Epiphany
A Sermon for Evensong
A policeman stops a car which is driving erratically. When he
approaches the driver, he sees that he's a priest. 'Excuse me Father', says the
policeman, 'but have you been drinking?'. 'No', says the priest, 'I only drink
water'. The policeman spots an empty wine bottle on the passenger seat and says
to the priest 'So why do you have that?'. 'Well I never', replies the priest,
'he's done it again!'.
One the third
day, Jesus is at a wedding with his disciples.
It’s not his wedding. He doesn’t
seem to be at the centre of things. I
picture him on the fringes of the party, quietly enjoying himself with his
friends and family. And then the wine
runs out – disaster. So quietly, in a way
that only the servants and those sitting with him know about, Jesus turns one
hundred and twenty gallons of water into one hundred and twenty gallons of
wine. More than enough to keep the
village drunk for a week. And this, the
gospel tells us, is the first of his signs.
But a sign of
what? Jesus turns water into wine. Why?
Is it just because he liked a good party, or hadn’t yet drunk his fill? What does this have to say to us? There are some clues to follow up, and the
first is at the very beginning of the reading, which tells us that this
happened ‘on the third day’. The third
day, for Christians, is an important phrase, with resonances about the
resurrection of Jesus. So somewhere,
somehow this story has some connection with Jesus’ resurrection. But the third day is also the seventh
day. You will have to take my word for
it but this is the seventh day that the Gospel of John records. As you read through the first two chapters,
things happen on one day, then the next day and the next day, so that the third
day when this wedding happens is the seventh day of the Gospel. And the seventh day speaks to us of
creation. What John is saying is that
with the transformation of water into wine, the new creation is
inaugurated. Remember that the very beginning
of St John’s Gospel, which we heard at Christmas, is ‘in the beginning’ – the
same as the first words of the book of Genesis.
‘In the beginning when God created the heavens and the earth’ (Genesis
1.1); ‘In the beginning was the Word’ (John 1.1). Jesus’ life and ministry, culminating in his
resurrection from the dead, is the new creation. The changing of water into wine is the first
sign of this new creation.
Water into
wine, the sign of the new creation that finds its inauguration in Christ. And the sign has more to tell us about the
new creation. Perhaps the first thing
that we notice about this sign is the sheer abundance of it. Jesus turns six stone jars of water into
wine. Each holds, we are told, twenty or thirty gallons of water. So Jesus produces somewhere between 120 and
180 gallons of wine. And this is not
cheap unlabeled wine, it’s not Tesco value or whatever. This is really, really
good wine. So good, in fact, that the steward of the feast tells the bridegroom
off for serving the good wine later in the feast. God’s new creation, of which this abundance
of wine is only a sign, is a new creation of immense generosity. We see this again in the feeding of the five
thousand. Five thousand men (that is not
to count the women and children) are fed and there are twelve baskets left
over. God’s new creation is excessively
generous.
The location
of this sign is also significant – it happens at a wedding. There is a reason why the church is so
interested in marriage, why we conduct marriages and why we celebrate them, and
that is because marriage speaks of God’s commitment to us. In marriage, two people promise to be
faithful to one another, to support and love one another come what may. And that is God’s promise to his people. God promises to be faithful to his people and
to delight in them just as a bridegroom rejoices in the bride. There is a hint of this in Baruch’s prophecy
– ‘Take off the garment of sorrow and affliction … Put on the robe of the
righteousness that comes from God.’ Marriage
is a sign of God’s love for us, and not just for us. The Christian
understanding of marriage is that it is not just good for the couple
themselves, but good for all of us. To
quote the marriage service, ‘it enriches society and strengthens
community’. The new creation is for us
and it is for the whole of the world.
The resurrection of Jesus, the new creation that he brings into being,
is about the renewal of all things. It
is same vision that we find in the vision of the Book of Revelation in which
are promised the new heavens and the new earth, and in which God’s dwelling
place is with people. In Christ all
things are made new.
So what we are
shown tonight is the arrival of the new creation in Christ, and specifically in
his resurrection. This new creation is
part of the abundant generosity of God, and is God’s commitment to his people
and to the whole of creation that he loves us and will be with us. But let us remember that today we mark the
feast of the Epiphany. This is the time
when we celebrate the showing forth of God and God’s plans. Today we have marked the showing forth of the
infant Jesus to the Magi. Next Sunday we
will celebrate the voice from heaven at his baptism that announced that Jesus
was the beloved Son of the Father. This
evening we mark the showing forth of the new creation in water being made
wine. But more that that, in the water
being transformed into wine we have an image of our lived being
transformed. We are transformed into
God’s new creation. St Paul says that
‘when anyone is in Christ, they are a new creation’ (2 Cor. 5.17). It is in our lives, individually and
corporately that the new creation is seen, that it is shown forth. We are the first fruits of the new
creation. We show that new creation in
generosity and in commitment, just as wine at a wedding is a sign of generosity
and commitment. Just like the water
transformed into wine, our lives are transformed as a sign to those around us.
Rather like
the abundance of wine, there is much more to this story. There is the sheer joy and exuberance of the
story, the way that the miracle happens on the edge of the wedding unseen by
most. These too are signs of the new creation
as well as the generosity and commitment that I have emphasized. What is clear is that our encounter with the
God who shows himself forth in Christ transforms us – we are not left the
same. The generosity of God is shown in
our generosity, the loving faithfulness of God kindles the same in us. And just as the wedding at Cana shows us a
God who comes to live with us, so our lives show forth the God who lives in us.
This is the transforming presence of God with us. It’s not always comfortable, it’s not always
easy, but God is present with us to change us, to transform us into the people
that he created us to be.
Now I don’t
know about you, but I don’t always feel very transformed. The story is told of the great American
evangelist and preacher Dwight Moody who was asked why he prayed each day for
the gift of God’s Spirit. Surely, his
questioner said, if God gives you his Spirit, it stays with you. True enough, replied Moody, but I leak. We have the transforming presence of God
within us, but we leak. God is
transforming us, but he has not finished with us yet. God is changing us, transforming us, but we
are not the finished article yet. We
still leak.
So tonight in
our prayers, throughout the coming week, and all through this season of
Epiphany, let us ask God to continue with his work of transforming us; to
continue to fill us, even though we leak.
Let us pray.
Almighty God, in Christ you make all things new:
transform
the poverty of our nature
by the riches of your grace,
and in the renewal of
our lives
make known your heavenly glory,
through Jesus Christ your Son our
Lord. Amen.
Given at Derby Cathedral 6.1.13.
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