This week’s Gospel reading is the Wedding at Cana. Where Jesus at the behest of his mother turns water into wine. When we read this text through our modern lens when it comes to weddings, we can lose some of its meanings. So much about modern wedding culture is the “fun” of it all. It’s a “celebration” of a happy couple so if they are running out of wine than it must be one impressive celebration. The problem is ancient weddings functioned differently. Running out of wine wouldn’t have been seen as a mark of a good time but instead the lack of hospitality of the couple and their families. Instead of meticulously poured over invite lists complete with arguments over whether your friend from college should get a plus one or you should invite that one cousin you haven’t seen in a decade. Ancient weddings would have invited the whole community and lasted for days. Having enough for everyone to eat, and drink while they celebrate the joining of communities and families would have been seen as an act of hospitality.
The problem that arises for me is it is a little unclear who the one acting hospitably is in the story. The knee-jerk reaction is Jesus because he is the one preforming the miracle. The problem with that answer is that Mary is the one who tells him to fix the problem and Jesus’ response of “women” doesn’t exactly make it seem like he wanted to. Mary is a possible answer but again all she did is tell Jesus to fix it. The Steward believed the Bridegroom to be the hospitable one for saving the best wine for last, but he didn’t really have anything to do with making more wine. I would argue the servants might be the most hospitable seeing as they took orders from someone I assume is not their boss and then proceeded to lug around 120 gallons of water which weighed around 1000 pounds. So, the answer to “who is being hospitable here?” is everyone?
Which maybe is a better way to think about hospitality for our church and communities today. Our hospitality isn’t just one person, committee or neighborhood associations job. It’s all of ours. We can contribute to hospitality in ways big and small. Welcoming people at the door. Making coffee in the morning. Shoveling those neglected spaces that get iced over. So what are some ways you might contribute to the hospitality of your community?
Peace,
Corey
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