“BRIDE(S) OF BLOOD”
Saint John 2. 1-11
Second Sunday after the Epiphany: 16 January Anno Domini 2011
The Revd Fr JW Watson SSP
Sin causes divorce. Your breaking of God's Law causes dislocation and separation. Adam and Eve lost more than a house, children, and alimony. Their adulterous cheating, murdering and abandoning of their Lord caused them to lose paradise and the Image of their God.
Hell is solitary confinement. The devil's abode is like the hit song from the 70's: "the loneliest number you'll ever see."
Your God is not some solo overweight Buddha with an inscrutable/idiot smile, or a multi-armed demon-deity, or even a "spirit" powerful and malevolent enough to give virgins as rewards to killers and assassins-- who is also so faceless, solitary and devoid of conviviality that his own "so-called" prophet can't even be portrayed in iconography and pictures.
NO! Your Lord is Three in One and One in Three; a community/communion of care. Your God delights not only in the uncreated family of His own interpersonal Trinitarian Mystery, but He also over-joys with creating angelic messengers to be the loyal sheepdogs of His ultimate and most supernal delight: YOU! It is God's will to have a constant Wedding Feast environment (eternalment) He has made you His own Lambs for His fold, i.e. Children for His Table; brides for His Son the everlasting Groom. Your God has a face; your God is the God/Man Jesus of Nazareth…who is also Jesus of Cana of Galilee and Jesus of Shawnee of Johnson County. Your King is also your Groom and Master. He is omnipresent (really and truly) but He is found at the Wedding for your benefit and comfort.
This marriage, this conjoining and re-grafting will always be here in the New Cana, the Newest Canaan, which simply is the New Testament Church Catholic. This nuptial gathering is in the Galilee of the Gentiles - - you Gentiles who have been made Israelites by adoption and marriage.
This Wedding Feast, this Festival Mass is always on the "third day," the Day of Resurrection. The Third Day the Three in One Godhead bestows the Only Begotten Son do be your Beloved brother (in one sense) but ALSO to be your Beloved Groom. This Righteous Reception has you placed on the high dais; you are the honored chaste Bride, clad in a gown whiter than any fuller could bleach it!
Saint Mary of Nazareth, the Mother of God, is always at this feast with you (no matter how much your Old Adam chafes at the thought that Jesus still loves His mother and wants you to love her too - - because she is special) for the Blessed Virgin is a picture of the Church and a type of all faithful, passive, receptive, and obedient believers: "behold the handmaid of the Lord; be it unto me according to thy word," [Saint Luke 2. 38], and "Whatsoever He saith unto you, do it."
Even though "the hour" of the Christ's fuller declarations of Messiahship and miraculous healings was not yet fully ripe; even though the Nazarene's fading anonymity was not quite yet ready to march into Jerusalem for the Passion Week and the Blood Atonement, yet even then at the humble little wedding, the Caring Tender Son would honor His Mother, and likewise honor his hosts with Gracious Giving and abundant provisions. The wine never runs out when the Lord is present!
Jesus deigned, willingly, to perform a transformative recreation of good things.
Water by itself is only simple water. Water in stone jars for ritual cleansing, or even for sanitary hygiene, is meet and right so far as human activities go. But water connected with God's Word and included in His command is always something far greater - - and GRACE filled. This was no Holy Baptism to be sure, but it was nonetheless the VERY CONTENT of Holy Baptism making things good. The number five (the number of pots) is Torah, the five Books of God through Moses. The obedience you give, think you give, and even desire to give, is never enough and will profit you nothing. There is no joy and merriment in the water from your own sweat, exertion and effort. Your water is fit only for the stone of sepulchers and the tear ducts of weeping relatives.
Your water will not quench and will never wash away your guilt.
He who created the waters can not only "part them in a heap" and "still them," but can also make them become a fine full-bodied and robust Galilean Red. And even though there is nothing symbolic about the Eucharist, it can nevertheless be said that even as the sparkling red wine "saved the day" at Cana, that the sparkling red blood of the Gift Giver "saved the day, the year, the life and the eternity" of the world at Calvary.
Wine is a good gift, and can and should be used responsibly to honor, celebrate, refresh, and "make glad" the hearts of God's people during this long Lenten desert trek. Nothing which goes into a man's stomach defiles him. In fact as the Apostle (and now dietary research scientists confirm) makes clear to Timothy, God's gift of wine is even healthy.
The community of God's people is paramount. Whether one is a widower/widow, victim of a wrongful divorce, or celibate single by choice or circumstance (temporary or permanent), it matters not to the Father of all mercies. You are FAMILY at this wedding feast. The Psalmist writes: "God setteth the solitary in families." [Psalm 68.6] You not only have brothers and sisters that will be with you at the "rail" but who will be with you at the never-ending Banquet Table in the courts of splendor. You are united to your Strong Shepherd Groom this day - - for this is your Wedding Feast!
The Law of stone, of stone water pots, only kills. Moses only kills and even the action and obedience of Moses himself would only lead to death. Moses sinned in thought, word, and deed, and did not do all that he was commanded to do. Even Moses tried to rely on his own works.
"But Zipporah took a flint knife, cut off her son's foreskin and touched Moses' feet with it. 'Surely you are a bridegroom of blood to me' she said." [Exodus 4. 25] Only by blood would Moses be right with God. Only by the cutting off of the flesh, typified in every circumcision, would there be payment for transgressions. Not Moses' actions but Jesus' on the Tree would make this a binding Marriage covenant. Not Moses' big stick for smashing, but the Rock Who would let Himself be smashed, struck - - over and over; the Rock Who gush forth from His pierced side Blood and WATER. Even as the first bride Eve came forth from the man's side; from the Lord's perfect side would flow the water of life to make His NEW Redeemed Bride, helpmate for the second and perfect Adam.
"…Even as Christ also loved the church, and gave Himself for it; that He might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word." [Ephesians 5. 25-26] Paul speaks of human marriage to be sure, but Paul, JESUS, also speaks and makes true eternal marriage between you and HIM: "The He might present it (you) to Himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish." [v. 27]
You will be stone dead no more. He takes your hearts of stone and gives you His own pure and sacred heart. You are new bottles filled with the New Wine of His obedience and His forgiveness of all your badness. You are filled up to the brim with His Body and His Blood of the New Testament - - from Calvary-mountain-top to Augsburg-altar-top. Holy Communion: and the two shall become one flesh.
He of course has fed and nourished you all your lives with your daily bread. But THIS day He gives you the better wine, which gives peace and joy beyond all understanding. And there is even greater wine, greater feasting and drinking, more intense loving, laughing, celebrating, and embracing at the Final and Forever Feast to come. This morning's banquet is a foretaste.
This "beginning of Miracles" Jesus does in His Church at Augsburg…"beginning" … And His disciples believe on Him.
In the Name of The Father and + of The Son and of The Holy Ghost