As I reminded you last Sunday, Epiphany is the season of revelation, of manifestation when
the glory of Christ shines throughout the world. Today sparkling wine, poured out by the Master, catches this morning's
glow.
Think about it. Jesus' first manifestation of his glory, the first of his "signs" as John calls them,
was not for or about Jesus. He didn't throw a great big "Jesus of Nazareth Epiphany and First Sign Party,"
invite everyone in the neighborhood, and then haul off and do a miracle. Instead, the signs of his calling and
of his identity were drawn out of him, not by his own plans and schedule, but by the needs of those around him.
What it means and what it looks like for Jesus to be the son of God is given expression as his response to the
realities of human life and need.
Where to turn when the wine runs out?
One might just as easily ask what to do when the well runs dry.
Or when enthusiasm runs out for the important task at hand,
or when love no longer seems to fuel the relationship
and passion seems a distant memory.
Can life survive for long without essential nourishment?
Can the heart feel warmth that is not there?
Can it be "home" where no one really lives?
Am I a child still to parents who no longer choose that role,
or a spouse if no counterpart remains?
"But you have saved the best till last."
Ah, yes, but will it be the same as that which I had known before?
Different isn’t always better, and the same can still be best of all.
What is needed is an infusion of new life,
new spirit, new hope.
Point the way to a future barely understood
and dazzle us with a taste that begs for more.
Set our feet to dancing,
and our lives to joy!
Much like our own spirituality around this time of year, our "wine" can easily run out. The energy and
excitement of Christmas is only a memory now. Many New Year's resolutions are already broken. The grip of winter's
cold becomes more and more an irritation (particularly this winter) and our churches settle in for the long months
leading up to Easter, the return of the snow birds and the Christmas crowds.
It is so easy to be surviving on only mediocre wine to keep the soul quiet, expecting little; to "let our
wine run out"...so to speak.
Surely one common understanding of this passage is as a simple miracle. It is a sign Jesus performs, so all who
have eyes to see can learn that he is someone out of the ordinary. Well, we can all agree that Jesus is someone
out of the ordinary; yet the miracle at Cana has deeper meanings.
We can miss the point by concentrating too much on scientific questions that come to our minds, troubling ourselves
with whether or not God Almighty would suspend the laws of nature, so an embarrassed father of the bride could
fill his guests' wineglasses one more time. As miracle stories go, this one seems peculiar. There doesn't seem
to be a compelling reason for Jesus to do what he does -- no paralytic is healed, no hungry crowd is fed, no daughter
raised to life, or woman kept from bleeding. Only some wine is made, for a group of wedding revelers who've already
"had a few," an added source of discomfort for those who picture Jesus as favoring abstinence.
This is far more about the renewal of Spirit; a first sign where emptiness becomes fullness, the old
becomes new, and the good becomes the best.
And, isn't that just what God did? God in Christ, pointed to the fact that the "best" was yet to be.
God's message through all the prophets of old had net been heard. And then "in the fullness of time"
God sent a Son. If the concept of getting "drunk with gladness" with the presence of the new wine of
Jesus in our lives is troubling to you perhaps you can think of it as a reminder that this is a new time. It’s
not the same old, same old. Like NEW WINE, not the old stuff that has been sitting with the cork off for days,
months and even years.
The Jewish "berakah" (meal prayer) which gives thanks to God for the gift of wine can be found in words
taken from Psalm 104. The Psalm says, in part:
You cause the grass to grow for the cattle,
and plants for people to use,
to bring forth food from the earth,
and wine to gladden the human heart,
oil to make the face shine,
and bread to strengthen the human heart."
"Wine to gladden the heart" suggests a warm and pleasant social milieu. In fact, in Baker's Evangelical
Dictionary Psalm 104 is used as a source text for the theological argument that God is "host" to humanity
in the dictionary's entry about "hospitality." In that entry, the dictionary says:
"Hospitality in the ancient world focused on the alien or stranger in need. The plight of aliens was desperate.
They lacked membership in the community, be it tribe, city-state, or nation. As an alienated person, the traveler
often needed immediate food and lodging. Widows, orphans, the poor, or sojourners from other lands lacked the familial
or community status that provided a landed inheritance, the means of making a living, and protection. In the ancient
world the practice of hospitality meant graciously receiving an alienated person into one's land, home, or community
and providing directly for that person's needs."
While some might think this is an argument that might have been used to support recent Labor Secretary nominations,
it is far more relevant for Human Relations Day as observed by the United Methodist Church.
In a general sense, Christians now serve as co-hosts with Christ to a world consisting of everyone to use
Paul’s words who is ‘excluded from citizenship in Israel and a foreigner to the covenant of the promise' (Eph 2:12).
Certainly, held up before those of us who call ourselves Christian is the model of Jesus, who serves as host to
an alienated world, who commends hospitality in his teaching, and who himself is encountered as one who receives
the alienated person. The world, like the wedding reception in Cana, is lacking in sufficient wine (social
capital, hospitality, community-connectedness) but here as there, Jesus and the Christian community of the church
can supply what is running out.
