Back in the day my dad bought a Bush record player. I can picture it: blue and cream, about 2 ft square with a hinged lid that you lifted, set the record in place and then clunked the switch on the right to see the arm swing across and lower itself onto the waiting record. I remember blue and red 45rpm story records: the Fiery furnace, the Magic Porridge pot. I also remember dad’s Regal Zonophone record by the Joy Strings – a Salvation Army ‘beat band’ that got to number 32 in the charts apparently (drums, two guitars, double bass (not a bass guitar) and singers: ladies in Hallelujah bonnets and gents sporting ‘Buddy Holly style’ black thick-rimmed glasses. The record? ‘It’s an open secret’ – you can find it on YouTube…all 1 minute 57 seconds of it. It’s that title that gets us into the theme presented to us by Epiphany. An open secret that the Christ in the manger is the King of the whole world – the magi bow in worship. An open secret that Jesus, at the river Jordan being baptised by John, is the Messiah, the anointed one – last week we heard the divine voice say ‘You are my Son, the beloved, with you I am well pleased.’ And now, this morning we have another open secret presented to us in the story of the water being turned into wine: for now we see that this Jesus is the presence of God amongst us, He is Divine, He brings heaven to earth and lifts earth to heaven both in His person and in what He does.
And so much of the story takes place secretly: it’s the hiddenness of the story that I’d like to highlight this morning.
First off, Jesus , Mary and his disciples are at a wedding. The wedding seems to have been going exceptionally well, everyone has been enjoying themselves, drinking up with abandon but then we learn that ‘they have no more wine’. The lack of wine is not something of which everyone is aware but it is something that Mary picks up on and draws to Jesus’ attention. The happy couple are oblivious to the problem: after all, the bridegroom is as surprised as the maitr’d at the end of the story as to where the good wine has come from. Mary notices a need and takes the problem to Jesus, she entrusts it to Him.
This is a Christian task. Noticing need…in all its forms …and praying. There will come a time for doing in this story, but we’re not there yet! The temptation for most of us before obvious need is to feel we must meet it. Sometimes that is indeed the case: think of the man lying on the road who is found by the Good Samaritan. But in this story Mary resists the temptation to try to solve the problem herself, rather, her first response it to make Jesus aware of the problem. In the end, that’s all she does. She doesn’t head off to the shops. She doesn’t start going round the tables quietly whispering to folk to hold off the wine for the time being. She doesn’t feel that she has to solve everything. Instead, she does the one thing that will change everything: she involves Jesus. This is a lesson we must learn again and again because we forget it almost as soon as we have learned it. It is not our job to save the world. It is not our job to meet every need. If we think it is then we are clearly failing and we will end up exhausted and disillusioned. No. Our first task is to be alert to the needs of others and to bring them to Jesus. How do we do this. We do it through prayer: intercession that presents the needs of others to God. It is noticeable that so many of our ‘set prayers’ in our new liturgies bounce back upon ourselves: they start off thinking of others but end up praying for ourselves ‘help us to…help us to.’ There is nothing wrong with making our own needs known to God but He invites us to pray for others too.
The next moment of secrecy in the story comes when Jesus tells the servants to fill the stone jars present for Jewish ceremonial washing, with water. Now, I wonder how you read this text, because it’s not at all clear whether the servants knew that the water had become wine whilst it was in the jars or whether the miracle only happened after they had served it to the maitr’d. But, for the moment, we are at the point of Jesus instructing these servants to fill some jars with water. Again, I can’t imagine this taking place under the full gaze of the wedding party and their many guests. This work is simply going on in the background, somewhat odd but unnoticed. Notice firstly that all that is needed for the miracle to take place is already present at the wedding feast: Jesus, the water, the servants to draw it and the jars to hold it. Notice too that it is not ‘the disciples’ who are engaged in this task: it is people beyond the disciples – the servants who weren’t even guests at the wedding. Here’s another important lesson for the church of God. The gifts that we need to fulfil God’s purposes are right in front of us: they just need the transforming presence of Jesus to touch them. And when I say ‘gifts’ I don’t just mean your money, I mean your friendships, your work, your hospitality, your passions, the history of this place in the town, our position here on this corner – all these can be transformed and used for the service of Christ. Looking beyond the church door, are their people of good will with whom we can partner in meeting the needs we might identify in the town? An example: in November, our sister church at Whorlton ran a history event in the village hall. One person’s enthusiasm to find out more about the church and the village brought in another person, the tiny congregation rallied round doing what they do best – making cakes and serving tea..and chatting – and the village turned out in force. The result? A meeting of neighbours in a village that has lost its meeting spaces, links made, a way forward discerned. It was hard work, but fun.
Most churches operate with a fear of scarcity driving their decisions. We tell ourselves ‘We don’t have enough: we don’t have enough money, there aren’t enough people,’ we don’t have the right kind of people. But there is always enough when Jesus is present, far more than enough (you do the maths on how much wine he is about to produce). All that we need for God’s work in this place is already here. What we most need is a willingness to involve Him (that means prayer) and obedience to do what He tells us (which means consciously listening out for His guidance – devoting time to discernment).
And lastly, the maitr’d receives his glass and tastes the wine that it holds…and it is good. He tells the bridegroom and the party proceeds without any more hitches, the disciples believe in Jesus and they all go home. It’s an ‘open secret’: the disciples are in on what has happened but no one else is. No pictures are taken. Nothing is put on Facebook, there’s no ‘look at me’, no virtue signalling, no ‘look at what I’ve done’. At this point in the gospel there’s no ‘look at Jesus’ either, there’s no command to point people to Jesus. The miracle is enough. Heaven has touched earth, a young couple have had a great day – it’s all part of the service (as one might say).
There is a time for speech. There is a time to speak of Jesus. There is a time for publicity and letting people know what is going on in parish life. But miracles? They are all around us, they are Jesus’ stock in trade, ours are just bit parts. He builds people up. He comforts the broken hearted. He strengthens those who are unwell. He brings hope where there was no hope. He is present in the phone call from a friend, in the kind word at the right moment. He is directing the faithful service of our staff up at Green Lane School in what they do for our children: children’s pictures and stories are brought home, but the work our teachers do is unseen. There is wonder in the friendship and support that our choirs and orchestra offer: there is joy in the talent that has been released in so many. You can’t put these sorts of things into a spread sheet and count them but they all are tinged with glory, they are everyday miracles and precious beyond measure.
The water into wine miracle is iconic, but it took place secretly. It happened because there was someone who noticed a need, someone who resisted the temptation to ‘do’ anything before they had brought the matter to Jesus’ attention, before they had prayed.
It happened because someone (Jesus) was aware that the gifts required for the miracle were already present at the banquet: they just needed martialling.
The miracle happened because people did what Jesus told them (a huge challenge for a church that is used to doing its own thing and then asking Jesus to bless it). People willing to listen. People willing to obey and do the less obvious thing considering the problem they faced.
And it all happened ‘secretly’ under the radar. We’re reminded through this story that the work of God doesn’t always mesh well with an age obsessed with self-promotion and self-image. Some miracles are simply there to treasure in hearts overflowing with joy and praise. ‘Open secrets’ that change lives and bring blessing.