“A Foretaste of Heaven”
A Sermon by the Rev. Dr. Hilary J. Barrett
Preached at Pleasantville United Church of Christ, January 17, 2010
John 2:1-11
“When the steward tasted the water that had become wine…the steward called the bridegroom and said to him, ‘Everyone serves the good wine first, and then the inferior wine after the guests have become drunk.  But you have kept the good wine until now.’”
(John 2:9-11, selected verses)

The season of Epiphany is all about things being revealed.

During Epiphany we read stories from the gospels that reveal for us who Christ is.  Stories that show us how God’s love for us is revealed in the Holy Scriptures and in the world around us -- if we have eyes to see and ears to hear.

Think about the stories we have been given to study these first few Sundays after Christmas.  On Epiphany Sunday the infant Christ-child is revealed to the Magi, who represent the entire Gentile world.  On the following Sunday, the adult Jesus is revealed as ‘God’s beloved Son’ during his baptism by John in the Jordan River.  And this morning, what is revealed is what the gospel writer, John, calls the first of Jesus’ ‘signs’ – things that Jesus did to reveal who he was so that people would believe in him.

Today’s gospel story is known as “The Wedding at Cana.”  Actually, it’s not about a wedding at all.  The wedding’s over.  It’s really about the wedding banquet which, in that culture, went on for days.  No wonder the wine ran out!  In this season which is all about things being revealed, it is a curious thing that the first of Jesus’ signs in John’s gospel is to provide more wine for a party.  It has to make you wonder – even if just a little bit.

The wedding in Cana story is meant to make us think about God’s abundance.  Think about it: God’s beloved Son comes to a wedding feast and when the wine runs out his inaugural act as Savior of the World is to turn 150 gallons of water into 150 gallons of the finest wine.  When the steward uncorks the bottle and realizes how good the wine is, he makes a comment about it: ‘Everyone serves the good wine first, and then the inferior wine after the guests have become drunk.  But you have kept the good wine until now.’”

Imagine that.  When Rob and I gather with friends for dinner, it is not uncommon for someone to show up with a bottle of wine they want to contribute to the evening’s festivities.  Showing up with wine as a gift is an ancient custom that lives to this day.  Wine has great symbolism in the Jewish and Christian traditions and the biblical associations with it are very positive.  So God’s own son, showing up at a wedding, not with a couple bottles in hand, but with 150 gallons of the best wine they’ve ever tasted is definitely meant to be an over-the-top expression of abundance.  It’s a story meant to convey an excessive kind of abundance; the sheer excess of God’s love for us.

This is the story that John chooses to tell as Jesus’ first miracle.  The reason I put it in those terms is that the story of the wedding at Cana is unique to John’s gospel.  No other gospel records it.  So the fact that John departs from the other three gospels to include this story, and then not only includes it but chooses to begin Jesus’ public ministry with it, is no accident. 

It’s an interesting choice for a first miracle.  Of all the things that Jesus could have done – healing the sick, raising the dead, feeding the multitude, casting out demons, stilling the violent forces of nature – Jesus provides more wine for a wedding banquet.  But John’s gospel is full of symbolism, so you can guarantee that this story is about more than just a good party.

At 4:53 p.m. on Tuesday afternoon, a catastrophic earthquake struck the already devastated country of Haiti.  Since that time, the world has been flooded with heart-breaking images of an unfolding tragedy.  It seems a strange time to ponder a story that speaks about the abundance of God.  And yet, on this very Sunday, Christians all over the world are dwelling with this same biblical story and wrestling with what God’s abundant grace means in a world that is saturated with human suffering.

The story we hear today is filled with rich images – a wedding banquet, water set aside for purification which is miraculously turned into celebratory wine, and the bridegroom who waits to offer the best for last.  But there is another rich image that gives us a clue to all the rest. 

The story of the wedding at Cana begins with four simple words: “On the third day...”  And since, up until now John has not narrated any stories for us as being “on the first day” or “on the second day” his reference to the “third day” is meant to catch our attention and to trigger our memory.

There are other stories that allude to the third day in the scriptures -- most notably, the story of the resurrection.  So by this story’s allusion to “the third day” we as hearers are meant to connect this wedding with the power of the Resurrection.  We are meant to hear this story as a Resurrection story.  We are meant to know by it that when Jesus begins his public ministry, he is tapping into a power so abundant that dead things come back to life and water becomes wine -- not just any wine, but 150 gallons of the really good wine.  With the words “on the third day” John is alerting us that the significance of what is about to happen at the wedding in Cana goes far beyond the mundane details of the story at hand.  Something Messianic is happening.

On the day of the wedding in Cana I’m sure there was more ministry to be done in the world.  There were hungry people, there were wounded people, there were people suffering with emotional and physical ailments, there were mountains of injustice in the world, there was corruption in civic and religious organizations, there were good people acting badly.  In short, it was a whole lot like today.  And of all the things that he could have done to set the stage for his ministry as God’s beloved One, Jesus decided to make sure that the wine didn’t run out.

It wasn’t a capricious act.  It wasn’t a denial of reality or the deep suffering that existed in the world.  If you turn the page you will see that the next thing Jesus does in John’s gospel is to head right for the center of religious and civic power, and overturn the tables of corruption in the Temple.  Jesus wasn’t turning a blind eye to the world’s suffering when he made sure the party continued.  He was casting a vision of abundant life, he was casting a vision of resurrection joy, joy that is able to look squarely at the world and all its suffering and say: “O death, where is your victory?”  O death, where is your sting?”

The Lord of all Creation was hung upon a cross until he died a painful death.  This same Lord knows the suffering of his people – in all times and all places – here in Chalfont and there in Port au Prince.

But on the third day, God wanted us to know the big truth of God’s love for us: that death does not have the last word; that Jesus’ ministry would teach us of God’s overflowing, extravagant love for all; and that ‘in life, in death, in life beyond death – we belong, body and soul, not to ourselves alone, but to our faithful Savior, Jesus Christ.’

The finest wine.  A huge amount.  So much more than we could ask or imagine.  That is the nature of God’s love for us.  That is what Jesus came to reveal to us.  That is the promise of the Resurrection.  God has saved the best for last. 

The time of Jesus’ revealing has come, and what he came to reveal is the extravagant love of our God for all people – even in the midst of human suffering, even as we contend with unexplainable forces of natural violence, even as we live in a world that is far from perfect.

May God give us faith to see God’s abundance in the midst of human suffering.  May God give us the will the serve the world in its broken places.  May God us a vision to see the Resurrection promise and to know that we are called to live in hope.  May it be so.  Amen.