Joy at the Core
with Rev. Barbara Gorsky
January 12, 2025
If joy is prayer, strength, and love, it seems joy must be not just be at the core of weddings and other social events, but joy must be at the core of our whole lives. How are you doing with having joy in your life?
The Scripture
Psalm 36:5-10
Your love, Lord, reaches to the heavens,
your faithfulness to the skies.
6 Your righteousness is like the highest mountains,
your justice like the great deep.
You, Lord, preserve both people and animals.
7 How priceless is your unfailing love, O God!
People take refuge in the shadow of your wings.
8 They feast on the abundance of your house;
you give them drink from your river of delights.
9 For with you is the fountain of life;
in your light we see light.
10 Continue your love to those who know you,
your righteousness to the upright in heart.
John 2:1-11
2 On the third day there was a wedding in Cana of Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there. 2 Jesus and his disciples had also been invited to the wedding. 3 When the wine gave out, the mother of Jesus said to him, “They have no wine.” 4 And Jesus said to her, “Woman, what concern is that to me and to you? My hour has not yet come.” 5 His mother said to the servants, “Do whatever he tells you.” 6 Now standing there were six stone water jars for the Jewish rites of purification, each holding twenty or thirty gallons. 7 Jesus said to them, “Fill the jars with water.” And they filled them up to the brim. 8 He said to them, “Now draw some out, and take it to the person in charge of the banquet.” So they took it. 9 When the person in charge tasted the water that had become wine and did not know where it came from (though the servants who had drawn the water knew), that person called the bridegroom 10 and said to him, “Everyone serves the good wine first and then the inferior wine after the guests have become drunk. But you have kept the good wine until now.” 11 Jesus did this, the first of his signs, in Cana of Galilee and revealed his glory, and his disciples believed in him.
Read the Full Text
This wedding in Cana, the witness of Jesus’ first miracle, water turning into wine; all speaks to me of joy, joy at the core. Joy in celebrating love, joy in gathering together with friends, joy in experiencing pure happiness. Mother Teresa in her own way of expressing deep spiritual truths said this about joy,
“Joy is prayer; joy is strength; joy is love; joy is a net of love by which you can catch souls.” Weddings are truly like nets of love that draw people together leaving a lasting impression on the hearts of all involved! If joy is prayer, strength, and love, it seems joy must be not just be at the core of weddings and other social events, but joy must be at the core of our whole lives. How are you doing with having joy in your life? I’ve been thinking about all the things that give us joy and the things that can rob us of joy.
Finish reading
Many life circumstances can creep in leaving joy far behind, even sometimes in the dark. I know this is true in my own life, I have come to realize that joy has often been absent. Or maybe more truthfully, I didn’t think I deserved to experience joy. Does having joy diminish the seriousness of life or that one is not attentive to the ways others suffer? I used that was true. For sure I was a serious child growing up and I attribute this to experiencing the illness of my father for several years when I was quite young and then his death when I was 16. It was a dark time for me. And even at an earlier age, I experienced the death of three of my beloved grandparents. I don’t think I even knew what it meant to be joyful or if I was allowed to be joyful. Joy was hard to find in my family. This happens to us, events in life can sometime put a shroud over joy and it remains hidden from view and maybe not even welcomed or valued.
This is the underlying situation that is brewing at this wedding in Cana. Joy is at risk of being lost. Wedding celebrations in the day of Jesus were a lot different that weddings today. They lasted 7 days and people would come and go throughout the week. Imagine how much food and drink would need to be prepared ahead of time. How could one even anticipate how many people would come? This atmosphere of people coming and going throughout the week fits their lifestyle. People traveled from miles around to come to a wedding. This was true for Jesus, his disciples and his mother Mary, they traveled several miles to get to this wedding. Weddings were really community affairs where many, many people were invited. It was a rare opportunity to experience fun and happiness and at the core joy!
Scripture is scarce on details here, but Mary, the mother of Jesus must have had an intimate connection to the host. She was attuned to the inner goings on and she knew something was not going right. Maybe people were starting to talk, you know what it is like when something is going wrong, you might not know exactly what is happening, but you can feel it. There is a growing concern as the hosts are running out of wine and people are still arriving to the festivities. This would become a big embarrassment to the hosts…shame creeping in as the rumors start spreading.
Mary was acutely aware of all the emotions connected to this dilemma. She understood in a personal way about rumors, about embarrassment and shame. She lived through these joy robbing emotions. Out of her concern for the hosts and her lived understanding, she asks Jesus to turn the water into wine. And Jesus did what she asks. But not only did Jesus turn the water into wine, the wine that came from the water was good wine, expensive wine, wine that would be served at the very beginning for the special people who came first. Not only was the wine good, it was bountiful…it was extravagant! Scripture is specific here in the description of the wine produced. It says six stone water jars were turned into wine. Water jars were huge, these six jars together average 150 gallons of wine or approx. 750 bottles of wine. Jesus went above and beyond what would have been expected. At the end, the bridegroom was commended, the host’s shame and embarrassment was avoided and joy was restored. Finally, Jesus’ disciples believed in him! There is much for us to learn from this very first miracle. Jesus will perform many more miracles throughout his ministry, in total 37 miracles and they cover healings, feedings, even a resurrection, remember (Lazarus).
But he begins with a wedding celebration and wine! There is so much to ponder about this passage and its implications for our own lives. What if an important message is that we start with joy, that we look for moments of joy and embrace joy whenever we have a chance…Jesus did, he attended a wedding, provided abundant wine and celebrated love. He will face enough sorrow in his ministry ahead, he will face enough troubled times. And we will too and many of us have already. It is time for joy to enter into our lives.
Since I have been here with all of you, I have started to embrace joy more and more. Sometimes you might just find me dancing in my office, or having an afternoon coffee with Laura, or laughing over something silly. Joy is going to be my companion more and more. I’m starting to believe that embracing joy is connected to my “star word” for this year. My word is “wholeness.” I need joy to make me whole that is for sure. Jesus is giving us permission to let joy fill our hearts, he is giving us permission to be joyful people. If we let joy be first in our life of faith, it can carry us through those challenging times that we must all face. Joy is prayer; joy is strength; joy is love; joy is a net of love by which you can catch souls. Joy must be at the core of our whole lives! Amen