Sermon for January 19, 2025 - The Second Sunday after Epiphany
Guest Preacher: The Rev. Mary Holmen
St. Peter’s Anglican Church, Winnipeg
Today’s readings from both the Hebrew scriptures and the Gospels are about marriage, but as a symbol rather than as a way of life.
The book that bears Isaiah’s name consists of three books written at different times. The first book, consisting of the first 39 chapters, comes from the time before the conquest of Judah and the exile of the people in Babylon. The second part begins with those wonderful words in chapter 40, “Comfort, O comfort my people, says your God.” This book, running from chapters 40-55, is all about the hope of returning from exile to their own land. The third book, consisting of the last 10 chapters, was probably written after the exiles returned home. Today’s reading comes from this time. When Cyrus, king of Persia, conquered Babylon, he pursued a policy of allowing other nations to worship in their own way and allowed captives to return to their own countries. So, the Israelites returned from their long exile. In contrast to the message of joyful restoration proclaimed in Second Isaiah, they came home to a ruin, to desolation, to a dump. The city was laid waste and the Temple, the centre of the faith, was a heap of rubble. The people are Forsaken and the land is Desolate.
It is in this climate of despair that the author of the third part of Isaiah writes his hymn of hope. He says he will not be quiet, and he will not rest until the restoration of Jerusalem is as clear as the dawn. You will be restored, he says, to beauty and glory, like a finely polished jewel. The land and the people will have new names. The people will be called no longer “Forsaken” but “My delight is in her” (could this be a wedding toast?). The land will be called no longer “Desolate” but “Married”, for God will rejoice over the people like a bridegroom over his bride. Clearly, marriage for this writer is a symbol of hope, a symbol of a settled future.
Something similar is happening in the story of the wedding at Cana. It’s interesting that Jesus’ first miracle isn’t about responding to desperate human need. Jesus isn’t feeding the hungry or healing the sick or delivering those possessed by demons or even raising a dead person. There is no crisis here except the crisis of embarrassment at running out of wine for a wedding feast. So, what is going on here? This outwardly simple story has many layers of meaning.
On a very human level, there is a message about the enjoyment of created things and human celebrations. Jesus is present at the wedding, sharing in the joy and happiness of the occasion. His provision of wine is extravagant – somewhere between 120 and 180 gallons! Not only is the wine great in quantity; it is high in quality. Wine in the Bible is always a symbol of joy and celebration. Jesus says to Nathanael, “You will see greater things than these”, and here is the first of them. The sign is a manifestation of abundant grace, that “grace upon grace” that John refers to in the prologue of his gospel. Grace is not something we have; it is something God does. Epiphany is about revelation, but revelation is not always about awe and majesty and mystery, what we might think of as the divine nature of Jesus. When God shows up, sometimes the result is joy, delight, even surprise, and abundance. Jesus is fully human as well as fully divine, and he enjoys a good party. The sign of changing water into wine points us to God, who is the source of all life and joy.
The image of the wedding feast is often used in the Bible as a picture of the restoration of Israel, and wine symbolizes the joy of salvation. Isaiah 25:6 speaks of the day when God will make “a feast of rich food, a feast of well-aged wine” for all peoples – and that is another theme of Epiphany – that salvation is for everyone. This image – a feast that includes everyone – was a central part of Jesus’ teaching and activity. Think of the meals eaten with disciples and critics alike, the offer of table fellowship to tax collectors and sinners, the parable of the guests who refuse to come to the banquet (or the wedding, depending on if you’re reading Matthew or Luke). By word and deed, Jesus proclaimed the breaking in of the age of complete fellowship and communion between God and humankind. The wedding at Cana is an acted parable, proclaiming that the promise of the wedding feast is fulfilled. The new age is here.
When the wine begins to run short, Jesus’ mother (side note – she is never named Mary in John’s gospel) approaches him. She’s saying, “It’s time.” She pushes him into the beginning of the ministry that will lead to his death. It costs her to bring about the beginning of her son’s public life.
