The Best Wine

January 29, 2017

Helen Jacobi

Epiphany 4     1 Corinthians 1:18-31     John 2:1-11

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Lover of the vineyard

and host of the wedding feast:

inflame our longing

to drink of your delights;

when life runs dry,

call us to your table

that we might be

transformed,

intoxicated,

wholly yours;

through Jesus Christ, the vinedresser. Amen. [1]

That was the way the prayer of the day for today was written by the aptly named Mr Steven Shakespeare whose prayers we often use in our liturgy. I chose to edit it down as I thought it might feel a bit weird praying as a community that we want to be intoxicated by God. That sense of slight unease I had with the language of the prayer is the same sense of unease or uncertainty that people have had through the centuries with the story of the wedding at Cana. We have in our church heritage and tradition a reasonable dose of puritan inspired ideas which might frown on the idea of an overabundance of good wine. Commentators and bible readers have been just a bit uncomfortable with the idea that Jesus’ first “miracle” was changing water into wine, and the best wine too. And of course some church traditions don’t allow drinking at all. Well – as Stephen often says when enjoying a good drop – “our Lord himself drank wine”!

Jesus was often criticized for drinking and eating with “tax collectors and sinners” and all sorts of people. Jesus gathered folk around the table and enjoyed their company and the wine and food offered. Wine was as essential for Jesus as water or bread, and he enjoyed it!

In the way John writes the story of the wedding at Cana we are supposed to be overwhelmed with the sense of abundance and joy and surprise of the occasion. Weddings then were no different to weddings today – people invest a huge amount of energy, expectation, excitement, in planning a wedding. Wedding feasts in Jesus’ time lasted a week! At the bridegroom’s house! As a mother of 2 daughters I think we should go with the idea of the groom’s family picking up the tab! However people also brought wine and food as gifts for the week of feasting. So when this wedding party runs out of wine it could be because the guests were not generous enough with what they brought. Or maybe the hosts had miscalculated what they needed?

The conversation Jesus has with Mary seems to be missing pieces – and we do not know why Mary first goes to Jesus and says “they have no wine” – is it a whisper? a criticism? or does she expect him to do something about it? and if so, why? is it their family who are the hosts or related to the hosts? And why, after Jesus seems to dismiss her expectation, does she say to the servants – “do whatever he tells you” – like hop down the road and get us some more wine? Raymond Brown says these are just “snatches of dialogue” [2] and not the whole conversation. They are there just to set up the main part of the story.

Our 21st century minds might want to question the main part of the story – did it really happen this way; do we really believe in miracles like this? For our gospel writer John that is the wrong kind of question.

This is instead a story with layers to peel off like all of John’s writing:

• The water jars are for “the Jewish rites of purification”.

The old ways of the old tradition are about to be replaced with new wine, new beginnings.

• The amount is ridiculous! 120 gallons – that is 605 bottles of wine!

This is about generosity, abundance; wine overflowing.

• And then of course it is the best wine!

The top shelf stuff; high prices on a restaurant menu.

John says this was a “sign” which revealed Jesus to the disciples and they believed in him. What were they supposed to see? and what did they believe? They saw God’s generosity, God’s abundance, the crazy overflowing nature of God. They knew they were participating in a centuries long tradition whereby God was said to welcome people to a great feast or a wedding banquet.

On this mountain the Lord of hosts will make for all peoples a feast of rich food, a feast of well-matured wines, of rich food filled with marrow, of well-matured wines strained clear. (Isaiah 25:6)

So John is telling us loud and clear that Jesus is the long awaited messiah who will “foreshadow the abundant age of which the prophets spoke so vividly.” [3] That last phrase belongs to Gisela Kreglinger, a theologian and winemaker, who will be here for our wine tasting event on February 9. Gisela speaks passionately about the need for us to engage our senses of taste, touch, and smell, as well as seeing and hearing. This “miracle” at Cana is about tasting the best wine, feeling the texture on your tongue, and breathing in its aromas. And being overwhelmed by the joy of the experience. And then gathering and sharing with each other that joy.

In the OT wisdom is personified as a woman and in Proverbs (9:1-5) we read

Wisdom has built her house,

she has hewn her seven pillars.

She has slaughtered her animals, she has mixed her wine,

she has also set her table.

She has sent out her servant-girls, she calls

from the highest places in the town,

‘You that are simple, turn in here!’

To those without sense she says,

‘Come, eat of my bread

and drink of the wine I have mixed.

Lay aside immaturity, and live,

and walk in the way of insight.’

You will find those words in our Epiphany liturgy at the moment “wisdom has built her house; she has mixed her wine; she has set her table”. They are there because the wedding at Cana is read in the season of Epiphany; and passages like this from the OT are seen as part of John’s vision for his story. Part of his weaving of imagery, and allusions, which lead us to the joy of discovering who Jesus is, and the joy of simply enjoying the gifts God has given us. John’s gospel is all about joy. (And we could do with a bit of joy in our world right now!)

The wine tasting event on Feb 9 is going to be a lovely crossover between our church life and our events business. The dinners and cocktail parties which get held in this church are a way for us to help pay for the upkeep on the building. But they are more than just a good business. They are also about sharing our beautiful building with the city and knowing that at the heart of our Christian beliefs, is the sense of joy that God wants us to have – in the gifts of creation and each other. Some people don’t like the idea of “secular” events in a church. Even people who have no particular faith find it a bit unsettling. I think that is because they have separated off any idea of faith from our actual, physical lives. Our lives where we can taste and touch the good things of life and the beauty of creation. The Jesus of John’s gospel chose to reveal his nature to the disciples by changing vast amounts of water into wine. How crazy is that!

Lover of the vineyard

and host of the wedding feast:

inflame our longing

to drink of your delights;

when life runs dry,

call us to your table

that we might be

transformed,

intoxicated,

wholly yours; through Jesus Christ, the vinedresser. Amen.

[1] Steven Shakespeare Prayers for the Inclusive Church

[2] p 103 The Gospel According to John Anchor Bible 1966

[3] Gisela Kreglinger The Spirituality of Wine 2016 Eerdmans