Second Sunday in Ordinary Time, January 16, 2022 – Isaiah 62:1-5; 1 Corinthians 12:4-11; John 2:1-11

I want to show you something. This is just about a gallon. It’s actually four liters, but it’s like a gallon-point-something. If we put this here, and put another one next to it, and another one next to it, right across, and then start putting them down the center aisle, we would get to here with gallon jugs of wine. That’s how much wine Jesus made. Do a little bit of math. It says six jars holding twenty to thirty gallons. So let’s split the difference, and call the jugs twenty-five gallon jars, ok? Six twenty-five gallon jars is one hundred and fifty gallons of wine. The average serving of wine in a restaurant or bar today is five ounces. So, if you multiply… First you divide five ounces into each gallon, and you get thirteen servings to a gallon, times one hundred and fifty gallons, means that Jesus made one thousand nine hundred fifty servings of wine.

Historians tell us that there were probably about four hundred people living in Cana at that time. Most weddings in villages at that time would have involved most of the village; everybody was welcome to drop in at the wedding ceremony. And so, if you divide the number of drinks of wine Jesus made by the number of people in Cana at the time, everybody would have gotten five more drinks of wine out of what Jesus made. That’s a lot of wine.

So what is this story all about? There are three words missing from the story. The very first three words.
In your bible, it says, “And on the third day, there was a wedding in Cana.” Remember that this takes place on the third day. Notice that the mother of Jesus does not have a name, because here His mother represents all of faithful Judaism, calling out to God, “They have no wine.” Why? Because, in the Old Testament, in the books of Isaiah, Jeremiah, Hosea, and Amos, and in other places in the psalms, you will find God’s promise of rescue described as a time when the fields will be ripe with grapes and rich wine will be everywhere for the taking. And so, this is Judaism, calling out, “We have no wine.”

And Jesus’ response is a strange response of a child to a mother, but He says, “My hour has not yet come.” Because, in John’s gospel, Jesus’ hour is the time simultaneously of His crucifixion and His resurrection. The crucifixion wins for people the forgiveness we always longed for. The resurrection makes it possible for us to share that forgiveness.

Notice what happens. The headwaiter calls the bridegroom over and says, “You’ve made a blunder here. You’re supposed to serve the good wine first.” In our society, when we have a wedding, almost always, the bride’s family is expected to pick up the expenses of the wedding reception. That was not true in Jesus’ day. In Jesus’ day, the bridegroom paid all the expenses for the wedding. And so, the bridegroom has committed a terrible offense, socially speaking. Who takes over in the story? Jesus takes over in the story.

In our first reading, I said there was a key to understanding the gospel. In our first reading, this is what Isaiah says. “No longer shall you be called forsaken, but you will be called espoused, for the Lord delights in you and makes your land his spouse. As a young man marries a virgin, your creator shall marry you.” And so, very often, not only here in Isaiah in several places, but also in several passages of Jeremiah, in a special place in the book of Hosea, and in the book of Amos, and in the Song of Songs, God is pictured as coming to His people the way a husband comes to a wife, the way a spouse comes to a spouse. And so, the real bridegroom at the wedding becomes Jesus, who takes over the task that the bridegroom had failed properly to do. And, since the story takes place on the third day, it’s a reminder to us that Jesus’ real hour is the time of His crucifixion and resurrection.

Now, I said that once we understand the story that’s being told here, the second reading had a response to the story. And this is what the second reading said. “To each individual the manifestation of the spirit is given for some benefit.” And then Paul goes on to list a whole bunch of gifts - ‘charisms’ he calls them – that people get. And he says that all of these gifts are meant to serve the community.

When we understand the story that Jesus comes to fulfill the promise, the promise of life to the full, then we’re expected to accept forgiveness, to seek forgiveness, to turn that forgiveness out toward others using each of our own talents to do that in our time and place. To the extent that we fail to do that, we further the lack of wine.

Look at the world in which we live. People look around and say, “Well, it doesn’t look like God’s salvation worked, because things are a real mess now, just like they were then.” But every single harmful event in this world begins with one person’s choice to do wrong instead of to do right. The little quarrel in a family becomes a thirty year standoff. The little dishonesty in a business that eventually takes down the business, causes the owners to be arrested. Every place you look, every great evil began with one small thing.

So, goodness can also begin with just one small act. All we have to do is show up at the wedding feast and hold out our cup. And, once our cup is filled, be willing to pour.