Epiphany II
The Rev. Nigel Taber-Hamilton, Rector
Isaiah 62: 1-5; 1 Corinthians 12: 1-11; John 2; 1-11
Do you know that this passage from John's gospel is the most requested passage at weddings? I suppose - on face value at least - that's not surprising, is it....after all, the word 'wedding" appears in the very first sentence, and the outcome is pretty joyful!
So now I'm going to ask you a question. But I think by now you've all learned that the answers to my questions aren't always the ones that might appear most obvious! So please take this as a word of caution to think carefully before you hold up your hand.......so, to the question: I'd like to see a show of hands - who thinks this gospel passage is about a wedding?
Smart people! No, this passage is not about a wedding - the story itself is simply a vehicle to make some very profound points about Jesus and the new identity of those who are his followers.
So let's move on into the passage, and here I'd like to test your memories. Recently I said, about the four gospels, that they were written backwards - starting from the Passion, the Suffering Narrative. Then, about John's Gospel, I said that everything in his gospel pointed to and helped to make sense of one central thing - anyone remember what that thing is? I just mentioned it: The Passion Narrative - Jesus suffering, death, burial, resurrection. Everything in John's gospel relates in some way to that, because, in the end, that IS what our faith is centered in: without either the death or the resurrection there would be no Christianity, no Christians.
Can you see where John puts in a flag, a direct memory cue for his community? - "On the third day....." Even if you didn't know that everything in John's gospel is about Jesus' death and resurrection you'd say "wow, that sounds familiar!"
There's one other connection, too - but this one's much harder, so I'll help you with a question: how does Jesus address his mother? It's an odd way: "Woman". Who would call their mother "woman"? There is one other place where Jesus addresses his mother as "Woman" - from the cross, when Mary is there with the Beloved Disciple.
The focus of this passage is on the cross and the Third Day - on crucifixion and resurrection, on the Triduum that lies at the liturgical heart of our faith. So this passage is about a liturgy, but not the one we might think - not a wedding but that liturgy that IS our faith.
This, like every other thing in John's gospel, is saying something about what the story of Jesus' death and resurrection means for this new community that he is writing for. So let's look at those other things and see what they tell us. John tells us that:
- Jesus does away with the costly, metered, and mediated access to God through the institutions of the Temple and replaces them with himself;
- Jesus replaces the Manna given by Moses with his own body and blood; and, most dramatically,
- Jesus dies as the new Passover lamb, the Jewish Pascha has become a Christian Pascha - a point we English speakers miss because we name that feast "Easter" and not, as in every other language, "Pascha".
- And, lastly, today he transforms the water of Jewish purification into the very best possible wine.
In other words, all of the things that lie at the center of Judaism - the Temple cult, the vision of the Manna as a metaphor for the source of God's sustenance of the Chosen People, the waters of purification as a sign and symbol of the right way to live, and, most importantly, the Passover Lamb - all of these things are, John says, fulfilled and transcended by Jesus.
And therefore, he tells his community, you are a new people. We are that new community that is no longer to be defined by ethnic descent - it's not about Abraham and Sarah and their children and are we 'in' or 'out' of that family.
Rather we are part of this new people defined by the Triduum, the Great Three Days.
John has something to say about the marker of this new community of the Triduum: remember Nicodemus? "The wind blows where it will"? This new people becomes the Community of Jesus by rebirth through the Spirit. We join this community - as we remembered last week - by rebirth through the Spirit.
Now you could use all the liturgical language you want about this, but fundamentally it's about a rebirth that affects the whole of our lives - it's a rebirth away from the ordinary and the everyday institutions, the accepted ways of living, the "normal" responses. If we're really living this new Spirit-birthed life people should be saying of us "what's gotten into them?!!" To which we can say, of course, "Well, the Spirit of God, silly!"
So that's the theme of today's gospel: transformation. John is reminding his community - and ours - that being a follower of Jesus is about the transformation of our lives.
Risky business, this! When you've been transformed by this Spirit of God you do things that ordinary people don't do:
- you trust in God and God's future, not matter what the 'wise people of this age' might be telling you - for, as Paul says, Christian faith appears foolish to those who are considered 'wise' by their contemporaries.
- And you trust in one another in ways that ordinary wisdom would think misguided, naive.
And trust isn't the only additional value that mark us out as followers of Jesus - faith, commitment, living in the present, living for others, living as a community. This is what it means to live as Spirit-birthed people!
This is the story behind today's Gospel, the story that's not about a wedding at all, not even about the transformation of water into wine, but about the transformation of lives, of our very selves, into Spirit-birthed followers of Jesus. It's about the transformation of something sterile, bland, colorless, featureless - something not bad but simply uninteresting - into something that's full of richness, flavor, something that speaks of celebration and of joy, something that speaks of the very best that life has to offer.
All of this, John tells us, is promised by Jesus for those who are living as Spirit-birthed people!
So next time you hear the story of the wedding at Cana in Galilee remember this: it's not about a wedding at Cana in Galilee! It's about the transformation of the world brought about by one Jesus of Nazareth, itinerant prophet and teacher - and Passover Lamb - for all those who are ready to trust in his message of love and compassion, of divine and human embrace, of the beloved community, and who are ready, too, to live into that vision as the Spirit-birthed people that we are called to be in this place, in this life. Amen.
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