Epiphany 2

May my words and my thoughts be acceptable to you, O Lord, my refuge and my redeemer. (Psalm 19:14)

SEASON: Epiphany 2
PROPER: C
PLACE: St. John's Parish, Kingsville
DATE: January 14, 2001


TEXT: John 2:1-11 – The Wedding Feast at Cana
When the steward tasted the water that had become wine, and did not know where it came from (though the servants who had drawn the water knew), the steward called the bridegroom and said to him, “Everyone serves the good wine first, and then the inferior wine after the guest have become drunk. But you have kept the good wine until now.”

ISSUE: - This miracle (trick?) is intended to reveal the glory of God in Jesus Christ. It is quite a festive event loaded with symbolism and innuendo for the people first hearing the story. Essentially it is about transformation possible through Jesus Christ. He is the catalyst for change and hope. Embracing his transforming power we look to a world that will end racism and hatred in our world. Jesus broad ministry to Jew, Samaritan, and Gentiles, his acceptance and raised standard of woman in his own society tells of his transforming hope for his world. This Sunday is set aside by Bishops Ihloff and Rabb as Martin Luther King, Jr. Sunday, commemorating his non-violent Christian efforts to put and end to racism.
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The story of Jesus changing water into wine at the marriage feast at the wedding in Cana of Galilee is one of the precious stories of the Christian Scriptures in the Gospel of John. Like so many of the story it is full of meaning, symbolism, and innuendo.
Jesus along with some of his disciples, along with his mother have been invited to a wedding. Normally, family were the basic guests at a wedding, with a few friends. The fact that Mary sort of insists that Jesus intervene when the wine supply was running low would presume that Mary was a close relative to whomever was giving the wedding feast. To run out of wine at a wedding feast would have been a dreadful disgrace. Mary gives every indication that Jesus can save the day, and spare the family dishonor. Jesus is reluctant seemingly trying as men did in these times to disassociate himself from their mothers. But, nevertheless, he does in fact save the day changing water into wine. Is John’s gospel suggesting that if you are in the family of Christ, you can not know dishonor?
It is suggested that this first miracle in the Gospel of John reveals Jesus as something of a trickster, but a trickster in a good sense. Many of the prophets and significant characters of the Hebrew Scriptures had an element of cleverness and trickery involved in their ministries. Moses for one had a kind of magic staff that could turn into a snake to frighten the Pharaoh. He could turn water to blood, by dipping the staff in the Nile River. He could even part the Red (Reeds) Sea by holding it up, for the people to cross. Think of Elijah, who on Mt. Carmel douses the wood of his sacrifice with water, and yet lightning comes down and set it ablaze to the great amazement of King Ahab and Jezebel. Even Jacob, who becomes Israel, the Father of the nation, was always tricking people. He has his Uncle Laban’s sheep stand and breed before some branches and the offspring become speckled, and he then has an entitlement to them, leaving Uncle Laban with a lesser breed (Gen.30:25f). Thus, Jesus, like his great and honorable ancestors, says John can turn water into wine, if he so chooses to reveal the glory of his ministry and of God. Now, his hour is about to come for the redemption of God’s people.
Another interesting point of this story is that we really do not know who the bride and groom are in this story. Clearly, Jesus himself is the central character. Just prior to this story of the wedding feast, John the Baptist on seeing Jesus says of him (John1:29f), “There is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!” Couple this statement with the words of John who wrote Revelation (19:5f): “Praise God! For the Lord our Almighty God is King! Let us rejoice and be glad; let us praise his greatness! For the time has come for the wedding of the Lamb and his bride has prepared herself for it.” In his onw way John’s Gospel is revealing that Jesus is the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world, and who has become incarnate in wedded with the world in order that the world should be transformed, like water transformed into wine.
Clearly the story is also about an abundant transformation. We do have to be careful here. When Jesus begins the process of filling the waters jars, these jars are purification jars used for purification rites before the Jewish people when they returned to their home, or before their eating, as required by their purification laws. John may well be indicating that the old Temple purification system was not effective in changing lives that needed change and transformation. The teachings of Jesus would be more effective in bringing about internal change of the human heart. We must not assume by this use of the purification jars, that Jesus was rejecting Judaism. (John’s Gospel does have an element of being anti-Semitic in it, and we as enlightened Christians must rise above that. This anti-Semitism is due largely to the fact that at the time John was writing, Christians were being excommunicated for Jewish synagogues. So the early church had something of an ax to grind. Keep in mind Jesus was always faithful to his Judaism and his Jewish heritage.) Jesus was providing the abundance of hope and change for his world. Changing 180 gallons of water into wine was an awesome amount of wine. It was more than any wedding needed that invited the whole village. Like in the story of the Feeding of the 5,000 where everyone gets fed and there are 12 baskets leftover, indicating the abundance of great love in a world of spiritual poverty, Jesus here is providing that abundance of spiritual renewal and hope for the world.
If the wedding were performed on a Wednesday, the traditional day of weddings, then the miracle would have taken place on the Sabbath – wedding celebrations often went on for days. The miracle is a festive event celebrating with feasting and joy the new hope for the world in and through Jesus Christ who comes with abundance of joy and love to transform the world. What did they do with all that wine? We’re still drinking it today at every Eucharist. His love and call and hope for a transformed world still abounds. This miracle is a testimony to Isaiah’s Messianic Banquet of well strained fine wine through Jesus Christ our Lord. Jesus clearly redefined what was honorable. He honored the peasants and all who were disenfranchised by and unjust world. He gave place to both Jews and Gentiles, and Samaritans. He saw the people of the world as the children of God, and brothers and sisters of one another. These concerns were surely a transformation of the culture of that time.
We know, all of us that there are things in our lives that need and our world that need transforming. One of the key things that need to be accomplished in our own time is continuing to respect the dignity of all people and to put an end to the prejudices that separate us from one another. Bishop Ihloff and Bishop Rabb have asked all Episcopal Churches in the Diocese of Maryland, on this Sunday, to make another firm effort to bringing an end to racial discrimination in our Diocese and in our culture. They ask us to remember the work of Dr. Martin Luther King, whose non-violent efforts have done much to end racism already, and to continue in his devotion anew to the princlples of equality, fairness, and an end to bigotry that our world may be joyfully transformed into the brotherhood and sisterhood of Jesus Christ.

THE BISHOP’S LETTER IS READ. END WITH PRAYER:

Almighty God, who by the hand of Moses thy servant didst lead they people out of slavery, and didst make them free at last: Grant that thy Church, following the example of thy prophet Martin Luther King, may resist oppression in the name of thy love, and may strive to secure for all thy children the blessed liberty of the Gospel of Jesus Christ; who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, on God, now and forever. Amen.