Signs of God’s Steadfast Love – Turning Water into Wine
Do you remember how suddenly and unexpectedly church life changed in March 2020? I do! I was serving as the minister for a small Lutheran congregation in partnership with an Episcopal parish. We worshiped together every Sunday. By the second Sunday in March 2020, we were just starting to hear about the coronavirus, that new virus sweeping across the country with deadly consequences. The rector and I had some discussion about how to modify the service to decrease the risk of spreading the virus during worship (no common cup; no shaking hands…); we implemented those changes the next Sunday. The following day, the Diocese of Massachusetts issued a directive, closing all church buildings until further notice. It was time to pivot to something new.
We were 2 weeks into the season of Lent when the building was closed. As was our practice, we had been having weekly Wednesday night gatherings, attended by both Lutherans and Episcopalians; that particular year we were focusing on prayer. When we could no longer meet in the building, we began to meet by Zoom (a new experience for all of us!) for the remaining 3 weeks of Lent. Or so we thought. As it turned out, once we started to gather each week by Zoom, people wanted to continue to meet even after Lent was over. And so we did. Our time together morphed into a time of Community Prayer. We came together each week; following a simple liturgy, we contemplated the psalm of the day, shared our joys and concerns, and prayed for each other and those in need. We continued to meet for over 2 years. Our time together gave us life during the dry days of the pandemic.
As we read from the psalms week after week, we noticed how frequently the phrase “steadfast love” is used to describe God’s relationship with God’s people. In fact, these words are used 120 times in the Psalms. We hear a version of it in today’s psalm – Continue your lovingkindness (steadfast love) to those who know you…
So, what is steadfast love? It is love that is unmovable; unchanging; rooted; eternal; dependable; constant; and unwavering. Steadfast love describes God’s love for all God’s people and all God’s creation. God’s steadfast love is made known to us through the life, death, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus Christ. It is the love that flows from the Holy Spirit and unites us into the one body of Christ, giving each of us manifestations of the Spirit for the common good, as we heard in the reading from 1 Corinthians today.
Signs of God’s steadfast love are revealed to us this morning in this gospel story of the wedding at Cana, where, during an ordinary moment in an ordinary day, Jesus turns water into wine.
We see signs of God’s steadfast love revealed through Mary, the mother of Jesus. From the first moment Mary gave her consent to bear the Christ child, she has been pondering and treasuring all that God has been doing in the life of her child – the announcement by the angel Gabriel; the visit of the shepherds from the fields and the magi from the east; the blessings by Simeon and Anna when Mary and Joseph presented the baby Jesus in table (we’ll hear more about that in 2 Sundays); the flight to Egypt; young Jesus talking with the religious leaders in the temple. Her faith and trust in God’s steadfast love have brought her to this moment at the wedding and will continue to sustain her through all of Jesus’ life; including the moment when she is standing at the foot of the cross, watching her son die and the moment she is standing on the hill, watching her son being lifted up into the clouds. Mary’s heart is filled with God’s steadfast love.
Mary is attentive to what is going on around her. She’s the one who notices that the wine has run out at the wedding. Water, at that time, was unsafe to drink and so wine was essential for life. Wine was also essential for providing hospitality, a strong value of this culture; it would be shameful for a host to run out of wine.
Mary notices and Mary acts – she turns to her son, Jesus, and tells him They have no wine. Here is a mother who knows her son well – knows his true identity – and trusts that he will respond with steadfast love.
At first Jesus seems reluctant to act; why should he concern himself with this problem, he asks. Mother Mary disregards his hesitancy – he is, after all, part of the community at the wedding and running out of wine is a communal problem that only he can solve. Mary tells the servants Do whatever he tells you. Good advice for all of us.
Jesus has the servants fill 6 huge stone water jars with water. Then he tells the servants to draw some out and take it to the person in charge, who tastes it and discovers, to his surprise, that it is good wine; a better wine than had been first served. And now there is an abundant and extravagant amount of good wine (about 175 gallons) to share with the guest. Jesus just kicked the party up a notch; Jesus gave it new life.
Turning water into wine is Jesus’ first sign of his power to make something out of nothing; to bring new and abundant and joyful life into spaces that have run dry.
Turning water into wine is a sign of God’s steadfast love made known to us through Jesus Christ, who gives us abundant life and wants us to celebrate this new life with joy and to share this new life, through our words and deeds, with everyone around us, so that all people might come to know God’s steadfast love that sets them free.
The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases, his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. (Lamentations 3:22-23)
May signs of God’s steadfast love for you be revealed to you in the ordinary moments of your ordinary day.
May you share signs of God’s steadfast love for all God’s people and all God’s creation with each other and with the people you meet each day.
May signs of God’s steadfast love give you strength and courage to live boldly in the days ahead; so that you may live out what the Lord requires of you…to do justice and to love kindness and to walk humbly with your God Micah (6:8); until that day when justice roll(s) down like water and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream (Amos 5:24).