As I have been reflecting upon the season of Epiphany, which we are currently celebrating, I have had inside me a question that I have pondered over quite a lot. What did Mary, Joseph and Jesus actually do with the gifts the wise men brought? Did they keep them, give them away or use them? We are not looking at the visit of the wise men to Jesus directly today, but I feel justified in raising the question, partly because I hope to be enlightened and partly because Epiphanytide is about revealing and showing, and our gospel reading today is the first of what John calls Signs; a miracle that shows who Jesus is if only those around him have eyes to see it.
That miracle takes place at a wedding feast. You wont be surprised to learn in view of my earlier ponderings on gifts that I have thus been wondering what happened over wedding gifts in 1st century Israel. It won’t have been how it seems to be nowadays where bride and groom specify in exact detail a list of items they desire and none of them seem to be cheap. I mean when did you ever see on a wedding gift list ‘nail brush from Wilkinson’s’ or ‘plastic plant pot holder from Poundland?’ More likely to be asked for is a state of the art washing machine or a top of the range music centre. I suppose it does stop couples ending up with 6 steam irons or 30 sherry glasses that don’t match but it must be a far cry from the Jewish wedding in question here where they didn’t even have enough wine.
Why Jesus’ Mother and Jesus got involved in the crisis is not really clear and has been the subject of much debate but the point for me is far more what Jesus did, not why he did it. He turned what was probably about 120 gallons of ordinary water into a very good wine. I am not a wine drinker but that strikes me as being a huge amount of wine especially given the fact that there had already been a supply that had run out. It is a bizarre tale; the servants must have thought Jesus was mad when he told them to fill up the stone jars with water but they did it anyway and Jesus turned it into an abundance of wine that astonished those who were told about it because of its quality.
Jesus used what was there: plain water. He didn’t need something special to make something good. The only thing had to happen to make something commonplace turn into something amazing was that people had to bring the water to Jesus. Someone had to be prepared to take a risk and do something that didn’t necessarily seem very sensible in order to allow a miracle to happen.
So I ask the question with which I began this sermon again in a slightly different way: What does Jesus do with what we give him? In Jesus everything can and will be used for the good of the Kingdom and often we will be surprised at the unlikely things that can be done with what we bring and offer to Him. If we look back over our own lives and over the life of our Church we may glimpse some of what God has done with situations that either were so ordinary we didn’t notice them at the time or so impossible we felt hopeless. But often, too, we will never know what has been done with what we bring and give to God. We don’t get to see. How many people at the wedding knew what miracle had taken place? How many of us know what results our actions and words have? How what we have done has changed the course of events for others without us knowing? Or what consequences our struggle to live the Christian Life in truth and faithfulness to the gospel has for others? Every action, every offering count however ordinary a place it has in everyday living and will bear fruit of some sort somewhere. Water is as about as ordinary as you can get. God, in Jesus, did great things with it. And he always does do great things with what we bring. How do we know that? Because God has to be true to whom he is. A theologian called Sam Wells in his book ‘Improvisation; the Drama of Christian Ethics’ which sounds as if it is going to be a dull and dreary book but which is actually an exciting exploration of our formation in Christ, says that we act out of how we are formed; we can’t help it. Well neither can God; love, abundant generosity is His nature and he cannot help but do great things with what we give however small or ordinary they may seem to us.
I guess some people may be sitting here thinking that they feel they haven’t even got water to bring to Jesus. They may feel like dry stone pots. Well that has to be ok too. Our God creates something where there is nothing but emptiness: that is how our world began. If all we have to bring is our emptiness then that is our gift. In the emptiness and parched wastelands of the desert there are extravagant blooms that no one except God will ever ever see! If we bring our emptiness to Jesus then that, too, will be magnificently used by Him.
Some of us will have to go further and admit that actually our pots feel all cracked and not capable of holding anything even if God Himself put something there. We have to dare to believe that that must be ok too. Cracks let in the light and God’s Kingdom needs things that let in the light. We are quite good at wanting to give God our best and that is right and proper but we aren’t the magi with treasure chests. We are what we are and have to know that that is all we can and are asked to give and live. And in the giveness of each of us God does miracles.
The miracle at Cana is a foretaste of the ultimate fulfilment of the Kingdom where all are welcome and all have gifts. At Cana, we see God’s generosity and abundance poured onto humankind; God’s glory spilling out into every day life in the presence of ordinary men and women. That’s what Jesus does with what we bring him. What that means in the specifics of everyday living, like a lot of us, I don’t really know. Life often seems in a muddle to say the least and I am not sure a lot of the time that I, for one, know what is going on! But when we look around and see the pain in the Anglican Communion, the struggles we all have individually and corporately and the uncertainty of what God is leading us into, we must take seriously the need for us each to faithfully carry on giving what we can and who we are, in trust that He takes us as we are and will do wonderfully exciting things with it whether we see it or not. One day at the heavenly party to end all parties we will see and understand but until then let us be encouraged to carry on giving all we can no matter how insignificant we may feel our gift is and trusting that God will respond in an amazing way. Let us do it and pray that we see the Kingdom of God come in its fullness amongst us.
Susie Walker