Sermon by Rev Sydney Maitland for Sunday 19 January 2025.
Marriage at Cana, c. 1500, Gerard David, Musée du Louvre, Paris (Source and large image)
• First Reading: Isaiah 62: 1-5 (For Zion’s sake I will not keep silent and for Jerusalem’s sake I will not remain quiet, till her vindication shines out like the dawn, her salvation like a blazing torch)
• Epistle: 1 Corinthians 12: 1-11 (Spiritual gifts: different kinds of gifts but the same Spirit who distributes them)
• Gospel: John 2: 1-11 (Wedding at Cana: turning water into wine)
I think that the fairy tale of the ugly duckling touches a very deep and sensitive nerve in us: the story of an ungainly and awkward duckling, rejected by its fellows, lonely and despondent.
And then it all changes. It grows up and finds a new purpose. A new form and mission; a new kind of presence as a swan. Now it is fulfilled and vindicated. No longer isolated but majestic and even celebrated.
I expect that all of us could at one time or another, identify with that sense of rejection and hope for the same measure of restoration and vindication.
Now look for a moment at John’s account of the wedding at Cana, when Jesus and His disciples were present, and the wine ran out. It is not just the generous gift of wine at a party, but this is the first of Jesus’ signs of the kingdom as told by John. Others have other miracles to recount, but this is the one that John selects as the launching pad for Jesus’ ministry.
Compare it with Mark and Luke, who tell of Jesus’ authority over spiritual evil and satanic oppression, or Matthew who tells of general healings.
For John this miracle is special. Not just as it is the event which launched Jesus onto the road to the cross, and yet He already had some disciples with Him.
But there is something else, and the clue lies in the 6 water jars, holding 20-30 gallons: maybe half the volume of an oil barrel. These were used for the routine washing of everyday items as part of cleansing rituals. By the number and size of them they point to an awful lot of ritual cleansing.
Now look at how they were being re-purposed: not so much the water required for cleansing rituals, in order to comply with the strictest pharisaic requirements.
Now there was a completely different use: to hold wine – and we are told, wine of the best quality, so that the wedding celebration may continue with a swing and a zing.
Instead of a means of keeping critics at bay, they became vessels for a celebration, a party of exceptional joy.
And that was it: condemnation and legalism giving way to celebration and freedom. The water that might have kept critics quiet, now yielding joy and laughter, a lightened spirit and a merry heart.
But it also points to the water and wine that John observed coming from Jesus’ pierced side on the cross.
But central to this first mighty sign of Jesus was joy and celebration, release and laughter, forgiveness and new starts, healing and deliverance, which even the fear of death could never overcome.
This was light shining in the darkness and the darkness had to flee, finding itself only in the denial of light.
Now look backwards at Isaiah and forwards to Paul’s letter to the church in Corinth.
In Isaiah, the proclamation is again of vindication and celebration.
The people rejected and despised now found to be holy and beautiful in the sight of God. Whatever had gone before, the Lord was not going to let it stand in the way of His purposes and vision for His people.
Whatever despondency and discouragement had prevailed before, they would never have the last word. God had something mightier and more wonderful in store.
The land and people, called deserted and desolate, would be a delight and married to their Lord. And He would rejoice over them as a bridegroom might rejoice over His bride.
They would be married to their Lord in a new dispensation.
In Paul’s letter to the Corinthians, there is another expression of release and fulfilment.
Now it is in the gifts of the Holy Spirit, bestowed on the church as a whole so that it might give honour to its Lord. It would be empowered to live His life and show to the world what kind of Lord He is.
Now there is a dispensation of forgiveness and healing instead of condemnation and sickness. It is a place of joy in worship and of serious purpose in prayer.
It is a place where relationships are restored, where memories are healed and new possibilities are opened up.
This is the place where normal human competencies and aptitudes are supplemented by gifts from God, received, discerned and exercised in the spiritual realm: where it is our relationship with Him and with one another that empower them.
Whatever we thought of ourselves in terms of numbers or energy or leaning or other skills and resources, the Lord is able to meet us in our place of need and feelings of inadequacy.
So coming back to the wedding, Jesus’ starting point in John’s gospel is a magnificent and abundant provision where only emptiness and inadequacy presented themselves.
But that is the point: where our humanity seems to fail, the Lord is able to fulfil and supply: magnificently and far beyond our imaginations.
