Rethinking The Wedding at Cana

The hall mark of the first sign in John’s gospel – the wedding at Cana where the wine ran out and Jesus , seemingly reluctantly, changed copious amounts of water into the best wine ever – is a celebration of abundance.  The fourth gospel sets the scene: the coming of the Divine and Human One is against the background of community celebration, even transforming a mundane panic event (“there’s no more wine”) into a surprising expression of the messianic banquet (“the best wine saved for last”). The point is not the mechanics of the transmogrification, but the launch of Jesus’ public ministry in the context of kin, friends and familiar community, announcing the flavour of the fulness of celebration he means to inject into the quality of ordinary living. The story is thick with layers of meaning., but this is the salutary starting point. How good it was this morning to have Kath & Ray, two of our exemplary diamonds, celebrating their diamond wedding anniversary against the background of this reading.