Search for the Dip (When Wine Runs Out)
John 2:1-12
THEY HAVE NO WINE
Today’s story takes us to a wedding in Cana. Everything seemed to be going well — laughter, dancing, celebration — until someone realized that the wine had run out. The mother says to Jesus, “They have no wine.”
We can recall moments, circumstances, or seasons in our own lives when the wine ran out — a low point, a dip.
After high school graduation, I left my hometown and moved to Seoul, living on my own through my first year of university. My grades were excellent. Wherever I went, I drew attention. With my parents’ support, there was nothing I couldn’t do; every activity and every exploration was within reach. And yet, my soul felt empty. I mentioned to a senior, “I feel a deep void inside.” I still remember it vividly. One day, I was lying on the living room floor, holding a long-corded telephone in my hand, crying as I said, “Everyone keeps talking about spirituality, spirituality — but where do I meet such people? I need spirituality.”
That was my first “Wine Runs Out” moment - in my twenties. I suppose all of my journey up to this point, sharing my reflection with you on this Sunday morning, might have started from that Dip moment.
And what about you — can you remember a time in your life when the wine ran out?
It may come when the resources, approaches, or strategies you have long relied on no longer work, or when they fail to remain sustainable or produce meaningful impact, happiness, or outcomes.
A spiritual crisis, burnout, a social crisis, a climate crisis, an increasingly polarized world, or international conflicts that reach an impasse hard to overcome can all be examples of the wine running out.
The times and spaces of the wine running out can manifest in many forms and durations throughout our lives. And as with the mother of Jesus at Cana, these moments call for our response — our participation, our interaction, our engagement — in one form or another.
WATER
In traditional Christian commentaries, the state of the wine running out has often been understood as representing Judaism. According to this interpretation, when Jesus commanded, “Fill the jars with water,” the use of water was seen as merely instrumental. It was as if Jesus, looking around and noticing that “there were six stone water jars for the Jewish rites of purification” decided to use them for what would come next. Then Jesus made the best wine in the world — simply because that was Jesus — superseding the old wine of Judaism. Since it was Jesus who acted, the water turned into wine far superior to the first.
Many interpretations throughout history have taken this as a symbolic statement that Christianity surpasses Judaism, often with an anti-Jewish tone. I believe BVU’s practice has long moved toward overcoming that tone found in earlier interpretations. Yet what I would like to propose in this sermon is that the water in this story is not merely a medium or instrument, but a gift itself — one that offers deeper meaning for how we are called to act when the world, our society, or we ourselves go through times of the wine running out.
Even yesterday, here at BVU, we watched the film Water is Love and reflected together. I want to ask again about the meaning of water — the water that filled the six stone jars, the water poured by the servants (allegorically speaking, the community’s provision — the community of the servants, the dominated, provided it). Water sustains and nourishes all living things. It is more than a resource; it is the place of our birth, the substance that makes up seventy percent of our bodies and the earth, the element that renews, cleanses, heals, and transforms. It is living power, already a miracle in motion. Water flows, soaks into the ground, rises into the air, forms clouds, falls again as rain, and returns to us, creating a continuous re-creation of our lives and of our planet as one WILD connected living organism.
WILD SPACE
If there is a space between the old wine and the new wine, it is the wild space — the space of water itself, the space of the six stone jars and their gifts.
I see the water here, provided by the community, as something that can allegorically point to the concept or meaning of “wild space.” I first learned this concept from Sallie McFague in my very first class at VST, Constructive Theology.
Wild space means the part of each of us that doesn’t quite fit into our conventional worlds, and between the self and the world, there is a wild space. That is what constructs our authenticity, difference, and inner true celebrations — the capacity to think and feel not only for ourselves but for the world and its meaningful changes and transformation. It is a useful, God-given wild space. In fact, Sallie McFague said, God is a Wild God, and God’s dream is a Wild Dream.
Wild space is a liminal space. It is the in-between — the threshold stage in a rite of passage. Imagine a youth on a spiritual quest: they stand in the open wilderness — in the mountain, in the river — where the self and the world meet. Completely unaccustomed, the wild self within the youth is alive, and that is the source of a new identity.
In this space, ordinary rules, hierarchies, and social norms are suspended, and participants exist in a kind of wild openness. When the wild spaces within each of us meet, we create a communitas — a deep sense of equality and connection among people, emerging in this anti-normative, transformative space.
It is a risky yet holy space outside social classification, where creativity and renewal can happen. Here, God and creation are interconnected, embodied, and wild,
resisting domination, control, and patriarchy.
Jesus had a lot of wild space. We have wild space — individually and as a community — and we must go deep and wide to discover and embody that wild space.
That is the space of the six stone jars of water — the ones the community provided, the ones Jesus placed his hands on, for the new wine.
