The Christian hope is not that one day we will be set free from our bodies but rather that our bodies will one day be transformed by the power of the risen and living Christ.

Our readings today are all about the generosity and kindness of God that transform us from scared, anxious, angry, defensive people into people whose lives resemble in some small and imperfect way the generosity and kindness that they have received. “...for he is kind to the ungrateful and the wicked. Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.”

For you and I then, a blessed life has less to do with what belongs to us and more to do with our relation to Jesus Christ. Is our life connected to his risen life? Do we trust him and what he has accomplished for us in his death and resurrection?

What do you pride yourself on? Do you pride yourself on that which is fading away or that which will last? Do you pride yourself on love? Paul wants us to understand that love is the way, love is the goal, and love will never end in the new world that Jesus is bringing to us.

So we’re at a wedding in Cana of Galilee, a little place hardly worth noticing, and a poor family have invited Jesus and his mother and the disciples to their wedding. We know they are poor because they had run out of wine. And just when it looked like the party was over and done suddenly there was better wine and lots of it.