17 Jan 2010 - "The Revelation of God"

Stephen Fielding - St Mary's Welwyn and Ayot St Peter

Over the last year, we have looked more than once at the great wedding feast at Cana. We have seen in it a sign of the reality of the abundance of God.  It is an abundance which comes into its own ‘when the wine runs out’, and so gives a picture of the immense goodness and generosity of God when the chips are down. It is a miracle offering great reassurance and encouragement.  This morning we see this great miracle through different eyes or in a different context. We hear the story in the context of the epiphany of our Lord. So it is an Epiphany miracle - a sign of the revelation of God.

The revelation of God is shown in many ways in the Holy Scriptures. One of the earliest is the revelation of God to Moses in the burning bush. The burning bush. ‘I am who I am’, says God. ‘I will be who I will be’. Yahweh. Burning out? Never. Inextinguishable light? Absolutely.

But for St John the revelation of God is not merely given to Jesus, as it was to Moses; it is not a revelation offered to him, it is a revelation expressed in him, the Word made flesh. Why are the signs or miracles recorded in the gospel of John? Go right to the end of the gospel and you find the answer. The signs are included so that  -

‘you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that through this faith you may have life by his name’.

So there is the purpose. Every sign of his miraculous power is a symbol of his revelation of God. And the wedding feast at Cana is therefore a symbol of the revelation of God.

For John, the meaning is not contained simply in the miraculous event. The sign is the symbol of something that occurs throughout the whole of the ministry of Jesus. What we are seeing or hearing in this great story is not simply the power of one who works miracles, though of course we are seeing a miracle worker in action. No. What we are seeing is the divinity of Jesus as one who reveals God. The revelation of the glory of Jesus is nothing less than his revelation of the name of the Father. As Jesus himself says in his great prayer to the Father:

‘I have made your name known’.

Jesus himself is the revealer, the one who reveals the name and nature of God. So just as he will use images elsewhere of himself as living water, the bread of life, the light of the world, the good Shepherd, sayings which correspond to the signs and miracles that occur elsewhere in the gospel, so here, as we've had occasion to note in the past, the sign of the miracle at Cana corresponds to the saying,

‘I am the true vine’.

I am what Israel, usually symbolised as the vine, failed to be. In other words this sign is a symbol of who Jesus is and who he reveals. Jesus is the revelation of God. And what we have to note is that the revelation of God comes about not because we desire it or because we create it. It is not a figment of our imagination. It comes about because God wills it. The revelation of God comes about not through our own desires but through the divine will. And what the revelation of God shows, and this miracle shows, is that the divine nature is vastly superior to the human way, it runs counter to all human rules, and it exceeds all human expectations.

How then is the revelation of God in Jesus Christ known and received by us? One helpful pointer is found in our first reading from the letter to the Corinthians:

‘ No one can say ‘ Jesus is Lord’ except under the influence of the Holy Spirit’.

And this requires faith and trust.  ‘Lord I believe, help thou my unbelief’. Or more positively,  ‘Lord, I believe. Increase my faith’.

What then have we being saying this morning? The wedding feast at Cana is an epiphany miracle - Jesus Christ as the revelation of God. It is a revelation that we are invited to embrace and trust in. Jesus is the revelation of God, in him the glory of God is revealed, and we are to trust in him in order to have life with him forever.

Let us pray.

Our gracious heavenly Father, we thank you for the revelation of yourself in Jesus Christ; we pray that we may respond by the power of your Holy Spirit to this revelation of yourself in Jesus Christ, to have a living faith in your power to heal and to save. Amen