The Second Sunday after Epiphany – Marriage with God

Romans 12:6-16a       St John 2:1-11

And the third day
there was a marriage in Cana of Galilee;
…. And both Jesus was called, and his disciples,
to the marriage.

The readings in Epiphany season are a mediation on Christmas.  What does it mean that God takes flesh and dwells among us?  What does it mean about God?  What does it mean about human nature and the possibilities for us?

Last Sunday we reflected on the Wisdom of God made manifest in the flesh and how, in Jesus, we can grow in that Wisdom through the renewal of our minds as we follow His holy life.

This morning Jesus reveals himself at the celebration of a marriage with his first miracle – turning water into wine.  The miracle of turning water into wine at a marriage feast is filled with meaning.  The joining of God and human nature in Jesus Christ will make possible a marriage union of our souls and bodies with God.

This close relationship is quite astonishing.  As followers of Christ, we are not just following a teaching, but God will become incarnate in us.  Through baptism and faith we don’t just come to know about God but there is a change in our very being.

Let’s think about this for minute, about the ways people came to relate to God in the Old Testament.

Psalm 19 speaks in the first half, about how God reveals something about who he is in the creation:

The heavens declare the glory of God: and the firmament shows his handiwork.  Day to day pours forth speech, and night to night declares knowledge.  There is no speech, nor are there words; yet their voice goes out into all lands, and their words to the ends of the world.

We learn something about God from the creation, the creation speaks without words - that God is powerful – look at mountains, or crashing waves, that God is interested in beauty and in variety – go for a walk in the wilderness and be amazed.  The creation itself tells us much about God, but we are not satisfied with that knowledge.

The second part of Psalm 19 speaks about another way in which God reveals something about who he is:

The law of the Lord is perfect, reviving the soul; The testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple; the statutes of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart; the commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes; the ordinances of the Lord are true, and righteous altogether.  More to be desired are they than gold, even much fine gold; sweeter also than the honey and drippings of the honeycomb.

We learn something more about God from His written Word – the nature of God, God’s relation to humanity, how to grow in wisdom, what is a holy life, and as we by grace follow that way we begin to become more like God – and so we can see God reflected in ourselves.  That is something of what we learned last Sunday.

God’s Word written, God’s revelation – the Law, the Writings, the Prophets, the Gospels, Acts, the Letters of the Apostles, Revelation – they are an added gift beyond the Creation. Here we learn profound insights about who God is, and about how we might prepare for an encounter, and how to live so as to look more like God.

But we are not satisfied with the Word written alone.  Jesus said to the Pharisees, who gave their lives to study God’s Word written,

You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me,  yet you refuse to come to me that you may have life. [St John 5:39-40]

The depth of the relationship which God has been preparing for humanity from the foundation of the world is not just to tell us things about Himself in the Creation and in His Written Word, but a marriage union.

All the careful preparations of God in Exodus, to draw near and tabernacle among His people – but still there was a distance; all the careful preparations of the Prophets and Wisdom literature, it is all a preparation for the fullness of time, when God would enter into a marriage union with His people.

Jeremiah – speaks of this coming new relationship:

“no longer shall each man teach his neighbor and each his brother, saying, “Know the Lord”, for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, says the Lord; for I will forgive their iniquity (the thing holding God at a distance in Exodus), and I will remember their sin no more.”

This language of “knowing God” is not an intellectual knowledge (though that is a part of it) but it is a biblical term used in the marriage union, the consummation of love – to know – in a soul and body sense.
Adam knew Eve his wife; and she conceived and bore Cain…
Cain knew his wife, and she conceived and bore Enoch…

The miracle in today’s Gospel is a foretelling of that new union which is finally possible through faith in Jesus Christ.

That Jesus’ first miracle happens at a marriage indicates the new age has begun.  In one sense Jesus’ time has not yet come (as he says to his mother) – he has not yet given up his life, which makes possible the marriage union, through the forgiveness of sins.  But his earthly ministry, which will lead to that marriage union, has begun to be revealed publicly.

The promise that was made in Genesis 2 – therefore a man shall leave his Father and his mother and cleaves to his wife, and they become one flesh – that promise, which is a theme throughout the Scriptures and culminates in the final words of Revelation 21 – I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband – that theme, begins to be fulfilled.

The clay water pots are filled with water – a figure of the human soul and body – and they are turned into clay pots filled with wine.  The clay pot and water are not replaced, but becomes more than they were – a figure of our bodies and souls transformed when infused with the divine life.

There will be consequences of this marriage union, there will be fruit.  Paul speaks about this in today’s Epistle:  Our Christian identity infuses our work and our interactions with others – not just words on a page, not just intellectual knowledge, but a new heart and soul and mind and new strength:

Having gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, let us use them.

• Grace is what happens to us through this marriage union – the gift of the Spirit of Jesus Christ entering our souls and bodies to transform us.
• Grace is what happens to us when we direct our mind’s eye to look not just on what God has done in creation, or what God has said in the past, but it happens as we look in quiet, straining to see the face of God, it happens in this continual conversation of love (that’s what prayer is – a conversation of lovers) – speaking and listening and asking questions.
• And in that conversation, the character of our love changes – we are moved by the virtues we see in our spouse Jesus Christ.
• As those gifts are revealed – either prophecy, service, teaching, exhorting, a generous heart, leadership, acts of mercy – and as we put them into practice, the water of our natural lives, infused with grace, with the living water from above, becomes wine – the best wine!

And here is some especially Good news!

God is now in us, through our baptism and faith.  In our marriage union with God, we do not need to wait until all is perfected in our souls, but God comes to us in all our messiness, agrees to unite Himself to us as we commit ourselves to Him.  And we will be changed over time – the water becomes wine – the best is always still to come – Jesus has kept the good wine until now.

Some people call the Lord’s Supper the “Holy Eucharist”, which means thanksgiving, it is a biblical and ancient term.  But I like the words “Holy Communion,” as it speaks about that marriage union – about the consummation of marriage – an intimacy with God.  No one but you knows (and you don’t know fully) what is happening in your heart and in your private communication with God in Communion – it is very personal.  Although it is very personal, one of the fruits of Communion with God is our drawing closer in communion with one another – because Love enters our souls and that affects all our relationships and all our work and service in the world.

Listen to the words of St Ambrose about the new wine we receive today:

Blessed inebriation, which infuses joy ...which establishes the walk of the sober mind ...Drink, then, that Cup whereof the Prophet speaks [in Psalm 23], “Thy inebriating Cup, how excellent it is.”  Drink Christ, because He is the Vine; drink Christ, because He is the Rock which poured out water; drink Christ, because He is the Fountain of Life; drink Christ, because He is the stream whose flowing gladdens the city of God; drink Christ, because He is peace; .. Drink, then, speedily, that “a great light” may dawn upon you, not an every-day light, not of the day, not the sun, not the moon, but that light which removes the ‘shadow of death!”

(Ambrose, quoted in  Pusey’s discussion of the Eucharist in his LETTER to the BISHOP OF LONDON, 1851, p. 215.)

Let us prepare ourselves now for that deeper Communion and fellowship with God and man through our marriage union with Jesus Christ…and may joy eternal be the consequence!

Amen +