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Isaiah 62:1-5 • Psalm 36:5-10 • 1 Corinthians 12:1-11 • John 2:1-11
As mentioned in Friday’s email: This Sunday’s gospel is the unique story of Jesus turning water into wine for the wedding at Cana. No other gospel writers speak of this event, nor are there any other miracles resembling this one. There are very few miracles in John’s gospel, so it’s interesting to think about why ‘John’ chose to tell this story at the beginning of the second chapter of this most symbolic, mystical and theological of the four gospels. I think some of you have seen the old rock opera movie called Jesus Christ Superstar? Do you remember the scene when Pilate sends Jesus to Herod and there’s a poolside party going on? That Herod Antipas BTW was the son of Herod the “Great” who spoke to the wise men and supposedly killed all babies under age two as a result, while Jesus and his family escaped as refugees to Egypt. In the Superstar movie Herod sings that he’s overjoyed to finally meet Jesus because of all the great things he’s heard that Jesus can do. But Herod wants his own proof, and here’s part of what he sings: “So you are the Christ. You’re the great Jesus Christ. Prove to me that you’re divine. Change my water into wine. … Prove to me that you’re no fool. Walk across my swimming pool.” And so on. It’s easy to think that changing water into wine, delightful as it sounds, is more like a party trick compared to all the healing and feeding miracles, and raising from the dead, etc.
Now believe me I’m not arguing against the importance of changing water into wine, and I used to do it quite regularly in the basement of various homes I’ve lived in, lugging those five-gallon carboys up and down for siphoning through the fermentation process. I even did this in the storage room of my rental apartment in Edmonton about twenty years ago … fearing that the strong fermentation smell might be seeping across the wall into the corridor – I was never quite sure because I’ve always had a poor sense of smell. I often thought of Jesus’ wine-making miracle in John 2 and wished I too could ‘blink’ and it was done. Eventually I switched to boxed wine or ‘card-Bordeaux’ … and was so relieved to give away my heavy wine-making supplies. In our Thursday Bible study, we discussed how this story also shows us a unique glimpse of the mother-son relationship between Jesus and Mary, thinking that after she tells him that they’re out of wine, and he responds with: “Woman, what concern is that to you or me? My hour has not yet come” … we sort of envisioned Mary rolling her eyes before turning to the servants and saying: “Do whatever he tells you.” And maybe it’s a cultural difference but most mothers I know would not want adult sons to address them as “Woman”.
So as mentioned in the Friday email, you’re invited to share your thoughts about this unusual miracle from John’s gospel. Any ideas or comments ……?
Our epistle reading from 1 Corinthians is entirely different, and easy to apply to our life of faith in our church communities, as it deals with the great variety of gifts or skills & talents that people have – and how all such gifts are valuable when used for the Common Good (v.4-7). I’m glad to see Paul mentioning the Common Good – a term that’s fallen into ‘disfavour’ over time, but we’d do well to resurrect it in our contemporary culture that often encourages selfishness and greed instead. Paul speaks of how the Spirit activates gifts like wisdom, knowledge – notice how he differentiates those two – healing, prophecy and even miracles. Do we still have miracles in our modern times? Well, all those official saints that the Church of Rome canonizes just need one person saying they were miraculously healed by prayers to dead heroes of the faith, and boom – the canonization process gets underway. I admit that I’m a bit leery of that process -- partly because in my life it’s Pepper Dog that has brought me the most healing, and no one is trying to canonize him for sainthood.
Since we have miracles in both the gospel and the epistle, another question we can consider is: what’s the difference between miracles and magic? Many fervent Christians have often thought that magic comes from the devil, and yet the Wise Men were also call Magi, short for magicians. Not surprisingly, many such Christians were against the Harry Potter series, especially since the Americans insisted on changing that first title from Philosopher’s Stone to Sorcerer’s Stone. Whereas the idea of the Philosopher’s Stone is many centuries old – from alchemy writings that speak of turning base metal into gold – and then applying that to other matters in which we make something out of nothing, so to speak. It’s a little like what Fred Rogers said in that quote I sent you – it’s not what we have in life, but rather what we do with what we have. Even a simple meal of bread and wine, as Jesus taught us, can be a great feast, if we have the wisdom to see that. The Philosopher’s Stone was also seen as an elixir for immortality, but as Jesus made clear – resurrection is more important than immortality. Anyways it’s a long story, and please tell me if you’d like to have a Harry Potter discussion group, but there’s so much in that series that shows a healing magic – magic that helps people overcome their limitations or gives them new strength against old enemies or challenges. May we too grow in the ways that God’s Holy Spirit wants us to overcome limitations and use our gifts for the Common Good, Amen.