Sermon at the Sung Eucharist on the Third Sunday of Epiphany 2018

Today we are still in the season of Epiphany according to the churches calendar. Just to remind you, the word epiphany comes from the Greek verb meaning ‘to reveal’ or to see, to be enlightened. What is being revealed?

The advantage to reading the gospels 2000 years after Jesus lived, is that we have all the spoiler alerts. So, because we are familiar with the beginning of John’s gospel, - we know what was revealed - that God in Jesus became human and lived among us. We are told the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, we have beheld his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father.

Therefore, in Epiphany we reflect on who and what was revealed – the glory of God coming into our world. Indeed, our opening hymn began with the words: “Christ, whose glory fills the skies, Christ, the true, the only light”

And the introduction to the confession began with: “The grace of God has dawned upon the world (or been revealed)
through our Saviour Jesus Christ”


And the end of our gospel reading: “Jesus did this, the first of his signs, in Cana of Galilee, and revealed his glory; and his disciples believed in him”.

All this reminds us, God has been revealed in our world, through the presence of Jesus who is the glory of God. And so, as we continue to read the gospels we read in anticipation to discover more about how God is revealed in Christ.  Today’s gospel reading is part of this journey.

Drawing the curtain back

So as enter into today’s reading, we enter into the anticipation - the curtain has been drawn back, and God is revealed in flesh, Jesus as the Son of God in human form begins to interact with the world.

And yet as the curtain is drawn back – we see the writer John chooses to begin with an ordinary scene, a celebration and party -  unlike the other gospel writers, who start with Jesus either healing someone or preaching. John starts with Jesus at a wedding.

I’m sure many of us have been to weddings, and some of us will have been to ones that lasted for several days like the one here in John’s gospel.

I wonder though if any of us have been to a wedding celebration where the wine and food ran out!

Here in Cana in Galilee, Jesus, his mother, brothers and disciples seem to all be guests – maybe its family wedding – we are not told. Everyone is enjoying the wedding celebrations and all is going well - when disaster struck! the wine had run out! We have no idea why the wine ran out, but to run out of wine, would be a serious embarrassment for the host parents and the newlyweds.  It might be that they under catered, another suggestion is like today, guests are expected to turn up with supplies of wine and Jesus and his friends hadn’t. We can theorise as much as we like, but the situation stays the same – no wine!

Jesus mother takes it upon herself to try and sort it out – or more accurately tells Jesus to sort it. Jesus response is not too encouraging and seems quite reluctant!  Mary was having none of it – and tells the servants to “do whatever he tells you “.

Sure, enough Jesus now acts, and turns to the large stone jars holding water used for Jewish purification rites, for washing people’s feet when they came into the party, or for their hands before eating, or even between courses. Jesus told the servants to fill the jars, which they did so until

- they were brimming over with water – and he tells them to take what is apparently water to the person in charge of the feast – they taste it and miraculously it tasted like wine – it was so good that they bridegroom was congratulated on keeping the best wine until last.

Just to give you an idea of how extravagant this was – the total amount of water in the stone jars was roughly 180 gallons, which today would be more than 1000 of our normal wine bottles!

Why wine?

The writer of John’s gospel – in drawing back the curtain and revealing the beginning of Jesus ministry by taking us to an ordinary every day occasion – a wedding banquet, but this story makes an extraordinary introduction to Jesus’ ministry. Jesus according to the writer of John’s gospel, is the giver of extravagant gifts to human beings – that’s us! Later in John’s gospel we are told that Jesus came that we might have life, and life in all its abundance or fullness. We are to receive grace upon grace.

Jesus here in this miracle – is showing the world God’s abundant or extravagant goodness and grace in a definitive way.

The miracle centres on wine because abundant wine is symbolic of God’s presence in the world and the coming of God – as spoken of by the prophets Amos and Joel for example. Jesus himself use the image of a wedding banquet for the Kingdom of God

It’s a sign

John never refers to miracles as miracles but as signs – signs which is to say, their significance lies in what they point to: the true identity of the one who performed them. What was it about this particular sign at the family celebration of a wedding in Cana, that revealed for them the presence of God – of the “glory” – in Jesus?  We had the ordinary a family wedding, and yet something extraordinary happens. We are reminded that Jesus is fully God and fully human.

On the one hand we are reminded of Jesus’ humanity, his mother is at the wedding and taking charge and wanting her son to sort the problem of no wine, his brothers are there too. Yet at the end of the story we are told “Jesus did this, the first of his signs, in Cana of Galilee, and revealed his glory; and his disciples believed in him”.

In John’s gospel miracles never act as miracles but signs that reveal the salvation, abundance, and new life now present in the world through Jesus.

They reveal Jesus’ glory as God’s Son through who salvation enters the world. These signs always pointing to who Jesus is – drawing the curtain back and revealing God –  the proper response to such a revelation is belief, as shown by the disciples at the end of the narrative.

The sign that Jesus performed at the wedding changing water into wine is about transformation, a sign of newness, a sign that God’s agenda challenges and transcends the world’s agenda, but that includes us, how does this challenge and transcend our own agendas, or expectations, our indeed our hopes.

And here lies the challenge for us. Ask God to draw the curtain back to reveal the ‘signs’ around us, in our daily lives, at home, at work, as we walk the streets, as we watch the news–  to see where God is changing the ordinary things of life into the new wine of his kingdom? Are we willing to get involved and share in the abundance, so be part of the ordinary becoming extraordinary – revealing God’s glory in the world – the Epiphany?

Amen.