Let me tell you a story – a true story.
This happened 50 some years ago when I was a college student.
In the Roman Catholic Church the Second Vatican Council had just occurred.
I heard about it through the campus ministry gatherings
from a Catholic campus minister.
Vatican II, called by Pope John XXIII, was a tremendous breakthrough
for the Catholic Church.
One of the biggest outcomes was the switch from the Latin Mass
to Mass in the language of the people.
At that time I happened to hear a guest speaker relate his experience of Vatican II,
and he said something that I have never been able to get out of my mind.
His name was David du Plessis, a Pentecostal minister from South Africa.
He was a Pentecostal "observer" at the World Council of Churches in 1954 and 1961,
and along with other denominational representatives was invited
to serve as a Pentecostal observer at the Second Vatican Council.
You might expect him to be quite a misfit in that setting!
He shared about a conversation he had in a private audience with the Pope.
In this meeting he shared with the Pope
that even though their faiths differed a little,
they did have one thing in common.
He said, “We both believe in doing whatever Mary tells us to do.”
He was referring to John, chapter 2, of course,
to the words that Mary spoke
that inaugurated Jesus’ public ministry in his first act
which was, of all things, turning water into wine.
She said to the servants, “Do whatever Jesus tells you to do.”
The Pope and the Pentecostal preacher were in total agreement theologically on this point: Heed Mary’s words; do what Jesus tells you to do.
In John’s Gospel we see the first sign of Jesus,
of the Kingdom of God at hand,
in a story in which the setting is a wedding.
But the wedding is in the background, an underlying, subliminal message,
in which something else very profound is being expressed.
The imagery of marriage comes up frequently in the Hebrew scriptures
in the Prophets especially,
for speaking about the relationship between God and God’s people.
In today’s reading from Isaiah 62
God’s love for the people of Jerusalem,
for those called into Covenant relationship with God,
is described in the language of a bride and a bridegroom:
“You shall be a crown of beauty in the hand of the Lord…
You shall no more be termed Forsaken…
but you shall be called My Delight Is in Her…
for the Lord delights in you…
…as a young man marries a young woman…
…as the bridegroom rejoices over the bride,
so shall your God rejoice over you.”
This is a very intimate way to describe relationship with God,
so loving, and with the idea of becoming one flesh.
This passage is not just for the people of Jerusalem,
but for all called into covenant relationship,
all brought into adoption as sons and daughters of God.
The wedding imagery is the most beautiful and intimate of ways
for expressing God’s love for us.
Back to the main point.
In John’s Gospel there is a series of “signs,” seven of them.
Each are signs of the Kingdom of God at hand,
each of them a story describing
what the spiritual practice of salvation is about,
and in this story, the setting is a wedding and the sign is turning water into wine.
Isn’t it a little odd that this first sign of Jesus’ ministry
is not his preaching and teaching,
such as in the early chapters of Matthew’s Gospel
with the Sermon on the Mount.
It is not healing offered to all sorts and conditions of suffering,
but it is an occurrence “behind the scene,” so to speak,
in the kitchen,
and only the servants know what has happened.
The steward in the wedding party knows nothing
about where the wine came from,
and doesn’t know of any connection between Jesus and the wine.
He just knows quality when he tastes it, and tells the bridegroom,
“Hey! This is good wine! Better than we had before!”
But first let’s look at what is going on between Jesus and his mother.
Did you ever wonder about what may seem like a harsh remark?
“Woman, what concern is that to you and to me?”
Who is Jesus talking to? His mother! Is that how you talk to your mother?
Or you might ask, why is Mary telling Jesus about the wine running out?
What does Mary know about Jesus that the others don’t?
What are her expectations of Jesus?
She knows first hand, from the time in the womb,
that the One she could call her son is also her Lord.
She expresses faith in her Lord
acting on her experience of him,
calling upon his compassionate and generous heart
in the midst of this very human situation
of impending social catastrophe.
And Jesus responds,
not by acknowledging the family relationship between them,
but with a response that is characteristic
of a Teacher or Rabbi testing a disciple.
Mary, the mother of our Lord, we could say, was quite possibly
his first disciple.
She believed before anyone else.
Mary passes the discipleship test.
She continues expressing explicit trust,
and she actively engages in drawing others into the same trust.
What servant in such a situation would dare take water to the head of the feast,
passing it off as wine?
But they comply, and so they are the ones who then know
the incredible transformation that has occurred,
the act of creation of the Spirit hovering over the water
in those 6 stone jars.
If I could be present in this story, where would I picture myself?
How about this:
Identify with the stone jars holding the water.
The water becomes wine, not our action.
The fermentation process occurs.
The bubbles arise – Living Water/Life/Spirit/Breath
The stone jars are not responsible for the change.
Then the water-become-wine is poured out,
and taken away for others to drink
and to exclaim in their discovery,
“This is good wine! Better than we had before!”
I would say that this is a good analogy
of what real evangelism could accomplish.
The Epistle reading for today from 1 Corinthians 12
lists a whole variety of gifts of the Holy Spirit
that, like water turned into wine, work in the disciples,
their own abilities transformed and expanded spiritually,
equipping them for a ministries poured out to others
who receiving them and know whom they came from,
recognize what is good and life giving
and are themselves brought closer to the Bridegroom of our souls.
Water into wine. The first sign.
Later at another feast,
Jesus would take wine and pass it to his disciples
and tell them to drink,
and then he would say, “This is my blood,”
blood of a New Covenant, a new marriage between God and humankind.
Revelation 19:6-9 brings full circle this wedding imagery from Isaiah
in the marriage of the Lamb with the Bride, the Church, the Faithful.
Here Jesus, the Lamb of God, is the bridegroom at his own wedding
in this spiritual marriage with all his disciples,
where his own sacrifice, his life blood poured out on the cross,
is the wine at this table,
and the love in this marriage is none other than the agaph love of God,
that unitive love of “I in thee and thou in me.”
May our prayer, as we come to this table week by week, to drink of his wine,
be an openness of heart to realize this great love
and a willingness to be like those stone jars, those vessels
to be filled with the Spirit’s gifts
to be poured out for others.
May our hearts be glad.
And may we always remember to heed Mary’s words:
Do what Jesus tells you to do. Amen.
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