South West Norfolk Pastoral Charge

     Come to  Coffee & Conversation:)  

Join Pastor:   Rev. Ted Smith   WEDNESDAY'S at 10:00am , bring your coffee for great conversations on ZOOM

Click on the ZOOM MEETING Link Above

ANNOUNCEMENTS

A WELCOME INVITATION TO ALL WOMEN OF THE CHURCH to U.C.W. Meetings

Meeting Dates for 2026:   Meeting the 1st Wednesday at 1:00pm at Courtland United Church

May 6, 2026 

June 3, 2026      Lorraine's Cottage / Potluck Lunch

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                                                                                           ALL ARE WELCOME AT THIS BANQUET! 

As we move into and through the season of Easter we will be discovering passages from the bible that provide us with joyful images of weddings, celebrations, gifts, and renewed community. Specific to our biblical exploration this week, Israel’s relationship with God is intimately described as a marriage as Isaiah’s words describe. 

And in the Gospel, John begins his account of Jesus’ ministry with an extravagant miracle of abundance and generosity---- the transformation of water into wine. 

It’s a story that we all know so well. Where Jesus turns 100 gallons of water into wine. I will point out that most mainstream biblical scholars view this story as a metaphorical narrative…and it is rich with metaphor… 

So what is the story telling us……….

Let’s start with the literary context, the wedding at Cana (John 2: 1 – 11). This is the opening scene, the inaugural story of Jesus’ public activity in the Gospel of John. Inaugural stories are very important in the Gospels. In this case it sets the stage and the theme for Jesus’ ministry and purpose. 

Marriage was a rich metaphor in Judaism and early Christianity: ie, the image of the marriage of God and Israel is revealed through the words of the prophet Isaiah …    also the wedding of heaven and earth, the mystical marriage between a person and God, the church as the bride of Christ…… 

Moreover, in Jewish peasant life at the time of Jesus, weddings were the most festive of  celebrations.  Think for a moment  about  how much weddings mean to us now in our life stories…and technically we live lives of material abundance, freedom, safety, free choice, etc. By comparison,  life was hard for the people in Jesus’ time. Their diet was basic and meager, seldom including meat or poultry. But a wedding celebration meant momentary release from the unremitting labour and struggle of life…a celebration offering momentary freedom and the rich experience of enjoying copious amounts of food and wine, accompanied by music, dancing, story making and storytelling. 

This opening to Jesus ministry shows that the miraculous life giving power of God is at work even, (and perhaps especially) in the intimate daily places of human lives. These associations that we’re so familiar with help us to understand the power of John’s inaugural scene:

The story of Jesus is about a wedding…and even more…… it’s about a wedding where the wine never runs out……….and even more, it’s a wedding where the best wine is saved for the last. 

All of this flows from a more than literal reading, we need to engage the story and seek the metaphorical narrative. To the ears of the Jewish audience to whom the Gospel of John was initially addressed, this wedding feast at the beginning of Jesus ministry would have symbolized nothing less than the great Messianic banquet of the coming age with its abundant table of unending food and wine, where all people are welcomed and none will be turned away. 

For us, here and now the parabolic meaning is that Jesus meets us where we live and provides all that we need with an unending supply of the best of life. A way of going that fills our empty vessels with the fruits of the Spirit, and the nourishment that we need to make the most of all our relationships.                    

It’s so easy for us in our daily living to forget about this ongoing buffet of the best that God is offering and keeping fresh. All too often we feel that the wine is running out and we struggle to imagine that our host offers an unending supply of all that we need and more. It’s a great “life-giving” story

that invites us to once again belly up to the bar at this wedding of hope and possibility and say yes to the one who lovingly offers, “fill your glass again friend?” Indeed, let it be filled to overflowing and let the dance go on without end.            Peace……………….. PT