Amidst bitter chill, we need wine and wedding feast

As it so happens, this coming Sunday is the day in the church’s calendar when we remember the first miracle performed by Christ, turning water into wine. This trumps ‘Dry January’.

The words are from a Giles Fraser column on the late Roger Scruton's philosophy of wine.  And, indeed, in the traditional Prayer Book lectionary, the Gospel reading appointed for Holy Communion on The Second Sunday after the Epiphany is John 2:1-11.  Not so, however, in contemporary lectionaries, in which this reading is only heard every third year.

Fraser's words highlight this characteristic weakness in contemporary lectionaries: why should it be only every third year that we hear of the joy of the Lord's miracle at the wedding in Cana of Galilee?  This, after all, is one of the Lord's epiphanies, and in the traditional lectionary, following on from the adoration of the Magi on the Epiphany and the Christ Child in the Temple on The First Sunday after the Epiphany, it is rightly placed to allow us to behold "this beginning of his signs" by which the Lord "manifested forth his glory".

What is more, however, the reading on this Sunday of the account of the miracle at the wedding in Cana beautifully sets forth the joyful character of the manifestation of the glory of the Lord.  Beholding this glory is the joy for which we have been created.  Sparrow describes the purpose of the Epiphany season as being "to manifest his glory and Divinity, by recounting some of his first miracles, and manifestations of his Deity, so that each Sunday is in this respect a kind of Epiphany".

This being so, the symbolism of wine and marriage caught up in "this beginning of his signs" has particular significance. It is "wine that maketh glad the heart of man" (Ps.104:15).  The "holy estate" of marriage was "adorned and beautified" by the Lord's miracle "in Cana of Galilee", allowing the Gospel reading to evoke the joy of wedding day and marriage feast, and also anticipate of the eschatological joy of "the marriage supper of the Lamb" (Revelation 19:9).  The joy of wine and wedding feast are signs that should be recognised in these Sundays after the Epiphany, for they embody the rich, overflowing, fulfilling joy that is beholding the manifestation of the glory of God in Christ.

This also has a deep resonance amidst the cold and dark of January, with the festive season now behind us and weeks of winter still before us.  Only a secular culture, deluding itself that times and seasons, darkness and light are objects to be conquered rather than gifts to be received and limits which allow our flourishing, would propose a regime of self-denial for the depths of winter, when body and soul require warmth and joy.  Contrasting with the rather grim vision of 'Dry January', the Gospel for The Second Sunday after the Epiphany sustains a joyful, festive emphasis in the midst of wintry January.

It also happens that this year The Second Sunday of Epiphany is the 19th January, just before the eve of St. Agnes, traditionally the coldest day of the year, as famously described by Keats:

St. Agnes' Eve—Ah, bitter chill it was!

How appropriate, then, to be cheered by wine and wedding feast, signs of the glory of the Lord made manifest for us and our salvation.  The cold and dark of winter, of St. Agnes' Eve, reminds us who know the "bitter chill" of sin and death of our need of the joyous vision of this glory, the joy of wine and wedding feast.