All the Wine!

The Holy Gospel According to St. John, the 2nd Chapter

On the third day there was a wedding in Cana of Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there. Jesus and his disciples had also been invited to the wedding. When the wine gave out, the mother of Jesus said to him, “They have no wine.” And Jesus said to her, “Woman, what concern is that to you and to me? My hour has not yet come.” His mother said to the servants, “Do whatever he tells you.” Now standing there were six stone water jars for the Jewish rites of purification, each holding twenty or thirty gallons. Jesus said to them, “Fill the jars with water.” And they filled them up to the brim. He said to them, “Now draw some out, and take it to the chief steward.” So they took it. 

When the steward tasted the water that had become wine, and did not know where it came from (though the servants who had drawn the water knew), 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.” 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, Jesus doesn’t do miracles.  Jesus does SIGNS.  Turning water into wine was, the story tells us, the first of Jesus’ SIGNS and this one, like all of Jesus’ SIGNS, point us first to a better understanding of WHO and WHOSE Jesus was and is, BUT, they also point you and me, the followers of Jesus, in a particular direction for us to walk along The Way.  However, before we do all of that, I’m sorry to say we have to go to math class first, and today we have word problems.

Jesus had six stone jars each holding between 20 and 30 gallons of water.  How much wine did Jesus make?  Correct class, Jesus made 120 to 180 gallons of wine.  That is between 600 and 900 bottles and THAT equals a lot of wine!  

Each of Jesus’ stone jars held 20 to 30 gallons of water.  At 8.34 pounds per gallon, how many pounds of water did Jesus have to work with?  Correct again!  Jesus had between 167 pounds and 250 pounds of water or wine inside.  For a fun, bonus, enology fact today I’ll let you know that wine weighs just a tiny bit more per gallon than water, but for us today, we’ll call it pretty much even.  

You can relax now because that’s the end of math class for today, but math class may have been the easier part of this story.  This part may be harder because remember, this SIGN isn’t just something meant to tell us something interesting and informative about Jesus.  This SIGN also calls you and me, Jesus’ followers, to be at work in the world in a pretty particular way.

The first thing this SIGN is calling US to do, is to be open to having our plans changed.  Jesus didn’t PLAN for this to be his first miracle.  When Jesus’s mom, Mary pointed out that the party had run out of wine, Jesus told her, “What concern is that to us?  Fixing this wedding problem isn’t part of the PLAN!”  To which Mary replies, “Plans change.  Deal with it.”  Hail Mary, full of grace, nothin’!  Hail Mary, full of “Do what your mother says young man!”  

But in the end, Jesus changed his plans.  AND if the King of Kings and Lord of Lords can have HIS plans changed…. you better believe that any and ALL of us can and will experience some plot twists in our stories as well!  We learn here that Jesus listens, pays attention and is willing (with a little coaxing from mom) to have his plans changed… that things change EVEN for Jesus and God works amazing things in those plot twists!  So, we too are called by this sign to live likewise… listening, paying attention and changing our plans as life’s plot twists play themselves out for us as individuals and for us as a church, always remembering that God is in those too.  

The second thing this SIGN points out is HOW Jesus responds to this change in plans.  He could have made just enough wine to get by.  He could have done the bare minimum to make mom happy.  But he didn’t.  He responded with ABUNDANCE!  Remember the math lesson?  He made 160 to 180 GALLONS of wine!  Think of your fuel oil tank… THAT MUCH WINE!  He made 600 to 900 bottles of wine!  He didn’t make just enough to get by, he made ALL the wine and THAT reminds us that Jesus is big into ABUNDANCE!  ABUNDANCE of grace, love, forgiveness, compassion, generosity and hope!  So, we too are called, as followers of Jesus, to be people of ABUNDANCE as well.  As individuals and as a church community, we are being called by this sign to be ABUNDANTLY generous with our gifts, our talents, our time and our treasure.  This sign calls us to ABUNDANT living with compassion, forgiveness, hospitality and hope!  

The third thing this SIGN points out is the nature of how Jesus responds to that change in plans.  Jesus could have easily done a miracle that conjured up 180 gallons of the cheap stuff.  That would have been miracle enough and no one would have known the difference at that point in the party.  But EVEN when NO ONE would notice, Jesus makes the very, VERY BEST!  And with this SIGN, you and I, as followers of Jesus, are called to give our very, VERY best to God and our neighbors too, even when no one else is looking and even when no one will ever know!  

That may seem like a lot.  Called to put aside OUR plans, OUR passions, OUR needs, OUR desires and instead follow the plot twists in our lives.  To live for “The Other” NOT with “just what we have to spare” and not with “what we can get away with” but with our very, VERY best, lavished with ABUNDANCE.  THAT may seem like quite the overwhelming request… And it is.  It IS too much to ask us.  We can’t do that like Jesus did.  We can’t turn water into wine.  We can’t manage that level of abundance and we can’t always give our very, VERY best!  We just CAN’T.  We’re just flesh and bone.  We’re just human!  

It’s true.  We are just human.  Just organs and bones, muscles and skin, mud and clay.  It's true, we are basically just containers, filled with about, oh, 150-ish pounds of water, which is, oh, about 20-ish gallons, which is perhaps just coincidentally the exact amount of water in each one of those six water jars which Jesus touched when he did the first of his SIGNS in Cana of Galilee.    

Alone, without God, without Christ, we ARE just flesh and bone... earthen vessels filled with water.  BUT when we are touched by Christ, there in the waters of Baptism and there at the Table, Jesus does a sign IN US!  In Christ we have been transformed from something common into something extraordinary.  In Christ we are the miracle!  In Christ we become the SIGN!  

You are the miracle!  You are the SIGN!  You have been transformed!  So go!  There is a party in desperate need of what God has to give it through you!  Go and bring the generosity, love, grace, forgiveness, compassion and joy God has created in you out to the world!  And remember, just like 180 gallons of wine can transform a party disaster into the best party ever, you have been transformed in Christ to do nothing less than to change the world!  Amen.