January 16, 2022 – 2nd Sunday after Epiphany

“The Light of the world who changed water in wine, still shines as brightly in our lives today.”

Let us pray.  God of love and light, we give you thanks for your presence in this time and place, and within each one of us gathered here and in our many places. Help us now to open our minds and our hearts, our whole lives, to receive the gift of your living word for us this day, and may the words of my mouth and the meditations of all our hearts be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, our strength and our redeemer.  Amen.

So, I don’t need to remind you that it has been a brutally cold last few weeks here in southern Manitoba.  We’ve had a few days of slight reprieve, today being one of those, but it really has seemed to be a continual deep freeze since Christmas Day.  One thing, though, that you may notice, that seems more pronounced at this time of year rather than in the summer, is on a clear night, if you’re brave enough to go outside in the cold, and there’s a full or almost full moon – notice how much you can see outside even in the night – even though the sun which is our real source of light is on the other side of the globe.  The reflected light of the moon lights up our surroundings so that we can actually see where we are going and what’s happening around us.  So even thought the moon does not have its own light, the moon is illumined by our sun and that illumined light can show us the way.  It can allow us to navigate around even if we don’t directly have the light of the sun at that time.

Now, I realize this sounds a little but like an astronomical sermon, but in the season of Epiphany we’re exploring the revealing - the epiphany of Jesus of Nazareth to the world as the Messiah – as the Christ, the Son of God – the light of the world.  All three of our Proper Prayers in today’s service refer to light, or to us being illumined.  The Collect Prayer had these words: “Jesus Christ is the light of the world.  May your people, illumined by your word and sacraments, shine with the radiance of his glory…”  The Prayer over the Gifts which we’ll use in a few moments uses these words, “… you have revealed your Son as the Messiah.  May we hear his word and follow it, and live as children of light.”  And then, our prayer toward the end of the service, “Fill us with your Holy Spirit, that through us your light may shine in all the world.”  So Jesus, as the light of the world – a little bit like the sun in our illustration, and our being illumined by the light of Christ – like the moon is illumined by our sun, shining in the world; revealing the love and the truth of God so that all people can recognize their creator.  So we are to be like that bright moon on a dark winter’s night, shining with God’s light for the sake of the world.

With that foundation, let’s look at the Gospel Reading today from John’s Gospel, chapter 2 – the wedding in Cana of Galilee.  Now there’s one thing to note when you are reading John’s Gospel.  There is always the basic narrative – the story of what is happening with Jesus and his disciples. But there is also always a theological narrative being woven through it, told in symbols and images.  On the first story-level of today’s Gospel - it’s a powerful story of one of Jesus’ first miracles – turning water into wine - the wine to provide for a wedding feast.  In his culture, this is a major act of hospitality.  It’s not just a kind of “party trick.”  It would have been a shameful breach of that hospitality if the wine had run out before the end of the wedding feast, which could last up to seven days.  And it had the desired effect that Jesus had hoped it would have on his disciples.  We read, “Jesus did this, the first of his signs, in Cana of Galilee, and revealed his glory; and his disciples believed in him.”  “His disciples believed in him.” This is the key in John’s Gospel.  John tells us near the end of his Gospel that this is the whole reason that he’s writing this account of Jesus’ life.  He says, “These are written so that you may come to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that through believing you may have life in his name.”

Now, in addition to this story about Jesus, there is a whole other theological narrative that is going on.  And that adds another enriching dimension to what we read.  First of all, this miracle – this epiphany story – takes place at a wedding feast.  In the Israelite culture of the day, at that time, wedding feasts were thought of as being symbolic of the last days and the coming reign of God.  And when that reign or kingdom of God came in its fullness, it was thought to be like a marriage of God and God’s people.  And therefore, this wedding context is “ripe.”  It sets the scene for helping to open our eyes to see this epiphany.  Then notice the vessels that are used for the miracle – stone water jars for the Jewish rites of purification.  These very much symbolize the law and the Old Covenant of God.  And then the transformed liquid that is drawn out of these vessels is the ‘new wine’.  But it’s different from what is expected.  And of course, Jesus says that the Messiah is the ‘new wine’ – born in the context of Israel and the Old Law of the Covenant, but being new – fresh – a miracle in himself.  So this theological narrative helps to make the revelation of who Jesus is as the Christ real for the readers of John’s Gospel – not just at the time of the events, not just in the year 122, but in the year 2022.  So this revelation of Jesus as the gift of God – as the light and life of the world – is now to illumine us, to empower us, in our words and our actions, such that our lives shine with the reality of Christ’s saving love – lighting up this world – our world, our family, our community, our workplaces, our relationships – such that others are able to see the living God, and respond to that saving love.

But I think there’s a bit of a problem.  All this happened 2,000 years ago.  The ‘new wine’ of Jesus of Nazareth seems to be well past its well-aged, best-before-date.  Sure, we still try to nurture the little flame within us.  We still appreciate its warmth and glow.  But it still seems to be a “gift from the past” – something that we continue to treasure for ourselves, but something from the past.  But Jesus has not gone away!  The resurrected Christ was the one who said, “I am with you always, to the end of the ages.”  The problem is – we have lost our sense of ‘present expectation’ – that the Christ who turned water into wine when he was physically present in the world, is still just as present and still offering the new wine of God’s kingdom in many ways and in many places in our lives.

The Collect Prayer tries to make this “present sense” for us with these words, “illumined by your word and sacraments” that we may shine in the world.  But we still tend to treat these sacraments as gifts from the past – the written words of Scripture – 1800 years old; the gift of Baptism and the Holy Eucharist – probably even 1900 years old.  And so when we celebrate the Eucharist, so often we feel we are remembering Christ’s sacrifice on the cross for us.  But this is not the intended use of ‘word and sacraments’!  Stories in Scripture are to be touchstones to help us hear and discern God speaking in our lives today!  Holy Baptism is to be the gift of God’s forgiving and adopting grace, and the gift of the Holy Spirit, for us today!  In the Holy Eucharist, we don’t receive a ‘memory’ of what Christ did for us 2000 years ago; but because of what he did 2000 years ago, we receive the living Christ today – here and now.  The light of God’s love and truth in Jesus Christ that we are to be illumined with, shines brightly in our lives today.  It’s not ancient history – it is now!  The living Christ is trying to work in similar ways to how he did at a wedding in Cana, in our lives now. 

So how can we “pull” the reality of this light all the way forward from 2000 years ago to today – to make it present now?  Well I did warn you that this was a bit of an astronomical sermon.  So, if you look up into the night sky in the northern hemisphere, especially in the summer months, you can see three particular stars.  They’re referred to as the Summer Triangle – the stars of Deneb, Vega and Altair.  Vega and Altair are relatively close to the earth – 25 and almost 17 light years away.  A light year is simply the distance light can travel in one year.  So the light we see from Vega left the star a few years before the beginning of this millennium.  But Deneb is 2,615 light years away.  So the light we see today from that Deneb star was generated over 600 years before Jesus Christ was even born!  Yet, that light burns brightly in our summer night-time sky.  In the same way the light who came into or world two thousand years ago shines just as brightly on us today.  The Communion Hymn that we’ll sing today in a few minutes helps us to cement this “present day” reality.  It’s called “Jesus, come, for we invite you.”  Let the words sink deeply in as you sing them – especially in the last verse.   “Jesus, come! Surprise our dullness; make us willing to receive, more than we can yet imagine, all the best you have to give: let us find your hidden riches, taste your love, believe, and live!”   Amen.