January 11,026

 Indianola Presbyterian Church, Columbus

      ““La Fête””

       by Rev. Trip Porch

January 11, 2026                                                                                                                                  Based on  2:1-11

Every year around this time… I get a bit nostalgic and sentimental
And I don’t think it’s something that any of you folks who grew up in Ohio will understand necessarily. Only those of us who grew up on the gulf coast… because every year around this time… I start to really miss Mardi Gras, and Mardi Gras as a celebration really didn’t get too far out of the gulf coast…
Every year growing up, Mardi Gras arrived like a defiant shout against winter. There were parades with floats rolling slowly down the street, blasting music and throwing Moon Pies and beads into the crowd. You wore as many beads as you could pile onto your neck, bright plastic colors stacked higher and kids would walk around as though they were a status symbol… the more you had the better.
There were parties everywhere, loud music, dancing, costumes, purple and green and gold everywhere you looked, feather boas and glitter. It was a celebration that was over the top in the best possible ways. Excessive. Joyful. Unapologetically fun.
And what I did not fully understand as a kid, but can appreciate now, is that all of it was rooted in church tradition.
Mardi Gras does not just happen out of nowhere. The season begins right after Epiphany. That is why King Cakes show up in Mardi Gras. It builds slowly, week by week, toward a joyful crescendo on Mardi Gras itself, literally a Fat Tuesday. A final feast day where you eat all the rich, sugary, indulgent foods your heart desires before Lent begins the very next day on Ash Wednesday. The last blow out bash before the fasting, before the restraint, Before the repentance.
It was a ritualized feast to saying, before we practice somber seriousness, we practice joy. Before we deny ourselves, we celebrate together. Before the long road of Lent, we remember that life is meant to be savored and enjoyed.
And honestly, it was the perfect antidote to winter. When everything felt cold and gray and heavy, Mardi Gras insisted on color. When the days were short and dark, it insisted on lively music and vibrant lights. When the world felt dull, it said joy is still allowed here.
I think about all of that when I read today’s Gospel. Because Jesus’ first miracle has far more in common with Mardi Gras than the somber piety of Lent.
John tells us that Jesus’ public ministry begins not with a sermon, not with a healing, not with a confrontation with power, but with a wedding reception. A party. A communal celebration that has an issue… it is on the brink of falling apart because the wine has run out.
In Jesus’ world, weddings were not brief, elegant affairs. They lasted for days. Food, music, dancing, laughter, shared tables, shared life. Running out of wine was more than a small inconvenience. It was a social disaster. It meant embarrassment. It meant shame. It meant the quiet ending of joy.
And Mary notices.
She does not panic. She does not lecture. She simply names what is happening and brings it to Jesus. You can almost picture it like a tv sitcom… Mary comes up to Jesus in the corner of the party and pulls him aside… Jesus… “They have no more wine.”
Jesus hesitates. “My time has not yet come.” In other words, this does not seem urgent enough. This does not feel important enough. There are bigger more important things I’m focused on don.
And yet, somehow, this becomes the moment where everything begins.
Mary… perhaps knowing she planted a seed in her son that would result in action turns to the servants and says: “Do whatever he tells you.”
Jesus points to six massive stone jars, each could hold 20-30 gallons. These are religious objects. They are used for their faith’s purification rituals. Maybe they represent seriousness, discipline, and getting things right. They hold water meant for washing, not for celebrating.
And Jesus tells them to fill those jars with water to the brim.
Then he turns ritual water into wine… 180 Gallons of not just wine, but as the head waiter or maybe the sommelier comments… excellent wine.
The finest wine.
It’s like Jesus found the secret cellar stacked with beautiful aged grand magnums of the best vintage wine, and decided to let the party have at…
It’s a grand profound image that is meant to point to what God is doing in Jesus…
It’s about over the top Abundance for the world, it’s about bringing people to a place of joy.
There’s this line in the chapter before this that I think frames what the writer of John things Jesus is all about… it says: From Christ’s fullness we have all received, Grace upon Grace…
not just Grace which is plenty on its own… but grace upon grace!
