Second Sunday of Ordinary Time
January 18, 2004


Do you believe that the best is yet to come? Or, what does a fork have to do with the wedding feast in Cana?

There is a story about a woman who knew that she was near death. So she called her Irish pastor in to visit and help her prepare for that final passage. And when the visit was done, she had one final request for Father. “Make sure they lay me out with a fork in my hand.” Why in the world would you be wanting to do that, he thought. Gently he asked why? You see, growing up, at family and parish functions, as they were cleaning up the table, I was often told: “Keep your fork.” It meant that desert was coming. And though I never knew exactly what the desert was, I would always get a shiver of anticipation when I heard them tell me: “Keep your fork”, because I knew the best was yet to come.

So, when I die, I want to be laid out with the fork, and as often as people ask, and they will ask, you’ll be able to tell them why. You’ll tell them that I died knowing the best is yet to come.” As good as this earth is, the best, being with Jesus face to face, is yet to come.

Do you believe the best is yet to come? In John’s gospel, we hear the steward unwittingly saying to the host: “you have kept the good wine till now”. When Jesus inaugurates his public ministry, the first thing we hear, the first response of human kind to the public ministry of the Son of God is that simple line – You’ve kept the best wine until now. The best, the reason for celebration, the reason for hope, the reason to love again, in Jesus is now in our midst. That’s what Cana in Galilee means. God has come into our world, and the first sign at Cana, which allowed the disciples to believe in him was that of overflowing wine.

You’d think in John’s gospel, so dramatic in many ways, that the first sign would be a miraculous cure, a raising from the dead, an awesome display of the power of God. What you are treated to instead is enough wine to make the town drunk for a week. Because Jesus is among us, because God became flesh, the first response of human kind is to rejoice, to celebrate, to party – however you want to say it. God has saved the best wine until now, and in Jesus IT HAS BEEN SERVED. Put away the dessert forks folks. No need to wait for the best. In Jesus it’s here.

Do you believe that? Do you trust that? In college, it’s tempting to think that life will happen once I graduate, or finish this class or whatever. It is hard to in the knowledge that God has kept the best wine until now – so today is the time. This time, this moment, this day, ah, that’s the very best day, the very best now we can know. I know that my body aches more than it used to. My eyesight is not what it used to be, I can’t hit the tenor notes in harmony I loved to do, and some of the dear friends I used to have in my life are no longer there. But Cana in Galilee tells my heart to hang onto the fork, because God always saves the best wine until now.

This week, I invite you to live into that belief just a bit more. Three concrete ways to do that:

1)Treat yourself to your favorite desert. And by special indult – no calories in the eating of them. Let your stomach tell you that indeed the best is yet to come.

2)Treat yourself to a special outing with your family. Jesus was made known in the midst of the celebration of a family’s happiness. What ever ‘family looks like’, gather with them.

3)Use the good china sometime this week. And the good silverware. And open the good bottle of wine. Be as extravagant with one dinner as Jesus was at the wedding feast. For if we never learn how to experience Jesus present now, how will we ever learn to enjoy the feast of heaven.?

I love the story of the woman with the fork. It tells me to live in expectation of the best that is yet to come. But in some ways, it is dead wrong. For what Cana of Galilee tells us is that the best wine is being served now. Here at this table, there is no finer meal, no finer host, and (gesture to congregation) no finer guests to share with. Indeed, God has saved the good wine until now…