Sunday 19th January 2025
The story of the wedding at Cana that we’ve just heard is a particularly special one for my wife Sandra and I as we were married during the parish Eucharist at St Laurence, Falmer and on this same Sunday of Epiphany when in the reading of the gospel and in the celebration of the Eucharist, Christ graced our own wedding celebrations.
It’s a story with significance for us all though, the third great epiphany of this season following the baptism and the visit of the magi. As we reflect on the passage there are some things of relevance to note from the Old Testament – the Hebrew scriptures.
Wine and weddings are frequently mentioned in prophecy. In Amos for example we read: The days are coming,” declares the Lord, “when the reaper will be overtaken by the plowman and the planter by the one treading grapes. New wine will drip from the mountains and flow from all the hills, and I will bring my people Israel back from exile. “They will rebuild the ruined cities and live in them. They will plant vineyards and drink their wine”.
Hosea and Jeremiah both describe the unfaithfulness of Israel in terms of fornication and adultery with the promise in the last days that the messiah will ‘marry’ Israel again in an eternal covenant.
No surprise and no accident then that a number of stories about wine and weddings are found in the Gospels. There’s the story of the wise and foolish virgins, the story of the king who holds a wedding feast to which no one turns up and the guest who does but inappropriately dressed and is thrown out, the story of the guests who choose the highest and lowest places at the wedding feast and so on. Also in Revelation where we read of the wedding feast of the Lamb and the union of Christ with his Church. No surprise either that we read stories of intoxication. At Pentecost the coming of the spirit is described as being like a kind of drunkenness. Those who observe the disciples say that “they are filled with new wine” but Peter assures them that they are not drunk, for it’s only nine o’clock in the morning!
There’s no direct description of intoxication in the story of the wedding at Cana but that’s clearly on the cards and it’s a also a story that might leave us feeling a bit disorientated. At the beginning we hear of an apparent gulf between Jesus and his mother. When the wine gave out, the mother of Jesus said to him “they have no wine” and Jesus replied “woman what concern is that to you and me? My hour has not yet come”. It seems that Jesus is referring here to the hour of his crucifixion before which Jesus next refers to Mary as ‘Woman’ saying to Mary “Woman, her is your son” and to the disciple there with her “here is your mother”. Mary says to the wedding servants “Do whatever he tells you” and then Jesus instructs that the jars for the rituals of purification be filled with water. Important to note that this is more than enough wine to drink, this is enough wine to bathe in!
This is a passage rich in symbolism which in the light of the resurrection points to God’s abundant love towards us in Jesus, the true vine, and to the redemption and restoration of our relationships at the end of times heralding our eternal participation in the heavenly wedding feast.
We are invited here to a closer relationship with Christ but as well as providing us with comfort there is also challenge. If we accept that God has provided us with an abundant creation then how are we to respond to the severity of need that we see in the world today?
Sallie McFague, a feminist theologian, argues that if we are to be faithful followers of Jesus, if we care anything at all about the spiritual life, the life lived in and with God, we need to a look at what abundance means in our world today. The Christian good life, she says, is marked by sustainability, self-limitation and inclusion of all, especially the weak and vulnerable. Our discipleship she suggests must incorporate repentance for a major sin - our silent complicity in the impoverishment of others and the degradation of the planet because whilst it isn’t consciously of our making we are part of a society that delivers those things.
For Sallie McFague our discipleship is not about a private peace, a personal path to enlightenment or even the fellowship that we share with other Christians. It is about the connection between ourselves, our neighbours and our god. We live out the love of God in every choice we make, choices about food and clothes and cars and recreation and water and heat and light.
The Pelagian heresy describes the suggestion that we are capable of moral purity in this human life, as Augustine recognised this overlooks the complexity of the world. We are all compromised whether we like it or not, only in Christ may we find salvation. Nevertheless, if we are to live in this world but not be of it these are issues with which we must grapple in our imperfect attempts to good, repentant of all the ways in which we fall short safe in the knowledge of God’s abundant mercy towards us, to whom be the glory.
Amen.