July 27th, 2025 - "More Than a Party Trick" - Rev. Dr. Michelle Morris

Matt Nelson: Welcome to the Sermon podcast from First United Methodist

Church in downtown Bentonville.

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Rev. Dr. Michelle Morris: We are in this series where we are

learning how to live like Jesus.

And we're gonna hear changing the water into wine today and

do some reflecting on that.

So hear now the word of the Lord from the Gospel of John.

On the third day, there was a wedding in Cana of Galilee.

Jesus' mother was there and Jesus and his disciples were

also invited to the celebration.

When the wine ran out, Jesus' mother said to him, they don't have any wine.

Jesus replied, woman, what does that have to do with me?

My time hasn't come yet.

His mother told the servants, do whatever he tells you.

Nearby were six stone water jars used for the Jewish cleansing ritual, each

able to hold about 20 or 30 gallons.

Jesus said to the servants, fill the jars with water, and

they filled them to the brim.

Then he told them, now draw some from them and take it to the head waiter.

And they did.

The head waiter tasted the water that had become wine.

He didn't know where it came from, though.

The servant who had drawn the water knew the head waiter called the groom and

said, everyone serves the good wine first.

They bring out the second rate wine only when the guests are drinking freely.

You kept the good wine until now.

This was the first miraculous sign that Jesus did in Cana of Galilee.

He revealed his glory and the disciples believed in him.

After this, Jesus and his mother, his brothers and his disciples went down to

Capernaum and stayed there for a few days.

This is the word of God for the people of God.

Thanks be to God.

Let us pray.

Lord, open our hearts, our minds, and our eyes that we might see and know

the word you have for us this day.

In your holy name we pray, amen.

So, I don't know if you know this, but Allison, our children's director, writes

our VBS curriculum, which is wonderful and amazing, and I'm so grateful for her work.

And she shared with me that this week's theme, or this year's theme,

was gonna be live like Jesus.

And so I took her a bunch of stuff from our trip to the Holy Land and I figured

what she was gonna do was either focus in on Jesus' teachings, how Jesus tells

us to live, or she was gonna focus on.

Elements of the first century and we would talk more about things that, uh, you know,

life in Jerusalem, that sort of thing.

No, she picked key moments that revealed Jesus was the son of God.

Now how are we supposed to live like that?

Right?

So I have been very challenged by coming up with sermons

that fit this idea of living.

Like Jesus, when these things that she's picked are so far out of our reach, it's

forced me to take a good look and it's forced me to listen in kind of attentive

and different ways to how God is moving.

And so as I was approaching this passage this week, a couple of things happen.

First.

I recorded a podcast episode with John White.

Those of you all who know, we're doing a podcast called Talking John.

We finished the Gospel of John and then realized we wanted to keep talking.

So we did a, a series, they're not, uh, posted yet, but we did a series,

um, where we talked about the I Am statements and now we're in the signs

because the first part of John is often referred to as the book of Signs,

and this turning water into wine is the first sign in the gospel of John.

The first one in the book of Signs, and that caused me to reflect as we recorded

that podcast about the difference between signs and miracles that corresponded with

the fact that I've been reflecting on my life as a religious scholar this week.

Now, many of you know that I have a PhD, and I often emphasize that my

emphasis on my PhD is New Testament because that most regularly has

the applicability in this space.

But my actual PhD is in religious studies.

Which makes me a religious scholar and as a religious scholar, I am trained in

things like archeology and sociology to actually step back and reflect on the

role that religion plays in society and to look at the religious productions or

religious artifacts of a culture and.

Reveal what that tells us about that society.

So I do this periodically.

I did this once with a cookbook of a church.

They had an anniversary cookbook they came out with.

They gave it to me and I analyzed it to tell them what their theology

was based on their cookbook recipes.

Yeah.

I can do that y'all.

Um, and it was a lot of fun and that was a really, really, uh, joyful space to be in.

But I am also a published religious scholar and that sometimes

leads me to be in a textbook called God and Popular Culture.

And Wesley, can I borrow you for a second?

Can come up here.

Can you read for the people.

The title of the chapter that I wrote, Easter in Margaritaville,

evolving Christology in South Park.

