(soft pipe organ music) (bright pipe organ music) (soft pipe organ music) (bright pipe organ music) (choir singing faintly) (soft pipe organ music) (soft pipe organ music) (choir singing faintly) (soft pipe organ music) (choir singing faintly) (soft pipe organ music) (choir singing faintly) (soft pipe organ music) (choir singing faintly) (soft pipe organ music) (choir singing faintly) (soft pipe organ music) (choir singing faintly) (soft pipe organ music) (choir singing faintly) (soft pipe organ music) (choir singing faintly) (soft pipe organ music) (choir singing faintly) (soft pipe organ music) (choir singing faintly) (soft pipe organ music) (choir singing faintly) (soft pipe organ music) (choir singing faintly) - It is an awesome thing to come into the presence of the living God who is holy love. Therefore, it behooves us to recognize that we are creatures and sinners, and to acknowledge the same with penitence and lowliness to the end that we may be forgiven. For I ask you who are here present to accompany me with sincerity and humility unto the throne of grace in the unison prayer of confession. Let us pray. Almighty and eternal God - who searches the hearts of all people with sorrow we acknowledged before you the faults and failures which haunt our memories. We acknowledge our failure to be true, even to our own accepted standards. Our self deception in the face of temptation, our choosing of the worst when we know the better. We acknowledge our failure to apply to ourselves the standards of conduct we demand of others, our complacence toward wrongs that do not touch our own case, and our over sensitiveness to those that do. Our hardness of heart towards our neighbors faults, and our readiness to make allowance for our own. In your holy presence, we confess our faults and our failures, knowing that they are our sins. Forgive us Lord. - Amen. And now in quietness, let offer unto God personal confession for the sins of commission, anger, dislike, malice, meanness, for the sin of our mission, the good we have forgotten to do. This is the sin which worry Jesus more than any other. And now hear the good news. This statement is completely reliable and should be universally accepted. Christ Jesus entered the waddled to rescue sinners. So, let it be for us. (soft pipe organ music) (soft pipe organ music) (bright pipe organ music) (soft pipe organ music) (choir singing faintly) (soft pipe organ music) (choir singing faintly) (soft pipe organ music) (choir singing faintly) (soft pipe organ music) (choir singing faintly) (soft pipe organ music) (choir singing faintly) (soft pipe organ music) (choir singing faintly) (soft pipe organ music) (choir singing faintly) (soft pipe organ music) (choir singing faintly) (soft pipe organ music) (choir singing faintly) (soft pipe organ music) (choir singing faintly) (soft pipe organ music) (choir singing faintly) (soft pipe organ music) (choir singing faintly) (soft pipe organ music) (choir singing faintly) (soft pipe organ music) (choir singing faintly) (bright pipe organ music) (choir singing faintly) - The Old Testament lesson is taken from the book of Amos, chapter five, "Woe to you who desire the day of the Lord. Why would you have the day of the Lord? It is darkness and not light as if a man fled from a lion and a bear met him, or went into the house and leaned with his hand against the wall and a serpent bit him. Is not the day of the Lord darkness and not light? And gloom with no brightness in it? I hate I despise your feasts and I take no delight in your solemn assemblies. Even though you offer me your burnt offerings and cereal offerings, I will not accept them. And the peace offerings of your fatted beasts, I will not look upon. Take away from me the noise of your songs to the melody of your harps, I will not listen, but let justice roll down like waters and righteousness like an ever flowing stream." The New Testament lesson is taken from the second chapter of the gospel of John. (clears throat) "On the third day, there was a marriage at Cana in Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there. Jesus also was invited to the marriage with his disciples. When the wine failed, the mother of Jesus said to him, 'They have no wine.' And Jesus said to her, "Oh, woman, what have you to do with me? My hour has not yet come.' His mother said to the servants, 'Do whatever he tells you.' Now six stone jars were standing there for the Jewish rights of purification. Each holding 20 or 30 gallon. Jesus said to them, 'Fill the jars with water.' And they filled them up to the brim. He said to them, 'Now draw some out and take it to the steward of the feast.' So they took it. When the steward of the feast tasted the water