By Irene Wright
Pastoral Council Member
2008-2011

January 17th, 2010

JOHN 2:1-11.

Jesus and his mother were invited at a wedding feast at Cana. There he performed the first of his great signs, changing water into wine. Thus he revealed his glory to all.

In our gospel reading Jesus comes to a wedding feast in Cana of Galilee to which his mother, Mary had been invited. He came to the party after having been proclaimed " the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world " by John the Baptist and extending an invitation to " come and you will see " to two of John's disciples who ask where he is abiding or staying. Other disciples then join Jesus as he headed to the wedding feast at Cana.

As you read this story you will notice that the bride and the groom are unnamed. We don't even know who they were in relationship to Jesus. The whole story is about the wine that runs out in the middle of a party, but John makes it clear that the story has a much deeper message and meaning. This story is really about a religious system that no longer worked. The Temple system of sacrifice as a way of atoning for certain sins and restoring people to community while still wildly popular and a cause for violent defense of the Temple was failing.

John the Baptist called people to repentance and amendment of life in the wilderness, not in the Temple. In a sense, the blood of sheep and other animals no longer seemed to convince us that we were really okay after all. The spilling of blood was supposed to be confined by the sacrificial system and I believe it was. The problem is that the sacrificial system no longer seems capable of containing our collective violence.

What the church claims is that Jesus and Adam share the same DNA spiritually. As the scripture says "as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive." Jesus is the one whose spiritual DNA is universal. Like the blood type O which can be used for any of the blood types, Jesus blood is the only blood that is universally able to transform our world from injustice and violence, to justice and peace.

His death reveals to all who can candidly and completely acknowledge the historical reality of the crucifixion and resurrection, we are in need of salvation, and that God in Christ is the only one to whom we can turn.

It is the blood of Christ which is poured out for us on the cross that is able to change us. And we know we are being changed when our relationships with others begin to change. Right relationship with others is hard work that requires humility, grace, and a willingness to change for the love of others.

In John's gospel this first sign of changing water into wine is designed to point us toward the power of God to save us. It is God whose life and blood can restore us. Without blood there is no life and without God, human culture violently cycles through time and space without hope. To taste the water turned to wine is to affirm a deep and abiding faith in the power and love of God and John brilliantly offers that the wine is the best saved for the last. The wedding of Heaven and Earth is at