Back to the story… The headwaiter is baffled. “This is backwards,” he says. “Everyone serves the good wine first. But You saved the best for last.”
And with that, the party continues.
This is Jesus’ first sign.
Not a teaching about morality. Or a lecture on judgement and sin.
But a miracle about abundance.
About joy.
About refusing to let celebration end in shame.
And maybe that tells us something essential about God. Maybe joy is not a side effect of faith, but one of its central practices. Maybe faith is not meant to make us grim, but generous. Maybe it is meant to help us loosen our grip, stop taking ourselves so seriously, and trust that life is meant to be shared.
So let me ask a question that moves this story from ancient Galilee to right here.
What does a place that fosters joy feel like?
Not a place that ignores suffering, but a place that refuses to let suffering have the last word. A place where generosity is practiced lightly and often. A place where people laugh easily, give freely, and do not hoard joy as though it might run out.
What would it look like for a church to be known for that?
I think about an organization our church has supported in small but meaningful ways. Some of you have mugs or stickers from them with bold theological statements like “God loves the people we don’t” or “Jesus was a liberator of the oppressed, not a mascot for the rich.” They are a Christian organization based in Puerto Rico that gives 100 percent of its profits to charity, helping rebuild homes and feed people. It was founded by a justice-oriented pastor who named the organization something simple and disarming.
He called it The Happy Givers.
Not the righteous givers.
Not the reluctant givers.
Not the burdened givers.
The Happy Givers.
The name was intentional. A reimagining of what Christians could be known for. People who give not out of guilt, but out of joy. People who believe generosity is not some stoic duty we’re forced to practice, but a source of delight. People who understand that giving is not about losing something, but about participating in life together.
Their founders say they want to live up to their name.
And I cannot stop thinking about that phrase.
What would it look like if we wanted to live up to that name?
What would Indianola Presbyterian look like if were known in Columbus as the happy givers?
A church where generosity feels joyful, not anxious.
A church where justice work is rooted in hope, not exhaustion.
A church where people are welcomed not into seriousness, but into shared life.
A church where faith feels less like scarcity management and more like abundant trust.
I imagine a place where people say, that the church helped me breathe again.
That church reminded me joy was still possible. 
That church noticed when the wine was running low and quietly helped refill it.
Friends, maybe faith is not meant to make us grim. Maybe it is meant to make us joy filled and generous. Maybe it is meant to help us notice when the wine is running low in the lives around us.
When laughter fades.
When hope thins.
When people are tired, ashamed, overwhelmed, or close to giving up.
And maybe our calling is not always to fix everything, but sometimes simply to help the party keep going. To refill joy. To extend grace. To create spaces where people can breathe, laugh, dance, and feel alive again.
This a story that tells us the kingdom of heaven’s most core goal is to bring people to a place of joy. This is a story that tells us that God shows up at parties. That God believes joy is worth saving. That God wants to give Grace upon grace to everyone in this world.
Maybe that is the invitation of this story. Not just to believe in miracles, but to embody one. To be the kind of community that keeps the celebration going. To live as though abundance is real. To trust joy enough to give it away.
Which raises a question for us. What if we have made faith far more serious than Jesus ever intended? What if we have treated it as only a matter of life and death, when Jesus also treats it as a matter of joy and shared life?
Somewhere along the way, many of us learned a version of faith that was anxious and heavy. A faith that taught restraint before delight. A faith that treated celebration with suspicion.
But here, at the very beginning, Jesus reveals a different kind of holiness. A holiness that fills cups instead of emptying them. A holiness that multiplies joy rather than rationing it. A holiness that notices when people are about to be embarrassed and quietly steps in.
The people there that day, the disciples, the wedding guests, and even the waiters and workers discovered a Messiah who believes life is meant to be shared, celebrated, and savored together…
May we follow that messiah too.
May we remember that joy in this life is holy ground.
And when winter feels long and gray, may we take part in keeping the party alive.
Let the Good times Roll… Laissez Les bons temps rouler… 
Amen.          

