Old South Sermons:

Dearly Beloved

by Rev. Nancy S. Taylor, Senior Minister

Based on John 2: 1-11

Third Sunday after Pentecost

June 21, 2009

Listen to this sermon

The sermon was preached during our 11 am Festival Worship Service.

During this service two members of Old South Church were united in marriage.

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Dearly beloved, we are gathered together in the sight of God and in the presence of witnesses to join together two persons in holy matrimony.

The scene is a Palestinian village: Cana of Galilee … at a place and time in which a wedding is a grand occasion … one involving the entire village. Cana, near Nazareth, is a village familiar to Jesus and Mary. They are both in attendance among the happy, joy-filled throng when Mary – who appears to bear some responsibility for the arrangements –  whispers to Jesus, “The wine has run out!” Disaster … such a failure of hospitality is a terrible, unforgiveable faux pas in the Middle East.

Jesus rescues the moment. Water is turned to wine. The feasting continues. More importantly, the couple is saved from humiliation.

Jesus is reported to have wrought many miracles. It is told of him that he stilled a storm, multiplied a handful of loaves and fishes into a feast for over 5000 people, cured the ill, gave sight to the blind and raised the dead.

By any measurements this miracle at Cana of Galilee – this refreshment miracle – just doesn’t measure up. Yet, it has come down through the centuries in tact … not so much because of what is says about Jesus’ powers, but because of what is says about his heart.

Dearly beloved, we are gathered together here in the sight of God and in the presence of all these witnesses to join together two persons in holy matrimony.

The scene is an urban church: Boston at Copley Square … at a place and a time in which a wedding is a grand occasion … one, involving the entire congregation.

Marriage is perhaps the most private and intimate relationship we can imagine. And, yet, society has determined that it is neither so private nor so intimate that it can do without the rest of us: God and witnesses … the latter of whom are required to make a marriage (even a Las Vegas elopement) legal.

Many of us in this sanctuary this morning have stood where Donna Ruth Evans & Katherine Lee Leahy are about to stand. We have stood before God and witnesses and we have spoken aloud to one whom we loved the brave and fateful promises Donna and Kate will soon speak to each other. We promised to love another, not only when the other was lovely and loveable. We promised to love and cherish another no matter what … for better for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health until parted by death.

We know from personal, intimate, beautiful and painful experience that marriage matters. And, although marriage has changed and adapted throughout the millennia, it is here to stay.

Marriage is here to stay because it is a vehicle that enables frail, faulty, fickle humans to cling to one another, care for and support one another, through thick and thin, for better and for worse. It is one of the ways we learn about love, respect, patience and forgiveness.

The institution of marriage is critical because marriage is not merely a condition of the heart. It may begin as a condition of the heart, but marriage itself is an act of the will. It is something that requires the best of us: discipline, patience, determination, kindness, forgiveness and respect. We are helped in this by the structures and constraints of public vows, witnesses, rings, signed licenses (a legal document) … but also by framed photographs and photograph albums, special clothing, flowers, cakes, wedding receptions, and all that goes along with marriage as an institution.

Some while ago people began to whisper that, with respect to marriage, the wine was being rationed. It wasn’t that there wasn’t enough wine. It was not that it had run out … it was being rationed. The wine stewards had been instructed to pour the good stuff only for those with invitations. The rest? They had to make do with water.

Then, on May 14, 2004 the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court wrought a miracle. The Court ruled that access to the good wine was a civil right, that no one could hold it back, rationing it out to a select few. They uncorked the bottles and let the wine flow. The sweetness and tartness of marriage, its bloom and bouquet, its full bodied, earthy elegance these  became a ya’ll come event.

In issuing their ruling, the members of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court understood some things about law and rights and equality. But they also understood something about human beings. They understood that love and attraction between two people is something mysterious and unfathomable … and deeply and properly private. For how and why you are attracted to another is as intimate and personal as the skin upon your hand, and the color of your skin, and how you are a woman or how you are a man. Finally, they understood that marriage, which has been adapting and evolving over the millennia, was ready for its next evolutionary adaptation.

In Massachusetts and here at Old South Church we have seen with our own eyes as water was turned to wine, and an invitation-only institution was broken open to all who ached to taste its goodness. We have been privileged to witnesses to, and participate in, this miracle of generosity and hospitality.

Donna Ruth Evans and Katherine Lee Leahy, it is time for another miracle. It is time for your wedding. Let the good stuff flow.

 

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