I ran out of time this morning so I’m writing this with one hand while giving platelets and plasma with the other at Carter Blood Care. Talk about multi-tasking! Time has run out for the bridegroom as well and sooner or later the guest’s goblets will go dry and the party will be over for good. Mary is determined to do something about it and counting on those things she has treasured in her heart she asks Jesus to serve the good wine before his time. John records this as the first sign of many and even though the other Gospels remember more immediate first signs, like healing diseases and casting out demons, turning water into wine is the sign for the time to come. It might not seem so in a world where more important things than wine run out, where as in Haiti a surplus of sorrow and suffering beg for God to heal and exorcise evil before filling the carafe with cabernet. But the miracle of water into wine is more than a story of good timing for a worried wine steward and it is Mary who gives it to us. Like Jesus in the garden she asks for what she wants and accepts his rebuke, even as Jesus asks for what he wants, “Take this cup from me” but accepts “Thy will be done.” And so Jesus in faith will leave the garden for the cross and Mary, with every reason to believe the answer is no, tells the servants, “Do whatever he tells you.” She has no idea what he will do but believes he will do something. Faith in the face of jugs gone dry is what is called for in the face of circumstances that drain reserves, sorrow that consumes joy, questions empty of answers, which is why water into wine is a sign of the time to come. Without knowing how or when we believe God will do something as Isaiah imagined; a feast of rich food and fine wine for all people where God dines on death for when his time finally came the One who asked the cup to be taken from him is the One who filled it.
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