Wedding Sermon / Cory and Emily Nixon / John 2:1–11 - Pastor Ted Giese / Mount Olive Lutheran Church - June 16th 2023

Wedding Sermon / Cory Dunn and Emily Nixon / Mount Olive Lutheran Church / Pr. Ted A. Giese / Saturday June 16th 2023: Season of Pentecost / John 2:1–11 "Blessings upon Blessings"

On the third day there was a wedding at Cana in Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there. Jesus also was invited to the wedding with His disciples. When the wine ran out, the mother of Jesus said to Him, “They have no wine.” And Jesus said to her, “Woman, what does this have to do with Me? My hour has not yet come.” His mother said to the servants, “Do whatever He tells you.”

Now there were six stone water jars there for the Jewish rites of purification, each holding twenty or thirty gallons. Jesus said to the servants, “Fill the jars with water.” And they filled them up to the brim. And He said to them, “Now draw some out and take it to the master of the feast.” So they took it. When the master 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 master of the feast called the bridegroom and said to Him, “Everyone serves the good wine first, and when people 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.

Let us pray: May the words of my mouth and the meditations of all our hearts be acceptable in Your sight O Lord. Amen.

Grace peace and mercy to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Good Christian Friends, Cory and Emily at the very beginning of the Gospel of John we hear how, ‘in the beginning was the Word [that’s Jesus], and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through [this Jesus], and without Him was not any thing made that was made.”[1] So when Jesus arrived at the wedding in Cana the ordinary wine that they had there was already wine that Jesus had made: He’d caused all the conditions by which wine was even possible, for instance no grapes no possibility of wine at all. From the beginning He’d made the laws of fermentation and designed those grapes, likewise He’d created the soil and the sun with its sunshine to make them grow and the very water to hydrate them, His hand was in the making of all of it right from nothing, and His hand was in sustaining it day by day from the first day to the day of that wedding in Cana. Every cup of wine that the bride and the groom at Cana drank with their guests was already blessed by Jesus because without Jesus there would have been no wine to run out of in the first place. Often with our Gospel reading about Jesus’ miraculous turning of the water into extraordinarily good wine it’s easy to lose sight of the blessings they were already all enjoying from the hand of God. What they experienced that day was miraculous blessings upon blessings from the hand of Jesus. What you are experiencing today are blessings upon miraculous blessings from this same Jesus.   

Cory and Emily the two of you have been blessed, blessed with finding each other in this mixed up world and blessed with hearts that have grown year by year in compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, patience and love toward each other, you’ve learned how to bear with each other and forgive each other as the Lord daily forgives you. Now you both know you are not perfect at all of this and you know in all of these things there is always room to continue to grow through your life together, today marks the blessed start of this new growth as husband and wife, you join with all of us who have committed ourselves to each other in Christian marriage who likewise know this to be true as we all daily need to keep on growing in compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, patience and love toward each other, learning daily the art of how to bear with each other and how to forgive each other. Along with all of this you’ve also been blessed with Jacob, Zachary and Ashlynn and you will continue to be blessed, and challenged, by God as mother and father of these your children. Much of our growth as Christians in life revolves around truly seeing the blessings we have been blessed with by God, acknowledging those blessings for what they are, becoming more and more thankful in gratitude for them towards God while gaining the ability to see them better and better day by day.

This day the same Lord Jesus who both provided the ordinary wine for the wedding in Cana as the One through whom all things were made, and who miraculously again provided wine for them when they needed more after the first wine was enjoyed to the last drop, blesses your union today as you become husband and wife. Today remember all the blessings you have received from Him in the past and today look forward to all the blessings He has in store for you, as a family, in the future. Remember what the master of the wedding feast in Cana says to the bridegroom after Jesus quietly turns the water into wine, “Everyone serves the good wine first, and when people have drunk freely, then the poor wine. But you have kept the good wine until now.” Cory and Emily with grateful hearts, filled to the brim with thanksgiving, receive today the good blessing of the Lord: The same Lord who makes the ordinary also makes the extraordinary, may your life together in Christ as husband and wife, as father and mother, increase with blessings upon blessings. Amen.    

Let us pray:

Lord have mercy on us, Christ have mercy on us, Lord have mercy on us, “take our minds and think through them, take our lips and speak through them, take our hearts and set them on fire; for the sake of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, Amen.

[1] John 1:1–3

Photo Credits: main photo provided by Pr. Ted Giese; grapes on the vine from pexels; detail of people holding glasses with red wine from pexels.