God's perfect love. The wedding feast at Cana


There is nothing worse than running out of wine at a party. You have all your guests in front of you and there is no more wine.  It always used to be the job of one or two us to do a quick run to the off licence to get some more bottles. This is what happened to the family that Jesus was attending at the wedding feast today. They had run out of wine there was none left. So Mary came to Jesus. He orders the stewards to get the jars for the ablations. 6 of them that hold 20 to 30 gallons. When they taste what they think is water it is the best wine. 

There are many interesting aspects to this Gospel. The water was used to wash the dust of the feet of people coming for the feast. It would have been quite dirty water. In one sense it reminds us of ourselves. God makes looks at what is imperfect and loves it. 

John is also telling us in the Gospel story of the generosity of God to his people. 20 to 30 gallons is a lot of wine. He showers us with gifts. Nothing in John’s Gospel is there by accident notice that its 6 stone water jars Jesus makes them perfect as its done on the 7th day. From Chapter 1 of johns Gospel it has been following the days. The first day John talks about Jesus, The next day Jesus gets baptised the next day he calls the first disciples the day after he calls Philip and Nathannel Then there are three days later so this event takes place on the seventh day the perfect day. God’s love is perfect. And it's not just perfect it flows with such abundance that it is so generous and over flowing. 

God never does things in half measures he never gives us just enough he always gives us more than we actually need it for he is overly generous. 

We can see how generous he is the second reading from St Paul today. God has given us all gifts through the Holy Spirit. These gifts have been given to us and need to be developed and most importantly used. They are an expression of God’s love for his people when we use the Spiritual gifts and we all have them we all have these gifts. I used to think that God only wants to give these gifts to special people but when we take the Gospel also in consideration we realise that we are all given these gifts because he loves us. There are some of you who have the gift if tongues, there are others with prophecy  others with the gift of healing. They are here in the Church they are among you. Notice something else. Jesus was in a social situation  the sign he gave here was not for those in the know but for everyone. God’s love is for everyone. 


The Mission of the Church is to tell others about this great gift. Last week we realised that Jesus knows us by name that he calls us by name. This week we can go one step further by recognising the gifts that have been given to us generously and abundantly by God in his perfect love for us. Jesus perfect love is shown by giving his life in his death. Stretching out his hands he shows the depth of love. 

Our Commission is to use the gifts that we have been given and use them because they come from someone, the author of our world, for us and too us. 

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