Plans Shot to Pieces

 Preached at Ascension Lutheran Church in Towson, Maryland, January 16, 2022,

There are people who have no problem going with the flow. Whenever life throws them for a loop, they take it in stride and calmly make their way through the chaos. I suspect those are the ones who are navigating these pandemic years with ease.

I wouldn’t know anything about that because I’m not one of them. I am a planner to the Nth degree, always over preparing for what’s next. I research everything: the weather, the market, health stats, reviews of products before I make a purchase. I like to know what to expect, and I absolutely hate surprises.

Living through the pandemic leaves me feeling like someone is using my inner core as a punching bag. I continue to plan, plan, plan. I just can’t stop. It’s who I am.

But I’m constantly being forced to revise my plans, going to plan B, and then plan C, and D, and sometimes all the way to Z. Are there any other planners out there? Are you as exhausted as I am these days?

Jesus is a planner. He has planned how he will one day present himself to the world when he begins his ministry. He has no intention of stumbling awkwardly into public life.

For the past 30 years, he’s lived a low-profile existence. And here he is, doing what ordinary people do. He goes to a wedding, where he’s just another guest.

Well, as poor planning would have it, the celebration goes on and on and the wedding hosts run out of wine. This is sure to cause them no end of embarrassment.

When his mother Mary learns of it, she knows that Jesus can fix it. So, she goes to him and explains the situation. And how does her son respond? With the attitude of “poor planning on your part does not constitute a crisis on my part”, he says, “What do I care? It’s not my problem.”

And then, after telling his mother to get off his back, like many mothers are prone to do—she completely ignores him. The next thing we know, she’s telling the servants to do whatever Jesus says to do.

Now, Jesus could raise a hissy fit. He could chide his mother for ignoring his wishes. He could insist that this has nothing to do with him and storm off. But he doesn’t. He acquiesces, perhaps not so much to help the host save face but to help his mother save face. Although he may be a man with a plan, he recognizes when it’s time to go with the flow.

There are some huge jars standing there and Jesus instructs the servants to fill them all the way up to the tippy-top with water. And then, after they do that, he tells them to dip a cup into a jar and take it to the guy who’s in charge of the reception.

Well, the guy in charge is a little miffed because the host hasn’t done this the way he’s supposed to. You see, first you’re supposed to serve the best wine and then, after everyone is a little drunk and their taste buds become numb, then you bring out the cheap stuff because nobody will know the difference. But this host doesn’t follow the plan; he does just the opposite. Instead of serving the best stuff first, the best stuff comes at the very end of the party.

John tells us in his gospel that this is the first of Jesus’ signs. This is where it all begins. John doesn’t call it a miracle. He never uses that word. Instead, he calls it a sign. It’s the first of seven signs that we read about in John’s gospel. Each reveals something to us about who God is.

From this sign, what do we learn about God? That God is about abundance. God gives us more than we can ever expect, more than we can ever imagine, certainly more than we can ever deserve. And God is full of surprises.

There’s an important detail in this story that we miss if we remain solely focused on Jesus, and that’s the presence of his mother. In John’s gospel, he never calls her by name. She is only referred to as the mother of Jesus. And she only appears twice. She is here at the wedding at Cana, and then we don’t see her again until much later, when she reappears at the foot of the cross. She brackets her son’s life. She is present at the beginning of his ministry and then she reappears at the end.

Don’t you wonder what she might know about Jesus that would lead her to believe he can do something to help a host save face when the wine gives out at a wedding? Has she seen him do things like this before? When Jesus insists that it isn’t his time yet, has she heard this too many times before? Is she like most parents are when they have a 30 year old son still living at home? Is she just ready for him to get on with it?

If Jesus has big plans for how he will begin his public life, his mother shoots those plans to pieces. No matter that he objects. No matter that he insists the timing is all wrong. His mother outs him. So, what can he do? It’s really quite surprising how easily he gives in. He surrenders his preplanned strategy and embraces a new possibility. He prefers plan A, but when unexpected circumstances push him there, he moves on to plan B.

It’s been my experience that most often, God reveals Godself to us when our carefully laid plans are shot to pieces. When the things we thought were under our control start to unravel and in the midst of it all, God is revealed. Have you noticed that, too?

The destruction of our carefully constructed plans can leave us in despair, or they can bring us to transformative God moments.

As exhausted as those of us who are planners may be right now, and as frustrating as it is to have our carefully laid plans shot to pieces again and again, God is speaking to us in the uncertainty of our lives. This is the time to confess that we are not in control and open ourselves to what God is doing in our lives. If we don’t do that now, when will we?