Wine, wine and yet more wine - Epiphany 2

John 2, 1-11

Oh dear! This miracle is hardly in keeping with Methodism. Where I was brought up in Cornwall, I think this turning water into wine would have been enough to prevent Jesus from getting a note to preach. Turning wine into water would have been much more likely to impress.

Oh yes, I’ve heard all the stuff about non alcoholic wine but rest assured that is merely Total Abstinence Society Dreamland. This was wine, the real stuff and not some counterfeit impersonation.

Of course, to many people Methodists are best known as the people who don’t drink the strong stuff. One wag at the Wesleyan Conference in the 1800s describes Cornish Methodists as being in a state of fermentation over the issue. And so it was even in my lifetime. So let’s get one matter straight. Methodism has not always been about total abstinence. If it were so, John Wesley might have had some difficulty in joining a Society for his primary concern was about the standards of tea as opposed to wine. Indeed, the concern about total abstinence seems to have taken off well after Mr Wesley was dead and safely buried, for it was largely a response to the problems experienced within the new industrial working class in the 1800s that gave rise to an emphasis on total abstinence. For all too many due to their dependence on alcohol left their families go short of the necessities of life and to cap it the violent effects of alcohol were all to often felt by wives and children.

Now I don’t want to fail to take the problems of alcohol seriously. Both my wife and myself have known grandparents whose early years were blighted by a parent who developed a drink problem. Such a problem still goes on and is not helped by our government taking a view that 24 hour drinking is acceptable, a line which like its similarly permissive attitude to gambling threatens to wreck lives and to store up problems fro the future. But we need to be clear that the primary concern regarding alcohol is social rather than scriptural. There are good reasons for people to consider total abstinence but for most people the choice is wider than between total abstinence and drunkenness which Paul certainly cautions the church in Ephesus about.

Now for just a few moments, I want us to see what we can get out of John’ s story about Cana. The first thing to note is that it is based around a wedding which would have been a time of great celebration. It would be a time of unbounded joy. And so it is worth noting Jesus’ presence at such a gathering. For all too often our understanding of Jesus has been subverted by the vision of him as a “pale faced Galilean.” And yet the reality is that Jesus far from being a bloodless man, is one who lives life with zest, who shares in dinner parties and who is all too happy to attend festivities such as those at Cana. Note that he is not a censorious figure but one who is at the heart of the joy of community life.

And that joy at an occasion such as a wedding would be expressed in wine. Indeed, there are a number of occasions in the Old Testament when wine and joy are linked. And given the Palestinian view of hospitality, there can be no surprise that the host of the wedding, would seek to ensure a good stock of wine. Anything less would surely mean social disgrace. And yet in the story we are considering, the wine runs out. It was a disaster! The host must have wished that the ground would swallow him up.

Yet it is at this moment that Jesus is brought into the narrative. The role of his mother suggests that this was a wedding of someone who was close to the family of Jesus. Assuming John’s order of events an dismissing some of the fanciful stories about Jesus found in writings that did not make it into the canon of scripture, Jesus had done no miraculous things. And yet Mary draws him into the situation and despite an initially unpromising response, Jesus brings about the transformation that saves the wedding. And of course, the six stone jars used for ceremonial washing. that could each hold from 20 to 30 gallons, having been filled with water, now hold the finest wine and so the celebration can continue.

But what does it all mean. We can portray this simply as a magic show but that simply relegates Jesus to the level of a freak performer. It certainly does not conform to what Jesus saw as the role of what we might describe as his mighty deeds. After all, he is not prepared to do them to play up to the fickle fantasies of sensation seekers. Instead, these deeds are works of compassion, signs that point to God’s Kingdom. And it is in that light that we need to consider this story.

This is a story that brings us to the Incarnation. God in Christ is at one with us on the varied situations of life. Yes, Christ is with us in our sufferings but he is also with us in our celebrations and our partying. And because he celebrates, we can see in joyous occasions that which Christ himself affirms.

This is a story which affirms hope. The practice at wedding feasts was to serve the best wines when the palate was at its most sensitive and then when alcohol had deadened the senses to bring on the dross in the knowledge that it would be barely noticed. Here we see that Christ treats us with much more respect. For truly when we feel that we have been blessed, his blessings are not exhausted. The best is yet to come.

And this is a story which points to Christ’s inexhaustible grace. For the abundant supply of joyful wine points to Christ’s grace which has no limits. In our story, we leave off at a time when there is a lot of wine still to be drunk - surely too much after three days of festivities. So it is no surprise that centuries later, St Jerome was asked the rather intriguing question as to whether the guests at Cana had drunk all the wine. His answer was ;

“No, we are still drinking it.”

For just like endless supplies of wine, so to is the grace of Christ truly endless. Too often, the church has acted like a bouncer, ruling people out on grounds such as race, creed, background, bad choices or sexuality. Too often we make it sound as if the grace of Christ is exhaustible. But the truth is that it has no limit. When we think that there is no more to be had, then Christ’s cup overflows with generosity, kindness and love.

So today let us celebrate his endless love even if it is with a good old Methodist cup of tea!


Preached at Alverdiscott on Sunday January 14th 2007