You have heard of this miracle. It was the first of the miracles of Jesus, the turning of water into wine. Jesus and his disciples had been invited to a wedding and the mother of Jesus, Mary, was there too. I don’t know if it was poor planning, or the guests were thirstier than what the hosts had planned, but the wine was gone. And a party with no wine is no party!! In fact, the family of the groom, who was responsible for the reception, was legally liable for this. They could be sued for running out of wine at the reception!! (And I thought we were a sue-happy society!!)

So Jesus tells the attendants to fill the jars – there were six of them, they all held between 20-30 gallons – to the brim, and to take it to the master of the banquet. And now the bridegroom is praised for this wonderful water turned into wine, “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 until now.” (John 2:10)

Jesus saved the wedding - He saved the couple from social embarrassment and a possible law suit . And the concluding verse of this section says, “This, the first of His miraculous signs, Jesus performed in Cana of Galilee. He thus revealed His glory, and His disciples put their faith in Him.” (2:11)

Water into wine, sure saves on the costs!! But before we talk about water into wine I want to talk about wine into water. That is, we take the great things of life, the things that God has so generously given us, and make them into something much less than they should be. Wine into water.

Mary O’Connell wrote a piece to the line, Things fall apart. She wrote, “I watched it happen at our house one recent Sunday. Weather was cool and rainy, had been for some days, and people were frustrated about not being to get out and enjoy the weekend. The preceding week had been exceptionally busy, demands of school and work and assorted projects had rendered everyone tired and crabby. A couple of unsettled issues clouded the air. Building onto them were those irritating little details, like who messed up the bathroom or whose turn it was to set the table. By the time we sat down to eat, the air was thick with trouble. It only took one nudge – a smart remark by little brother, a touch of parental sarcasm – for the dinner to dissolve into anger and tears.”

“I sat afterward among the half-eaten salad and the cold potatoes musing about how little energy to takes to destroy and how much it takes to sustain. I lacked the energy, imagination, humor -- whatever it would have taken -- to rise above the situation and stop it from disintegrating into chaos.”

That is wine into water. Our homes are our special place, love, unity, peace and joy, yet they can be turned into something far less, or just opposite of, what God has designed. Friday’s paper told us that a special cross, a crucifix, that hung over at the Hospice of St. John, was stolen. The piece of art has a value of somewhere between $10,000 to $12,000. The people who go to the Hospice to spend their last days on earth have benefited from the cross, as well as families and visitors. But the cross may never be seen again. One radio personality felt that the thieves would dismantle the cross and sell the precious metals for cash. Wine into water!! Something of great value is placed into an envelope and sent to “Gold for Cash.”

During our “Sharing of the Peace” I see couples turn to each other and give a kiss. If that is your custom would you do that right now? And you’ll have a chance to do it later, as well!! That is a nice thing that you do, right? It is a word of love and affection. It might even get your heart moving again. To me that is like wine!!

Well, this week I was on Broadway near Littleton High School and I witnessed a couple of teenagers in the car behind me “Sharing the Peace.” But they did it a little different from you!! Stoplights can be very long. But the girl was driving and the boy was initiating the kissing. Pretty soon she put a stop to it. They had some words and after those words he was much closer to the window than to her the rest of their trip. What began as wine turned into water. What was pleasant and enjoyable turned ugly and wrong.

I see the wonderful things of life turned into the worst of things all the time. Love becomes lust. A promotion becomes a pompous position. The tongue that can say the best word can be become cutting and vulgar and profane. Wine into water.

But our account is about water becoming wine, at the hands of Jesus Christ. Commentaries on the Book of John say that John is developed into 7 sections around the seven “signs” that Jesus performed. The first sign is here at the wedding of Cana and the final one is the resurrection from the dead. A sign is something greater than just the event. I believe that Jesus changed water into wine but I believe that the miracle was much greater than that. Earl Feddersen in a devotional about this says, “After all, Jesus didn’t go to all the trouble to come to this world to change water into wine. He came to change sinners into saints, fisherman into fishers of men, Saul into Paul, evil into good, fear into faith, hate into love and Good Friday into Easter.” Now that is water into wine!!

There was a woman in Galveston, Texas who was cleaning out her birdcage with a vacuum cleaner when the phone rang. While reaching for the phone with one hand, the other hand raised the nozzle from the floor to the cage, just enough to suck the little pet into the vacuum cleaning bag. She dropped the phone, shut off the vacuum cleaner and opened the little bag as quickly as she could. Although covered with dust, lint and hair, the little bird survived. She dusted him off and put him back on his perch, but he was a changed bird. She told her neighbor, “He doesn’t sing any more; he just sits and stares.”

A lot of church people are like that – they don’t sing anymore. They just sit and stare. The sense of joy has left them. Maybe they have been sucked into the world’s dirt bag!! That can be us. But that is what the work of Christ has come to change in our life. To everyone of us who struggles with sin and its power in our life Christ has come to bring the news that His death and resurrection speak the word of forgiveness, new life and the hope that we have for eternity in heaven. We have a song to sing!! The sinner embraces forgiveness; the guilty treasures peace; the mortal looks at death and mocks it – “Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting? The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ!!” (I Corinthians 15:55-57)

In the Old Testament reading for today the picture of God’s transformation is apparent. Isaiah uses some names to show how difficult was their situation and then they received new names to show their hope. “No longer will they call you Deserted or name your land Desolate. But you will be called Hephzibah [that is, My delight is in her], and your land Beulah [that is, married one], for the Lord will take delight in you and your land will be married. As a young man marries a maiden, so will your sons marry you; as a bridegroom rejoices over his bride, so will your God rejoice over you.” (62:4-5) Water into wine!! God’s amazing work.

But I wonder does He still do this? Can we count on our God to offer some transformation and change, such miracles to us, today? Absolutely!! We have words on a page from a book called the Bible, words from the mouth of a pastor and preacher, words that we read and say and confess and we find them to be water into wine. They are life giving. They lead us to Christ, they establish new hope, they assure us that we are God’s own delightful possession. Don’t you see the same at the Baptismal Font? “Fear not, I have called you by name, you are mine.” (Isaiah 43:1b) Or, how about at the Lord’s Table? Bread and wine, right? But so much more!! The Host of the meal says, “This is My body; This is My blood – for you, for your cleansing, for your peace, for eternal salvation.” I see it still today, the water becomes wine!!

And our God is not miserly in His gifts to us. The wedding had 6 jars and each held between twenty to thirty gallons!! 120 to 180 gallons of water into wine were created that day. Jesus always seems to be extravagant and over the top when it comes to His grace for us!! Psalm 23 says, “You anoint my head with oil, my cup runneth over.” (verse 5b) In John 10:10 Jesus says, “I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.”

A few years ago I was doing a wedding for a young couple – Theresa and Daryl at Willow Ridge in Morrison. The ceremony was completed and it was time for the reception. But the wine they had ordered had not arrived. So they came to me and wondered if I could do anything. But I told them that this was out of my control. I am not in administration but sales!

Too many times we take the countless blessings of life and faith and water them down, making them boring and dull and at times just awful. But our God would do just the opposite!! Delight in seeing Him who in our lives changes water into wine, the ordinary to the sublime. Water into wine!! And He is still doing it!! Amen!!