Epiphany II, Year C
The Rev. Nigel Taber-Hamilton, Rector
Isaiah 62: 1-5; 1 Corinthians 12: 1-11; John 2:1-11
Epiphany. This is a season that's searching to answer St. Mark's question about Jesus: "Who, then, is this?"
Today we hear the start of St. John's answer, an answer given through his most familiar story, the wedding at Cana in Galilee. Cana is near Nazareth, and Nazareth is only a few miles from the Sea of Galilee, so Jesus is in his own back yard here he grew up in this area, and this was were his active, three-year public ministry was exercised (a "Lake Ministry" some scholars call it, since 99% of the time the locations mentioned in the gospels are around the lake).
No doubt the wedding was that of a family friend or a distant relative, because he wouldn't have required an invitation if it were some close family member.
Jesus public ministry hasn't yet begun - but he already has disciples. Both Jesus and his disciples were almost certainly former disciples of John the Baptist. St. John's chronology says this wedding happened six days after Jesus' baptism by John in the Jordan, and I believe that the baptism marked the Baptist's anointing of Jesus in recognition of that moment when Jesus came into his own, when he had outgrown the Baptist.
So this wedding is the first time Jesus and his disciples appear in public after that moment - its very obviously the beginning of something new.
St. John has a habit of intentionally mixing up historical events with profound metaphorical truths, and this story is no exception.
The amphorae hold about 30 gallons each, and there are six of them. They were intended - as everyone there would have known - for purification rites. Given the poverty of the time - and the fact that Jesus and his social circle were peasants - the wedding wouldn't have been large - maybe no more than 50 guests - so that's nearly four gallons of wine per guest!
If we were to take the story literally then one literal conclusion would be that Jesus is encouraging alcoholism!
But this isn't story isn't about having enough wine for 1st Century wedding guests - its about the story that lies at the heart of the Jewish scriptures - the Covenant-Promises of God. The message is that a New Promise has just been inaugurated with new wine - huge amounts of wine - wine of the highest quality - nothing cheap for God!
John tells us what's new through the water and the wine. The water is for purification - it represents the Old Covenant that was based on purity - the new wine is for celebration. This one moment and transition is a metaphor for the whole of Jesus' public ministry, where he constantly rejects the rule-bound purity that always excludes for the love-bound celebration that always unites.
Weddings are, in my experience, one of those times in our lives when doubt, fear, pain, sorrow, are dismissed, and we get as close to pure happiness as is possible this side of the river. And we know without having to be told that they mark a new beginning. And it's a new beginning that has significant consequences. In a wedding a new community is created - not just with "two people becoming one" but two families becoming one community.
So this story of the Wedding is a profound moment in the story of Jesus.
In the Epistle for today Paul helps us understand what sort of community is created by this new covenant of joyful abundance. As is so often the case, the experience of adversity provokes clarity, and Paul's clarity is eloquent.
The New Covenant Community, he says, is one with diverse gifts, but the community comes first, the gifts come second. Thus recognizing God's gifts is important, but more important, Paul, says, is that those gifts contribute to the common good.
What provoked this vision? What Paul recognized in the Corinthian Church was the exercise of a sort of rugged individualism that was threatening to dismember the Body of Christ. In a country founded by rugged individualists we should recognize those sort of folk.
And such a community cannot be one that - to use Isaiah's metaphor - will be given a new name by God.
But, Paul says, it can be and it will be such a community worthy of God's New Name if the Corinthian Christians recognize that most basic of human truths - we need each other.
It really doesn't matter who has what gifts, only that we are willing to use those gifts for the building up of the community.
In the end our gifts are not our own, says Paul, they are "charismata" - gifts from God that belong to God. Our gifts only matter - just as our faith only matters - when they're about relationships in which people matter most.
The real sign of the Spirit of God is not the ability to sustain spiritual "highs", or that we appear to be devout, or that we work hard for the kingdom, but only, only in as far as the presence of love and compassion in our lives is obvious.
That's a message that's true in every time and place, including ours.
Our gifts come from God, and they're only of value when we use them for the common good - not to promote our own agenda, not to make ourselves the center of attention - when we're not vehicles for compassion we're simply a distraction, or even a hindrance to the gospel.
Ultimately that's the vision of community that's contained in our Church's understanding of baptism, where each baptized person is a minister of the Gospel, each baptized person is of equal value, each baptized person is important - vital - to the health of the Body of Christ.
The invitation for us - who are the members of the Body of Christ - is to hold that vision at the center of our own community.
Only then will we be able to enter fully into the great celebration of God's abundance prefigured in the Wedding at Cana.
Amen.
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