The Great Convergence

John 2:1-11

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.

It happens, perhaps appropriately, only here… in the season of Epiphany. Like a cosmic star stopping briefly in it’s long celestial orbit, it happens only here… only in this story… only on one Sunday every three years. This is the moment when my Master’s in Food Science cosmically aligns with my Master’s of Divinity. Like an obscure planetary conjunction that only a few esoteric astrologers from afar would ever even notice… today is the day my thesis on wine making and my first career as a beverage scientist, intersects with my current life as a pastor and a priest. THIS is that day!  

Jesus had six stone jars each holding between 20 and 30 gallons of water.  At 8.34 pounds per gallon, Jesus had between 167 pounds and 250 pounds of water at his disposal. So class, how many 750 ml bottles of wine did Jesus make? Correct! Between 600 and 900 bottles. That’s between 50 and 75 CASES of wine! That’s more than you can move at one time… even with a fork lift! That, technically speaking, is what we referred to scientifically in the beverage industry as… a LOT of wine for one wedding!  

This was the first of Jesus’ SIGNS. Jesus didn’t do miracles in John’s Gospel… he did SIGNS. A perfect seven of them in total it turns out and they are not SIGNS meant for Jesus to read. They are SIGNS meant to guide you and me along our life-long journey as we try to walk in our lives the Jesus Way. This first SIGN calls us, for one thing, to expect to take a different path from the one we might have planned on taking before.  Jesus hadn’t planned to make wine from water as his very first sign. But when “Hail Mary full of grace” turned into “Hail Mary, do what your mother tells you to!” plans change. Even for the King of Kings and Lord of Lords... plans change! So we, sure as shootin’, better pay attention to the signs along the way that ask us to walk our journey in new and unexpected directions.  

The second SIGN planted for us in this story is how Jesus handled his own changing plans. He objected at first, so when we’re first asked to change directions there seems to be some grace for that built into the mix, but quickly Jesus came around. When he did come around, he didn’t just do the minimum to just get by. He responded with ABUNDANCE! He made ALL the wine! Enough, more than likely, for every man, woman and child at that wedding to have two or three bottles each! That SIGN directs you and me toward living our lives, giving of ourselves with that sort of ABUNDANCE.  Living by lavishing out an ABUNDANCE of grace, love, forgiveness, compassion, generosity and hope to every man, woman and child we encounter along our way! 

The third SIGN planted along our path with this story is that quality matters just as much as quantity.  Jesus could have made 900 bottles of the cheap stuff.  Nobody at THAT party was in any condition to notice the difference! But EVEN when NO ONE would notice, Jesus made the very best.  And with this SIGN, you and I, as followers of Jesus, are called to give our very best to God and to our neighbors, even when no one else is looking. Even when no one else will ever know!  

Those signs staked out along our life journey seem to map out a difficult path. They call us to put our own plans aside and go a different way. They call us to live for the needs of others… not with just what we have left over… not with just the bare minimum… not with just what will get us by. Those signs staked out along our life’s journey call us to turn onto an alternative path and care for the other with an overwhelming abundance of our very best.  

And I’ve got to tell you, to this food scientist turned priest and pastor, THAT feels like an overwhelming request. It feels that way, I suspect, mostly because it is!  It’s overwhelming! We can’t do signs 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 human. Just flesh and blood!... And that’s true.  We are just flesh and blood.  Just organs and bones, muscles and skin. Just dust and mud and clay.  It's true.  We are basically just earthen vessels, filled with, oh, about 167 to 250 pounds of water, which is, oh, about 20 to 30 gallons, which is perhaps… probably just coincidentally…the exact same amount of water in each one of those six water jars which Jesus touched and transformed into wine when he did the first of his SIGNS in Cana of Galilee.   

We ARE just flesh and bone... just earthen vessels filled with water.  BUT when earthen vessels filled with water are touched by Christ, SIGNS happen. In Baptism and there at the Table, we are touched by Christ. There in the font and there in the bread and wine, Jesus does a sign... IN US!  In Christ we are transformed. In Christ you become the miracle!  In Christ you become the SIGN!  This life we’ve been given is a party. These days, I’ll grant you, it seems to be a bit of a disaster of a party. It’s a party in desperate need of a miracle. It’s a party that needs a SIGN. What this little lesson is telling us is that the world out there needs the SIGN... that God has created in YOU!  After all, way back then in the back woods of Cana, 75 cases of the very best wine transformed a party disaster into a party that has been talked about for the last 2000 years! And now YOU have been transformed in the exact same way as that wine! YOU are the SIGN this world’s party disaster desperately needs! So GO! Go and make this world into the party God intends it to be… a party that will be remembered for the next 2000 years. Amen.