Water to Wine

Opening Prayer

Let’s open with prayer. If you have a prayer concern, just offer it up out loud in this space. It can be a situation, a need, a family member or friend. When I sense we are finished I will close out our prayer.

Almighty God, whose Son our Savior Jesus Christ is the light of the world: Grant that your people, illumined by your Word and Sacraments, may shine with the radiance of Christ's glory, that he may be known, worshipped, and obeyed to the ends of the earth; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who with you and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

Introduction

We are in the season of the church year called Epiphany, meaning “to appear”. This season celebrates the revelation of Jesus as the Savior of the world. During Epiphany we’re doing a series called The Hope of Glory, and seeing how the glory of Jesus continues to shine on us and in us.

In the reading this morning we heard the story of Jesus turning water to wine at a wedding in Cana. For John, this was the first “sign” that Jesus performed that revealed his glory to the disciples. John embedded seven of this signs throughout his gospel to show how Jesus is the light of the world, and for him these “signs” are more than just miracles - Jesus did a lot of those - but these are specific miracles that are pointing beyond themselves to a greater truth John wants his readers to understand.

As I meditated on this passage this week, what I couldn’t seem to take my eyes off of were the water jars. I felt as if the Lord kept drawing my attention back to them over and over again. What is it about these stone jars that he wanted me - and us - to see this week? It think it is simply this: these water jars become a symbol or foretaste of what God is doing in each of us. As Jesus comes to us - cracked, misused, abused vessels - he does this miracle over and over again of transforming us from water to wine.

Six stone jars

Jesus and his disciples get invited to a wedding, and while there the wine runs out. To us this doesn’t seem a big deal, we’d just pop down to the local store and buy a few more bottles. But in this context, running out before the end of the party would reflect badly on the bride and groom as well as their parents. It would have damaged the reputation of the wine stewards who were tasked with making sure there was enough. It likely could have resulted in punishment for the servants who were suppose to take care of these details. So we are brought into a moment of crisis. And ultimately our eyes are drawn to six common water jars used for purification, which basically meant this is the water the servants used to wash the feet and hands of guests as they arrived. I want to draw out some observations about these water jars, and then I’m make some applications about us.

Earthy - what I mean is that they are made of earth. These jars are formed from the dust of the ground. The text reads stone, but undoubtedly these are earthenware jars made by a local pottery maker.

Common - and here I’m contrasting them with sacred. These are not made for noble purposes. They have no religious significance. There is nothing special about them. They are the kinds of water pots you would find in every Jewish home.

Unremarkable - They have no particular beauty to draw the eye. They aren’t made for decorative purposes. These are the kinds of pots we would have on our decks with a plant in it, not an item we would decorate our homes with.

Fragile - because they are common and earthy, they weren’t necessarily handled with care. There is a certain fragility about them. They likely had accumulated dings and chips and cracks along the way

And yet… these earthy, common, unremarkable, fragile pots are the very vessels that Jesus chooses to perform the first of his great signs. To do this powerful transforming work. I even wonder if it was for the very reason of the pots being just as they were that Jesus chose them. After all, presumably he could have used the vessels the depleted wine had been in. But I think this is precisely where the lesson is for us.

Jars of clay

Perhaps you can already see where I’m going with this, but let me just ask, “How do these pots mirror our own lives?” I think this is why the Spirit kept drawing me to these pots, and what he wants us to put our attention on. The truth is that we are much like these stone jars.

We are earthy. Like them, we were created from the dust of the earth. We have been shaped by a master potter. The only possible difference is this: these pots, after being shaped, were fired so that they would harden. We too can become hardened, but our Master potter wants to keep us on the pottery wheel. Keeping us supple and moldable so that he can continue to shape us to his good purposes.

We are common. We’re ordinary. We have nothing that particularly would commend us. We are vessels made for common use. And yet, we have this potential to become a sacred container. To contain the very presence of God through the Holy Spirit.

