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The Second Sunday of Epiphany
January 14 , 2007
Delivered by Reverend Sandra Stayner
Isaiah 62:1-5
2 Corinthians 12:1-11
John 2:1-11
The Extravagant love of God
I will never forget my fortieth birthday. We were living in Greenwich at the time and I was not happy to be turning 40. I felt old. My biological clock was ticking much too fast. A friend had invited me to her house for a birthday drink after work so it was late by the time I walked up the steps to our house. David opened the door and gave me a hug and a kiss and I rounded the corner into the living room. "Surprise!" cried a room full of people. The room was filled with balloons, candles and flowers . music was playing in the background. I looked in astonishment at all my friends gathered to wish me happy birthday. My friend Pam slipped a glass of champagne in my hand "we love you" she whispered! I looked around at so many smiling faces - people I loved so much. I couldn't believe it. How could I be depressed in the face of such extravagant love? I was deeply moved by the enormous amount of effort they had gone to not only to put such a wonderful party together, but to keep it totally secret from me as well! It was an incredible evening that makes me feel warm all over whenever I remember that wonderful night. You may or may not not have had a surprise birthday party, but I'm sure you many of you will have your own memories of moments when you have felt deeply loved by friends or family who have found a wonderful way to celebrate you!
The gospel story today about Jesus changing water into wine at a wedding feast is a story that speaks of the extravagancy of God's love for his people. Jesus is at a wedding party with his mother. The party had been going on for a long time - in those days wedding feasts could go on for days at a time. The host of the party is distraught because he hasn't ordered enough wine to keep his guests happy so he turns to Jesus' mother who sensing her host's discomfort asks her son to help. I've always thought that this story is strange. In John's gospel this is the first miracle that Jesus performs, the first sign that he is the Messiah. But it's such a strange way for him to announce himself. It's not as if it would have been a complete disaster to run out of wine - there must have been something else to drink! We know there was water around. I would have thought that the coming out of the Messiah would have been marked by something a bit more remarkable than a host's desire not to be embarrassed. No-one is miraculously healed, no demons are cast out, no storms are calmed. Jesus simply changes some water into wine so that a wedding party can continue for a few more hours!
But John tells us that that simple miracle had an extraordinary effect on Jesus' disciples. Mary his mother saw God's glory in the miracle Jesus performed and began to believe that her son really was the Son of God. The first miracle of Jesus took place during the celebration of a wedding, as two young people commit their lives to one another in love. That's significant because the good news that Jesus brings is the extraordinary power of God's love for his people, a love that will cause him to go to great extremes to let them know they are loved.
The strange thing is that the miracle at Cana wasn't really supposed to happen. When Jesus' mother comes to him and asks him to do something about the fact that their host had run out of wine Jesus tells her it's the wrong time for him to reveal who he is. There's a tone of rebuke in his response - but Mary ignores it because she has faith in him even before she really knows who he is. "Do what he tells you". She says to the wine stewards. One can only think that this miracle that begins to reveal him as the Son of God, is born out of Jesus' deep love and respect for his mother. It is her faith in him that allows God's glory to be revealed to those with eyes to see, just as our faith and desire to follow Jesus may, even today, enable the miracle of God's love be revealed to someone who has not yet experienced it.
What Mary does not yet realize is the terrible, terrible cost of God's love for you and me.
What is really going on in this simple interchange between Mary and Jesus?
"They have no wine" says Mary.
"But my hour has not yet come!" Jesus replies.
"You want me to change this water into wine so that guests can drink their fill.
Woman! You have no idea what you.re asking me to do!
This power is very costly!
My blood, my very blood is what they need to quench their thirst!"
"Do what he tells you" Says Mary in her ignorance. Like so many people who have great faith in Jesus, Mary does not yet comprehend the cost of following the Son of God's love. But she loves him, as he loves her! And she will stay with him over the next three years -even when the going gets very, very tough, until eventually she will find herself at the foot of the cross when the hour comes for God's glory to be revealed and Jesus is nailed to the wood. Here she will become mother to all whose love would lead them to her son Jesus. She will be with him at the point of his greatest suffering as his blood is poured out for the forgiveness of the sins of the world. She will be there to experience the unbelievable, ecstatic joy of seeing him raised from the dead!
At the wedding in Cana Jesus takes the pots that are filled with water amounting to the a enormous amount of 120 or 180 gallons, and changes it into the finest wine the guests had ever had - a quantity that reflects the abundance of wine that will be sent by God in the last days so his people can rejoice and celebrate. The prophet Isaiah assures his people that God will never rest until his glory is revealed in the midst of them, and their lands are no longer be forsaken. God's love will be poured out for all his people at the final wedding feast with an abundance that is almost unthinkable. They will know again the joy of God's delighting in them just as a groom finds such joy in his first glimpse of the woman he loves, dressed in white, walking down the aisle towards him as they commit their lives to one another in love.
The joy of these scriptures for us today, is the hope that is contained within them. No longer are we to be left comfortless, a desolate people, thirsting for love. In a miraculous way, as we turn to Jesus like Mary did at the wedding in Cana God will take the water of our lives and turn it into wine. We will be among the guests rejoicing at the wedding feast. We will be at the foot of the cross as Christ is lifted up. We will rejoice to share in his resurrection from the dead.
Father, how good you are. How very, very good, to take the water of my soul and make it wine.
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