before the speeches, before the dance, before anything, the pilsner was gone.  Wow.  We achieve.  This is how I got to thinking about the wedding at Cana, because I've seen that exact same thing happen. Pilsner instead of wine, but you get the idea. Now, I've heard people try to talk about Cana in a very convoluted way.  If you don't believe that God actually does give you wine to gladden your heart, and in fact you view consumption of alcohol as sinful by nature, then you've got soem work to do vis a vis the wedding at Cana, and Psalm 104. What do you do with these passages? Well, if you're a Lutheran Christian, and you believe that the earth was created in 6 24-hour days, that there was a flood that covered the whole world and killed everyone except Noah who was 600 years old and a drunk, if you believe in talking snakes and that there is a man named Jesus Christ who elected to no longer be dead anymore, then believing that God sent wine to gladden your heart isn't too much of a stretch. 

But this isn't all about the ethical consumption of alcohol, it's about what the account says.  This account from John 2 mirrors the last Supper, because, according to John's Gospel, Jesus essentially goes from the wedding at Cana to the clearing of the Temple, and that breaks the line between Jesus as average carpenter, and Jesus as the Rabbi, the Messiah, and no longer a private citizen. This is his last gasp as a relative unknown, yet to perform his first miracle, yet to cleanse the temple, yet to take up the cross.  By the next moment, he will belong to the world, and this, the first of his signs, marks the transitional barrier.  But it's not just about the booze. It's about sending a message. 

Okay, fine, so let's say you're with me so far, it's about the message. Well then, tough guy, what's the message that it's about? I know this reading gets put into a lot of weddings, mainly because it has Jesus at a wedding in it, but it's not just for weddings. It's for right now as well. What do I mean by right now? I mean right now. Because right now, the exhaustion, the fatigue is setting in, and setting in hard. We have been rewarded for all our efforts over two years of bad news with more bad news.  The fatigue is real, the exhaustion is real.  Most people are getting to the point where they are truly and simply over it, and the news never seems to get any better. Cases are up, hospitals are at their breaking point, and it seems for everyone, no matter their position or station in life, they're all facing down the notion that their best days might very well be behind them.

That's a function of who we are, you know? I know, it seems like things have been this way for so long, that we can't remember anything else, and we sure as sure can't imagine a time when things might be back to normal. It seems like a dream, a fantasy, you know? The idea that one day things might be better, might improve? Well, think for a second about the happy first century couple, getting wine to gladden the hearts of their guests.  Everyone is happy, having a party, and enjoying life. They run out of wine, and the assumption is that the party is now going to end, or at the very least become less fun. Not only that, but the party is going to continue to be less fun now until it ends. Now imagine that not as a wedding, but as everything, and you're close to how people feel about the current situation. Nothing gets better, everything gets worse, forever.

Jesus takes water and turns it into wine. Nice trick. But it's not about the water and the wine only, and it's not about the party and it's not about COVID. Or, I suppose, not just about those things. It's about something more than that. It's about the core and essence of the Christian faith, the reality that says to you as a child of God that the best wine, the best Pilsner can and will be saved until now. You think it's all done and over, you think that there's no possible way that things could possibly improve, and you think that the ditch that you're in you can't ever get out of? You're saying these things in the face and the presence of someone who decided not to be dead anymore. And that same someone make a promise to you and to me, that if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall surely be united with him in a resurrection like his. That means that there is always a tomorrow, and a day after that. That means that there isn't any such thing as over, no matter what. You're looking at a promise of a future and a hope, and that's something very much worth considering, especially in these hopeless times.

When you're tempted to fall into despair, to thinking that there's no way out of the situation that you're in, then think very carefully about the wedding at Cana, and the words of the steward:\

Everyone serves the best wine first, then the cheap stuff after everyone has had enough to drink. But you have saved the best wine until now. 

That can still be true you know. Always time for better wine. Or better Pil.