now become wine and did not know where it came from though the servants who had drawn the water knew, the steward of the feast called the bridegroom and said to him, 'Every man serves the good wine first and when men have drunk freely, then the poor wine, but you have kept the good wine until now.' This the first of his signs Jesus did at Cana in Galilee and manifested his glory. And his disciples believed in him." May God bless this reading of his holy scripture. (soft pipe organ music) (bright pipe organ music) (bright pipe organ music) (choir singing faintly) (soft pipe organ music) (choir singing faintly) ♪ Amen ♪ ♪ Amen ♪ - Let us affirm our faith in unison. - We are not alone. We live in God's world. We believe in God who has created and is creating, who has come in the truly human Jesus to reconcile and make new, who works in us and others through the spirit. We trust God who calls us to be the church to celebrate life and its fullness, to love and serve others, to seek justice and resist evil, to proclaim Jesus crucified and risen our judge and our hope in life, in death, in life beyond death, God is with us. We are not alone. Thanks be to God. - The Lord be with you. (congregation speaking faintly) Let us pray. And our first prayer be one of thanksgiving and homecoming. Almighty God whose blessing son, Jesus did sit lowly in the midst of the doctors, both hearing them and asking them questions. We give the thanks for our university, for it's honorable history and for the unbounded promise of it's future. Especially on this day, do we remember its sons and daughters who have come home to renew old memories, to revive old loyalties. We give the thanks for their interest in us, students, administration, faculty, for their faith in the college, in the graduate and professional schools and for their confidence that the glory of the university has begun to appear. Keep ever before them and before us, the vision of the pass of an education in partnership with religion, which will be an instrument in thy hands ooh, God, for our good and for a benediction to our fellows. We commend our alumni to thee, as they scatter and return to their accustomed places, praying that thy will keep in their heart the memory of this Chapel as a symbol of thy presence in the university yesterday, today, and forever. And let us offer a prayer of intercession. Oh God, the creator and sustainer of all mankind, we pray for all thy family upon earth and for every agency of world cooperation. (speaks faintly) grow in usefulness and power for the universal church, for the world organization of nations, for international federations of labor industry and commerce. We beseech thee for the departments of state, for all ambassadors, ministers, diplomats, for all prophets and pioneers who have seen the promised land (speaks faintly) far off and dedicated their lives to it's service. For the common folk in every land who long to live in peace and quietness. We beseech thee. Hasten the day when all shall dwell together in mutual helpfulness and love, for thine is the world, and thine is the kingdom through Jesus Christ, our Lord. And let us offer a short prayer of supplication for ourselves. Lord, temper with tranquility, our manifold activity, that we may do our work for thee, with very great simplicity. And the prayer of dedication, our father God, by whom we live and on whom our hopes are built, grant us ears to hear, eyes to see, wills to obey, hearts to love. Then declare what thy will, reveal what thy will, command what thy will, demand what thy will, and let each one of us answer. Speak Lord for thy servant here. And now, let us sum up our prayers in the prayer which Jesus taught his disciples, saying, "Our Father - who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us, not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen. - The minister to the university has asked me to draw your attention to the little slip about choir robes project. It's 25 years since the choir had new robes cutter. Worse than that, the other Sunday, when we were number 180 in the choir, we could give them a cutter or a robe, not both. (speaks faintly) like giving a shirt or a pair of trousers. (congregation laughing) You would think that the university would pay for the robes just as they pay football uniforms, but not yet. (congregation laughing) However, we have a distinguished and friendly member from Allen floor, the second floor, and maybe he'll take our desire to them and tell them we think we should be robed by them to the glory of God. See what happens? But in case they don't, will you send us $50 per robe? If you can't give it today, send it in latter. And then come and see them dressed properly