Reflection Zone: wedding, wine, and song

miracles in unexpected places...!!

Given worship was cancelled on Sunday morning due to weather, some thoughts about the gospel reading for the day, in which we hear the story of the Wedding at Cana - John 2:1-11.

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It's a big affair - anyone who's anyone is there.
Actually...not just the great and the good:
the whole community is there, along with extended family connections from elsewhere.
Well into the 7 day period of feasting, a potential embarrassment is discovered: they are running low on wine.
Actually...not just potential embarrassment that can be easily smoothed over and later forgotten about: for providing hospitality falls into the realm of sacred duty and social standing. This will be talked about for generations to come; will lower the family's social standing; will cause disgrace.

This is a society bound by honour and status, where a
good reputation isn't just a nice thing to have, a luxury...
reputation in this culture is a make or break. Not providing for one's guests
is about to break the reputation of this particular family: they will be disgraced.
And not in that Downton Abbey or Victorian melodrama kind of way.
This really will bring ruin upon them -
put them on the edge, the margins, no longer in the comfortable middle:
their name will be mud.
The old, well-known saying:
'sticks and stones may break my bones, 
but names will never hurt me'
is a saying that would never have been uttered by people in
the society and culture that Jesus lived in:
your name mattered.
To lose one's name had consequences that rippled
through the societal fabric; it could cut through the delicate threads
of connection like an axe. Jobs could be lost, neighbours could shun you.
It could threaten your survival in a way that we, who don't live in
an honour culture, really can't quite comprehend.

Faced with disgrace, the beleaguered host family is also faced with a major difficulty:
there's no handy supermarket nearby to send one of the servants off
to go and fill a trolley with wine and quietly bring it back, the guests none-the-wiser.
But then, the mother of one of the guests has a quiet word with her son.
Nudges him.
Initially reluctant, and saying something about
'my time not come. I'm not yet ready,'
perhaps he understands that he has to begin somewhere -
why not here?
This, the first of Jesus' miracles, is done within the setting of a domestic drama;
is played out behind the scenes:
of the household, only the servants know where this 'best' wine has come from.
Later, Jesus will go on to feed the multitudes, and restore the sick.
But here, in this quiet scene,
with an overwhelming amount of wine that will last well beyond
the seven days this wedding feast*, Jesus responds to a particular need,
restoring reputation in danger of being destroyed, certainly, but more:
demonstrating the nature of grace which is
life-giving, abundant, joyful, and free -
and a sign pointing to the heavenly banquet where there is more than enough for all.

*for those who like facts and figures: the amount of wine would be roughly
equivalent to 1 000 bottles... some party!