An epiphany in the water

John 2:1 On the third day a wedding took place at Cana in Galilee. Jesus' mother was there, ² and Jesus and his disciples had also been invited to the wedding. ³ When the wine was gone, Jesus' mother said to him, "They have no more wine." ⁴ "Dear woman, why do you involve me?" Jesus replied. "My time has not yet come." ⁵ His mother said to the servants, "Do whatever he tells you." ⁶ Nearby stood six stone water jars, the kind used by the Jews for ceremonial washing, each holding from twenty to thirty gallons. ⁷ Jesus said to the servants, "Fill the jars with water"; so they filled them to the brim. ⁸ Then he told them, "Now draw some out and take it to the master of the banquet." They did so, ⁹ and the master of the banquet tasted the water that had been turned into wine. He did not realize where it had come from, though the servants who had drawn the water knew. Then he called the bridegroom aside ¹⁰ and said, "Everyone brings out the choice wine first and then the cheaper wine after the guests have had too much to drink; but you have saved the best till now." ¹¹ This, the first of his miraculous signs, Jesus performed at Cana in Galilee. He thus revealed his glory, and his disciples put their faith in him.

A few weeks ago we celebrated the Festival of the Epiphany of Our Lord. Today is the second Sunday after the Epiphany. Our church’s name is Epiphany Lutheran Church. Our church began 86 years ago in January, during the season of Epiphany. But what is an “epiphany?” An epiphany is an appearing, a revelation, a divine manifestation of glory. That’s why our church’s logo has Jesus with His arms raised and rays of glory coming from Him. He is revealing Himself in an epiphany to the world. An epiphany is also a sudden insight or realization of something important, usually initiated by a common experience. For example, the title of my pastoral blog is “I’ve had an epiphany!” An epiphany may appear ordinary, but it is actually life-changing.

On Monday, our voters approved spending $45,000 to improve the exterior of our church building. A question was asked in the meeting about whether it was important to retain the English Tudor look of our church. I explained that the history of our congregation is that our founding members came from First Evan. At that time, First Evan was still conducting worship services in German. Our members started a congregation two miles away from First Evan – a long distance 80 plus years ago – to do more mission work to the English speaking people of Racine. The official name of our congregation – in case many of you didn’t know it – is The English Evangelical Lutheran Church of the Epiphany. Kind of a mouthful. But the English Tudor look is part of our name, our history and our heritage.

But there’s something I didn’t mention at the meeting. It would definitely be less expensive to have all horizontal siding, instead of making all the cuts for diagonal, horizontal and vertical pieces to retain the English Tudor look. However, then the church would look like a big house. And you might say, but it will still look like a big house, a big English Tudor house. And you would be correct. But I think the forefathers of our congregation were onto something. They built a church to look like a house, but be different than all the houses. It fits in, yet it is different. It appears common, and yet there is something uncommon and special about it. The building may appear ordinary, but upon closer examination, there is something life-changing within this building. It is an epiphany!

There was an epiphany in the water of the Nile River. Pharaoh would not let the enslaved Israelites go out into the desert to worship their Lord. Pharaoh didn’t believe Moses’ words. He didn’t consider Moses’ God to be a true God. He thought Moses was just trying to get a day off of work for the Israelites, and maybe even lead them to escape. So, in the presence of Pharaoh and all his officials, Moses raised his staff over the Nile River and all the water turned into blood. All the water. Even the water in the ponds, streams and buckets turned into blood. That day, God revealed His glory and power in the water. He also revealed His divine justice. There was an epiphany in the water.

Jesus, along with His mother and new disciples, were invited to a wedding in Cana. But during the long wedding celebration, a huge gaffe took place. The celebration was probably slated to stretch for a week or so. The new bride and groom’s marriage had just begun, and there was already a big problem – by the third day the wine ran out! Mary enlisted Jesus’ help. Jesus had a simple solution. He instructed the servants to fill six 20 to 30 gallon stone water jars with water. Water may be the health drink of choice today, but it wasn’t the wedding celebration drink of choice in Jesus’ day. The servants obeyed Jesus and filled those six stone jars with water. Then, miraculously, Jesus changed that simple, ordinary water into the best of choice wines. Not a $3 bottle of Winking Owl wine from Aldi, but a fine $3,000 bottle of French wine.

That day, Jesus revealed His glory and power in the water. He also revealed His divine grace. There was an epiphany in the water.

Jesus appears to fit in, but He is different. He appears common, but there is something divinely uncommon about Him. He may appear ordinary to everyone at the wedding, but upon closer examination, there is something life-changing within Him. John reports that this was the first of Jesus’ miraculous signs. He thus revealed His glory. But in the Greek it literally says, “He epiphanied His glory.”

This happened in Cana in Galilee. Not in Jerusalem, not in the temple, not in Rome. In lowly Cana, in the backwoods of Galilee in the north, a place despised, looked down upon; a land of half-breed Israelites and religious heretics. Isaiah prophesied, “The people walking in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of the shadow of death a light has dawned” (Isaiah 9:2). Into the darkness of the Gentiles, upon the dark shadow covering Galilee, Jesus first shines the light of His glory. Out of the ordinary comes something extraordinary!