and singing as gloriously as ever. Thank you. - It is good to see you here this morning, homecoming weekend. And I greet you in the name and in the spirit of our Lord and savior Jesus Christ. Grace and peace to you. John writes, "Now six stone jars were standing there for the Jewish rights of purification. Each holding 20 or 30 gallons. Jesus said to them, 'Fill the jars with water.' And they failed them up to the brim. He said to them, 'Now draw some of it out and take it to the steward of the feast.' So, they took it. When the steward of the feast tasted the water now become wine and did not know where it came from though the servants who had drawn the water knew, the steward called the bride groom and said, 'You have kept the good wine until now?' This the first of his signs Jesus did at Cana of Galilee and the disciples believe." Gusto is a word defined by the dictionary as meaning taste, keen enjoyment, or zest. And my friends, that's what I want us to see today. The taste, the keen enjoyment, the zest of the gospel of Jesus, the Christ. The flavor, the deep pleasure. The vitality of God's love given to us through Jesus Christ. Now, Gusto is a word quite familiar to you, to us who watch television. You get real Gusto in a great light beverage advertised frequently and tantalizingly. If you listened to that, there's a theological psychological appeal to this particular commercial, but there's even more of this psychological theological religious appeal to this same product's latest jingle which goes something like. ♪ You only come round this way once in life ♪ Oh. ♪ Grab all you can as you go ♪ And so, Gusto has the kind of ring to it that I want you to hear and to experience this morning. The Gusto, not of slits, but the Gusto of the gospel of Jesus Christ, our Lord and our savior. There is Gusto in the gospel for you and for me. Let's see if we can see. William Barclay tells us in writing about this passage, that the rabbis of Jesus' day had a saying that was accepted as true by all good Hebrew families. The saying went, "Without wine, there is no joy." "Without wine, there is no joy." So, they had run out of wine, therefore, no joy. Now, you began to see the important role that Jesus was to play at this wedding feast for He was the one who was called by his mother to bring joy back again to the wedding feast that Cana. But wait a minute. Wait just a minute, if you will. Well, I want us to become conscious of how important John evidently feels that this little story is. John has written up to this point only 50 verses before he writes the first word of this story. Only one chapter so far and what a magnificent chapter it is. His awesome, all inspiring prologue on Jesus as the logos, the word become flesh and dwelling among us. The powerful testimony of John the Baptist, as he tells the inquisitive Pharisees that he, John, is to prepare the way of the Lord. The glorious affirmation of John when he looks up and sees Jesus and says, "Behold the lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world" And then John writes of Jesus' first experiences with Andrew and Peter and Phillip and Nathaniel. And then these words on the third day, there was a wedding feast at Cana of Galilee and God in Christ was there. This God who called the universe into being, this God who called Abraham to go into a land unknown, this God who brought down the 10 commandments at Mount Sinai, this God who touched Isaiah in the glory of the temple, this God who lifted the deceitful king David and made him whole again, this God who called Amos and Micah and Jonah, the God of all people, all places, all times here at a wedding feast saying, "Fill the pots with water." Here He is, Jesus, at a party, at a wedding party. And here we see the place that the man Jesus of Nazareth field in his family and community life. Jesus was invited to a party. Not only Jesus, but all of the disciples were invited also at a party where wine was being served. Can you imagine that? No? That probably doesn't fit into our picture of Jesus or at least many of us have a hard time imagining that, because if you're going to have a party where there may be real exuberance and loudness and joy and celebration, the very last person that you would think of inviting would be someone who most of us would think of as the real true blue, honest to goodness Christian. And for Pete's sake, you'd never invite a preacher. We'd spoil the whole of faith, but not Jesus. Jesus was right there. And so, were all of his first disciples and the wine was being drunk by all. Wine was not only present and consumed at the wedding feast when they read out Jesus changed six pots full of water into wine so they could drink and the