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THE SECOND SUNDAY AFTER THE EPIPHANYJanuary 18, 2026Pastor Tom SteersChrist the Saviour Lutheran Church OUR OPENING HYMN: 507 “Holy, Holy, Holy ” Lutheran Service BookCONFESSION AND ABSOLUTION Page 184-185 THE INTROIT – Psalm 66:1-5; 20; antiphon: Psalm 66:4; 92:1All the earth worships you and sings praises to you; they sing praises to your name.” It is good to give thanks to the Lord, to sing praises to your name, O Most High. Shout for joy to God, all the earth; sing the glory of his name; give to him glorious praise! Say to God, “How awesome are your deeds! So great is your power that your enemies come cringing to you. All the earth worships you and sings praises to you; they sing praises to your name.” Come and see what God has done: he is awesome in his deeds toward the children of man. Blessed be God, because he has not rejected my prayer mor removed his steadfast love from me! Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit; as it was in the beginning, is now, and will be forever. Amen. All the earth worships you and sings praises to you; they sing praises to your name. It is good to give thanks to the Lord, to sing praises to your name, O Most High. KYRIE (Lord Have Mercy) Lord have mercy upon us. Christ have mercy upon us. Lord have mercy upon us.Pastor: The Lord be with you.Congregation: And with thy Spirit. OUR COLLECT PRAYER – Almighty and everlasting God, who governs all things in heaven and on earth, mercifully hear the prayers of Your people and grant us Your peace through all our days; through Jesus Christ, Your Son; our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.OUR BIBLE READINGS Old Testament: Amos 9:11-15 Psalm 67 Epistle: Romans 12:6-16 Gospel Reading: John 2:1-11 THE APOSTLES’ CREED Page 192HYMN OF THE DAY: 408 “Come, Join in Cana’s Feast”THE SERMON –“The First of His Signs”John 2:1–11God in human flesh attends a wedding.He doesn’t demand to be served; He acts to provide.At the same time, He reveals His Divine nature and points forward to His ultimate sacrificial act for humanity and to a sacrament that serves us today.In the Gospel of John, God reveals who Jesus truly is.Not all at once.But through signs — quiet, gracious moments in which Christ allows His glory to be seen by faith.At the conclusion of today’s text, the Apostle tells us, “This, the first of his signs, Jesus did at Cana in Galilee, and manifested his glory.”Glory is the keyword.John doesn’t call this event a ‘miracle’ meant to impress.He calls it a sign — a semeion in the Greek he was writing in — something that points beyond itself to a deeper and greater reality.The water turned into wine is not the point.What the sign reveals is.It shows Jesus as the incarnate Son of God.It portrays the kind of Messiah Christ is.And it helps describe how He continues to give Himself to His Church.Jesus begins His public ministry not in the temple, or a palace, but at a feast.Here, in the joy of ordinary human life, the Son of God sits quietly among His people.By His presence, He sanctifies marriage, the union of one man and one woman.He affirms creation.And He shows that God’s glory is not opposed to joy, but fulfills it.When the wine runs out, the joy of the feast is threatened by shame.Mary mentions the problem to Jesus.She doesn’t demand a miracle.She simply entrusts the need to Him.The stone jars used for Jewish purification rites are filled with water.John is careful to provide that detail.The jars belonged to the old order, the ceremonial washing of the Law.They could cleanse the outside of the body, but not the heart.Jesus doesn’t destroy them, though.He fills them.And He transforms what they contain.Here, Christ reveals His identity.As Cyril of Alexandria observed, “He who changed water into wine reveals Himself as Creator and Redeemer, beginning already to show the mystery of salvation.”The One standing at Cana is not merely a prophet.He is the Lord of creation itself.He speaks, and the universe obeys.That’s why John tells us that this sign manifested Christ’s glory and that His disciples believed in Him.Faith is born not from spectacle, but from revelation.Martin Luther wrote that, “Faith does not rest on works or signs, but on the Word of God, which the signs serve and confirm.”The sign doesn’t replace the Word.It serves the Word made flesh, who says I am the Messiah, the true Bridegroom who has come for His bride – the Church.The abundance of wine here is no accident.It is divine generosity.Scripture repeatedly associates the coming age of salvation with overflowing wine.The prophet Amos proclaims that when the Lord restores His people, “the mountains shall drip sweet wine.”Cana is the beginning of that fulfillment.The kingdom of God is no longer a promise.It has arrived in Jesus.This is why the Church has historically recognized the sacramental character of this sign.Water becomes wine by the Word of Christ.Not by human power.Not by human understanding.But by divine promise.As Martin Chemnitz writes concerning the sacraments, “The power is not in the water alone, but in the Word which is joined to the water.”So it was at Cana.The water is ordinary.The Word of Christ is not.And the result is transformation.This points us first to Holy Baptism.There, too, water is joined to the Word.And in Baptism something entirely new is given—not wine, but new birth, forgiveness, and union with Christ.But even more clearly, Cana points us forward to the Lord’s Supper.Wine is chosen deliberately.Wine that will later be taken up by Christ and declared to be His blood, shed for the forgiveness of sins.Saint Augustine saw this connection and preached it boldly when he said, “He who made the wine at the wedding feast is the same who makes His blood from wine at the altar.”Cana is a quiet prophecy of the crucifixion.Christ’s glory will not be seen most clearly at a wedding feast, but on a cross.There, His blood will be poured out in abundance.There, our sin will be fully covered.There, joy will be secured through suffering.And yet, the joy of Cana is real.It is a foretaste.It anticipates another feast, one greater and everlasting.The miracle at Cana lifts our eyes beyond Galilee and beyond history itself.It directs us toward the vision given to Saint John in Revelation, when he hears the proclamation, “Blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb.”The wedding at Cana is a sign pointing forward to the day when Christ the Bridegroom will return in glory, and His Church, washed and clothed in His righteousness, will be presented to Him without spot or wrinkle.At Cana, the wine runs out.At the wedding supper of the Lamb, it will not.In the heavenly feast, joy is complete and eternal, and death will be no more.Earthly banquets eventually end.But the feast that Christ prepares for us won’t, because it’s grounded not in human effort, but in His finished work.The steward’s wonder that the best wine has been saved for last becomes the Church’s confession.In Christ, the crucified and risen Messiah has come.But for now, the Church lives between Cana and Revelation.Between the first sign and the final fulfillment.Week after week, we gather at the altar, where the Bridegroom is already present.There, He gives us that foretaste of the feast to come.Here, in the Church, heaven touches earth.Here, the future breaks into the present.This is Epiphany.This is Christ revealing Himself.Not as a distant God.But as the Bridegroom who draws near.The sign at Cana shapes the life of the Church today.Like the servants, the Church trusts His Word, even when it transcends human reason.Cana is Epiphany.It is Christ revealing His divine glory.It’s Jesus foreshadowing His saving work.It is our Saviour giving a glimpse of the eternal feast in Heaven.And blessed are those who have not seen, but believe.Amen.PRAYERS OF THE CHURCH SERVICE OF THE SACRAMENT Page 194 Sanctus (Holy, Holy, Holy) Page 195 The Lord’s Prayer Page 196 Agnus Dei (Lamb of God) Page 198 Post-Communion Collect (Left-hand column) OUR CLOSING HYMN: 514 “The Bridegroom Soon Will Call Us”