When I first came to St. Mary’s we had a potluck lunch in the hall and everyone was very polite and asked if I would like water or lemon juice to accompany the meal?

That’s fine by me. I don’t drink a lot.

I quite like rum and coke every now and again and a glass of wine can go down very nicely, but I couldn’t drink a lot of alcohol every night. I make a poor candidate for AA.

I am sorry to say that alcoholism has been and is a problem in many places of the world, first world, second world and third world. Yet the bible in Psalm 36 knows about getting drunk, of over indulging so that we lose control of ourselves.

Alcohol is a depressant; it depresses our control mechanisms, which is why young men try to get the young lady to take plenty of drink knowing that the alcohol will remove her control so that they might remove her clothes. It is an old trick.

Psalm 36 relates where God ‘gives his people drink from the river of his delights.’ It is a situation in which God is not trying to take away our self-control in any immoral way but is offering us inhibition in the atmosphere of the Spirit.

Getting drunk on the Spirit just like they did in the Early Church that we can find described in the second chapter of the Acts of the Apostles. So full of love for God and each other they turned their churchgoing into a party.

The point of including part of Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians in the set of readings for today is verse thirteen. However the lectionary compilers lost their nerve and they finish two verses short at verse eleven.

Actually the translators are probably the ones to blame because they have split the text up into sections and they have put verses 1 to 11 as ‘Spiritual Gifts’ and 12 to 31 as ‘One Body, Many Parts’. However when we write letters we don’t write in chapters with sub headings. The theme and subject matter gets developed without sharp beginnings and endings, as it does here. They would have done as well by ending with verse 13 that says “and we were all given the one Spirit to drink”.

• It doesn’t take many much of an excuse to get out the whisky bottle in Venezuela and weddings are the ultimate pretext for having a good inhibited time.

The bible too is a great centre for merrymaking because God is seen as the ideal host who feeds his guests with the finest of everything.

Nicholas Wright who is the Canon Theologian of Westminster Abbey says in one of his books that ‘nuptial imagery runs through the bible like a peal of wedding bells’. I like that if only because my father’s favourite tipple was Bells Whisky.

The bible starts its wedding tales in Genesis with the creation of man and woman in God’s image and ends in the Book of Revelation where the New Jerusalem is adorned like a bride for her husband.

In the whole saga of the relationship between God and his people we find that marriages form the stepping-stones that take us along the path to fulfilment.

The troubled liaison between Abraham and Sarah; I don’t know that we would think of it as much of a marriage today but it started the line on which the covenant rested between God and this people chosen to reveal him.

Then there is Isaac and Rebecca and the wonderful story of Ruth and Boaz, surely one of the greatest love stories of all time.

When I talk to those about to be married I tell them that the Wedding Service is a contract between each of them and between them and God. A contract is a covenant or testament by which we swear to live in a certain way and fulfil certain promises. If the marriage fails then the covenant is broken. The covenant that was made by Abraham bound the people in a marriage with God. If this marriage failed then it spelled a covenant disaster. Hosea, one of the latter prophets who had a disastrous and tempestuous marriage likens his own position with that of the nation with broken promises and affairs.

Can the marriage between God and his people be saved or has it broken down irretrievably?

Isaiah writes that it is possible to have a renewal even after terrible failure as the result of the work of the Servant. You need to read chapter 54 of the Book of Isaiah to follow his reasoning but it is compelling argument and it formed the base on which Jesus set his ministry of reconciliation with God.

It shows us how important the story of the Suffering Servant was for Jesus and how it led him to believe that by playing out the part he could rescue God’s people, and that includes us, by reinstating the covenant in a new translation of the terms.

Paul, like the writer of Revelation pictures marriage as both a sign and sacrament of Christ’s union with his people and he writes about it to the Ephesians so it is hardly surprising that we find John looking to a wedding as a ‘first sign’ of Jesus’ glory.

Note too that the sign takes place ‘on the third day’ pointing to the great fulfilment and justification of his total ministry.

In this story of the wedding Jesus shows how much God can provide. He makes available far more than we could ever need or want. It is a demonstration of God’s generosity and wealth. His act lifts the wedding reception to new heights of excellence and partying. The best man comes out and says most people bring out the champagne at the start so that the guests get slightly tipsy and don’t care that the quality gets worse with the wine at the meal but here it is back to front.

Something we are constantly finding with Jesus.

That he turns our ideas round and puts what we thought was important at the back and sets a new standard for us to imitate. At Cana he takes the purification water and turns it into wine and at the Passover he turns the wine into his blood to seal the covenant, just as Abraham had taken blood in the sealing of the first covenant.

By being Christian, we place ourselves in the position of being married to God to live out our lives in accordance with the agreement that has been made by Christ Jesus.

Each time we come to church we come to renew the agreement and celebrate it in bread and wine, the basic ingredients of any party. Collectively we are the bride and individually we are the guests at the wedding.

• Do you think that those who see us leave will think our behaviour is anything like wedding guests?

• Will people mistake us for partygoers?

When Jesus’ mother Mary speaks to the best man and his assistants she is speaking also to us, “do whatever he tells you”.

We are the ones who are to assist in the miracle. We are the ones whose work in the world will fill the jars.

Have we not seen his glory?

Have we not believed?

Have we not enjoyed the wine that results?

If we have then we cannot fail to be happy.

Intoxicated by the Spirit we go out into the world to rejoice and be glad.

Be happy ... for this is the best party for which we will ever get an invitation.