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Talk about hang-ups! All you have to do is read this Gospel narrative that was read today, the narrative of the first miracle that Jesus performed, the changing of the water into wine, and you immediately produce two groups that have hang-ups. The first is, of course, made up of pietistic teetotalers. We're confronted by the fact - the undeniable fact - that Jesus provided alcoholic beverage for a party where the supply was running low.

Since most of these teetotalers are also biblical fundamentalists and believe that you must accept the whole Bible verbatim, you see the kind of real hang-up that they have, and the only way out seems to be to prove that Jesus provided grape juice instead of wine. But even their own biblical scholars, their own fundamentalist scholars, know that this is historical and sociological and exegetical and biblical nonsense. It was wine - and every place it refers in the Bible to it, it was wine.

Well, they have the obvious hang-up, then, that they are trying to be, or apparently are, proving that they are holier than Jesus. They are saying, "Lips that touch wine shall never touch mine," and all of the time, Jesus is providing more wine.

Well, the difficulty is, and the reason for the hang-up is, that these people can't understand the difference between those who drink wine and drunkards. St. Thomas Aquinas could. He said that "the heart of all sin is that men use what they ought to enjoy and enjoy what they ought to use."

Our eminent Lutheran theologian, Dr. Joseph Sittler, commenting on Aquinas' statement, said, "I adduce a small sample: wine is to be enjoyed; it is not to be used. Wine is as old as human history. It is the symbol of nature in all of its smiling beneficence. It is in all places and all times virtually used on all occasions of celebration. It indicates the gladness of heart. It is to be enjoyed. It is not to be used to evoke some illusion of magnificence or to stiffen some timidity into fleeting courage or confidence. That is using wine. Where it is enjoyed, it adds grace to truth. Where it is used, it evokes an anesthetized lie."

And so, you see that these abstainers, total abstainers, who are hung up on this need not be, if they will only understand that the people at the marriage at Cana were not using the wine, they were enjoying it. It makes a world of difference.

Then there is the other group that is hung up on the supernatural elements in the story. The account states flatly, of course, that this was the first of the miracles that Jesus performed. Oriented as he is in scientism, the mind of contemporary man revolts at the thought that God is making some unusual intervention into a lawful and an orderly universe. This they can't see as a possibility. They're perfectly willing to accept Jesus as a great prophet, as a great moral teacher, as a great leader in social reform, or as one of the great human beings of history. Some, indeed, are even willing to admit that he is the Christ, the Son of God.

But where their minds revolt is at the point where they must accept the fact that apparently Jesus was using superhuman means to perform a supernatural feat. It's strangely paradoxical that many of these people would find no difficulty in referring to some new advancement of man as a man-made miracle, as a miracle of man's creative imagination, or as a miracle wrought by man's curious, inquiring intellect. They would use that statement constantly. The same people, for instance, would say that the flight of Apollo 8 was a man-produced miracle. And yet, strangely, the men who rode Apollo 8 thought that they were under the care and guidance of Almighty God.

What's the hang-up? Well, the problem lies in the fact that these troubled people are looking for the miracle in the wrong place. The miracle was not changing water into wine. Any scientist can see that happen every year, as the water of the spring rains is changed into the wine grapes of the fall. The only material change that has taken place is in the time schedule, if you want to call that a miracle. But those of us who have had to adjust our thinking in time - for instance, in travel time from twenty-five miles an hour to 25,000 miles an hour - there shouldn't be any difficulty in understanding that time schedules are fairly easy to change.

To point out the mistake, we must point out the fact that Jesus never performed a miracle, unless it was involved with the response of other people to him. The miracle was not what happened to the water. It was not what happened to the loaves and fishes. It was not what happened to blind eyes, or leprous limbs, or the waves of the sea. The miracle was what happened to the people who were involved in the incident. Christ himself, again and again, points out the fact that it was the faith and unquestioning obedience of the people involved that produced the miracle.

In the play, The Lark, Joan of Arc is being tried by the hierarchy of the Roman Church. At one place in the trial she says, "I say to you that true miracles are not performed by gypsies in the village square - tricks! True miracles are created by men when they use the intelligence and the courage that God gives them." And the prosecutor for the hierarchy says: "Do you mean to tell us - US! - that the miracle of God on earth is man, man who is naught but evil and sinful and impotent against his own wickedness?" "Ah," says Joan, "but man is also splendor, and courage, and intelligence, and strength in his most desperate moments. I know man, because I have seen him. Man is the miracle."

Is he? I wonder.

Dr. Horace Bushnell, who was one of the most influential preachers and statesmen of the 19th Century, had a profound influence on the life and culture of New England in that century. One of his most famous sermons was entitled "Every Man's Life A Plan Of God." In it he says, "God has a definite life plan for every human person, a goal toward which he is girding him, visibly or invisibly, a direct action, a specific exact thing which it will be the glory and the significance of his life to accomplish."