Jesus seems to answer in a way that seems quite rude to our ears. “Woman, what is that to you and me?” He addresses his mother the same way, as “Woman”, in her only other appearance in this gospel – at the foot of the cross when Jesus gives her into the care of the beloved disciple. She is present at his first sign and at its fulfillment on the cross. In answer to her request at the wedding, Jesus says “My hour has not yet come.” In John’s gospel, Jesus’ “hour” means the hour of his glorification, the hour of his passion, death, resurrection, and return to the Father. It is on the cross that Jesus fully reveals the glory of self-giving love. The best is saved for last. The water of purification is replaced with the choicest wine. Existing religious institutions that were meant to bring people closer to God are replaced by Jesus himself. He is now the way into relationship with God.
Then John tells us, “This is the first of the signs by which Jesus revealed his glory and led his disciples to believe in him.” Here we have reached the most important part of the story, the point to which John has been leading. A sign conveys a message, usually an important message. A sign stands in place of and points to something else. Some biblical scholars call the first thirteen chapters of John’s gospel “The Book of Signs”. This first sign has the same purpose as all the others: it tells us something about Jesus, who he is and what he does. What is important is not how the water was changed into wine, not Mary’s role, not the reaction of the steward or the servants. What is important, and what we need to focus on, is Jesus himself, who he is and why he has come.
All these meanings, and probably more, are operating at different levels in this story. When we read it in isolation, we may be tempted to see it as some kind of benevolent magic. In fact, the opening chapters of John’s gospel are very carefully constructed. The wedding at Cana takes place “on the third day”. But the third day after what? John is deliberately modelling his gospel on the first chapter of Genesis. Both begin with the same words, “In the beginning”. Both outline a sequence of days, each day with its own event. To put the wedding story into context, we need to go beyond the prologue of John’s gospel that is so familiar to us from the Christmas season and read the rest of the first chapter. On the first day, John the Baptist states that he is not the Messiah. On the second day, he points to Jesus as the Lamb of God. The day after that, Andrew and Peter follow Jesus; the next day, Jesus called Philip and Nathanael. Then on the third day after that, in other words, on the seventh day of this new creation story, there is a wedding at Cana in Galilee.
Now, you will remember that on the seventh day of the original creation, God rested, and that day became the origin of the Sabbath, the Jewish day of rest. The Sabbath rest in turn became a symbol for the age of the Messiah and the completion of God’s plan, the number 7 being the Jewish number of perfection. Against this reading, the story of the wedding at Cana takes on yet another layer of meaning. The followers of Jesus live in the age of the new Sabbath. As the first Sabbath completed the old creation, the transformation of the water of purification into abundant and superb wine completes the new creation, the beginning of a new age and a new humanity. In the homely setting of a village wedding, the eternal Word who was at the beginning, through whom all things came into being, is revealed as the One who completes the eternal purposes of God.
The extravagant sign of changing water into wine is a sign that, in Jesus, life, joy, and salvation have arrived. Later in John’s gospel, Jesus will tell us “I came that they might have life and have it abundantly” (John 10:10). Abundant life is more than mere existence or survival, and certainly more than an abundance of material goods. Abundant life is to know and be known by the One through whom all life came into being. It is to have an intimate relationship with the God who can’t stop doing good things for us. Of course, abundant life does not mean the absence of sorrow and suffering. I’ve said many times to many people that faith is not a vaccine against trouble. But abundant life does mean that, in Jesus, we have an abundant, extravagant source of grace to sustain us and give us joy even in times of disappointment and struggle. Abundant life means that in Christ, we are joined to the source of true life, life that is rich and deep and eternal, life that neither suffering nor sorrow, nor even death itself, can destroy.
The revelation of God in Christ shows us what the reign of God is like. It is like a village wedding to which everyone is invited and where the guests are surprised and delighted at the abundance provided for them. This first sign from Jesus shows us that the bridegroom has arrived (John 1:29), and he is truly the life of the party!
