+I wonder if Jesus’ mother, Mary, was related to my mother. When Mary comes to Jesus saying, “they’re running out of wine---you must do something!” I’m reminded of the many parties my parents hosted when I was young...the biggest worry leading up to those parties was whether or not there was enough food and drink! Now, whenever I have folks over, I’m stressed that there won’t be enough.
This is a fear of scarcity…but that’s not what was going on with Mary. You see, Mary’s always the smartest one in the room, the most intuitive, so when she says to Jesus—“you’ve got to do something, we’re running out of wine,” she wasn’t acting out of fear or face-saving, she just knew that it was time, time for her son to live into his ministry. Time for her son to take the old and turn it into the altogether new.
Jesus doesn’t think it’s his time, but Mary doesn’t really care what he thinks, she knows it’s time and he must act. So he does.
Jesus’ ministry has begun.
But, because this is John’s Gospel, it isn’t as clear as I’m making it sound. This Gospel is full of symbolism. Unlike Matthew, Mark and Luke; John makes no pretense that his Gospel is a straight-forward, historical narrative of the life and ministry of Jesus.
When reading John we must always remember that what’s presented is only part of the story, because with John there’s always more symbolism than our brains can take on the first read through. It’s a little bit like reading William Faulkner or Toni Morrison. Or watching that old TV show, Lost.
A prevailing theme for John is the dawning of a new age. To John, the coming of Jesus as Messiah has changed the world from what it used to be into something altogether new.
This is why John prefers to use the word “signs” instead of “miracles.” The things Jesus did, like turning water into wine, were signs to the faithful that the way we experience God and the way God experiences us is now changed.
What Jesus did was not about an obedient son reluctantly doing what his mother asked; nor was it about Jesus making sure the host of the wedding was not embarrassed by the wine running out, nor was it about making sure those attending the party were able to keep drinking.
What’s really significant in this story is that the water is special water. It’s water that’s been set aside for the Jewish purification rites. It’s there for the people to use for washing. But it wasn’t about being sanitary or comfortable. This washing was a religious ceremony; a ritual cleansing in order to go before the Lord during the wedding feast. In this sign Jesus takes the old- the ritual bath water- and turns it into the new- fresh wine.
Now, it’s important to realize that this isn’t an anti-Semitic reading---Jesus didn’t take “the bad or the wrong” and turn it into the “good and the right!” He didn’t take the useless and turn it into the useful. He took good things from the past and transformed them into other good things for the future.
In this season of beginnings—a new calendar year, the advent of the covenant relationship with the Diocese of WNY-- it’s fitting to ask ourselves: where have we been and where are we going? Or to expand the metaphor of this gospel: What’s our water that Jesus has come to turn into wine? What are the good things from our past that can be changed into good things for our future?
You at St Mark’s have been through your own intentional transformation since 2010, and from that initial rebooting of St Mark’s your community continues to look and consider, to reflect and wonder, to try and sometimes succeed, sometimes not, but always learning more and more about the power of the Holy Spirit as you go along.
While invigorating this can also be tiresome. Sometimes wouldn’t you love to say,
“ok, we’ve explored enough, we’ve tested this and tried that, now we have found the secret and we can sit back, rest on our laurels and stop working so hard. After all, what’s so bad about the old wine---isn’t it true that the older the wine, the better?”
Perhaps. But what John’s teaching us through the Wedding at Cana story is that the second we rely on the what has been, the moment we decide to stop looking at our world through the lens of Christ, searching for the nooks and crannies of our world where the lost and the lonely and the hurting have been cast aside, is the moment that our faith becomes something for the history books instead of something for the evening news.
The new age brought by Jesus the Christ is an ongoing age of transformation and growth and it is on full display right here at St Mark’s, in the Diocese of NWPA and in the Diocese of WNY. We are taking the old wine-skins of business as usual and allowing ourselves to be transformed into something new.
We’re not the people we once were; nor are we the people we will someday become.
We’re in a state of fluidity; we’re water being changed into wine.
We have choices, as individuals and as communities of faith. We can face the future's changes with fear of scarcity and resistance to change; or, we can embrace them with abundant faith and overflowing excitement.
You, the faithful of St Mark’s will be leaders of this charge into the unknown. Through your faithfulness, your courage and your willingness we can all learn what Mary already knew on that wedding day 2000 years ago: the time is now. Get busy.
Amen.
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