Wouldn't it change the whole outlook that we have on life, if we could believe that? And yet, there are many people who do not believe. They are good souls, sensitive, but they look at the things in the world about them and say, "How can you square these with that kind of an idea - the birth of deformed children, the inexpressible horrors of war, the tragic injustices that surround us, the blind suffering that often has us in its grips? Either God is not in control, or, if he is, then he is certainly not the kind of God that Jesus taught us that he is."

Must we conclude, then, that there is no God, or, if there is, he has no love or real concern for the individual human being? Notice what happens if we do this. If we do not accept what Jesus taught us of God, then we must say that, basically, we are orphans in the universe. Blind fate put us here, and it is by blind and often cruel fate that we exist. But there is overwhelming evidence in the universe to show that this isn't the case. Man didn't create himself. There is about all things on earth a wonderful interdependence. They all work together with magnificent precision. Is it possible that in all of this perfect plan, man is the only unplanned thing? The whole intelligence of creation, you see, argues against it.

What did our Lord teach us about God? That we should look on him as a Father, as an all-wise parent. The father does not control everything about the inheritance or environment of his child. He doesn't make all the choices. He doesn't try to live life for the child; and yet, he, if he's a real father, has a plan, a great objective, a purpose for that child's life, and he loves every one of his children. And so God, as Sovereign Creator, has chosen to limit himself in our behalf. We are not slaves. We are not marionettes. We are not puppets dancing on a string. We are responsible human beings. And so his plan is expressed for us in his Word and in his will; and we must remember that deformed children, suffering, evil, war - all of those things - are against the will and the Word of God.

All right, then, take a look at the marriage feast of Cana. Such feasts sometimes went on for two or three days in that place and at that time. At this particular feast, a very embarrassing social situation had occurred. They were running out of wine. Here's a young couple who are threatened with social disgrace. Here's the tragedy of a spoiled party. Here's a couple who will begin their marriage under a cloud. So the mother of Christ, Mary (probably not understanding why she did it), who was apparently a relative or a close friend of the family, went to Jesus, was somehow compelled to go to him and say, "They have no wine."

It records his reply in Scriptures as we have translated: "Woman, what have you to do with me? My hour is not yet come." Well, that's a horrible translation. If this is what Jesus said, then Mary's response makes no sense. What he actually said was a colloquial expression. It went something like this: "Never mind. It's my affair. Don't worry. Be patient. I'll see to it." That's what he was really saying.

And so Mary turns to the servants - now begins the miracle - she turns to the servants and says, "Whatever he tells you, do it." Whatever he tells you, do it! And so he turns to the servants. Who were they? Not servants at all. They weren't slaves. They were friends of the family who'd been asked to assist in the serving of the feast, the way we invite our friends to come and help us with a wedding reception. What happened? Jesus said to these people who had the choice to obey or not to obey - they were free, responsible, human beings - he said, "Fill up the water jars with water."

Well, here they were standing there, the largest vessels around, six of them, an accumulated capacity of some 120 or 180 gallons. Well, this was a tough job. It was a foolish thing to do. And yet, with unquestioned obedience in their response to Christ, these friends filled up the jars.

Then Jesus says, "Take and bear them to the chairman of the feast, to the head guest of the feast, to taste the wine." And they bore it! They took it! No questions. They didn't stop and say, "Well, now, what's going on here? This is ridiculous. We'll make fools out of ourselves." He said, "Fill up the jars." They filled them. He said, "Bear them," and they bore them. And the result was a miracle! The feast was saved. The young couple was provided with a wonderful gift - wine for months to come.

So you see, there was a plan of God. People obeyed with unquestioning obedience and wisdom. And the result was this blessing, this manifested glory of God. So it's God's plan for us and his providence for us. His Word and his law are not restrictions on us. They don't cut down the liberty, the freedom that we have in life. They are the plan of a loving Father that seeks the best for us.

There was a story in a magazine some time ago about a little lad who was crippled at the age of five by a disease. His parents wondered how they would allow him to live a fruitful life, and his mother said that they determined that he should give what he had to the world, rather than take what was offered him. So they forced him, they really punished him when he refused to work or take part in athletics. There were several operations that he didn't want to go through, but he went through them. All the while, they were forcing him to give to the world. Finally, when the article was written, he was studying to be an orthopedic surgeon. He was taught to give. This was the plan of the parents, of loving parents, who sought the best for their children. The father couldn't prevent the illness. He couldn't prevent the crippling. But he could provide a plan to overcome it, to show a way to serve, to point out the way of courage, to show the way of love and sacrifice, to show the way of joy and accomplishment in life.

As the great Helen Keller once said: "I like to think that, through my limitations, God is working out some great purpose. My troubles have also been great adventures, and they have taught me understanding, and friendship, and how to be able to serve the world."

So this is what our Lord does for us. He teaches us what his plan is for us in his Word, and all we have to do is obey with faith and unquestioning obedience.

Really, do you have a plan for your life? "Whatever he tells you, do it." You could be one of his miracles, because, you see, man and his response to Christ is the miracle upon earth.