Our ancient Celtic Christian sisters and brothers knew of “thin places,” places where the Holy engages the natural world. The separation between the two is a porous membrane. Some years ago Beth and I joined a Benedictine Fortnight in Wales. We visited many ancient wells and other sacred sites attested by generations of Christians as thin places for communion with God. Our youth and their advisors have embarked on pilgrimages to Scotland to explore their early Anglican roots, and last year to Greece and Turkey following the steps of St. Paul, in search for God in their lives. Those who use the labyrinth in the courtyard for a meditative walk on a quiet afternoon or evening seek that thin place at its center to commune with the Holy.
The fourth gospel offers a unique presentation of the Good News of Jesus Christ. In the first half this evangelist points to signs which can open the reader’s eyes to points of intersection where the divine is exposed in daily activity. We could call them signposts. This gospel is a pilgrim’s map through a landscape of signs or thin places that reveal the divine glory in Jesus Christ. The purpose is apparent at the outset. John says, the Word, or Cosmic Christ, that spoke life into being became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of a father’s only son, full of grace and truth (Jn 1:14.) Indeed the language describes for the reader what will become a profound encounter with the divine in the human person, Jesus of Nazareth, the Word incarnate. In all Jesus says and does, he is the sign of God in the world.
In today’s reading much can be made of the wedding narrative. About the initiative and insistence of Mary, the mother of Jesus, when the wine at a marriage feast ran out. About Jesus seemingly snippy reply. About the groom’s surprise at the great quantity and quality of wine suddenly available for an already inebriated crowd. About the honoring of marriage itself. Preachers wax eloquent on the sketchy details. Yet that is to miss the point of John’s careful sign laden exposition of the Good News of Jesus Christ.
This account of a wedding in Cana, a non-descript village in the Galilee district, to which the mother of Jesus, Jesus and his disciples had been invited, is the first of many “signs” recorded by the evangelist. (Jn 2:11) A wedding feast is a common social event, but this one is a moment in human time and space in which Jesus’ glory is revealed. His disciples believed that he was the expected messiah, confirming the growing faith of Andrew and Peter, Philip and Nathanael (Jn 1:41; 49).
In the second of John’s signs (Jn 4:54) an ordinary well becomes a thin place where Jesus’ glory is revealed. That well in a Samaritan village became the site for an extraordinary encounter between Jesus and a woman. Ordinary water to quench one’s thirst became a sign of the satisfaction of belonging. Jesus said to the woman,
Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but those who drink of the water that I will give them will never be thirsty. The water that I will give will become in them a spring of water gushing up to eternal life. (Jn 4:13-14)
We call it Communion. The woman’s life thereafter was transformed.
John’s signs are numerous, all leading to his pronouncement in 20:30.
Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of his disciples, that are not written in this book. But these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that through believing you may have life in his name.
Be cautious with the text of the marriage feast at Cana or you may turn into a Bible detective exploring interesting clues to find the holy grail, or take on the manner of an academic examining its literary sources and parallels, or you may use it as proof texts to ride your favorite hobby horse. John is not making moral points: how a parent should remain civil when challenged by an adult son; how a host is to react to an unexpected gift; the risks of too much wine at a party; or the Good Housekeeping seal for marriage. Rather he shows that in the most common of settings God’s presence transforms the ordinary into a meeting with the Holy. John simply wants to introduce you to the Son of God who is the Word of God in the flesh. He is not a plastic statue to ward off danger, nor is he some God in the box you may hope will pop up on command to solve your problems. In Jesus God is present, lives are transformed, a new extraordinary day has dawned.
Each time we come to do Eucharist the bread and wine we’ve brought and subsequently received at communion can be viewed as a simple transaction. Bread and wine given, bread and wine received. Yet this is one of those thin places where ordinary human beings partake of holy things. Jesus said, Where two or three are gathered in my name, I am there among them (Mt 18:20 ).He also said, Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood abide in me, and I in them (Jn 6:56).
In 1965 when Wonder Bread was a household word in southern California, Sr. Mary Corita, a noted Los Angeles artist, produced a serigraph that rearranged the printed elements of a Wonder Bread wrapper to read, “enriched bread WONDER.” She included the motto: “helps build strong bodies 12 ways.” Yes, on one level bread is the staff of life, the dough necessary for living. AND the Eucharist is enriched bread, indeed. Wonder! Suddenly the ordinary is transformed becoming a window into a new reality. The believer is in the world but no longer merely of the world for one’s horizons have been expanded.
In John chapter 9 Jesus’ disciples saw a man who had been born blind and asked who sinned, the man or his parents to cause the man’s sightless condition. Jesus responded that neither was the cause. The purpose of this encounter was that God’s works might be revealed in him. (Jn 9:3)Since Jesus restored the man’s sight on the Sabbath the agitated Pharisees treated poorly the formerly blind man because he believed in Jesus. By the end of the chapter we learn the purpose of this sign. Jesus said, I came into this world for judgment so that those who do not see may see, and those who do see may become blind. (Jn 9:39) Our eyes have been opened to see that God is at work in Jesus who enters every aspect of our lives.
In the other gospels the phrases to see the kingdom of God and to enter the kingdom of God are used frequently to describe the new day of God and activity of believers. In John’s gospel one’s pilgrimage of faith is guided by signs of the presence of the Holy in daily events and relationships.
Today, we’re asked to make a compassionate response to the suffering in Haiti caused by last Monday’s earthquake. Whatever we do individually may seem like placing pocket change in a firefighter’s boot to help a worthy cause. But as members of the Body of Christ everything we do is marked by our encounter with holiness. Bread is not just baked dough but is enriched with God’s life. So our money is not just legal tender for purchases but prayer in action. Given in faith that God works to restore our body, mind and spirit in multiple ways, what each one offers is a gift, not just a donation, that multiplies blessings for the survivors, wounded and orphans, the aid workers, transporters and security personnel, and the rebuilding of community life. In the way that the contributions of many, though each may be small, yields an abundance to alleviate a wide range of needs, so the efforts of Jesus’ disciples build up the kingdom and its presence is made known. Giving to the Haiti relief is a holy work even more than a good cause. It is a signpost on our pilgrimage in faith.
There are times we’d like Jesus to turn our water into wine, converting wishes into reality or just to get us out of the pickle we’re in. But Jesus is not our servant. Instead Jesus invites us to see more clearly that he is God’s presence in the world. In gratitude we give ourselves as his ambassadors for his kingdom of shalom, proclaiming truth in Jesus Christ, working to heal a broken world, reconciling relationships, in companionship with the One whose very life is holy.
