Year C  2 Epiphany  2007 - Reverend Ann Franklin

The gospel we heard this morning is one of the best loved bible stories - the wedding at Cana.  In ancient lectionaries, this story was read at the Feast of the Epiphany, instead of the story of the three wise men.  When the group of us was in the Galilee this fall on our way to Nazareth, the bus left the main highway and drove into a town just northwest of our destination.  The driver told us:  "This is Cana."  A loud Ahhh could be heard throughout the bus.  Everyone knew the familiar story we heard this morning, unlike at other times when the driver or bus monitor would point out Mount-this or such-and-such a village, and folks would sheepishly ask the person sitting beside them - what is that -- revealing our lack of appreciable knowledge of the land of the bible.  But not Cana; everyone knew Cana.  Some suggested that we should stop for a toast.

The story of the wedding at Cana, is full of symbols.  First, one of the worst things that could happen at a wedding feast was to run out of wine.  The bride and groom and their parents would be disgraced.  And it is about to happen.  Some scholars suggest a parental problem, as well.  Jesus and his friends arrive at the wedding party empty handed.  They did not bring the gift of wine that was socially expected of them.  Mary would have none of their boorish behavior and told her son to fix the problem, to correct his blunder.  She leaves the scene, confident that he would.

We aren't told just what happened next.  But Mary was right.  Jesus did.  While we are focused on the enormous quantities of water, the steward tastes the wine.  Unaware of the miraculous transformation that had taken place, he is puzzled by the quality of the libation he was testing.  His conversation with the bridegroom reveals that the wine's goodness exceeds all expectations and social convention. 

In the steward's recognition of the Good Wine, comes the crux of the story.  In John's gospel story, "good wine" points us toward the truth of the miracle.  The happiness and honor of the new couple were saved, for sure.   But good wine is also a symbol of God's fulfillment of a feast as only God can prepare for us.  An abundance of good wine toasts the arrival of God's new age when there would be enough for all. 

Then, hidden in this story, there is the other miracle, the epiphany, in the arrival of Jesus is the beginning of something new.  It is the beginning of a time when ordinary people engaging in ordinary events - a wedding - can reveal what God is doing in the world.  Our salvation, this story is telling us, comes from God just when we need it, when we are committing ourselves to something new and important.  Christ's glory can shine in and through our lives.

A miracle is a sign, an act that points to something beyond itself.  The significance of this miracle of water into wine does not rest in the miraculous transformation itself, but in what can be seen in and through it.  That is why the early church loved this story.  The promise of a superabundance of good wine is a sign of God's presence in the world in spite of the harsh, unjust Roman occupation, in spite of all of the apparent evidence that good things are scarce.  It reminds the joyful and the fearful that God in Jesus is gracious and life giving.  The power of the story for those who heard it on the Feast of the Epiphany was not in the physical feat, but in what Jesus' mother and friends saw, a revelation of what God is doing in the world in Christ.  The power of this story was less about libations that about the assurance that God's caring and good grace to ordinary people would be revealed in the ordinary events of our lives.