Wine and Abundance: A sermon for 2nd Sunday after Epiphany
Text:
Grace and Peace to you from God our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ who in abundance names us.
I was intrigued by the size and number of the water vessels in our gospel text today that Jesus turns into wine. So, we have 6 stone jars, each with 20-30 gals. That’s 120 to 180 gals of wine. Now, the average/normal bottle of wine holds 750 ml. There is around 3785 ml to a gal, which gives us 681374 ml’s of wine. Which gives us approximately 908 bottles of wine. You can hold a rather good party with that much, couldn’t you. Even if you say they are all at twenty gals vs thirty, it’s still 600 bottles of wine.
And it’s the best wine. IT’s not the cheapo stuff, no Boone’s Farm “wine” here, this is chatau de awesome 1517. This is the good stuff.
I think there is good reason why this is Jesus’ first sign or miracle in John. It’s not just a story about Jesus doing something amazing, it’s sharing to us, revealing to us, to use our Epiphany language, who Jesus is. Jesus is one who does things in abundance, quality abundance, the best abundance, for others. If you look through the Bible, you see something about Jesus miracles. They are all for others, or on the behalf of others.
Jesus’s power is used for the sake of those in need around him. In need in thirst/need like here, in need in hunger like the feeding of the 5000, in need in fear like when he walks on water or calms the storm. Jesus gives in abundance of quality to those in need.
The contrasting image I see is when the Clemson football team arrived at the White House for their celebratory feast with the president, and they were served fast food on silver platters with gold candelabras lit surrounding them.
I have nothing against fast food really, I love me a big mac and fries, but served on silver platters in a celebratory feast seems like a cheap, it may be abundance, but it’s not quality abundance. There has been study after study of the not just the unhealthiness of fast food, it’s full of fats and sugars, we know that, but it also doesn’t fill and nourish correctly. It has fillers and additives that don’t give sustenance. Yes, you can live on fast food, in fact there’s been studies showing that if you watch what you eat there, sticking to correct caloric intake you won’t even gain weight, but it also is not the same as real food.
To my mind there is an abrupt disconnect between the two scenes. In Jesus he gives good things, here he gives the best wine, in the feeding of the 5000 Jesus gives bread enough so they all can eat as much as they need, and in his own body and blood, the bread and wine of communion, he gives real life. The wine Jesus makes here, and the bread he gives to the 5000 are all signs pointing to the great promised feast with God.
It’s a great feast that’s recalled in our Isaiah passage today. The great wedding of Israel, and ourselves, to God. In the passage God promises to never keep silent about the delight and love that God has for God’s people. God promises again to continue the covenants with Israel. God is their God, God is their protector. In God they will be named My delight is in Her, and Married. God will give them new names of great joy.
The wedding Isaiah, and the wedding of Cana, are merely foretastes of the true wedding, the true claiming, the renewal of vows that God makes. Last week we talked about Baptism, and how in the waters, God claims us. Well, we hear the echoes of that every week, when we began with confession and forgiveness. We hear the renewal of vows. God again promises to forgive and love us. And every time we have communion, eucharist, the meal, we are participating in a foretaste of the feast to come.
I am again reminded of last week, I have called you by name. God gives us new names in baptism, like God gives new names to the people of Israel, God names us. Beloved, child of God, baptized member of the body of Christ. These are names of freedom, names of grace, names of fullness, names of abundance.
It’s in naming, claimed in baptism, fed in communion, that we find our abundance. We find true filling, not fast food, not cheap wine, but the best stuff. The best wines, the best foods.
And more than water, wine, and bread, in those moments, we find relationship.
Christ doesn’t come to give cheap relationship, fake relationships. No, Christ comes to establish real relationship. Where the concern is for the other. Where abundance is a cause to give, and not hoard.
In this first sign, this first miracle. Jesus does more than change water into wine. He establishes real relationship with us, not cheap or fake stuff.. He brings about real connection with us. He fills us with real stuff.
In this moment, Jesus takes the waters of sadness, anxiety, stress, and emptiness, and brings forth the wine of new life.
People of God, here in this wine and this bread is new life for you. Here are new names, names of life. Here is realness for you. In this wine and this bread is love. Love for you, and for all. Come and taste and see that here you are real, you are named, you are loved.
Amen.
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