Year C

John 2:1-11

The Very Rev. Denise Vaughn

Masterpieces of Art

Artist and art educator, Carrie Brummer, once wrote an article called “Lessons from Artist Joshua Allen Harris and in this article, Carrie describes the unique art Harris created around New York City in 2008 out of used plastic trash bags he found along the streets. You may have seen pictures of his art. All over the city he put these pieces of art over air vents to give them a sense of life. He made a sea serpent, bears, giraffes, and a host of other things. Christian writer Michael Shannon had an epiphany about Harris’ art he wrote, “Whatever you may think of the value of this kind of art, it can be a kind of parable for those who think of themselves as too bad for God to love and use in God’s work. Maybe you think of yourself as having no value he says, but God sees you as his masterpiece.

God sees every one of us out of God’s “steadfast love” for creation as a masterpiece. Today’s readings use the imagery of a wedding feast to tell us something of the steadfast love of God. There is an “us” created at baptism that binds us like a marriage to the God of Jesus in an irrevocable way. I love that image of being married to God and God will not undo this covenantal love. Only we are capable of that. God’s love undergirds all creation-the central theme of the scriptures is a love story. God loves us passionately, forgives us magnificently, sends a son to die for us, to redeem us and restore us. Is there any better way to describe this love than in the passage today from Isaiah regarding Zion?

This is a love song-the first two verses speak of the restoration of God’s people as something that will be apparent to all people in a glorious light. Zion is no more “forsaken” and “desolate.” She is “my delight.” God’s delight for God’s people is as a husband for a bride. Isaiah says, “With the joy of a bridegroom because of his bride, so God will rejoice because of you.” We are beautiful because God loves us. And Isaiah invites us to imagine the joy and hope that fills the hearts of a young couple on their wedding day. This is the joyful spirit that describes a forgiving God who once again takes a wayward Israel as a beloved bride. What a beautiful image of God’s incredible generous grace that is full of attraction to and love for us.  

This generosity of God, Jesus publicly shows at a marriage celebration by turning ordinary water into very fine wine. This story, only recorded in John’s gospel, takes place soon after Jesus has chosen his disciples. Cana, the site of the story and the home of Nathaniel, lies just about five miles from Nazareth. Weddings in those days and much like weddings today, were extravagant events. Life savings were spent making certain the guests had the best possible time with the party usually going on for seven full days! Sometime toward the end of the festivities, Jesus and his friends arrive to pay their respects to the happy couple.

The wine runs out and Mary seeks Jesus’ help who then provides a miracle. According to John, this was Jesus’ first miracle. Providing bread to feed the multitudes, healing the sick, giving sight to the blind and raising the dead would follow later. Scholars through the centuries have had different takes on this miracle of water into wine. Some feel that it was purely a symbolic act, questioning whether it really actually happened, and they think of it as a kind of parable to show the power of Jesus. Others say this is a beautiful way of showing God’s care for the common business of life. Still others, say this miracle was God’s way of saying that heaven is ready to celebrate with us in the happiness of life. God rejoices in our happiness and brings the best to our celebrations. The truth probably lies in all of these ideas.

Yet, whatever the exact details, John is known in his gospel to often take allegories, symbols and tales and use them to say something about Jesus. The symbolism of the wedding at Cana centers, not in the various details of the story, but in the larger theme of the unimaginable generosity of Jesus. It is Jesus who has come to take the ordinary, the flat, the tasteless, the common and transform it into something robust, hearty, and joyful. Jesus can transform our lives. In him is all the fullness of God. In him is life, and when he touches our lives what is common and ordinary and flat becomes beautiful. Now not everyone will find the gifts of Jesus to be welcome. As we know, there is a cross in Jesus’ future by those who do not welcome him. 

Yet, when we know, welcome and celebrate this love of God, we are ready to be a gift to others. Covenantal love is always about bringing the best wine to the table. As our God is the best, so we are invited to become. Today we are encouraged to come to the feast, with desiring hearts that are transformed by love so that “as the bridegroom rejoices over the bride, so shall your God rejoice over you.” The implication is that God in Christ through the resurrection and gift of the Spirit has turned the water of our own lives into rich wine that gives glory to God. Alive in the Spirit, we can respond to the call into community with generous and gracious hearts.

Paul today in his letter to the Corinthians reminds us of the abundant gifts of the Spirit, leading first to a confession of Jesus as Lord and then to a variety of services for the common good of the church. The one distinguishing characteristic of Christianity, according to Paul, is the declaration of Jesus Christ as Lord. Those who do confess Jesus are Christ’s body in the world. The risen Lord has made a claim upon them and God’s Spirit dwells in them giving them gifts to bear witness to all people. The whole point is to build a worshipping community, made up of people whose lives are directed to God and praying for God’s Spirit to so empower their lives that they may use the gifts of the Spirit for the common good.

To see the Holy Spirit at work, building people to praise and worship, to recognize this power, the true spiritual gift, one that we are all called to exercise in the world which is to acknowledge and show God’s steadfast love. The disciples saw the exuberant, creative power of God at work in the miracle at Cana. It was a revelation, an epiphany and a confirmation of faith for them as they saw the generosity of God at work in bringing joy to the wedding feast. For John, the most important feature of the water turned into wine is the greater reality to which it points: the reality of God’s redeeming, steadfast love, at work in Jesus Christ that takes the trash bags found on the streets and makes masterpieces of art out of them. We are all masterpieces of art called as the bride to the bridegroom, to go out and make art, other masterpieces to glorify God, the one who has called us to the wedding feast.