Since we had a guest speaker this past Sunday, here is an old sermon from Pastor Jason’s files:

  Believe it or not, pastoral wisdom amassed through the years suggests that weddings are accidents waiting to happen.  Lest you think me wrong, I’d point your attention to a television show which capitalizes on this conventional wisdom.  They set up cameras at weddings waiting for things to go awry.  If the number of episodes they’ve filmed are any indication, it seems as though they’re rarely disappointed.  When Nat and I got married, this wisdom played itself out…that’s for sure.  I’ve got a couple of really wonderful nephews.  I asked the oldest to be our ring bearer; he was about 7 at the time.  Now this is a young man with, well, he’s got a lot of energy.  Knowing this, my sister made sure that our rings were really well tied to the pillow that he was going to carry.  That way, there was little chance he’d lose them before his big moment in the service.  But like I said, weddings are accidents waiting to happen.  Those rings my sister tied to the little decorative pillow, well, let’s just say she tied them really, really securely.  A double -knot actually, of the “I can’t undo this knot-no-matter-what-I-try” variety.  I wish y’all could’ve seen us there during the service as they tried to get those rings off the pillow for us.  I’m sure we looked like deer caught in headlights.  I remember feeling the warm flush of blood rush to my face in a sense of growing embarrassment as I looked out into the pews and realized we were at a standstill.  No matter how hard we tried, the rings weren’t coming off.  Thankfully, the pastor marrying us is a bit of a boy scout.  Turns out, he had a pocket knife underneath his robe.  The next thing I know he’s reaching under his robe and pulling out that knife.   He cut the rings free from their knots and the rest of the service went off without a hitch.  But we had our accident thereby proving the wisdom, sometimes weddings are just accidents waiting to happen.

  As we enter the scripture reading today, that conventional wisdom seems to carry all the way back in time, right there to Cana.  Jesus is there, along with the disciples, attending the wedding party.  Now keep in mind, back then, wedding celebrations weren’t half-hour long affairs followed by a brief reception.  Back in Jesus’ day, weddings were a full out, 7 day-long extravaganzas of hospitality. 

  Think about that for a moment.  For any of you who’ve planned weddings, just imagine if you had to plan for a week-long party.  What are the logistics you’d have to figure out?  Where is Aunt Betty going to sleep?  What do we serve for breakfast on day four or dinner on day seven?  Can you even imagine the work required to come up with that many seating charts?  I shudder to think about it….

  And if weddings are the places where accidents happen, then can you imagine the embarrassment the family at Cana must’ve been feeling when the wine runs out?  I’ll bet when they found out they’d bought too little vino, they were just hanging their heads in shame.  I imagine they just knew people would be talking about it behind their backs for the rest of their lives.  As the wineskins ran dry, the family at Cana would’ve known all their serious planning had to come to naught.   

  Now I don’t know if you’re anything like me, but sometimes celebrations can be the most stress-producing things of all.  When we’ve got guests coming over, I think both Nat and I are striving to make sure that everything goes perfectly.  So, we plan.  Who’ll clean up?  Who’ll get the groceries?  How much food should we fix?  We get serious about things and, well, let’s just say, it isn’t always the most enjoyable time.  And I don’t think it’s just us.  Think back on Christmas time.  My guess is even amidst the joy of it all, there was also the accompanying stress and anxiety. 

  The truth of the matter is sometimes we’re so worried about what’ll go wrong we miss out on the beauty of the moment.  We’re so busy figuring out contingency plans, so preoccupied with the “what ifs,” that we don’t just enjoy the day we’re in.  And sometimes I wonder if our entire society isn’t set up along the premise “life itself is an accident waiting to happen.”  So, we keep our guard up. 

  Individually and as a society, it seems as though we’re always waiting for the next shoe to drop.  And since the next calamity is probably right around the corner, there just isn’t any time to have fun. 

  We’d better get serious.  And I don’t mean to trivialize life.  There are things we’re gonna encounter that are challenging.  But if anything, American society has this uncanny ability to make everything, even the most fun and joyous times, dreadfully serious.  Just think about it, we live in an age where parents routinely get into fights while their children are playing sports.  Shows depicting the stress of weddings thrive in the ratings. 24 hour news networks profit from our obsessive worry, providing us with scenes of all the potential calamites out there waiting to happen.   Drinking in this culture, I think we all take ourselves a little too seriously.  We worry what’s out there.  We worry what other people think of us.  And so we adopt a grave and serious manner. 

  I ran across a thought by pastoral care thinker Edward Friedman recently I think makes sense of it all.  In the book, Friedman suggests “seriousness” is the tone of anxiety.  By that he means that when we get overly worried or stressed or anxious about something, then the demeanor we take on is one of “seriousness.”  I don’t think he’s far off the mark. 

  Think about it, when you’re stressed or worried or anxious about something, what’s your outward manner most like?  If you’re anything like me, you get “SERIOUS.”    

  You see, we’ve become a society preoccupied with seriousness in some ways because we’re looking at life believing that the next accident is just out there waiting.  As if the wine that’s flowing freely now is just a few scant moments from running out and we’ve got nothing in reserve.