SERMON PREACHED BY
THE REVEREND LESLIE G. REIMER, ASSOCIATE RECTOR
CALVARY EPISCOPAL CHURCH,
PITTSBURGH, PENNSYLVANIA
ON THE SECOND SUNDAY AFTER THE EPIPHANY
14 JANUARY 2007

 

 

 

May this grace be ours: in you always to live and drink of those refreshing streams which you alone can give. Amen. The Hymnal 1982, #138

 

 

One of the most poignant and haunting scenes from a recent movie comes toward the end of the film Sideways. The character is Miles, the wine-loving, unmarried, unpublished writer who is probably best known for condemning merlot and igniting our interest in pinot noir. Toward the end of the story, Miles has returned from his adventures on a road trip with his friend Jack. There is the glimmer of the possibility of a relationship with a woman. She has in fact encouraged him not to hang on to his prized bottle of wine forever, but to consider drinking it. We see Miles leave home with that long-cherished bottle, only to follow him into the bright cold fluorescent light of a fast food restaurant. He sits down alone, opens the bottle, pours it into a styrofoam cup, emptying the bottle, draining the glass. We are left with the picture of him, isolated, finishing the wine in a way that could hardly be described as savoring it.

 

"Fill the stone jars with water", Jesus instructs the servants at the wedding feast. "Fill them up to the top, and then draw some out and take it to the steward of the feast to taste." The steward exclaims over the quality of the water, now turned to wine. He makes a wry observation about how unusual it is to save the best wine for last. This is the first of the signs which Jesus does to begin to reveal his glory - in a moment when the disciples begin to see and to believe in him. In this sign, Jesus points to the reality of God far beyond himself, to the breaking in of God's kingdom into this world, to the fulfillment of the promise of hope for the coming of redemption and salvation.

 

Jesus points beyond himself to the reality of God, and in doing so, also points back to images of that hope and expectation. Marriage - marriage is the sign of God's restored covenant with the people of Israel. God seeks those who are desolate and forsaken and in exile. God brings them back and delights in them and marries them and gives them a name. Marriage signifies the restoration and rebuilding of the love between God and the people of God. Wine - wine is the sign of God's extravagant abundance, of God's provision for all of creation. The Hebrew Scriptures are full of images of wine: of good wine well refined, of mountains dripping with sweet wine, and in one place, a calculation imagining wine so abundant that one grape yields a hundred and twenty gallons. Wine shows provision beyond what we can imagine, an image of God's care for all of creation and God's ability to sustain us, to give us joy and plenty and hope.

 

In the filling of the water jars, the disciples begin to see into the reality of God, revealed in Jesus' sign. We, who come to this story seeking to believe, to catch a glimpse of God's glory and a taste of the kingdom of God, can see into that reality as well. In the stark light of our modern existence, these images, this sign, seem to speak to two of the deep elemental questions of life and of faith. Simply put, the questions are: Will we be okay? and Will there be enough? Think about how much of our personal journey and struggle, our political and social and global life is impacted by those two questions.

 

Will we be okay? The assurance of God's kingdom breaking into the world, of God made flesh among us as humans, of the glory of God beginning to dawn on us, is that we will be the beloved, restored people of God. No matter what our inadequacies, our failures, our losses, our devastation, whatever exiles have been imposed upon us, whatever global struggles embroil us, God will work to restore relationship with us. God will cherish us and delight in us and call us beloved.

 

Will there be enough? There will be enough, in spite of our fears of scarcity, our belief that we can only get something if someone else doesn't get it, our false sense that security rests in having rather than being. Beyond what we can imagine, there is enough for all of creation, if we begin to participate in the life of God in the world. The reality which the coming of Jesus opens up for us is a reality of compassion and confidence and trust in the extravagance of God.

 

Will we be okay? Will there be enough? We are wanted and loved by God, who cares for and provides for us and for all whom God has made. This first of the signs Jesus does, this beginning of the revelation of God's glory, this window into the reality of God, invites us to see and to believe. We have a choice: We can sit alone in the cold fluorescent light, draining the bottle of prized wine, still unmarried and unpublished. Or we can to be welcomed to the joy of the marriage feast, where the gathered guests share the fine wine from vessels filled to the top.

 

A story is told of St. Jerome. A curious student of the Bible came to him asking a question about this Gospel. The question was, "Did the people at the wedding really drink all those gallons of wine? Was it all gone at the end?" Jerome paused for a moment and then said to the curious young student, "No. We are drinking it still." Amen