wedding party could continue. And my friends do you know what the first thing that this humble human little incident tells me? It is that Almighty God is concerned about us and our common everyday activities and affairs like wedding feasts. Here he comes, God Almighty in Jesus, the Christ with time to spare for going to a wedding feast and with power to spare, to make water become wine so the guests could continue to have a good time. This one little incident alone makes a mockery of much of our long faced somber, solemn, sad, sour puss behavior, which many of us piously and poorly pass off as the way Christians are to be. Now, we can behave this way if we want to, but let's not demean the majesty and the glory of Christ, joy and his happiness by calling our behavior if it's that the kind of behavior that is Christ life. No. Sadness and salvation are not one and the same . Stiff-necked living was not the way of life for Jesus or his family or his disciple. John has just told us of the eternal logos, the word which has become flesh in Jesus. He has just told us of the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. And now John links this eternal word, the savior of all persons with the joy of a wedding feast. Oh, if we could only do that. Oh, if we could only do that. If we could only link together the sacred and the secular, if we could only combine the eternal with the everyday, if we could only connect the happiness of life with the joys of Christ, but no, not many of us anyhow. We would go to parties, to clubs, to movies, to dances, or to place for a good time. And we think we're to go to church to be somber, and serious, and sad. We think that Jesus spirit is here and not at the movie or the party or the nightclub. One of the most important things John says in his entire gospel, he says, "Right here in this little story that God is present everywhere. That God's concern is in every place. That God's power is available to all persons in all circumstances." I'm hearing John say that God is having a good time, that Jesus had good time and that God wants us to have a good time too that he wants us to live life to it's fullest. I'm hearing John say that God's love is present everywhere, at a party, at a brawl, at a bar, at a jail, at a house of prostitution, at a homosexual bar, at a nightclub or a beer joint. Just the same as God's love is present in this Chapel or in a church, or in a prayer meeting, or in a Bible study group. I hear John saying this coming of God is in all of life, to all of life, for all of life. This Jesus, the eternal word at a wedding in Cana of Galilee. Do you hear him? Do you really hear what John is saying to us here? I think it was Eric (speaks faintly) who once said, "Many people die before they ever begin to leave." God does not want that to happen to you or to me, God does not want any child to die before he or she begins really to live. It was Meister Eckhart who lived in road in the 13th and 14th centuries who once wrote, "To get at the core of God at his greatest, one must get into the core of himself at his least for no one can know God who has not first known himself. Go to the depths of the soul, the secret place of the most high, to the roots, to the heights for all that God can do is focused there." That's how important you are. God wants you to live before you die. God has focused his all on you. All that God can do has been made available in Jesus, the Christ. Here is love in its fullest as lifeless and inert, and powerless as H2O as water you and I are, but wonder of all wonders... And as Hugh Anderson used to say in this Chapel, "And every wonder true the grace of God can take this water and make it into wine, God's grace can take your life and mine empty, weak, and hurt, powerless, lifeless, joyless, and make it full of zest and meaning, radiant and joyful." The Gusto of the gospel is yours and mine for the asking. How do I know that? How dare I to make such a statement as that? Well, I think that's exactly what this story in the gospel of John is trying to say to us. He says, "You take six large jars of water. Each of these big jars holding 20 to 30 gallons of water. Fill these jars up to the very brim. Add the power of Jesus, the Christ, and you have 120 to 180 gallons of wine." Now, what in the world will all those folks do with 120 or 180 gallons of wine? There's no wedding feast around either now or surely even then that would consume 120 or 180 gallons of wine. That's not the absurd. Is this what John really wants us to hear and to understand? I don't think so. How about this? You use water because water is as plain and ordinary and powerless as any element you can find. You feel the jars up to the very