We aren’t particularly beautiful. There is no reason that God would choose us, other than that is who he is. He loves us as only a Father can.

We are fragile. We break easily. We have been chipped and cracked, both by what has been done to us, but also by what we have done. We would be right to wonder why God would choose to fill us with himself. But here we see the nature of our God. Nothing his hand has made is unredeemable, and he works within us to take our brokenness and turn it to something beautiful.

There is a type of Japanese art called Kintsugi, where they take vessels that have been cracked or broken, and they put them back together using gold. (show pic) The bowl or whatever it is, is no longer exactly as it was originally made, but in some respects it actually becomes more beautiful. I think this is a beautiful illustration of the work God does in us, repairing our cracks and chips, as he transforms us from water to wine.

I wonder if this story of the wedding in Cana was in Paul’s mind when he wrote 2 Corinthians 4:7 “But we have this treasure in clay jars, so that it may be made clear that this extraordinary power belongs to God and does not come from us.”

A crown of beauty

God has chosen by his own mercy and grace to transform us into something new and beautiful. And this isn’t something we can do for ourselves. We don’t transform ourselves, but rather Christ in us transforms us from the inside out. Here the promise of God through Isaiah is fulfilled:

Isaiah 62:1–5 (NRSV)

For Zion’s sake I will not keep silent, and for Jerusalem’s sake I will not rest, until her vindication shines out like the dawn, and her salvation like a burning torch. The nations shall see your vindication, and all the kings your glory; and you shall be called by a new name that the mouth of the Lord will give. You shall be a crown of beauty in the hand of the Lord, and a royal diadem in the hand of your God. You shall no more be termed Forsaken,and your land shall no more be termed Desolate; but you shall be called My Delight Is in Her, and your land Married; for the Lord delights in you, and your land shall be married. For as a young man marries a young woman, so shall your builder marry you, and as the bridegroom rejoices over the bride, so shall your God rejoice over you.

The marriage in Cana prefigures another marriage - one where God takes you for himself and makes you his own. He fills you with his Spirit, and over time and by grace, he turns your water to wine.

Vessels respond

Going back to the story, what is the response of the stone jars? I think the only response necessary, in fact the only response they could offer, was two things: availability and openness.

Available - Simply put, these stone jars were available. They were positioned in a way that they could be seen and used. I think being available has to do with simply learning to be present to the Lord. Being attentive to him. This is so hard to do because we tend to get so zeroed in on our own priorities. One of the things I’m personally working on this year is trying to pause in my day and re-center myself on the Lord.

Open - We could say that a jars natural state of being is to be filled, and to be empty is to not be fulfilling the purpose for which it was created. Jars cry out to be filled. We, as jars of clay, have been created to be vessels of filling. We are made to be the dwelling place of God, filled and indwelt by his own Spirit.

God has become your bridegroom. Through Jesus Christ he has wedded himself to you. And his commitment to you is that we will fill you with himself to such a degree that it will utterly transform your life - if you’ll let him. Allow God to perform a spiritual Kintsugi on you, taking those places of cracks, chips, and breaks, and restoring them by his own filling presence.

How will you respond to him? If you respond with availability and openness, then Christ will come to you with his transforming power and turn you from water to wine.

Ministry time...

Communion

Psalm 36:7-8 says, “How precious is your steadfast love, O God! All people may take refuge in the shadow of your wings. They feast on the abundance of your house, and you give them drink from the river of your delights.” In the ancient Latin version of the Psalms this reads “they are inebriated on your abundance”. Communion is an invitation to drunkenness. Not with alcohol in an debauched sense, but drunk on the wine of God’s love and grace that he pours out on us in Jesus Christ. Communion invites us to feast in our hearts by faith on the body and blood of Jesus, inviting his presence to dwell in greater and greater magnitude within us, and allowing him to do his complete work of transformation.

Words of Institution

The Lord’s Prayer