THE SECOND SUNDAY AFTER THE EPIPHANY

January 18, 2003

Isaiah 62:1-5

I Corinthians 12:1-11

John 2:1-11

Year C

Wedding imagery is found everywhere in scripture. From Genesis to Revelation where the New Jerusalem is dressed as a bride adorned for her husband – and everything in between. Disasters that come upon Israel are always thought of as marital failure between God and Israel. Thus Israel was given the name “Forsaken” and “Desolate”. But the writer of Third Isaiah declares that the day shall come when Israel will be named, “My Delight is in her” and “Married”. These names indicate a complete about face in Israel’s relationship with God.

So it’s not surprising that John places before us as the first ‘sign’ of who Jesus is the wedding feast at Cana. A wedding in a small town in Palestine would have been the event of the year for most people. The partying would go on seven days or more. The wine flowed freely. Heaven forbid that it should run out early.

However, the huge water jars at the entrance to the feast was a sign that all was not right with the community. The jars for ritual cleansing held between 120 and 180 gallons of water, a massive amount of water. The Jewish rite of purification existed to clean away something that didn’t belong, something that stained the whole of the community, something that kept God at a distance. The water for purification was an attempt to close that gap. Even a wedding feast had to honor the burdensome rituals of cleaning. The problem was, no matter how many gallons of water were used for such a purpose the gap between God’s people and God could only be closed by God.

Changing water into wine wouldn’t exactly make it into the top ten list of useful miracles. Sight to the blind, yes. Lepers made clean, of course. But if Jesus turned all that water into wine it seems the end result would only be that Cana would be reeling for weeks. It’s no wonder scriptural scholars for years have emphasized the allegorical over the historical when it comes to this story. It’s easier for modern skeptics to swallow that way.

Some of you have heard me tell the story of a little boy who was captivated by his experience in Catechesis of the Good Shepherd; a program I deeply respect. He had just listened to the demonstration on the Eucharist for 3- 6 year olds when his parents had a cocktail party. As he wandered through the crowd of partying adults he went up to a woman that was seated and said to her, “Do ya want to see something?” “O.K.” she answered. “Well,” he said, pointing to her wine glass, “you take a little wine, you take a little water and – voila – Jesus!”

In spite of the fact that that theology may work for 3 or 6 year olds, we’re supposed to be able to go deeper. We need to be careful that we don’t create a sort of ethereal Jesus who glides into Cana two feet off the ground, a halo round his head, his disciples following dutifully two paces behind, all of them looking deeply spiritual.

Looking too literally at the marriage feast in Cana can make Jesus look like a magician; a man of party tricks. If you’re not careful it can dip into fire engine theology. Call on God when you’re in a pinch, and like a genie in a bottle, God will get you out. The other view says nothing happened. There’s nothing about it in the other gospels. Maybe John dreamed it up to equal the cultic feast of Dionysus, the god of wine, which was celebrated January 6^th. Since many Christian feast days were set to replace pagan festivals….voila! There’s the answer - or maybe not. We may picture Jesus dazzling the crowd with party tricks, but that is not what happened according to John. The people at the party know nothing except the fact that there’s great wine coming at the end of the party. The truth lies somewhere in the middle.

Writers George MacDonald and C.S. Lewis see in this event a reminder that God’s grace can be focused like a narrow beam, like solar rays through a magnifying glass. Several years ago my in-laws in England had their furniture catch on fire through just such a magnified glass in their front window. Jesus’ signs do not usually contradict natural law. Rather, they replicate the normal activity of creation at a different speed and on a smaller scale.

“Some of the miracles do locally what God has already done universally,” writes Lewis. “God creates the vine and teaches it to draw up water by its roots and with the aid of the sun, to turn waters into a juice which will ferment and take on certain qualities. Thus every year, from Noah’s time till ours, God turns water into wine.” Similarly antibodies and antigens conduct miracles in our bodies every day, but in a slower manner than the kinds of healings Jesus carried out.

For John this is the beginning of a whole series of signs revealing who Jesus is. John places before us, as the first ‘sign’ of who Jesus is, the wedding feast at Cana. For John a sign points to something beyond itself; revealing something for a greater purpose. The first thing John wants us to know is that Jesus would not reveal himself until the time was right. We must not be sidetracked by thinking that Jesus is being curt with his mother. The Greek word for “woman” was a word of respect. It is the same used when Jesus addresses his mother on the cross, “Woman, behold your son”. He would not reveal himself until he had gathered enough fortitude to face what he knew would be in store for him as soon as he upset the tables in the temple and reality as the temple authorities declared it to be.