Thank you.

I

I wanted another witness to the fact, so you didn't think I made that up.

I really am a published scholar on South Park and reflecting on what South Park?

Yeah.

What South Park teaches us about religious attitudes, and I'm gonna

have to expand the chapter this week.

So, um, so thanks for that.

But I did think about, there is an episode when I did that chapter at the time,

there were 17 seasons of South Park.

Had to watch Uhhuh, all 17 seasons, Uhhuh, um, and look at every time

Jesus appeared and what it taught us about the theology behind Jesus.

Y'all are enjoying this way too much.

Okay, so, so there's an episode in there in that 17 seasons

called Super Best Friend.

And the basic plot of super best friends is that David Blaine the magician,

has gathered a bunch of followers and he's decided that now he's a

religion and he needs 5 0 1 C3 status.

So he's off to Washington DC with his followers to make the case for 5 0 1 C3

status, and one of the boys has started following David Blaine, and the other

boys are worried because he's joined this cult following David Blaine.

So they go to Jesus.

To say we need help.

You've gotta help.

Our friend has been caught up in this cult.

We need to prove that David Blaine's not a really a religious figure.

He's just a magician.

And Jesus, we know you can do miracles, so go up against him with

your miracles and like prove to us.

And so he's gonna do the water into wine.

So he has pictures of water out on a table.

And he says to the, I can't remember if this is just to the boys or to

the whole audience of an auditorium.

He says, all right, turn around.

And everyone goes, what?

And he says, turn around.

And so everyone turns around and he switches out the water for

pictures of wine, and he goes, ta-da.

No one is really impressed.

But believe it or not, there's a point to this story.

Which is that magic is different than a sign.

What the people often demand is that they want a magic thing.

They want a miracle.

What they want is a physical reality changed into a new physical reality.

Want.

You know, these small amounts of fish and bread changed into a lot of

fish and bread, so everybody can eat.

They want this water changed into wine so that the party can keep going on, right?

That's what they really want.

They want a magical change in conditions, but that's not what a sign is.

A sign points us in a direction we should go.

A sign shows us where we should be headed or warns us.

If we're headed the wrong way, that's what a sign is, and

it's different than a miracle.

When we think about trying to live like Jesus, really the miracle's out

of reach for us, the direction the sign sends us, we can participate in that.

The sign that we see here in this moment of water turning into wine is the sign

pointing to the abundance of God's reign.

There is a real danger of scarcity here.

If they run out of wine at this wedding, the results can be catastrophic.

At the very least, the family will be deeply disgraced

for having run out of wine.

They could be sued for not providing enough wine for a wedding, but

regardless, there's the tragedy that the party is gonna be over prematurely.

Everyone is really focused on that physical reality and worrying about

the scarcity, that there's not enough, there's not enough wine, there's not

enough time to be gathered together.

There's not enough available to invite whoever we want to invite.

There's not enough.

There's not enough.

There's not enough, except the reality is not enough does not exist in God's reign.

There is so much wine and so much of the best wine ever

in God's reign.

The party keeps on going as long as it's needed.

There is always plenty in God's rain.

There are no limits to time.

There are no limits to provision and we don't have to limit the invitations.

There is always plenty, always plenty.

We desperately need to see abundance instead of scarcity.

Now there may be no more urgent need in our society.

Then for us to turn in the direction of the sign of the reign of God, that

proclaims abundance instead of scarcity.

At the root of so much of what we are struggling with is people

seeing with a vision of scarcity instead of a vision of abundance.

Scarcity is at the heart of what is driving.

Fear, what if there's not enough for me?

What if I'm gonna be cut out?

What if I won't be invited?

That's scarcity driving fear.

The other thing that scarcity is driving is greed.

I will make sure there will always be enough because I will hoard, I will

take, I will make sure I am protected.

So scarcity is driving fear and greed, and people are using

hate to justify fear and greed.

Amen.

They're using hate to justify it.

It's being used to consolidate power to justify taking, and for us to all

assume that we have to expect less.

When we expect less, we get less.

We often say we want a sign, we really want a miracle, but what we have to be.

