This is the homily I delivered during a virtual Zoom worship service of Christ Episcopal Church in Yankton SD, on January 16, 2022. A recording of this service can be found on the church's Facebook page, Christ Episcopal Church Yankton, SD - Posts | Facebookhttps://www.facebook.com › ChristYankton › posts.
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FROM WATER TO WINE
The Epiphany season is contextualized by two events in the life Jesus, his baptism where he is declared God’s Son in whom God is pleased and his Transfiguration, in which God says ,“This is my son, my chosen. Listen to him.” In last week’s gospel reading, John the Baptist declared, “I baptize you with water; but one who is more powerful than I is coming…. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.”
Today’s reading from the Gospel of John proves to be an interesting followup to what John the Baptist was saying last Sunday. Unlike the Synoptic Gospels, there is no story of Jesus being baptized by John the Baptist and no specific account of Jesus’ Transfiguration in the Gospel of John and yet baptism and transfiguration figure prominently throughout it.
The Gospel of John is a theological or Christological work that functions like a parabolic catechism in which Jesus portrays himself as the Cosmic Christ who leads us on a journey into what the Church calls the Mystery of Faith. It begins by identifying Jesus as the Incarnate Word of God through whom all things are made and this journey into Mystery begins on a day when John the Baptist points us to Jesus and says, “Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.” The next day, according to John’s Gospel, Jesus is calling some of his disciples and Phillip invites a skeptical Nathaniel to “Come and see.” Which bring us to today’s reading, the door to this Mystery which begins “On the third day… .” The day of resurrection, the threshold of a new creation.
Here the author ofJohn channels Jesus’ use of parables and employs his imagery of a wedding feast to represent the Kingdom of God. Today’s reading cast Jesus and his disciples as both guests and the bridegroom and his servants. Its mention of six jars of water used for the Jewish rite of purification to ritually cleanse someone considered impure after having touched a corpse underscores this being a story associated with the death and resurrection of Jesus.
As followers of Jesus, we are instructed in a motherly way by Jesus’ mother Mary to do whatever he tells us to do, to follow his teachings. a cryptic reference to his teachings found in the Synoptic Gospels. The story of the Wedding of Feast at Cana is set in a real place and in real time, a metaphor for the Kingdom of God being in the here in now. This parabolic story identifies the primary sign of Jesus as his transfiguration from death to life from the purifying waters of his death to the fiery wine of new life as Christ Jesus, a sign of our journey from baptism to full communion with God in Christ.
May the light of Christ enlighten us as we journey through the mystery of faith that this life to the fullness of new life in God through Christ.
Amen.
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Until next time, stay faithful.
Norm
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