Weddings as a symbol of transformed relationships played an important part in the ongoing ministry of Jesus and
later in the early church. He told many parables set in the context of a wedding: the wedding banquet where the
invited guests made excuses, the unprepared bridesmaids who tried to borrow oil for their lamps at the last minute,
the man who came to the wedding without the proper attire, and later in both Paul and John’s references to the
Church itself as the bride of Christ.
And "transformation" is an important theme too on this weekend when we recognize the birth of the Rev.
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and the incredible events that took place beginning in the decade of the sixties. We
know that we still have a long way to go, but certainly God's light illuminated that situation in our society
and transformed the way we see our world. Tomorrow we celebrate the national observance of his life as the great
leader of the civil rights movement, but we also recognize that he was more than that. He was a man of God who
felt God's hand on his shoulder and saw a vision of "what could be rather than what was." His sense of
love and justice changed life as we knew it, and whether or not you agree with all that he stood for, we should
all respect him for the courage and determination he possessed to live his life to his perception of God's purpose,
and God's calling.
His now famous speech during the march on Washington, D.C. in 1963 shows his vision, his dream for all of God's
children to live with peace and justice.
"I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia the sons of former slaves and the sons of former
slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood.. ...I have a dream that my four little
children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content
of their character; I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, every hill and mountain shall be
made low, the rough places will be made plain and the crooked places will be made straight and the glory of the
Lord shall be revealed and all flesh shall see it together....When we let freedom ring when we let it ring from
every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all
of God's children, black men and white men, black sisters and white sisters, Jews and Gentiles. Protestants and
Catholics will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual, 'Free at last'! Free at
last! Thank God almighty we are free at last."'
Would the complete realization of those words not be a cause for great joy for all people? We are told by
John that this was Jesus' first sign, and it is vitally important that we get the message of this first
sign correct, otherwise we will miss what God through Jesus is ever trying to show us. The love and grace of God
are meant to overflow freely for everyone. When this is done, people come running.
John leads us in the telling of the Cana story to the critical last sentence of the gospel: "Jesus did
this, the first of his signs, in Cana of Galilee, and revealed his glory; and his disciples believed in him."
This sentence is crucial for John. The divinity of Jesus is manifest in this sign and His glory is revealed. Seeing
these great wonders, his disciples begin to believe in him, but don’t miss the point that the only ones who get
it are the servants who know and the disciples who believe.
It is equally important to John that Mary, (anonymously called his mother here with the assumption that everyone
knows her name), makes only two appearances in the Fourth Gospel. Once here and next at the foot of the cross.
John wants us to know that real ministry consists of weddings and crosses, and that those who really believe are
there for both!
Jesus is clearly concerned in this text that his time is "not yet come." That theme will be echoed again
in John’s Gospel at 7:30 and 8:20. Finally with the arrival of some Greeks who come seeking Jesus in 12:20-26 we
learn that his time has come, and he refers to his passion and death.
Not until everyone is ready, till all are coming home will we discover the fulfillment of the Psalm imagery - where
God is there waiting with everything prepared, like coming home from a hard day’s work to find the table set, the
meal prepared, the candles lit and the family gathered. That is an image of real love.
Isaiah refers to the marriage of the land, a new covenant relationship with a name change…no longer will you be
called "forsaken."
Can’t you just see how in Jesus’ mind the natural outcome would be the conclusion to the parable of the Prodigal
Father, where he pleads with the older son to join in the celebration, and the son's reply is "'Listen! For
all these years I have been working like a slave for you, and I have never disobeyed your command; yet you have
never given me even a young goat so that I might celebrate with my friends." (Luke 15:29).
We can safely assume that that son is not lying. But if our Christian life has been reduced to the character
of "working like a slave", "never disobeying", "never being able to celebrate with our
friends," what have we made Christianity into? We too have lost what is the essence of our faith. It’s become
all cross and no wedding joy.
In the words of Isaiah: "For the Lord delights in you….as a bridegroom rejoices in his bride so shall your
God rejoice in you."
Dorothy Solle wrote the following creed shared with me by Allyson Estes senior pastor at Asbury Park First UMC,
and I felt in closing I needed to share it with you.
I believe in Jesus Christ
who was right when he
like each of us was
just another individual who couldn't beat city hall
worked to change the status quo
and was destroyed.
Looking at him I see
how our intelligence is crippled
our imagination stifled
our efforts wasted
because we do not live as he did.
Every day I am afraid
that he died in vain
because he is buried in our churches
because we have betrayed his revolution
in our obedience to authority
and our fear of it.
I believe in Jesus Christ
who rises again and again in our lives
so that we will be free
from prejudice and arrogance,
from fear and hate,
and carry on his revolution
and make way for his kingdom.
There is a lot of "stuff" that we can use to fill the void left by the long-gone wine. I don’t care if
we’re talking about formerly packed sanctuaries, church school classrooms that were overflowing, dinners that used
to be served, or the people who once made those things possible. Or if for you it’s about failing marriages, lost
children, declining health, or an uncertain future.
The TRUTH is that there is only One source (Jesus) that can truly refuel our senses with just a visionary taste
of the very best that still can be, but you are going to have to get up and dance! |