John underlines the fact that this event occurred in order to display God’s glory; the sign of just Who was at work in Jesus. John is telling us that a sign is not a miracle to amaze or even prove anything. It is a window through which God is revealed. To focus upon the miraculous and miss the revelation is the greatest miss of all. However, because of our God given freedom a sign is not evident to everyone.

Now I realize that I use the word “openness” frequently; probably so much that your eyes begin to glaze over when I say it. So let’s look at what other words are used for openness. They are words like “available”, “porous”, “unfolded”, “free” and “unfrozen”. All those words are given as definitions of “openness”. So the disciples were available to Jesus. They were porous and unfolded.

William Willomon writes: “When people witnessed Jesus healing people most people said he was an agent of Satan. When Jesus turned the water into wine at Cana, the man in charge of the bar suspected he had switched the labels in the wine cellar. He didn’t say, ‘God must be mixed up in this’ “. But those who were already open to Jesus, available to him, porous to his presence, his disciples, were the ones who were gathered in even closer in whatever happened. That is what is possible for us as well, but there is much that seeks to keep us from that kind of relationship with Christ.

Clearly Paul is writing today in I Corinthians to a bitterly divided congregation. It is well known that spiritual gifts were a great concern to this particular community. Not only does Paul assure them they are not deficient in the gifts they have been given, he attacks rampant individualism. He declares the Holy Spirit gives us gifts, not for the sole benefit of personal spiritual development, but so that we can enrich the faith community. As Christians we are constantly needing to ask ourselves, “Is our behavior building up the community or tearing it down?

The sign at Cana reveals the beginning of who we are called to be and what we are called to do. As Madeleine L’Engle says, the job of the Christian is to serve what they have been given; to manifest or reveal your gifts. It’s not a contest as to who has the greatest gifts. It’s the responsibility to serve what God has given you. The validity of these gifts will be whether they exalt Jesus as Lord - or not. Such gifts are never used for self-glorification or division, but always the glory of God. That is the essence of personal holiness.

After the newly baptized have been through the water bath, after they have been anointed with holy Chrism, they are handed the light, the fire, from the Paschal Candle. I then say these words, “Receive the light of Christ, as a sign that you have passed from darkness into light. Shine as his light in the world, to the glory of God the Father”. What about us is shining as Christ’s light in this world? What about us is bringing others to experience the wine of Christ’s presence? The spiritual health of the Christian community is not about being friendly to most of the people most of the time. It is about revealing Christ’s glory to the world and to one another.

It is said there are two different kinds of knowledge. There is the kind of knowledge that comes in solving something like a math problem when you finally say, “Now I get it”. The other kind of knowledge comes through something like an epiphany you are given in some gripping play or movie and come out changed by the experience saying, “Now I get it”. That’s what happened to the disciples at Cana. The disciples were seized by whatever happened there. It got them. It drew them into the circle. It drew them into the actions God was taking in closing gap between humanity and divinity.

Wherever Jesus went he turned water into wine – and we are given gifts and powers to do the same. In the wedding feast at Cana an ordinary event took on cosmic proportions. This is no less than what happens at every Eucharistic celebration. We are given the task of turning what is weak as water within us into the pungent strength of fine wine. We are given the task of turning the common into the precious, of bringing the outsider into the Christ’s presence.

In spite of the fact that the disciples’ knowledge was very limited then, they were drawn into the reality that what was happening in Jesus had something to do with God’s new creation piercing through the broken creation that we know and experience every day. This was the first sign of God’s ultimate wedding with our flesh and blood; the transformation of flood waters into baptism, of bread into Christ’s body, of wine into his blood. This is God’s embracing of all broken humanity.

In Gaelic the words ag borradh (advent) denote a quivering life about to break forth, like the ripples of light and color in a wine glass, like drops of blood upon the ground, like joy upon a face, like light in the darkness, like God in the flesh of Jesus. This is God’s Epiphany bursting forth. This is the best wine saved until last. And it is ours, and the world’s, for the taking.

AMEN

The Rev. Virginia L. Bennett, D.Min.

St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church

Edwardsville, Illinois