Epiphany 2C 2022 - John
2: 1-11
It’s Not About the Wine
It was Kurt Vonnegut
in a Palm Sunday Sermon years ago who observed, “Leave it to people to look at
the wrong end of a miracle every time.”
This is true of the
wedding at Cana in Galilee. As Father Guido Sarducci observed, it should be called
the wedding reception at Cana. Wedding receptions in ancient Israel could carry
on for as much as a week-long celebration.
Jesus’s mother
nudges him, “They have no wine.” Jesus essentially says, “So, what? This does
not concern us. Besides, it’s not time” Mary then tells the servants, “Just do
whatever he tells you.” They do, and the results are off the charts!
A lot of wine can be
consumed at a week-long party. This suggests that the family is probably pretty
well off. And they have six large, expensive stone water jars holding 20 to 30
gallons each. Unlike healing and feeding people, this is less about addressing
a need. It’s more of a luxury. We’re talking roughly 180 gallons of wine. Good
wine at that!
The chief steward
thinks the bridegroom arranged this, saying, "Everyone serves the good
wine first, and then the inferior wine after the guests have become drunk. But
you have kept the good wine until now.” This is pretty funny, making this more
in the vein of Henny Youngman than say Karl Barth or Reinhold Niebuhr! The
bridegroom thinks he just hit the lottery! What is the steward talking about? This
is the first moment, writes John, that Jesus has done anything to reveal just
who he is. And he does this?
Of course he does.
After all, he is The One everyone has been waiting for. He is the bridegroom
who comes at an unexpected hour. He’s The One who will eventually tell us that
drinking wine makes us one of his disciples for ever and ever. That is, the
salvation God gives us in Christ is more than just redemption and healing, but
is also meant to be about enjoying the fullness of life and the extravagant
Love of God! God in Christ who says, “I come that you may have life and have it
abundantly!” [John 10: 10]
This is surprising
good news: God saves the best for last! You’ve heard Elijah. You’ve heard
Isaiah. You have been down to the river with John. But our God has saved the
best for last! The party is his. He’s the bridegroom. It’s our time to be wedded
to God. No one is excluded from this party. And there is enough of everything
for everyone!!
There have been
those who look at the contemporary life of the church and question whether or
not we really understand this and other gospel stories of extravagance. Soren
Kierkegaard Once wrote, “Whereas Jesus turned water into wine, the church
has managed to do something even more remarkable; it has turned wine back into
water.” That’s pretty funny for Kierkegaard, who was not known for his humor.
The point being: Jesus
comes to make all things new, and issues a radical call to change one’s life
and get about the business of sharing this new extravagant, abundant, life of
God’s Faith, Hope and Charity with the whole world, everyone, with “all!” The Church,
on the other hand, often behaves as if Christianity
is about being comfortable and happy with the way things are and have been.
This is a problem.
A problem that
prompted C.S. Lewis to say, “I didn’t go to religion to make me happy. I
knew a bottle of Port would do that. If you want religion to make you really
feel comfortable, I certainly do not recommend Christianity.” Lewis wants
us to remember that Jesus, the night before he dies, calls us to a deeper understanding
of the good news when he says, “Pick up your cross and follow me… You will do
the things I do, and greater things than these you will do.” [John 14:12]
The Gospel, the Good
News, is about transformation and service, both of which take hard work.
Christians are meant to be those people who sustain the virtue of Hope in a
world that rarely provides much evidence that such Hope is justified.
This is why at
Noonday Prayer, Monday thru Friday, we are reading The Book of Hope, in which
Jane Goodall says this about Hope: "Hope is what enables us to keep
going in the face of adversity. It is what we desire to happen, but we must be
prepared to work hard to make it so."[1]
To remind me what
this hope, this future, and this hard work looks like, I have kept the following
text pasted in the back of my Book of Common Prayer as a constant reminder:
Les Arbres dans la Mer by Father Didier
Rimaud, SJ
Look, the virgin
has a child, a man from God, Heaven is with us,
mankind is not
alone any longer. If you only had a little faith, you would see trees in the
sea, beggars become kings, the powerful made low, the treasures that we share.
Look, the water
changes into wine, the wine becomes blood, the bread multiplies,
the people aren’t
starving any more. If you only had a little faith, you
would see trees in the sea, the desert full of flowers, harvests in winter, granaries
overflow.
Look, the lame
walk, the blind see, the deaf hear, the people aren’t ill any longer.
If you only had a
little faith, you would see trees in the sea, executioners without work,
handcuffs rusty, prisons
useless.
Look, the cross is
empty and bare, your tombs have fallen and man stands. The people are not
afraid any longer. If you only had a little faith, you would see trees in the
sea, guns buried, arms put away, mountains dance.
This is what
Christianity is meant to look like. Our Hope is about what we desire to happen;
that which we must be prepared to work hard at to make it so. It’s not about
180 gallons of good wine – it is about the extravagance of God’s Faith, Hope
and Love, in Christ offered to all. Everyone. Now. Forever. And ever! Amen!
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