WE GATHER IN AWE AND PRAISE

PRELUDE                                                                    “Tell Me the Stories of Jesus”                                arr. Terri Hutchings

INTROIT                              “The Night Has Passed”                                 Emma Lou Diemer

WELCOME                                                                    Rev. Trip Porch

One: This is the day that the Lord has made

All: Let us rejoice and be glad in it.

*CALL TO WORSHIP                                                                

One:  Come and gather, all who are tired of carrying the weight of the world alone.

All:  Come, all who long for joy that feels real and shared.

One:  Come with your weariness and your hope, your laughter, and your longing.

All:  God meets us not only in moments of crisis, but in moments of celebration.

One:  Let us worship the God of abundance and joy.

*HYMN 505                         “The Trumpets Sound, the Angels Sing”                      THE FEAST IS READY

*PRAYER OF CONFESSION                                                              Bob Concitis   

God of abundance,

we confess that we often make faith heavy and joyless.

We confess that we sometimes treat celebration as unimportant

and “delight” as something to be earned rather than received.

We grow anxious when resources feel scarce

and forget how deeply you trust abundance.

Forgive us when we lose sight of joy.

Renew our faith, restore our hope,

and teach us again to trust your generosity.

   Amen.

*ASSURANCE OF PARDON                                                           Rev. Trip Porch

*RESPOPNSE OF PARDON 583            “Gloria, Gloria” 2 times                                 GLORIA (TAIZE)

*PASSING OF THE PEACE                                                                  

One:   The peace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all,

All:      And also with you.

WE LISTEN FOR GOD’S WORD

ANTHEM                        "O God Beyond All Praising”                                 Gustav Holst

arr. Dan Forrest; Text by Michael Perry

GODLY PLAY

    Congregation: May God be with you there  

    Children: May God be with you here.             

CHILDREN’S RECESSIONAL 175      “Seek Ye First” vs. 1 

PRAYER OF ILLUMINATION                                                                  

SCRIPTURE      John 2:1-11    The Voice

Three days after meeting the disciples, they all went to celebrate a wedding feast in Cana of Galilee. Mary, the mother of Jesus, was invited together with Him and His disciples. While they were celebrating, the wine ran out; so Jesus’ mother hurried over to her son to see what he could do, she said: “The host stands on the brink of embarrassment; there are many guests, and there is no more wine.”

Jesus responded “Dear woman, is it our problem they miscalculated when buying wine and inviting guests? My time has not arrived.”

But then she turned to the servants and told them “Do whatever my son tells you.”

In that area were six massive stone water pots that could each hold 20 to 30 gallons. They were typically used for Jewish purification rites. Jesus’ instructions were clear: “Fill each water pot with water until it’s ready to spill over the top; then fill a cup, and deliver it to the headwaiter.”

They did exactly as they were instructed. After tasting the water that had become wine, the headwaiter couldn’t figure out where such wine came from (even though the servants knew), and he called Jesus over in amazement, saying: “This wine is delectable. Why would you save the most exquisite fruit of the vine? A host would generally serve the good wine first and, when his inebriated guests don’t notice or care, he would serve the inferior wine. You have held back the best for last.”

Jesus performed this miracle, the first of His signs, in Cana of Galilee. They did not know how this happened; but when the disciples and the servants witnessed this miracle, their faith blossomed.

One: Holy wisdom, Holy Word,
All: Thanks be to God

SERMON                                                                               Rev. Trip Porch

WE RESPOND TO GODS WORD

*HYMN 475                                        “Come thou Fount”                                                NETTLETON

PRAYERS OF THE PEOPLE  followed by the Lord’s Prayer

TIME OF OFFERING   online giving is available at  www. indianolapres.org/give 

OFFERTORY                         “O God Beyond All Praising”                      arr. Ronald A Nelson

*OFFERTORY RESPONSE 607       “Praise God, from Whom All Blessings Flow”        OLD HUNDREDTH

*PRAYER OF DEDICATION 

God of overflowing joy, receive these gifts and all that we offer of ourselves.

Use them to nourish hope, to extend welcome, and to help joy continue where it might otherwise fade. May our giving reflect our trust in your abundance and our desire to share life fully with others. Amen.

*HYMN 538                              “Hallelujah, We Sing Your Praises”              HALELUYA! PELO TSA RONA

TIME FO COMMUNITY SHARING  

CHARGE & BENEDICTION

CHORAL RESPONSE                     “Go Forth for God”                                           Kenneth Dake

POSTLUDE                                  “Postlude on ‘Nettleton”                        arr. James Koerts

 Acknowledgments: Unless otherwise indicated, all texts and music are printed and broadcast under OneLicense.net license #A-702452