Sermon for All Saints-by-the-Sea, The Second Sunday after the Epiphany, January 17, 2010
by the Reverend Ann Symington

Texts: Isaiah 62:1-5, Ps. 36:5-10, 1Corinthians 12:1-11, John 2:1-11

In the Name of God, Creator, Redeemer and Sustainer. Amen.

 “Jesus did this, the first of his signs, in Cana of Galilee, and revealed his glory; and his disciples believed in him.”  John 2:11


What we hear in today’s Gospel reading from John is the first act of ministry that Jesus performs. It appears to be out of the ordinary as the first thing that an evangelist would want to tell.
Remember how the other gospels begin?  In Luke, it is a sermon in the synagogue.  In Mark, it is an exorcism.   In Matthew, Jesus’ first act of ministry is no less than the Sermon on the Mount.  But in John, the first act of ministry is turning water into wine.

We should remember that for John the seven signs in this Gospel are pointers to God’s glory and serve as entries to belief.  After this he heals a paralytic, feeds a crowd of 5,000, walks on water, heals a blind man, raises Lazarus from the dead, and washes the disciples’ feet.  Compared to these we wonder why Jesus starts out his ministry supplying wine for a wedding celebration? Clearly, we have to have more information.

The setting is a first century Jewish wedding in a small, obscure village named Cana.  The town is just down the road from Nazareth far from the temple in Jerusalem.  Weddings then were even a bigger deal than they are now.  In the first place, they lasted seven days and the entire community was invited.  Food and wine were supposed to flow continuously during this time.  In fact, if the bride and groom ran out of wine it was considered to be a sign that the marriage was headed for disaster.  For years to come, people would remember this couple as the ones who ran out of wine at their wedding. The couple would have failed the test of hospitality.   Their grandchildren would hear of this social blunder.  This is a very serious situation.

Jesus’ mother is there. Jesus, the Word made flesh, God who dwells among us, is present joining in and getting involved with human affairs.  His group of new disciples is there.   Mary notices that the wine jugs are empty.  She shows great compassion for the couple. Not wanting them to suffer a great social disaster she says to her son, “they have no wine”.  Jesus appears to shrug his mother off.  In fact, as a mother myself, I would say he was a little sassy to her.  “Woman, what concern is that to you and to me?” Perhaps he needed a little push to begin his ministry.  Mary is wise as well as persistent.   She knows he will help so she does not cajole or argue.  She simply tells the wait staff to do whatever Jesus tells them to do.   So Jesus acts.  He tells the wait staff to fill a half dozen big stone jars with water which in obedience they do.  Then he directs them to draw out some of the wine and take it to the chief steward.  Can’t you just see the chief steward’s eyes growing wide with amazement as he tastes what he thinks is water and discovers it is wine?  Not just any wine but really good wine and an abundance of it.  One commentary I read says this would be the equivalent of about 750 bottles of wine.

 The celebration is saved! The last verse in today’s Gospel reading points out:
“Jesus did this, the first of his signs, in Cana of Galilee, and revealed his glory; and his disciples believed in him.”

“The first of his signs”.  Clearly, John considered this act of significant enough importance to put it first.  When we look at the wedding episode or any of the other signs in John several things stand out.  One is that some people understand the significance of the signs and some people don’t.  In this episode some people, Mary, the disciples and the wait staff, catch on to the wonder of water changed into wine.  Many others who are present don’t have a clue as to what is going on.  Yet the wine is there for them as abundantly as it is for the others.