We might have expected Jesus to do a greater or more significant thing for His first miracle. Changing water into wine seems rather mundane when compared to opening the eyes of the blind, giving hearing to the deaf, enabling paralyzed men to walk again, and raising the dead. But from that simple, common water, Jesus begins to reveal His glory to the world! 

You and I prefer the big and the spectacular. We kind of brush off the ordinary and the mundane. Unfortunately, we often classify God, His worship and His Means of Grace into the category of the ordinary and mundane. Worship becomes just another item on our to-do list for the weekend – clean the house, go shopping, watch basketball, go to church. Jesus becomes just another person to talk to in our contact list – Grandma, Dad, our friends, Jesus. The Bible becomes just another place to go to for advice and counseling – Dr. Phil, our buddies, Pinterest, the holy and inspired Word of God.

Because we consider God, His worship and His Word as ordinary and mundane, just items to do, as nothing very special, we end up paying lip service to God on Sundays but then deny Him in our words and actions during the rest of the week. If you don’t believe me, look at how you structure your life. Is worshiping God the number one priority in your life? Is studying God’s Word, reading devotions with your family and praying with your children done before any homework or cleaning gets done in your home? Can your co-workers and neighbors tell that you’re a Christian by the way you talk and act at work and in your neighborhood? If you’ve even struggled to say yes to any of those questions, then God is not the number one priority in your life. We’ve so filled up our lives with activity, business and busy-ness that we haven’t left room for God. He’s become ordinary and mundane to us.

Let me relate a story to you that I once heard at a Pastors’ Conference. A circuit pastor, the pastor who helps other pastors in his geographical area, had a member of one of the churches in that area come to him complaining, “You know, I just don’t get anything out of my pastor’s worship service. Nothing.”

The circuit pastor raised his eyebrow and said, “I’m confused. Does your pastor speak the Word of the Absolution to you and does he forgive your sins in Jesus’ name?” The lady said, “Oh, yeah, he does that.”

The circuit pastor asked, “Well, does he read from the Word of God to you?” She said, “Well, yeah … he does that every week.”

“Does he preach to you about the forgiveness of sins that’s yours because of Jesus’ suffering, death and resurrection?” She replied, “Oh, every week … he does that without fail.”

“And does he put into your mouth the body and blood of Jesus for the forgiveness of your sins?” She replied, “Well, yes … without fail.”

The circuit pastor inquired, “I’m sorry. I just don’t understand. What is it you’re not getting out of worship? You get the forgiveness of your sins, you get the gift of eternal life, you get the Lord’s body and blood. What were you looking for?” She thought for a moment and then said, “I was looking for a feeling.” After she left, she thought about the circuit pastor’s words and later told him, “Well, maybe there’s a little more going on here than my feelings alone.”

The wonderful thing about God is that His grace, forgiveness, miracles and salvation are not based on our feelings. They are all facts. What happens here in church may not seem big and spectacular, filled with emotions and feelings, but this is where God conveys the miraculous and marvelous, often in mundane and matter-of-fact means.

Jesus performed His first miracle in a commonplace town of Cana with ordinary water. These days Jesus takes ordinary drinking water from the tap and attaches His miracle of saving grace to it. That ordinary water, now connected with Word and Spirit has become extraordinary! It takes a newborn infant and makes her a child of God. It takes an adult and gives him a new birthday, as he is reborn and regenerated in his baptismal waters. There is an epiphany in that water!

Jesus takes an unexceptional wafer of unleavened bread and a sip of modest port wine and He makes it into the marriage feast of the Lamb. He feeds you with the bread of His body and gladdens your heart with the wine of His blood for the forgiveness of your sins and the strengthening of your faith. There is an epiphany in that bread and wine!

Throughout his Gospel, John the evangelist lays out the hard evidence that Jesus is the Savior. He is the Christ – the one anointed by God to be our Savior. That Jesus is no normal carpenter from lowly Nazareth, but He really is the revelation of God in human flesh. That’s why it is significant when this miracle took place. “On the third day.” John uses that phrase, “the third day,” to tie this ordinary marriage event to the extraordinary event of Christ’s resurrection “on the third day.” So whenever you hear “on the third day” in John or elsewhere in Scripture, you expect big things to happen.

Sunday is thus no ordinary day. Big things are happening here. Every Sunday is a celebration of “the third day.” It is on this day when God’s voice speaks to you through the words of Absolution; when God’s message is carried by the notes and voices in our hymns; when God’s doctrines are presented in the liturgy; when God’s Law and Gospel are applied in the sermon and children’s devotion. Those things seem ordinary, commonplace, things we do every week. And that’s the point! An epiphany is taking place in normal words, water, bread, wine, music and liturgy!

God is at work in these humble, ordinary means. Jesus is revealing His glory to you. Whether it is Cana in Galilee or Racine in Wisconsin, Jesus is revealing Himself to you as your Savior. At the wedding, on the cross, in the font, at the communion rail, at the altar, in our hymnals, in our liturgies, in our paintings and stained glass windows, Jesus is revealing His glory to you. This is an epiphany happening at Epiphany! Amen.

Like the disciples of old, let us put our faith in Jesus for He has epiphanied His glory to us. Amen.