In the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Amen.
Wednesday March 22, 2006 marked the celebration of World Water Day and the theme was water and culture. Events took place around the world in an effort to get us as human beings to recognize the importance of water in our lives and our relationship to it. Our culture, our economy, our religion, our daily lives are built on water and shaped by it.

Just stop and think for a moment of the number of water proverbs that are a part of our culture; blood is thicker than water, don’t make waves, don’t throw the baby out with the bath water, still waters run deep and that is water under the bridge. 

We plan our cities near water, we bathe in water, we play in water, we work with water. Without the water that surrounds us- the humidity in the air, the river’s current, even the flow from the kitchen tap- our lives would be impossible. Unfortunately, as I mentioned in the sermon “Water:gift of life” water has fallen in our esteem. No longer is it an element to be revered and protected, it has  become a commodity, a consumer product simply to be bought and sold.

But water continues to play a central role in many religions including Christianity. It is more than simply a commodity to be bought and sold. It is a living and spiritual matter mediating between this world and the divine. As a source of life it represents rebirth. Water also serves as a source for cleansing and purification, annihilating sins and creating holiness. Now so far we have looked at two themes “water”gift of life” and “water:gift of hospitality”. This morning we will explore water:sign of miracles.

Let us turn to our Gospel reading from John. As miracles go, this is a fun one. Jesus the wine maker, turns 180 gallons of water into the finest of wines for a wedding feast whose wine has run out. Now the details of the story are perhaps familiar ones but they are worth looking at again because in the Gospel of John there is always more to the story than first appears.

There was a wedding in a town called Cana of Galilee, a village quite near to Nazareth. Mary was there, along with Jesus and a few of his new followers. Unlike our custom where a wedding lasts only part of day, a wedding at that time lasted somewhere around a week, seven days of food and drink and fun, during which time the couple was married and their marriage was celebrated.

To run out of food or wine during those seven days was a major social faux pas, bringing not just embarrassment but shame upon the couple and their family. Think of all the things that could possibly go wrong at a wedding-the groom fainting, someone forgets the rings, the DJ doesn’t show up, the scenarios are endless. Running out of wine was worse that any of these things. It was the worst thing that could happen at a wedding short of the bride and groom not showing up.

Mary realizes the seriousness of the situation immediately. She turns to Jesus and informs him that there is no wine. At first glance Jesus’ response seems rude. But still Mary presses on and informs the servants to do whatever Jesus asks. Jesus tells the servants to fill six stone water jars and they are filled to the brim and then some is drawn out. Miraculously 180 gallons of water have been transformed into the finest of wines and the festivities continue without a hitch.
 
Now when we hear a story of this nature we sometimes fall into the trap of focusing on the actions themselves from our modern scientific and rational perspective. It is easy to get sidetracked by the miracle itself. What did Jesus really do? How did he change the water into wine? Or we get lost in the details of the story, Whose wedding was it? Why is Mary not mentioned by name?

But if we focus on the miracle itself or the details of the story then we completely miss the point or points of the story.For the purpose of the miracle is first of all to point to the one who is doing the miracle-Jesus who is the Messiah. John is saying essentially “See, Jesus is doing a new thing, his turning water into wine symbolizes the old becoming new.”

Also look at the context of the story-it takes place in the most mundane of places, a village wedding filled with common, ordinary people like you and I who are taking time in the midst of their daily lives to come together with friends and family in a time of joy and celebration. This story could easily be played out at any of the local hotels or legion halls where wedding banquets are held. For it is a story of ordinary things becoming extraordinary.

Now we may believe in Jesus but we might wonder about this newness in our own lives and in the life of the church. Because any hint of newness often leaves us nervous, we feel threatened by innovation or the thought that our comfortable routines might be challenged.

Each Sunday, we sit in the same pew that we have inhabited perhaps for years. My grandmother was notorious for this. She always sat in the very back row and even when she became deaf as a post she wouldn’t move.
She would complain to me instead that she couldn’t here her minister but she could always here me just fine.

The Rev. William Sloan Coffin once said “Jesus changed water into wine; meanwhile, we in the church have gotten very good at changing wine back into water.”
Coffin is making the point that the church rather than being on the cutting edge of the new promptings of the Holy Spirit, we are so often trying to prevent things from changing because change threatens our security. Martin Luther called security the ultimate idol and too often we are willing to sacrifice everything even the promptings of the Holy Spirit in an effort to maintain our security, our routines our habits, this sense of permanency in the church.

But in our text John describes the miracle as a sign of ordinary things becoming extraordinary, of not enough becoming plenty for all in the presence of Christ,  the old becoming new through Christ. Perhaps it is matter of perspective and the power of the Holy Spirit which allows us to discern God’s will in the midst of these changes. (Looking at gifts present-rather than what has been lost)

For God, who is with us in the ordinary moments of our lives also goes before us in an effort to persuade, to lure us into the new. Seeking to draw us into the “new”, the “unknown”. We are God’s people, chosen by God through the power of radical grace-this is true. But like the Israelites in our Exodus reading, we are a piilgrim people on a journey. Right now we are in the wilderness and yet God is here now as well calling into a deeper experience-the abundant life that Christ promised. 
 
The Benedictine nun Mary Collins tells the story of her visit to a church in Bologna Italy, where the kind of tables and chairs usually found in school lunchrooms replaced the pews. And the congregation was mostly men broken down by alcoholism, disease and poverty, plus a few elderly women.
 
Mary Collins writes: the homily proclaimed the mystery of God’s love so limitless that it is poured out even to the poor of Bologna. Then it was time for the offering. The ushers went forward and we reached for our bundles of money.
Then the unexpected happened. The ushers had also reached for a stack of bills and they moved through the congregation making the church’s offering to the poor even as the gifts of bread and wine were being placed on the altar.
 
In the presence of Christ, not enough becomes plenty for all, in the presence of Christ water becomes the sweetest wine, the ordinary becomes extraordinary, the old becomes new. It is sheer gift given to us by God who has called us to be his people in the world.
THANKS BE TO GOD. AMEN.