Fourteen years ago, I was in my next to
last quarter of seminary and I came back to my home parish to do my “field
education.” This means you generally become the priest’s shadow and follow him
or her around in all the daily activities of a priest.
Ash Wednesday I was standing at the altar on one side of the priest and
the deacon was on his other side. After the priest consecrated the bread and wine,
he stepped away from the altar and the deacon began to prepare the chalices by
filling them with wine. What none of us knew was that a new altar guild person
had reversed two of the silver carafes. The tall one was supposed to hold wine,
and the small one water. This was a big parish so we had more than one of each.
After filling one chalice with consecrated wine from the first carafe, the
deacon picked up the second and larger carafe to fill the other chalices. As he
poured, a stream of clear water came out. Without missing a beat, the deacon
turned to the priest, and assuming a deeply concerned expression, exclaimed, “Father, He's done it in reverse this time!”
As you might imagine, that was probably
the most irreverent serving of communion I think I’ve ever seen. The three of
us giggled our way through the rest of the service. Every time we’d look at one
another we’d start laughing again. Luckily, no one in the congregation seemed
to notice. And on one of the most solemn days in the church calendar, no less!
But it has made me look at both wine and water differently ever since.
This Gospel is all about grace:
surprising, abundant grace. But I wonder: What does grace look like? What does
grace taste like? What does grace feel like? What does grace sound like?
Today, in the Gospel, it looks like jars. It tastes like wine. It feels
like there isn’t enough and suddenly there is more than enough. It sounds like water
being poured in and wine being poured out.
I think sometimes we view grace as a transaction, as something to be
earned. Yet instead, grace is a gift freely given, unearned, unasked for, and
here’s what we seem to forget. Grace is given out of all proportion to what we
expect.
At the wedding banquet when Jesus tells the servants, “Fill the jars
with water.”[1] He is
revealed as who he is when he says, "Now draw some out and take it to the
chief steward.”[2] Jesus,
this man who is also God, creates abundance in unexpected ways. He takes water and transforms it into wine for a feast.
Jesus, this man who is also God, is able to free the host of the wedding
banquet from the shame of running out of wine, yes. But more than that, Jesus makes
so much wine that hundreds of bottles could be filled and then some. Jesus
comes not just to take away our shame but also to give us grace upon grace.
This is not a transaction; this is grace, abundant grace, freely given, out of
all proportion to what we ask.
I’m inviting you to be as excited about this as I am. You need to know that
in Jesus’ culture, lack of wine at a wedding feast meant more than a simple
lack of hospitality. Lack of wine at a wedding feast meant lack of hospitality
on the part of the host. Running out of wine meant great shame to the host and
the bridegroom.
The first thing Jesus did was to ask the servants to fill the jars. The
jars were standing empty. I am convinced had he wanted to, Jesus could have put
wine into empty water jars. Instead he chose to have the servants fill the jars
with water. Water that was used for washing, for drinking, for cooking; water that
in a desert culture was life itself: good, clean, life-giving water.
And then, out of good, clean, life-giving water, Jesus made wine. He
made wine in such abundance and of such richness that “the steward called the
bridegroom and said to him, ‘Everyone serves the good wine first, and then the
inferior wine after the guests have become drunk. But you have kept the good wine
until now.’”[3]
Jesus took something that was good and made something better out of it. In
his making wine out of water, Jesus took away the shame of lack of hospitality
and the scarcity that this lack represents.
This is what Jesus does for us. He takes away any shame or lack we feel
and makes it not only whole, but also full of life and overflowing with abundance
far beyond what we expect.
This is what grace looks like: a simple jar. (I held up a simple pottery
jar used for holding water or oil.) This is what it tastes like: wine. (I
poured a little wine out of the jar into a ceramic bowl and drank a sip. This
is what it feels like: there wasn’t enough and suddenly there is more than
enough. (I kept pouring the wine into the bowl. and pouring, and pouring, so everyone heard the sound of the wine pouring.) This what grace sounds like:
water being poured in and wine being poured out. (I kept pouring so people
could hear the sound.)
Let us pray.
Jesus, make us jars for you, thirsting to hear you say, “Fill the jar
with water.” And, once we are filled with your life-giving water, make us into
fine wine. Pour us out in abundance beyond all reckoning for service in your
name. AMEN.
The Rev Nicolette Papanek
©2016
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