Teaching Theology

Making Wine

So many passages of scripture have been used to illustrate key issues in theological education but Jesus at the wedding feast in Cana is hard to beat. How so?

Firstly, we should not forget the simplest interpretation of the act of Jesus. He saw a young couple caught in a bit of a social mess, the wine had run out, so he stepped in to make sure that the wedding went smoothly for them. That little act of compassion is described by John as Jesus showing his glory.

For us as theological educators, showing our glory is usually more about demonstrating our cleverness, the books we have read, the degrees and awards we have gained. But we best show our glory in the little ways we help students who are in a bit of a mess and need a hand with this essay or understanding that issue. Students understand this.

Secondly, the central act of Jesus turning water into wine is used by John to illustrate the new order of the messiah. The water pots were for the old ritual cleansing, the way of rules and regulations. Jesus turned their contents into wine, the symbol throughout scripture of Joy. We are to ask for our daily bread but Christ gives more, “wine that makes glad the heart of man”.

How we need to escape from the attitude that we are mainly there to enforce the regulations of learning and assessing and see our role as a Christian teacher instead as the bringer of joy to our students, by what and how we teach and who we are. We turn boring water into joyful wine. It’s what we do.

Thirdly, there is an instructive use of this story in Bernard of Clairvaux. He is writing on community in monastic foundations and says that we may do everything we can to create Christian community but it will never be enough. We still need the touch of Christ to turn the water of our efforts into the wine of true Christian community.

That is true of the communities of our colleges and seminaries. Indeed, it is true of all our efforts in theological education. Working hard to fill the water pots is important; praying for Christ to turn our carefully gathered water into the joyful wine of the Spirit in the hearts of all those in the college community is vital.

So, to paraphrase the apostle, let us take a little “wine” for our student’s sake.

This entry was posted on December 1, 2016 at 8:13 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can subscribe via RSS 2.0 feed to this post's comments. You can comment below, or link to this permanent URL from your own site.