The Second Sunday after Epiphany - 20 January 2013

"Everyone serves the good wine first, and then the inferior wine after the guests have become drunk. But you have kept the good wine until now."

• Every week, I write a short paragraph to place in the bulletin as a comment on one of the readings. Sometimes I preach on the same subject, sometimes I don't. (note: this week I asked a question: where would you rather spend eternity - in a worship service or at one of our congregation's potluck meals?) 
• The thought that came to me this week I believe is worth preaching about. As it should be, the passage in question is about God's grace and God's desire for salvation for us all.
• We've all heard of the wedding feast at Cana and what Jesus did when the wine ran out. The changing of water into wine certainly miraculous, especially since we're more used to wine turning into vinegar. Not so miraculous.
• Here Jesus turns water into wine for the good of the entire party. In Jesus' day, when a wedding feast would last all week, the best wine would be served first and the lesser vintages would be served later, when the guests were less able to tell the really good wine from the more pedestrian wines, let alone the stuff that should have been left for vinegar. The idea of the best wine coming last really is a comment on the Kingdom of God coming to full fruition with the revelation of Jesus.
• There is also the amount of the wine that formerly was water. The six stone jars together would hold up to 180 gallons of wine, which would be more than 720 litres of wine. There would be a super-abundance of wine! This would be an amount that no one could expect or maybe even imagine!
• You can imagine the conversation:
• “We're out of wine.”

“No, we're not. Here's some. Wait a minute! There's a lot! And it's GOOD!”

What Jesus does at the wedding feast is called a “Sign” by John the Evangelist. Jesus did this, the first of his signs, in Cana of Galilee, and revealed his glory; and his disciples believed in him. Signs point to something, whether they are traffic signs or advertising signs, clues in a mystery story or hints in a puzzle. What does this sign point to? The Gospel of John is full of these “signs.” The first part of the book is called the “Book of Signs” and includes healings and the multiplication of loaves and fishes, ending with the last sign, the raising of Lazarus. The ultimate sign is the Resurrection So what do all the “signs” in John's Gospel point to?

What they point to is grace, pure and simple, yet powerful and profound. All of these things that Jesus does could be called miracles, but John the Evangelist calls them signs. If they were miracles, we might be tempted to stop at the event itself and not go beyond it. As signs, all these happenings point to what is beyond, what we call grace and grace embodied in Jesus Christ.

The signs found in John's Gospel are all very tangible signs. Take the sign at the wedding in Cana as an example. Six large jars of water become over 700 litres of wine in response to a request about the sad lack of wine at a feast. Could things be more tangible? Could things be more tasty?

The Scriptures often use the figure of a banquet or a meal to show us the Kingdom of God. It's no mistake that the highest form of Christian worship is the meal of the Lord's Supper. Yes, it is a minimal meal, but it is a meal and it shows us the grace of God in a very sensible and tangible way. When we eat it, we remember Jesus as he commanded and we celebrate his presence among us through the simple means of bread and wine and the presence of our sisters and brothers in the faith.

Meals are a good sign of God's Kingdom. That's why the Scriptures use meals and feasts to illustrate the Kingdom. At their best, meals include fellowship, conversation, sharing, and giving and receiving. The guests take joy in being together and take joy in the feast itself. The host takes joy in the presence of the guests and takes joy in the giving of self in the hospitality, the preparations, and the feasting. The meal does not have to be fancy to be a true banquet. One of the greatest feasts I've ever had in my life was at a friend's home with all his family (and cat) where we shared conversation and time over a sumptuous meal of freshly baked bread and soft, warm butter.

Jesus' signs don't tell us about the love of God; they show us the love of God. They don't tell us about God present and active in the world; they show us God present and active in the world.

That is our role in the present world as well. We as Christians are to show the grace of God to one another and to the world at large. We are the ones who show the Kingdom of God to the world in what we say and do. We are the ones who make the Kingdom of God real to the world around us.

Maybe this is why our activities outside of worship might be more apt to tell about God's Kingdom than our worship. After all, we spend maybe an hour here in these pews and the rest of our week elsewhere. Here is where we find the reality of the Kingdom in Word and Sacrament. Everywhere else, we are God's Word to the world and the sacrament of God's presence in the world.

So let's continue to pray and to worship and then let's continue to take what we become here into the rest of the world for the rest of our time. For all of that, remember the words of Jesus' mother, Mary: His mother said to the servants, "Do whatever he tells you."