19th January 2026

19th January 2026


Pray (ACts)


Read (John 2:1-11 focus v1-3)


Message (Alan Burke) 


There are two events that I get to see my extended family these days and it’s probably the same for you, weddings and funerals. More often than not though it is at the latter, it’s at funerals which you might get a wee sandwich at and you can’t beat the ones with a slab of boiled ham or a wee prawn sandwich, when I was in Larne there were even funerals where you got a bowl of soup along with the nuggets, sausage rolls, goujons, vol-au-vents. One of the few things that should be exported from Larne is the type of feeds you get at funerals. At weddings you get a good feed too, of course it’s different. It’s a big fancy meal and it can be hit or miss, some time times it’s amazing and other times you’d prefer the ‘tea’ at the funeral. I wonder why we call it a ‘funeral tea’ though when it’s not just a cuppa tea when you get a whole feed. 


I’ll get to the point here, Jesus is at a wedding. If it was an Irish wedding you’d say he was there with his ma and his mates but he is with his mother who while she isn’t mentioned we know as Mary and his disciples which likely included the five mentioned in 1:35–51: Andrew, Simon Peter, Philip, Nathanael, as well as John the author of this gospel 1:35. Today people spend a clean fortune on weddings but in comparison in Jesus day weddings today are small affairs. Weddings in 1st Century Palestine were big events, community events where everyone would have been invited. Family and friends invited some traveling from a distance and the whole community would have come together for a celebration that would have lasted a whole week. It was a week filled with feasting and celebration, just imagine the bill after such a week.


We are told that Jesus mother comes to Jesus and tells him “They have no more wine.”The wine had ran out and this was a crucial part of the marriage celebration. The fact that Jesus was there, that he would have attended such an event should speak volumes to us. The religious leaders at the time accused Jesus of being a glutton and a drunkard, or a glutton and a winebibber as the KJV put’s it (Matt 11:19). In this we are confronted with how, while we are called to self denial, as Jesus said; whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.” (Matt 16:24). Taking up our cross and following Jesus doesn’t mean that we have to cut ourselves off from the world and have three square meals of gruel and nothing else. No, God has blessed us in abundance in this life, in his common grace to all people, and there is a place for enjoyment, feasting, celebration. God gives us these things even though we deserve nothing but his wrath, he blesses all, the just and the unjust by his common grace (see Matt 5:45). The LORD our God is good to us in his common grace and his special grace in how he has brought salvation to us through Jesus Christ.


Pray (acTS)


Sing


WSC
Q75 What is forbidden in the eighth commandment?
A. The eighth commandment forbiddeth whatsoever doth, or may, unjustly hinder our own, or our neighbor’s, wealth, or outward estate.
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