Bloodwine

Propers: The Second Sunday after the Epiphany, A.D. 2019 C

Homily:

Lord, we pray for the preacher, for You know his sins are great.

Grace, mercy and peace to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.

Jesus did this, the first of His signs, in Cana of Galilee, and revealed His glory; and His disciples believed in Him.

There are four great stories associated with the ancient feast of Epiphany: the Nativity of our Lord, the Adoration of the Magi, Jesus’ Baptism in the Jordan River, and this, the Wedding at Cana. These four celebrate the manifestation—that is, the epiphany—of our God upon the earth.

The Wedding at Cana is the beginning of Jesus’ public ministry in the Gospel according to St John. John is unique in that he chooses seven miraculous signs to reveal to his readers who God is in Jesus Christ our Lord. This is not an exhaustive list. John writes that if all the wonders Jesus wrought were recorded, the world itself could hardly contain all the books that they would fill. But John holds up these seven signs because they point us to who and what God truly is.

I think it no coincidence that John’s Gospel begins here with a wedding, and the Revelation of St John ends with a wedding: the great Wedding Feast of the Lamb, of Christ Victorious claiming His Bride the Church; which is to say, all of us. We, together, are the Bride of Christ. And He will come to claim His own.

At this particular Wedding at Cana, however, the wine has run out before the feast has ended, and this indeed is most unfortunate. If the new couple cannot provide for their own wedding feast—which would span for several days, and involve the entire community—how then can they be expected to provide for a family? They’re about to lose face before the entire assemblage of their guests.

Note that it is Jesus’ mother who here inaugurates the miracle. “They have no wine,” she tells Him, to which He replies, “Madam, what is that to you and to Me? My hour has not yet come.” Yet Mary knowingly says to the servers, “Do whatever it is that He tells you.” For indeed the Mother of God is no fool. She knows that her Son will work wonders.

Thus Jesus instructs the servers to fill six large stone jars with water, 20 or 30 gallons apiece, then to draw some of this water and to send it to the chief steward, the master of festivities. The steward, in relief laced with admiration, then says to the young couple: “Everyone else serves the good wine first, and then the bad once folks are too far gone to know the difference. But you—you have saved the best wine for now.”

And this, John says, is the first of Jesus’ signs, signs pointing us to who God truly is. Now what do you suppose are we to make of that?

Jesus, it seems, did not expect to inaugurate His ministry in this way and on this day. Yet He does so in response to a clear and immediate need—and in response to His mother’s request. God, we find, shows up when and where we least expect Him, blessing by His presence the things of hearth and home, of friends and family, the things of daily life, making them holy, making them heavenly, with wine overflowing for a feast.

Now it’s true that for many of us alcohol has been more a burden than a blessing in our lives, and so the notion of Jesus producing 150-odd gallons of hooch for a party might seem a touch scandalous. And so I suppose it is. But in the Bible wine always represents joy—overflowing, superabundant, life-affirming joy. And this is what God is to be for us. In an age of scarcity, when few ever had more than enough to eat, God’s presence is a feast of endless delights. It was thus for Moses, for Elijah, for Isaiah, and here for Jesus Christ our Lord.

Christ comes that we might have life, and have it abundantly. And nowhere is that clearer than at Cana. God’s presence in our world is an inbreaking feast, an exuberance of joy pouring forth from a God who does not know when to stop giving good things. The mercy and joy and love of God are inexhaustible, to the point that they seem foolish, to the point that they seem sinful.

Yet this is not some prosperity gospel, forever pretending that life will be all cupcakes and rainbows, or that bad things will never happen if only we believe. Rather this is the Good News of a God who will not stop giving, will not stop forgiving, no matter our scarcity, no matter our sin, no matter what cruelties and callousness and crosses we invent. Nothing will stop God from giving. Nothing will stop God from raising life up out of death.

That is how He will conquer the world. That is how He will claim His Bride.

It will come as no surprise that in the ancient world, wine was viewed as a type of blood, the blood of the grape, the blood of the vine. And both the wine and the blood were the seat and source of life. Pour out the blood, and the life drains away. But in Christ there is no end to the wine. In Christ the life forever flows. And it is in the giving of the wine, the giving of the blood, the giving of the life, that we know the love of God—for to give of your life is to suffer, and to suffer for another is love.

You cannot kill an infinite life. You cannot kill eternal love. And so we come through the water, to the cup of the wine, that is the Blood of God. And in receiving this Cup, we receive His own Life, poured out for the world from the Cross. Thereby do you and I and all of us enter fully into God’s love, into the Wedding Feast of the Lamb. This is our foretaste of the Feast of Life that will never, ever end. And so we have joy in the midst of our sorrow, and life in the midst of our death.

One last thing, regarding the Wedding at Cana: only the servers know. Did you notice that? The bride and groom have no clue as to how this has happened. The chief steward has no idea whence this wine has come. Only the servers know. Jesus has worked a wonder in the midst of a very public event and the only people with eyes to see are those who humbly ladle the wine.

That’s us. That’s you and me. We in this world are the servers. We are not the only ones to receive the blessings of God. We are not the only ones to taste the wine of joy. But we are given the privilege of knowing in truth who provides for the feast. And so our job is to serve the guests, ladling out the wine of joy, the Blood of Life, so that through our ministrations the love of God might nourish all this thirsty world.

Let us remember that as we go out this week to all our varied vocations: that Christians are called to heal the world, to serve the guest, to love our neighbors in their need. You are the only Christ that people can see. We come to Church to be sent out—for it is through the love of Christ within us that all at length may know the feast.

In the Name of the Father and of the +Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.