Stewardship Consecration Sunday

From Scarcity to Abundance: The Wedding at Cana and God's Extravagant Grace
There's something universally appealing about a good party, isn't there? Even more so when it's a wedding celebration. The joy, the anticipation, the coming together of family and friends to witness love being celebrated—these moments capture something deeply human and profoundly spiritual.

The Gospel of John opens not with a sermon, but with a miracle at a wedding in Cana of Galilee. This choice is significant. While the other Gospels begin with teachings, John introduces us to Jesus through an act of transformation that reveals the very heart of God's character: abundance in the face of scarcity, joy replacing embarrassment, and grace overflowing beyond all expectation.

The Crisis of Running Out
Imagine the scene: a wedding celebration in first-century Palestine wasn't a brief afternoon affair. These festivities could last an entire week, with relatives both rich and poor gathering to honor the newlyweds. The bride and groom would wear crowns, and after the feast, they would process through the community at night, the longest route possible, with singing, dancing, and instruments waking everyone to share in their joy.

But then disaster strikes. The wine runs out.

In our modern context, this might seem like a minor inconvenience. Call for a delivery, make a quick run to the store, or switch to another beverage. But in that time and culture, this was a catastrophic social failure. Wine symbolized joy, harmony, fulfillment, and prosperity. To run out of wine at your wedding wasn't just embarrassing—it was humiliating. This shame would be remembered for generations, marking the family with a stigma that wouldn't fade.

This is where we find ourselves so often, isn't it? In moments where our resources—whether emotional, financial, spiritual, or relational—simply run out. We face the scarcity that the world constantly reminds us defines our reality: never enough time, never enough money, never enough energy, never enough joy.

The Miracle of Transformation
When Mary brings this crisis to Jesus, He responds in a way that defies all logic and expectation. He instructs the servants to fill six stone jars—each holding 25 to 30 gallons—with water. These weren't just any containers; they were purification jars used for ceremonial washing.

Do the math: six jars times thirty gallons equals 180 gallons of wine.

To put this in perspective, that's more wine than even the largest wedding party could possibly consume in a week. It's excessive. It's extravagant. It's completely unnecessary by any practical standard.

And it wasn't just any wine. It was the best wine—the kind typically served first, when guests' palates were freshest and most discerning. The host of the wedding was stunned. Custom dictated that you serve the good wine first, then bring out the cheaper varieties after people had already had plenty to drink. But Jesus reversed this order entirely, saving the best for last.

The Theology of Abundance
This miracle isn't primarily about wine or weddings. It's about how God operates in our world and in our lives. It's about the fundamental shift from a mindset of scarcity to one of abundance.

The world trains us to focus on what we lack. Marketing, social comparison, and our own anxieties conspire to keep us fixated on scarcity. We're told that resources are limited, that we must compete, hoard, and protect what little we have.

But God's economy operates differently. God's grace isn't measured out in careful portions. It overflows. It exceeds. It transforms water into the finest wine in quantities that boggle the mind.

Consider the symbolism: Jesus takes the ordinary (water) and transforms it into something extraordinary (wine). He takes what is used for religious obligation (purification rituals) and transforms it into the substance of celebration and joy. He takes a moment of shame and humiliation and turns it into a testimony of abundance that people would remember for entirely different reasons.

The Cost of Safety
There's a story of a young missionary named Ann who was preparing to travel to China. Her worried mother gave her a twenty-dollar gold piece and asked her to cable just one word when she arrived safely: "safe."

When Ann reached China, she didn't send the word her mother expected. Instead, she cabled: "excited."

This small act of defiance captures something essential about the life of faith. God doesn't call us primarily to safety, maintenance, and caution. God calls us to excitement, mission, and abundance. The shift from "safe" to "excited" represents the transformation from a maintenance mindset to a mission mindset.

How often do we organize our lives around safety and scarcity rather than abundance and adventure? We protect what we have, minimize risk, and carefully guard our resources. But in doing so, we may miss the very joy God intends for us to experience.

The Paradox of Giving
Consider this thought experiment: What if you suddenly received one hundred million dollars? The initial fantasy is appealing—no more financial worries, the ability to do whatever you want, complete freedom.

But look deeper. Such a windfall could actually rob you of something precious: the joy of giving, the satisfaction of responding to God's call with your resources, the pleasure of participating in something larger than yourself.

When we organize our lives around what we can give rather than what we can keep, something shifts. When we make our commitment to generosity the foundation of our financial planning rather than an afterthought, we discover a different kind of abundance—one that isn't measured in dollars but in meaning, purpose, and joy.

This isn't about legalism or obligation. It's about recognizing that everything we have is already a gift. We're not owners but stewards, not possessors but trustees. And in that recognition comes freedom.

An Invitation to the Wedding
The wedding at Cana is ultimately an invitation—not just to a historical event, but to a way of living. It's an invitation to trust that God's grace is sufficient, that God's resources are abundant, and that scarcity is not the final word over our lives.

When you respond to this invitation, come prepared. Come ready to celebrate. Come expecting not merely enough, but more than enough. Come anticipating not just adequacy, but excellence—the best wine saved for last.

The jars of purification became vessels of celebration. The moment of crisis became an opportunity for miracle. The threat of shame became a testimony of grace.

What in your life feels like it's running out? Where do you see only scarcity? Those are precisely the places where God's transforming abundance wants to flow—not in careful measures, but in 180-gallon quantities of the very best.

The invitation stands. The celebration continues. Will you come to the wedding?