Epiphany 2C; John
2:1-11; St. Paul’s, 1/20/2019
Jim Melnyk “Water to
Wine – Climbing to the Mountain Top”
To begin with, it wasn’t grape juice. It was wine.
And by the time Jesus was done for the day, there was plenty of the
stuff. Good wine – the kind of wine that
makes your heart glad if you’re someone who can partake of it without any
problems, and the kind that you need to stay away from if you struggle at all with
alcohol. It wasn’t grape juice. The steward wouldn’t talk about guests
drinking too much and getting drunk if it was.
But why in the world would the author of John’s Gospel
choose a wedding feast and a wine fest as the setting for Jesus to burst onto
the stage – as the setting for Jesus to make, as it were, his first big splash?
Despite what some say, I don’t think Mary comes to Jesus
because he and his friends may have shown up to the week-long wedding festival
without bringing any wine. The story
isn’t a lesson about coming to a party with or without the proper libation. It’s
not a story about the best way to share your wine with your guests – don’t get
them drunk on the good stuff quickly, then switch over to the Three-Buck-Chuck.
It’s not even a story meant to be a commentary on the sacredness of marriage,
though the church has co-opted the story and made the water-to-wine miracle a
reason for calling marriage a sacrament.
Rather, as the
disciples seem to understand for once, this abundance of good wine is a
sign of God’s presence among them.
Commentator Isabel Anders writes, “…with all the signs [offered by
Jesus], there is realized a deeper sense that here is the one who came to bring salvation to the world. The abundance of wine, 120-150 gallons [by
the way], draws attention to the extravagance of the messianic age, [which we
come across in the words of prophets like Isaiah and Amos, and] which we see
again [later in the Gospels] in the feeding of the five thousand” (Synthesis).
This story is about the inbreaking of
God into human history – a sign that the conventional boundaries of
life can be shattered – that God calls us into an abundance of life. “Jesus’
ministry begins with an extraordinary act of grace, a first glimpse of the
‘greater things’ to come... [and] the story invites [us] to see what the
disciples see, that in the abundance and graciousness of Jesus’ gift, one
catches a glimpse of the identity and character of God” (Gail R. O’Day, The
New Interpreter’s Bible, page 540).
As we come to know the Jesus proclaimed in the Gospels,
shouldn’t we strive toward a reality of abundance in our own lives and in the
life of the world around us? Shouldn’t
we proclaim a hope and a promise that the extravagance of creation is something
meant to be shared graciously by and with all?
The lesson from Cana’s wedding feast teaches us something
about making the love of God known to the world. The abundance of wine served
as a symbol of God’s kingdom breaking upon those in first century Israel, and as
a revelation of the power of God and the glory of Jesus.
In this brief story from John we come to know Jesus as “the new wine who will bring God’s
Kingdom to reality” (Synthesis). The Jesus we come to know in the Scriptures
is the very face of God who tells us there is enough: enough grace, enough
peace, enough food, enough resources, enough money, enough forgiveness, enough
love, for everyone – as long as we’re willing to live with enough, rather than
as much as we can grab hold of and hold tight.
Trouble is, we don’t live in a world of “enough.” We live in a world were too many people
believe there just aren’t enough gifts from God to go around.
On the day before many in our nation remember the life and
ministry of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., we recall how God’s abundance of grace
kept King going – how God’s abundance was King’s experience – how it was a
glimpse of that grace that allowed King to go on in the face of prison,
violence, and threats of death.
Shortly before his death King closed his final speech with
these words: “Like anybody, I would like to live a long life. Longevity has its
place. But I'm not concerned about that now. I just want to do God's will. And
He's allowed me to go up to the mountain. And I've looked over. And I've seen
the Promised Land. I may not get there
with you. But I want you to know tonight, that we, as a people will get to the
Promised Land. And I'm happy, tonight. I'm not worried about anything. I'm not
fearing any man. Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord.”
And when we stop to think about it, we realize how
extravagant a vision of God’s power to love and to heal one must have in order
to face the possibility of death with such confidence.
Water-to-wine in Cana – King’s “Mountain Top” experience –
both are glimpses of the inbreaking of God into a world
desperately in need of God – both
glimpses of the dream of God that needs to be born in the hearts and souls of
every human being – both glimpses of a God who loves us abundantly and with
great extravagance. Both events are
moments in time that helped the people of God know Christ, and both events
continue to be proclamations that let the people of God make Christ known to
this world.
King believed that for good people to stand silent in the
midst of the struggle for basic human rights was the greatest tragedy of all; and
so he put himself in harm’s way to be a beacon of God’s grace – to be a beacon
of God’s promise of abundance for all people. Jesus, who was King’s greatest
teacher and strength, who was King’s Lord and Savior, believed that as well. And
so Jesus put himself in harm’s way – to be a beacon of God’s grace – to be a
beacon of God’s promise of abundance – to be a beacon of God’s redeeming love
for all humanity. And I give thanks that
so many people today still honor King's dream – and in that, honor God's dream
as well.
We, too, must stand as beacons of God’s promise of abundance
–as beacons of God’s promise of redeeming love for all humankind. To be people who not only know Christ to be
alive in our lives, but as people who make Christ’s transforming love known to
the world. It won’t always be easy. We look at the news this week and see stories about police officers shot in the street and a Native American Viet Nam Vet being accosted by hateful teenagers while he tries to pray. It won't always be easy, but
it is worth the struggle.
Jesus could have done any number of things to catch people’s
attention – any number of things to leap onto the stage, as it were. Jesus chose to act out a parable of God’s
extravagant love – a parable of God’s dream of a rich, wild, abundant festival,
where all know the love of God and all feel themselves at home in the kingdom
of God – where we know that God rejoices over every one of us.
I came across a news story the other day in my Facebook
memory feed from six years ago. I would call it a modern day parable of God’s
abundant grace. Basque athlete Iván
Fernández Anaya was competing in a cross-country
race. He was running a distant second behind race leader Abel Mutai – a bronze
medalist at the London Olympics. As they
entered the finishing straight, Anaya saw the Kenyan runner – the certain
winner of the race – mistakenly pull up about 10 meters before the finish,
thinking he had already crossed the line.
Anaya quickly caught up with
him, but instead of exploiting Mutai's mistake to speed past and claim an
unlikely victory, he stayed behind and using gestures, guided the Kenyan to the
line and let him cross first. "I
didn't deserve to win it” said Anaya. “I
did what I had to do. He was the rightful winner…. As soon as I saw he was
stopping, I knew I wasn't going to pass him” (First portion of the story from
Facebook, final quote from Huffington Post).
Water into wine?
No. Standing before water cannons,
snarling police dogs, and hateful mobs?
No. Acting out the extravagant
grace and love of God? Most
certainly.
The dream lives on my friends–it lives on in our hearts – it
lives on in our souls – it lives on through the presence of God’s spirit in our
lives. How have you come to know the
abundance of Christ in your life? How
will you choose to make Christ known to the world around you? How will you choose to share the dream?
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