It had been a standard practice, in years past, that the most popular month for weddings was June. The idea of someone being a June bride was without doubt not just normal, but expected. As our society has moved in so many directions, it has become the case that June no longer holds the fascination as it once did. We do know that weddings are always the source of much anticipation and, at times, problems.

In fact, the people who deal with weddings, such as florists, caterers, mothers of the bride, and, yes ministers, all know a shared truth. The secret truth; if there is a wedding, something is bound to go wrong.

It may be small:

• like the best man getting ready at the church realizes that the pants to his tuxedo are a foot too long, and an inventive best man would borrow the office stapler and fix the pants himself; or
• like the ushers lighting the candles and inadvertently lighting the unity candle as well as the other candles.

It could be large:

• like the bride arriving 45 minutes late, not even dressed for the wedding; or
• like the wedding in a small chapel where someone realized fifteen minutes before the wedding that all the flowers were still at the bride's home, forty minutes away, forcing the guests to listen to the organist play the same five songs she knew over and over again until the flowers were retrieved.

It is not a matter of if something will go wrong, but will it be small or large? Will it be that the photographer overexposed the pictures, or the father of the bride comes having had a little too much celebratory drink before the wedding?

The rule of thumb is that if the rehearsal goes with great precision then watch out for what will happen at the wedding. If something does not happen at the wedding proper there is a good chance it will happen at the reception.

The fact of this should let us breathe a little easier, knowing with all our human frailty that there will certainly be some surprises. So it should not be a big surprise when we attend a wedding and see the ring bearer go screaming out the side door just as the couple recites their vows.

Knowing all these things can, and do, happen, it should not surprise us that at the one wedding recorded in scripture, that Jesus attended, something went wrong. It was not the vows or the best man's robe being six sizes too small. It was at the reception. The problem seemed to be that the wine ran out before the receiving line ran out. The Bordeaux was served but not for those in the back of the hall ... they would have to settle for Kool-Aid®.

Jesus, his mother, and the disciples are in attendance. The writer of John lets us in on the little secret of not just the wine becoming another on the list of those things that go wrong at a wedding. What happens is that the writer allows us to overhear the conversation between Mary and Jesus.

Mary says, “Look they are out of wine."

Jesus replies, not with a loving kindness you would expect from him, but with a bit of an irritation, "Dear woman, why do you involve me? My time has not yet come."

Jesus instructs the waiters: "Fill the stone jars with water."

Mary advises the servants to do exactly as he asks. They, of course, follow his instructions. He then continues, "Draw some out and take it to your master."The reaction from the master is focused on the bridegroom, thinking that he has saved the best wine until the last.

As we look at the stories in John, our imagination is allowed to grow. This gospel lets us overhear the direction of the reason a story is told. When the story begins there is the discussion from Mary that she was expecting Jesus to attend to the need at hand. It is here the writer makes it clear in Jesus' words the direction Jesus would take throughout this gospel.

"My time has not yet come," says Jesus. The best way to say this is that, "timing is everything."

It happens in life that if we had only waited another two weeks to sell the stock we would have tripled our money.

In the movie, Serendipity, which is based on the premise of narrow misses, much of the pleasure of the film is the search a couple conducts looking for each other and the near misses that ensue.

Being at the right place at the right time makes all the difference in the world.

It is also true that the Son of Man, Jesus himself, makes it clear to his mother that the timing in his life has not come to a point that it is, "his time."

There is not only an emphasis on timing for Jesus, but it had to take into account the difference between that timing and our timing. It resounds in the way we look at ourselves, those around us, and the world.

Only recently, I was reminded of something I was told as a boy. I would never have a problem too big for God if only I would seek the way to the answer in God’s plan. What that meant was that God and yes, Jesus, has a time set out with teaching and solutions.

I was reminded again of this recently when I spoke to someone that I have known for years. You see, I had called to talk to them about someone I knew they cared about who had been hospitalized. The problem was that they had not spoken to each other for several years. Encouragement was given to visit this person in the hospital. Knowing they were devout in their denomination I appealed to the teaching of Jesus, to love without restriction and to go the second mile. The reply came back, "I know what Jesus says but...."

It seems that the time of Jesus is not necessarily our time. It is just too hard to accept that God's ways are to be ours. It is beyond comprehension to think that the time for true renewal is in this time, and not just in the time of Jesus. I don’t know if you noticed that there were some things about this wedding that were beyond the problem of the low quantity of wine. There are other key elements that carry us away from a wedding and to an understanding.

Did you notice that this wedding took place on the third day? Sounds familiar doesn't it? We know the phrase, "On the third day he was raised from the dead." We can see this if we only know the time has come.

Note also that on that day we could watch the transformation of Mary from mother to disciple, "Whatever he tells you do it."

There are times when we witness firsthand that his time has come. It was a night much like all other spring nights in the south, the only difference was my youth minister called me to accompany him to the Greyhound bus station on the backside of the old train station in the heart of the worst part of town. He briefed me as we made our way through areas I normally would not go. On this night, a young girl needed help. On that night, somebody needed the two of us. We found her, a young girl, all of sixteen, looking for a way out. As we sat and talked with her, it was plain that $20 was not what she needed, her greatest need wasn't even food. What she needed the most that night, was to know someone had the time for another human being, whether it was at the Greyhound bus station or the country club. Someone saw the need and filled the jars, and then waited to see how God works.

The next time you go to a wedding don't be surprised if you come to realize, "It is his time."

— Tom M. Garrison