Transforming the Common into Holy

Homily for Sunday, January 19, 2025
The Second Sunday After the Epiphany
John 2:1-11

Jesus said to them, "Fill the jars with water."

Please be seated

Today we hear the beginning of a new chapter in Jesus’s time on earth, the beginning of his public ministry, which had been long awaited. And it is a sign of glory, the first of seven in John’s Gospel. See signs point us to something beyond themselves, much like road signs to be aware for deer or bear crossings on winding roads. And just like when God chose a small village in the tiny countryside for God’s own incarnation, the location of this first sign or miracle- Cana of Galilee is nothing more than ordinary. It is here Jesus begins his pastoral work; in a small town named Cana. Jesus intentionally sets himself in a place where wine is running low to show us what His ministry will be all about. Are we surprised then to hear miracle and wedding in the same sentence?

Maybe it is a bit surprising that the first miracle of Jesus’ ministry in John’s Gospel is one that seems almost frivolous. There is no life threatening crisis; no hunger, no illness, no demons to cast out. Nope-it is a common and joyful event of two young people getting married; as has been done through the ages. What is interesting is the bride is never mentioned and the groom-only makes a brief appearance. Yet it is an event of deep relational connections, and the joining of family. Here Jesus finds himself-his work awaiting him; ministry that will be intense; full of strife, and pain, yet choosing to be present in the joy of a countryside marriage. And what better place than to reveal the life changing work of God than at a wedding?

The writer of John’s Gospel offers us a second surprise- the actual miracle of the water turning into wine is not mentioned until halfway through the passage; and done so in a casual way of mentioning. It is a striking de-centering of the miracle. Instead of asking the people there to go off and bring something back, or waving his hands and using his power as the Son of God, Jesus began the miracle with what they already had on hand; six water pots made of stone. Using what was already there, Jesus shows the wedding guests the transforming power of faith. It leads me to wonder is the miracle the heart of the story, or is it the sign of transformation that becomes the true miracle. John’s way of telling this story is not to focus on the miracle but rather to reveal who Jesus was and who we, as followers of Jesus, can be.

The beginning of this miracle is John’s way of showing that Jesus’s ministry is all about transforming the common into holy. See Jesus was invited to what people thought would be an ordinary wedding. Jesus was not brought in as some prophet, miracleworker or even the evening dinner entertainment. He most likely was granted the invitation as an extension of his mother’s friendship with the bride’s family.And yet unknown to the wedding guests, the transforming, loving, incarnation dwelling of God was with them all. And this positionality leads the servants, the guests, to participate in the ministry of God. They got to have a hand in Jesus’s first sign. Imagine that. Imagine the story you’ll have to share if Jesus came to Trinity Church for our service this morning only for us to leave having helped in the very first public miracle of his?

Before the water turned into wine, someone had to fill the water jugs. Someone had to do the ordinary, tiresome task of filling the water jugs. There is no recounting of Jesus placing his hands over the jars of water and praying for a transformation into wine. No Jesus, directs the servants, directs us to fill up the water. I’m sure the servants wanted and maybe even expected the new wine to just appear, but Jesus calls them to partake in the work. God wants us to participate in the transformation, in the miracles in our world. Don’t get me wrong miracles can and do happen. But God isn’t limiting miracles to being something out of body, out of our experience. Instead the indwelling of God is asking us to faithfully continue partaking in our faith; where even the most tiresome, ordinary, almost trite tasks are moments of opportunity. God chooses the first miracle to be an ordinary moment; a moment of partnership between a relational God and us.

Jesus intentionally sets foot into a place where the wine is running low to show us what His ministry is going to be about. In today’s world, weddings are a moment of celebration, and likewise in the ancient world it was nothing less than an unparalleled feast. However, in Jesus’s time, weddings continued for days on end. Days and days of partying. And especially for the community Jesus grows up in, weddings were a much needed pause from endless labor, and a chance to eat and drink abundantly. Still the unspoken rules applied- guests were seated based on social status and wine was served appropriately in measure to those around the table. It appears from John’s re-telling wine on all accounts was running low; a sign that the hospitality of the bride and groom was in jeopardy. During the wedding it is brought to Jesus’s attention, there was a problem. Something important in the lives of the people who were there was about to go wrong. And Jesus has to decide what to do. Will he use this moment to make himself known? He chooses to act, to transform the lives of those who are there.

In doing so, Jesus offers us a template; to see what it looks like to watch God work in the difficult situations of our lives. When Jesus was invited; he was called; the Greek root for invited is called. Jesus was called for a particular purpose at a particular wedding. And we too are also invited to the wedding; to the moment of transformation. We are invited to partake in the turning of water into wine. God will call us to do things that seem weird and are counter cultural. God will call us to tasks we don’t understand the importance of, and undervalue the necessity of. But most of all God will call us to bear witness. The real miracle wasn’t the water turning into wine, even though yes it’s powerful and in its mystery we cannot, or dare not try to explain it. No the real miracle is the transformation Jesus is inviting us into. For the first time we, the followers of Jesus, are invited to the very work of the Holy. No longer mere watchers or hopers, this first miracle is the start of our opportunity to labor, to partner with God in our world. We too through our baptism carry the spirit of God within us. And that may very well look like an ordinary, simple request to fill the water pots in our lives.

MalcolmGuite, a poet, reflects on the epiphany the wedding at Cana beholds for us today. I leave you with his words

Here’s an epiphany to have and hold,
A truth that you can taste upon the tongue,
No distant shrines and canopies of gold
Or ladders to be clambered rung by rung,
But here and now, amidst your daily  living,
Where you can taste and touch and feel and see,
The spring of love, the fount of all forgiving,
Flows when you need it, rich, abundant, free.

Amen.

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