It is the people who live the sign.

We have to be that people.

So how do we live the sign?

How do we live abundance.

First, we have to change our mindset.

We have to quit looking with eyes of scarcity and start

looking with eyes of abundance.

I'm gonna use myself as an example here This week.

My mom had a a little medical procedure, so I had to travel down

to Benton to be with her for that.

And when I go to Benton, I love to stop in Rudy, Arkansas at the Chester's Fried

Chicken and get potato wedges there.

I love those potato wedges.

And I pull in all excited to get my potato wedges on Thursday and

there weren't any in the thing.

And I said, do you have any potato wedges?

Thinking I'm just gonna have to wait five minutes while they fry some up.

She goes, no, and we won't have any until tomorrow.

And I'm like, no.

So I had to get a piece of chicken instead.

Then I went to Cracker Barrel after I took my mom to her medical

procedure and they had no pinto beans

and no ranch dressing.

I know.

I thought I'm gonna have to revoke your Southern card.

Cracker Barrel.

No pinto beans, no ring or anything.

That's unacceptable.

Unacceptable.

It's an abomination.

It's an abomination.

It is.

But here's the thing, I did not starve.

I had my chicken from Chester Fried Chicken, and I just switched

over to the pancake platter.

There was plenty.

There was plenty.

I just needed to see that.

There was plenty.

Right.

That's what I mean when I say we have to switch our mindset over.

The other thing we have to do is we have to believe like Mary, I mean,

you'll laughed when I read it, right?

Mary out believed Jesus.

He said, it's not my time.

This is not my deal.

That don't, don't bother me with this.

And she said, P whatever.

Um, go do what He says.

Mary believed in Jesus.

Mary believed that Jesus.

Could transform the situation that they were in.

She believed it.

That's what we have to do too.

And then we also have to do the work like the servants.

It may look weird what we're being asked to do.

Go get ritual purification jars and fill them with water.

It may look weird, but when Jesus is in the mix, oh, the things that can happen.

So I'm gonna share also from that trip.

When I was coming home, I walked in to another convenience store.

I spent a lot of time in convenience stores since this trip.

Walked into another convenience store.

I'm getting gas.

I need to go to the restroom.

And as I walk in, the employee yells at me.

I have no $1 bills.

Okay?

I just have to go to the bathroom.

But thanks.

But while I was in there, I thought I have $1 bills.

I went out into my car and dug around and found ten one dollar bills, and I

came back in and said, you got a 10?

He said, you are saving me.

Because I took the time to respond to the need that was in front of me.

Just like every week our food pantry does, and I want us to remember the tremendous

pressures that are on our food pantry right now, because as our society starts

to behave more and more from a frame of scarcity, the pressure on families

around here gets tremendous, and our food pantry releases some of that pressure.

All right.

When I first got here on a good week, we gave out a hundred bags of food.

Now, on average it's between 300, 350 bags of food a week.

So we have to be responding to that.

We have to be the people of abundance.

We have to give to the food pantry.

They're having another garage sale in September.

If you've got stuff that you are gonna get rid of, hang on to it.

And when we start collecting that.

Bring it up so that we can continue to be the people of abundance.

We have too much, right?

So we are gonna give that stuff to the food pantry.

They're gonna sell it to people who want stuff, and then we're gonna continue to

provide an act as a people of abundance instead of a people of scarcity.

I was sharing with someone this week that we can't make water

into wine, and he said, yeah, we.

I said, really?

He goes, yeah, it just takes years, right?

You, you, you water some vines, they produce grapes.

We smash up the grapes, we give it time to ferment and it turns into

wine, and I'm like, ah, true enough.

We can, because somebody takes a look at ground and sees the possibility

of what it could be, right?

That is a mindset of abundance instead of scarcity.

It just takes time and focus and work.

And trust in the Lord, so my friends quit waiting on the miracle.

The overnight transformation is not going to happen.

Start living into the sign.

Start living into God's reign here and now.

And trust me when I say the miracles will come.

Thanks be to God.

Amen.

Matt Nelson: Thanks for listening to the Sermon podcast from First United

Methodist Church in downtown Bentonville.

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