Cathedral Sermons
Second Sunday after Epiphany, Sunday 17 January, 2010
Readings: Isaiah 62: 1-5; 1 Corinthians 12: 1-11; John 2:1-11
How does a gospel reading such as the wedding at Cana in Galilee help us to engage with our faith and the realities of living in our world following a horrific event such as the current devastation in Haiti?
It seems almost glib to say anything when 1/3rd of a nation’s people are either killed or badly injured by such a natural disaster!
The problem of having water and enough wine at a party pales into insignificance when thousands of people don’t have any drinking water at all. Yet, global and local tragedies do have the ability to help all of us reassess priorities and acknowledge that we are part of a fragile existence and that no one can take life for granted.
Another cataclysmic earthquake may help us to focus on the bigger world picture and broader social and environmental concerns and put our own issues into perspective.
However, we cannot let an international disaster give us an excuse to ignore the reality that we live here in our place and time and it is important that in the here and now we do learn and practice appropriate and healthy responses to what is occurring locally and personally in our own situations.
In a time before computer games, rugby and the Big Day Out, the most exciting events in small towns like Cana were weddings. After the ceremony the bride and groom weren’t whisked away to the airport to fly to the Gold Coast for a honeymoon. Instead the happy couple was paraded through the streets from the wedding ceremony to their new home. Then for seven days they entertained their families and friends. How would you like that the week after your wedding; your spouse’s family traipsing in and out of your house and making themselves at home?
Jesus and the disciples are enjoying the wedding. Most of us do, there is music, dancing, food and wine. People are chatting, smiling, and laughing. But you know how weddings are - there is nearly always some glitch. At this wedding, the hitch comes at the reception.
The wine runs out. An early tradition has it that Mary is the groom’s aunt. She certainly acts as if she has been appointed to make sure that everything goes right. “They’re out of wine!” Mary says to Jesus. In other words, “Don’t just stand there, do something.”
The newlyweds are going to be embarrassed. We’ve all experienced the stress of having four people to dinner and through various circumstances eight show up! Maybe you have approximated the appetite of all of your dinner guests only to have one person eat everything in sight.
Yet, even so, supplying wine for a wedding would not seem to be high on a list of miracles with which to begin a ministry. One commentator writes, “We could never have guessed that (Jesus) would fling away his first miracle as a light hearted bouquet to romantic love in the middle of a noisy wedding party.”
Jesus says, “Mother, I know. I’ll tend to it.” Six stone jars are there for the rites of purification. They represent the complex rules the people struggle to keep. In filling these jars to the brim, Jesus says, “These laws just get in the way. Life is more joyful than this.”
Wine is a symbol of celebration, life and love. When the guests drink the wine of Christ, they taste joy. Jesus is not a magician doing some razzle-dazzle to garner applause. This story reveals the joy God brings.
But the way John tells it, most of the people never know what happened. They are not paying attention, so they miss it. It is easy to miss almost anything. We get busy. We are used to not paying attention.
Could it be that the greatest tragedy of life is what we miss? What could be worse than missing the gifts of grace, being bored in a fascinating world, feeling no joy in a house filled with children, being loved and feeling no gratitude, having a good job and dreading going to work, eating our food and not noticing how good it tastes, living an entire day without realizing it is a gift? If we do not see signs of God’s presence it is usually because we are not paying attention. Maybe if we used our senses more intentionally in the everyday things of life, as a world community we might be more willing to alleviate situations further afield. When the wine runs out the party is not over. There is a guest who takes care of it. Jesus enables the party to continue. God is forever changing the ordinary into the extraordinary. Because there are so many nations, governments and people who are committed to making the best of a bad situation, aid is pouring into Haiti even as I speak.
We have no report of the wedding party’s response, but the disciples recognize the glory of God and understand this is a joyous, holy moment. God’s presence is best seen by those who are looking.
Sometimes we catch sight of it for just a moment and see the glory and wonder at the heart of things. The window opens. Something comes between us and the well-known place or the faces we see every day, and for just a moment we see what is really there.
God’s presence is revealed day by day, in pleasures large and small, in the joy of good food, laughter, conversation, romance. Every once in a while at a wedding, a family picnic, sitting at your kitchen table, or watching someone you love go out the door or come back in, finding someone still alive after a disaster - you catch a glimpse. You wonder, “Is God really present or did I just imagine it?” Could it be that our imagination allows us to see the deep reality we ordinarily overlook?
The evidence is never conclusive, but it is there. The glory of God can be seen not only in sunsets and symphonies, but in the people we love, the people who love us, and the places that are home, and the humanitarian response in Haiti. When we recognize God as an ever-present guest, then we will see even commonplace objects, mundane routines and oh-so-familiar faces as they really are—signs of God with us.
It has been said that, “The opposite of joy is not sorrow. It is not having hope.” God calls us to have hope; to open our eyes and to see the possibilities both locally and globally in this fragile but wondrous creation…