It is a sign for today

Throughout the Christmas story we read of miracles: the virgin birth, the angels and the wise men. To some they are a beautiful depiction of God’s love and might, able to conquer the powers of nature to create something anew. To others, it is the final straw in the grasp of reality for religion, now lost forever. I would ask us not to enquire of the binary options, but allow us to consider an alternative perspective, from a different view. It is a sign for today.

Often we are asked to believe A or B. We can draw them on a. straight line with both arguments on either end of the line. We can now measure where we are on this line. It’s an easy approach. But what if we were able to leave the confines of the line and view this multidimensionally. What if we could view the arguments from differing angles and even draw a conclusion which does not lie on the line? We might also see this with the concept of Truth, famously – we believe – questioned by Pilate “What is truth?“

A family wedding

The ‘best’ can be tasted if we dare to re-imagine the scene,

dare to see the other as one with us, and not them versus us.

Take for example the Wedding at Cana, one of the first signs of Jesus (John 2).There we are expected to believe that 6 huge containers, holding up to 180 gallons, of water was transformed into wine so that the wedding celebrations could continue. Wine may be quite expensive now but I wonder how much it would have cost the parents to assemble that quantity for a wedding then.

We might see that this miracle is one of super abundance, where Jesus provides for the least so that they might celebrate. It could be seen as a miracle of God’s power. There are perspectives which I have drawn before, regarding Dionysus and Bacchus, which link to gods of drink and celebration. But these are signs, not possibly literal actions. Signs signpost us to somewhere else. What was written two millennia ago, now signpost us to what is going on today: a sign for today.

So what might we draw again from these containers of water and then wine?

The water was to be used for making what was unclean clean again. Those who were purportedly unclean would then be able to re-enter community life as they were clean. Goodness, there are so many people today who are deemed unclean, unable to freely access society, community because of their values, being themselves. Where do we draw lines to say where boundaries exist within our world? Could we offer that opportunity to see beyond boundaries, to forget to re-draw them when possible even?

In this story we read that God saved the best till last. Note that the ‘last’ isn’t one that never arrives but is part of the present. The ‘best’ can be tasted if we dare to re-imagine the scene, dare to see the other as one with us, and not them versus us. What might we savour if we allowed ourselves to engage with those who are separated currently by our boundaries?

In this, we start to make a transformation, one that moves us away from the linear, of them versus us, the ‘A versus B’ argument and able to see the situation anew.

Try it the next time we come up against a binary argument, such as same sex marriage,
women & trans women, the sectarian divide, and differing religions.

The miracles which we might hold fast to, offer us a portal to today, a new alternative way to see the signs depicted in our Scriptures. To make more sense of today. It was ever thus: a sign for today.