brim to be sure that no other substance is present, but water and the power of Jesus. No hanky-panky going on. You make 120 to 180 gallons of wine available not to overload the wedding host, but to show that God's grace is limitless and boundless and overflowing. No need on earth can exhaust the grace of God. There is a glorious, super abundance to the grace of God. If we read this story, as if it tells us only of water and wine, we may miss the personal message that it has for us. Sure John talks about water and wine, but he's also telling us about life and living. Sure he tells us what happened then even 40 years before he actually wrote, but he's saying that this is for now. And I believe that what happened then if that is not also for now, then it's for no time at all. Or it's the present that counts to you and me. I could not care less, really whether or not Jesus actually turned water into wine. John says he did. Okay, I believe it. But my whole life is at stake when I hear John telling us not about Jesus changing water into wine, but about Jesus life changing power. Changing water is nothing at all, changing your lives, your life and mine is everything. Here is the message that John is trying to get us to hear. And then I have this final word. The only reason that this story of Jesus at the wedding feast is important. Only reason at all, is that that same Jesus who rejoiced that Cina also showed us how to love ultimately and totally on Calvary. The same Jesus who was at Cana also was at Calvary. This story would have been lost long ago. It would have been told as so much fun and games and faded from the scene, as it tells about the love of God, humanly revealed at Cana. If it had not been for the love of God, supremely revealed at Calvary. Edmund Steimle, professor of preaching at Union Seminary in New York writes in one of his books, "Some words which end the sermon as I want it to end, and I invite you to listen. What is its timely rights that attracts you to Christ? What draws you to Christ in curiosity and wonder? Perhaps it is his gentleness with the outcasts and the unlovely that draws you to him at first. Or perhaps it is his courage in the face of opposition and betrayal and death. Or perhaps it is his impatience with rules and regulations and the (speaks faintly) integrity of the spirit. Or perhaps it's the disturbing, probing, presence of love broken on a cross. The haunting notion that here is the clue to ultimate reality, to what's at the center of this baffling existence of hours to give it purpose and meaning. "Your (speaks faintly)," he says the painter who has never been inside the doors of a church has yet painted the crucifixion over and over and over again, and violent even brutal color and form. And he probes is reported to have said, "I don't know what the crucifixion means, but if there is meaning anywhere at all, I suspect it is there." The Gusto of the gospel runs from Cana to Calvary for you and for me. Meaning I, suspect if it is anywhere at all, it is there. And may the Gusto of the gospel be yours. Amen. Amen. (soft pipe organ music) (bright pipe organ music) (bright pipe organ music) (choir singing faintly) (bright pipe organ music) (choir singing faintly) (gentle pipe organ music) (choir singing faintly) (gentle pipe organ music) (gentle pipe organ music) (choir singing faintly) (bright pipe organ music) (choir singing faintly) (gentle pipe organ music) (choir singing faintly) (bright pipe organ music) (choir singing faintly) (gentle pipe organ music) (choir singing faintly) (gentle pipe organ music) (choir singing faintly) (gentle pipe organ music) (choir singing faintly) (bright pipe organ music) (choir singing faintly) (gentle pipe organ music) (bright pipe organ music) (bright pipe organ music) (choir singing faintly) ♪ Hallelujah ♪ ♪ Hallelujah ♪ (gentle pipe organ music) (choir singing faintly) ♪ Hallelujah ♪ ♪ Hallelujah ♪ ♪ Hallelujah ♪ ♪ Hallelujah ♪ ♪ Hallelujah ♪ (bright pipe organ music) (choir singing faintly) - All things come of thee ooh, God and of thy known have we given thee, amen. (bright pipe organ music) (gentle pipe organ music) (gentle pipe organ music) (choir singing faintly) (gentle pipe organ music) (choir singing faintly) (gentle pipe organ music) (choir singing faintly) (bright pipe organ music) (choir singing faintly) (bright pipe organ music) - Unto God's gracious mercy, and protection do I commit you. May the blessing of God come upon you abundantly, may it keep you strong and tranquil in the truth of his promises through Jesus Christ our Lord. ♪ Amen ♪ ♪ Amen ♪ ♪ Amen ♪ ♪ Amen ♪ ♪ Amen ♪ ♪ Amen ♪ (bell ringing) (bell ringing) (bell ringing) (bright pipe organ music) (gentle pipe organ music)