The Glory of God... Fully Alive

Jesus did this, the first of his signs, in Cana of Galilee, and revealed his glory; and his disciples believed in him. John 2:11

In the old days weddings were about communities and families, at least as much as they were about the couple getting married. We can be glad, of course, that arranged marriages for purposes of dynasties and clan alliances are largely a thing of the past.

But I sometimes wonder if we haven’t tipped a little too far in the other direction in which couples try to express their unique individuality in their celebration, and in which there is social pressure to create an over-the-top romantic and “memorable” experience. At least that’s what so many of the wedding websites and magazines encourage. And so there’s an allure to do more, stress more, spend more than a couple’s financial and spiritual resources can really stretch.

I understand that saying this may make me sound like a bit of a stick-in-the-mud! But the modern New Jersey wedding industry is not what John the Gospel writer had in mind when he wrote about the wedding in Cana of Galilee – the first of Jesus’ signs.

In most of human history – and certainly in New Testament Judaism – weddings were a time for the whole community to come together to celebrate with a bride and groom and their families a new union; a continuation of life and its goodness.Weddings were an affirmation of God’s abundance and provision, a time for joy and feasting that was in contrast to every-day existence that was taken up mostly in hard physical work of one kind or another. A wedding was not only a break from work, but a reminder that God is the giver of life, a sabbath of sorts where the community could remember that it is sustained ultimately by God’s hand and not by their own efforts.

And even more, weddings in ancient Israel were a symbol of God’s purpose for the world coming to fruition – that all creation and all people would flourish and be filled with abundance and life as a reflection of God’s abundant generosity. The image of a wedding banquet as a symbol of God’s love and goodness appears throughout the Old Testament. The reading from Isaiah nods towards that: “For the Lord delights in you, and your land shall be married. For as a young man marries a young woman, so shall your builder marry you, and as the bridegroom rejoices over the bride, so shall your God rejoice over you.”

So when Jesus shows up at the wedding in Cana, all of these themes and echoes and unspoken assumptions would have been in the air, flowing along with the wine that was being served.
As usual in John’s Gospel, the story being told is always about more than just the events being narrated. There are spiritual and symbolic meanings that John is careful to highlight in his crafting of the Gospel, even while he is relating actual events.

Running out of wine at the wedding of course would have been a social faux pas and embarrassment for the bridegroom hosting the banquet. Jesus directing the banquet staff to draw on the six large stone jars of water than had become wine – and very good wine at that – has often been commented upon as Jesus emphasizing joy and celebration and even helping a neighbor save face, at his mother’s urging.

All of that is true, but I think there’s something more going on here, as well. And John gives us a clue about how to understand it when he says: “Jesus did this, the first of his signs, in Cana of Galilee, and revealed his glory.” 

Glory, in the Bible has to do with God’s authority, the heft and substantial nature of God’s rule. It also has to do with the radiance of divine presence in human life – something that we may be overwhelmed by or something of which we catch just a glimpse of in the ordinary workings of our daily round. And John has intentionally, I think, pointed out that when Jesus used his divine authority to provide the remaining wine for the wedding, it was a sign of the divine glory that resides in Jesus.

John signals this, in part, as it comes so near to the beginning of his Gospel in which he describes the Incarnation in terms of the start of Creation. “In the beginning was the Word” – an echo of the opening lines of Genesis “In the beginning when God was creating…” John is looking back to God as the fountain of all life and blessing.

And then, John points out that this wedding takes place “on the third day” - the third day after Jesus calls Philip and Nathanael to be disciples. But “the third day” is also a reference forward to the Resurrection, which took place on the third day after his Crucifixion. The Resurrection is all about God raising Jesus to new life; it’s about New Creation.

Tying Jesus to both Creation and New Creation through the act of creating wine which is a symbol of God’s generous provision and sustaining Sabbath-care is a revelation and sign of his glory.  It’s a glimpse of the divine presence in the joyful, yet ordinary and human celebration of a wedding.

How does Jesus’ glory show up in your life? Where do you catch a vision of God’s provision, radiance, and authority as you go about your daily round of work, family, school, neighborhood. friendships?
Sometimes we are quite open to seeing that glory – at a significant and joyful event, when we are in a place of great natural beauty, when we are listening to music that transports us. Other times we are really caught off-guard because we are just going about our routine, minding our own business, until something catches our attention, or maybe even blows our socks off, and we know we’ve been in the glorious presence of God.

But sometimes we can actively resist recognizing God’s glory. Sometimes we fall into that place where we tell ourselves that God will never show up in our lives, that God has nothing to offer us, and so what’s the point in even thinking about it. Like Scrooge in “A Christmas Carol” we dismiss the divine presence and glory as “an undigested bit of beef, a blot of mustard, a crumb of cheese, a fragment of underdone potato.” In other words, a figment of our imagination brought on by indigestion. We don’t allow ourselves to see what is right in front of us.

But whether we recognize it or not, God’s provision and sustenance are always there for us. The power, energy, and authority that was present at the dawn of time, that set creation in motion, and then raised Jesus from the dead to New Life has never withdrawn from us, has never gone away. The purpose and the end-goal remain the same: to be filled with the joyful abundance of God’s life and salvation – for us and for all people. As the second-century theologian St. Irenaeus wrote: “The glory of God is a human being fully alive.” Alive with God’s purpose, alive with God’s joy, alive with God’s vitality – a sign to the rest of the world.

Let us pray.
We beseech thee, O Lord, pour thy grace into our hearts; that as we have known the incarnation of thy Son Jesus Christ by the message of an angel, so by his cross and passion we may be brought unto the glory of his resurrection. Through the same Christ our Lord. Amen. ~ The Angelus

Victoria Geer McGrath
All Saints’ Episcopal Church, Millington, NJ
Second Sunday after Epiphany
January 19, 2025