Episcopal Church of the Incarnation

West Point, Mississippi

The Second Sunday after the Epiphany of our Lord (C)

Isaiah 62.1-5 Psalm 36.5-10 1 Cor. 12.1-11 John 2.1-11

May the Lord be in my mind, on my lips, and in my heart, that

I may rightly and truly proclaim His holy Word. Amen.

“[A]s the bridegroom rejoices over the bride, so shall your God rejoice over you.” The lessons for this second Sunday in Epiphany are rich with the imagery of marriage. Israel is reassured that in His saving grace the Lord delights in her. The psalm recites the God’s love is boundless , and yet, in seeming contrast, the Epistle focuses on the gifts of the Spirit, and the Gospel relates John’s story of Jesus’ first miracle, of changing water into wine.

I celebrated the 23^rd anniversary of my own wedding, recently, and so the marriage imagery is something that I can relate to well. In the prayer book service of Celebration and Blessing of a Marriage we are reminded and admonished that “The bond and covenant of marriage was established by God in creation ...” The prayer book goes on to reference the miracle at the wedding in Cana as evidence of matrimony being an holy estate in life, and continues (notably) by describing that matrimony: “... signifies to us the mystery of the union between Christ and His Church ...”

Signifies. That means something acts as a sign; it is something which points to the existence and reality of something else. In fact, in his Gospel, John doesn’t refer to the miracles of Jesus, but tells of his “signs.” “This, the first of his signs, Jesus did at Cana in Galilee, and manifested his glory; and his disciples believed in him” (John 2.11). Jesus “manifested his glory.” In other words, the miracle is a sign which points to who Jesus really is. And it’s this same Jesus, this same Lord, who rejoices over His bride, who rejoices over the Church.

What is this Church over which our Lord rejoices? Spoken more properly, who is this Church? The word used in Scripture for “church” is ekklesia, from which we get the word “ecclesiastical” to refer to church matters. The word means, literally, “assembly” or “gathering,” and we might, therefore, better think of the Church as the gatehring of God’s people, and this church–this parish–as the gathering of God’s people in this place. The Church is not a building, but an assembly of people, of believers who have gathered in Jesus’ Name to offer worship, praise, and thanksgiving to God, and to participate in the sacraments by which He imparts His grace to us. May the Lord forbid, but if this building were to burn down tomorrow, we would still have a church, because we owuld still have each other, gathered together in the Lord’s Name.

It’s in this light that Paul’s description of the gifts of the Spirit fits with the proclamation of rejoicing found in Isiah and in the psalm. Paul says, “... no one can say ‘Jesus is Lord’ except by the Holy Spirit,” and “To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good.” In other words, what we do by the Spirit points to–signifies–God’s glory. “[T]he mystery of the union between Christ and his Church” is signified when we confess Jesus as Lord, and when we each act as members of that Church, that Body, that Bride, to build up the Church, to extend God’s love and rejoicing to all.

I’m reminded at this time not only of marriage imagery. The story of the steward telling the bridegroom “... you have kept the good wine until now” reminds me of when I sang in a choir in Cambridge, England. Little St. Mary’s is a parish originally founded outside one the gates to medieval Cambridge. The church has been on the same site since 1353, and served for about 300 years as the chapel of Peterhouse College, Cambridge. Peterhouse remains the primary patron of the parish, and the parish is surrounded by much of the college. The choir room has a separate entrance, through a little trap door and a separate cat flap, into the depths of Peterhouse, sort of like something out of a Harry Potter book.

In the high week leading up to Christmas, and during Holy Week, the choir was on duty close to 24 hours a day, to allow for services at 5 p.m., midnight, 5 a.m., and noon. During those times, Peterhouse would open its wine cellar to the choir, and let me tell you, if you are even a little bit interested in wine, being allowed into the cellar of a college at Cambridge is quite a treat. The “high table” in a college in Cambridge is one of the benefits that offsets in part the low pay afforded to academics in England, and so a college cellar is filled with rare and vintage wines.

Despite the presence of at least two Americans, the choir did not just try a little of everything. We’d start out a little timid, sampling decent late-bottled claret from France, but by the time we’d had some wine and sung a few services, by 2 a.m., we’d be into the 1967 Chateau Haut Brion and 1963 Graham’s port, each at about $300/bottle. (We sang better!)

In the wine cellar, we worked up to the best for last. But not God. God does not save the best for last. He offers us the best now. He offers us Himself now: Jesus in the holy sacrifice of the altar; the Holy Spirit who gives us the gifts that build up the Church for the common good, that empower each of us to confess Jesus as Lord, and that call us to everlasting life. God saves us now. Salvation is not some far off future event. As the angel announced to the shepherds abiding in their field, “For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord.”

We are saved in the sacrifice once offered for all by Jesus Christ, by His death and resurrection which gives us victory over death. We are saved because in the Holy Eucharist water is not turned into wine. The eucharist is not a sign that points to another thing, but is that thing itself, that Person Himself. God is with us in the most Holy Eucharist. And, just as in John’s Gospel the signs of Jesus revealed His glory, in the eucharist God’s love for us is revealed. “[A]s the bridegroom rejoices over the bride, so” our God rejoices over us.

God rejoices over His Church, His Bride, and calls us into the salvation of His love. Truly, the words we pray over a man and woman in the Celebration and Blessing of a Marriage, are a prayer which we may well apply to the Church and Jesus, her Bridegroom. We pray:

“Grant that their wills may be so knit together in thy will, and their spirits in thy Spirit, that they may grow in love and peace with thee and one another all the days of their life.”

We pray this at a wedding, and so we pray that as our Lord manifested His glory at the wedding in Cana, may His glory be manifested in this Church as an ekklesia of people called by God and empowered by His Spirit to proclaim His lordship, in this life and in the life everlasting. Thanks be to God. Amen.

In the Name of the Father, and of the Son,

and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.