SPIRITUAL ENTREPRENEURSHIP
The second concept I would like to share with you is “spiritual entrepreneurship.” It comes originally from the idea of “social entrepreneurship.” According to Dr. Teresa Chahine, “Social entrepreneurship is the process by which effective, innovative, and sustainable solutions are pioneered to meet social and environmental challenges.” She also says, “If you envision a world that functions differently from what you see today, there is a social entrepreneur in you.”
William Blake once said, “In the universe, there are things that are known and things that are unknown, and in between there are doors.” If I adapt this to today’s reflection on wild space, I would say, “In Jesus’ We-racle world, there are things that are known (old wine), things that are unknown (new wine), and in between, there is the living water — the wild space of spiritual entrepreneurial leadership — abundant and provided by those most dominated in the hierarchy of the feast.”
Social entrepreneurship, as a character of leadership, is what we too must embody to guide both the world and ourselves through times of spiritual and societal — even global or planetary — Wine Running Out.
Can we substitute “social” with “spiritual”? If we can, Sarah Drummond describes the spiritual entrepreneurship cycle like this: Look Within. Reach Out. Obsess. Communicate. Radically Revisit.
It begins when we look within — to discern and listen deeply.
Then we reach out — building relationships and learning the needs around us and within us, for the sake of transformation.
We keep going — sometimes even obsessing — and then communicating what we’ve discovered.
And finally, we radically revisit — regularly returning to the wild spaces of today —
our own and those of others —
to re-examine our assumptions and make room for the gift of the unknown.
It is the passion that grows from what we have faith in.
For us, especially from today’s reading,
it is our passion and faith in Wild God’s Wild Dream of superabundance —
not abundance for a few, but for all people;
and not abundance only for humans,
but superabundance for all creation,
in our connected, flourishing ecosystems.
THE DIP
The Dip begins with the image of a downward curve —
a low point, a season of struggle, of ambiguity and uncertainty,
or a moment that feels like decline.
You can think of the Dip as the long stretch between starting and mastery —
the space between excitement and excellence.
When we start something new — a skill, a job — it’s fun at first.
But sooner or later, we all face the stage of the Dip.
Not everyone plays the piano beautifully.
Not everyone excels at tennis, runs an 8K, or finishes a marathon.
Talent matters, yes — but the real reason mastery is rare and valuable
is that so many give up in the middle.
When we do something,
we do it to become the best version of ourselves
and to strive toward being the best for the world —
and to do that, if it is truly worth pursuing,
we need to go through the Dip.
The space of the Dip is like a wild space — and it is wild, just as the word suggests.
It’s like that moment when the wine runs out —
the point that calls for transformation, that brings pain,
and feels like we are endlessly repeating the cycle of growth:
discernment, research, obsession, action, and rededication.
It’s not easy.
But for us — those who walk through this wild space in times of Wine Running Out —
the Dip - the adversity - is the very reason we are here.That’s where the gifts are.
The Dip becomes our ally, our teacher, our best friend.
For us, to live in the Dip is to follow Jesus —
because the Dip never leaves us the same.
So, let’s take a moment to think:
in our lives, in our ministry, and in our world —
what is being revealed to us as the Dip right now?
Search the Dip. Your downward. The world’s downward.
Once you reach it — and you know it is the Dip —
you struggle, yes, lots of complexities and messiness, yes, but it is worth touching the quality of the wild space there.
It’s like jumping into a June River:
freezing, but freeing us up to renewed energy and spirit.
As you go through your Dip, our world’s Dip— lean to it. Taste it. Drink it. Renew it.
The impact and the outcome on the other side of the Dip
are about seeking the best for yourself
and the best in the world — whatever we have pursued.
Like the best wine Jesus revealed to the chief steward at the wedding in Cana,
he did not simply provide the best wine because he was Jesus.
But because he moved away from the cul-de-sac of the old wine
and touched the living water — the wild space of Wild God’s Dream —
which he sought with sole focus,
being one with Wild God’s Wild Dream of superabundance.
He worked with those most dominated
to bring abundance that reached deep to the lost and the least.
The system will try to stop you —
because wild space is, very often, a risky yet holy disruption to the system.
But you know Jesus’ story.
For the Dip, he quit everything else.
In the Dip, he never quit.
If I were to sum up Seth Godin’s book and today’s Gospel in five words:
Don’t be afraid of quitting — the old wine.
Search for your Wild Space, and the world’s wild Dip, for the best wine —
like Jesus would do.
QUESTIONS TO PONDER
- What are your Wine Running Out moments?
- What is your Wild Space like?
(Wild Space means the part of each of us that doesn’t quite fit into our conventional worlds. Between the self and the world, there is a wild space.)
- What kind of Dip moments are you in today?
(It is a low point that calls for transformation and perseverance — because the reward, the best for yourself and the best in the world, is on the other side.)
- What Cul-de-Sac do you need to get off to search for the Dip?
- What “new wine” — the best for the world, Wild God’s dream of superabundance in love, justice, equity, and peace — do you want to lift up in prayer and action today?
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