This story also reveals something that we cannot take for granted.   Signs of Jesus at work appear all around us. If we can pay attention, the ordinary is being made holy every day. They happen whether we acknowledge them or not.  They benefit us whether we notice them or not.  It is pure joy to see these signs for what they are and to believe in the one to whom they point.  For the disciples, John notes, this was a huge epiphany. He tells us that in being present “his disciples believed in him.” Vs 11

There was a story in yesterday’s Wall Street Journal of the rescue of a woman in Haiti that can be seen as a very contemporary sign of Christ’s  presence in the world.  It begins, “ Her muffled song could be heard outside the jumble of concrete and rebar: ‘ Jesus will save me. Jesus will save me.’  Moments later, members of a Belgian rescue crew sedated Rosemene Josiane, 28 years old, then sawed off her right leg and pulled her from the home that had collapsed on top of her.  She was alive.”  The article reveals that a refrigerator which had fallen near her had taken the brunt of the concrete slab that had fallen down when the quake had hit.  However, Ms. Josiane’s leg was trapped within the broken concrete.  Her cousin, Renel Merancort, got to her home Tuesday night as soon as he could after the quake.  He found that the rest of her family had died.  He heard his cousin’s song and for a time he stayed talking to her.  “I came here and listened to her crying,” he said.  He decided to try to find help.  He was extremely persistent.  Amazingly, he found help in the form of a Belgian First aid and Support Team.  By now it was Thursday evening.  The team was able to give fluids and sedation intravenously to Ms. Joisane.  All that night Mr. Merancourt kept vigil “trying to soothe her”.  This man was very obedient to the call to love one another.  He was being Christ’s very presence to her.

The rescuers returned on Friday and began to try to free her leg from the concrete.  They described her in the story as “scared but very conscious.”  They assigned one rescuer to stay with her at all times during their efforts.  All day they tried to find ways to save her leg.  The story says, “By 2 pm they decided too much time had passed, and they needed to get her out.  A medic put her under anesthesia.  One worker poured iodine on what looked like a hacksaw and handed it to another who dove into the hole.  Fifteen minutes later, they pulled her out on a yellow gurney.  A medic checked her vital signs and they were stable.  The crowd quickly parted, many of them waving their hands and yelling, ‘Thank you, Jesus.’  The rescuers loaded her into the back of the truck alongside another woman from the area who had a splint on her leg and took them both to a hospital.  Members of the crowd stayed behind still chanting, ‘Thank you, Jesus, thank you.”

Should one of us be writing a modern day Gospel where would this story be placed?  For certainly it serves as a pointer to God’s glory through Christ and as an entry into belief therefore being a sign pointing to God’s presence.  As with the story of the wedding in Cana, we do not know beyond those who already professed faith in Jesus how being a part of the rescue or witnessing the rescue affected those who were there.  It is clear from the story, however, that a miracle occurred.  Signs of Jesus’ very presence at work appeared throughout this story.  From the cousin who found help and kept vigil to the rescue team who saved her life to the witnesses who gave the glory to God for everything that happened by expressing their profound thanks to Jesus. God was present in the situation and in the people who came to help.

To grow in grace means to become increasingly aware that everything in life is a miracle or a sign pointing to Christ.  As St. Basil says: “All the objects in the world are an invitation to faith, not unbelief.”

Perhaps the Cana story appears first in the Gospel of John because in reality the world is a wedding celebration. Here Jesus transforms the water of ordinariness into the wine of miracles.  So Cana continues.  It continues not simply at this table, this feast of grace, but also when we leave here to encounter Christ active throughout the whole world.  And when we act as Christ’s hands and feet in the world we are part of the transformation of water into wine. In fact, both these Gospel stories John’s and the Good News of the story in Haiti, point to God’s desire that we cooperate with him.  God in Christ dwells with us in times of joy and in times of need when we are at the end of our resources.  In both, he desires our faith, our persistence and our obedience to make miracles happen.  To show God’s glory in the world   Christ changes the ordinariness that wearies us into the wonder that renews us and makes us glad.  Jesus came to make something holy of your life.  Let him do that for you.  Let him change water into wine for you.

Two French Creole prayers from Haiti sent by a friend of mine who has volunteered there for years:                                                                                  
Lord, if we are alive today in spite of hurricanes, hunger, sickness (and earthquakes) we should say, “Thank you, Lord.”     We must be here for a purpose. Amen.

O Lord,make you and me like coffee and milk.
Mixed together we can never be separated.  Amen.