Wine or Why Not?

The question has been asked, how can drinking be a sin when Jesus turned water into wine?

Yes, Jesus turned water into wine. What do you suppose the alcohol content was of that wine? Wine can have a very low proof, you know. The governor of the feast remarked that it was good wine, and, if he was anything like most of the people I know that consume alcohol, that means it had a high alcoholic content. He may have honestly simply meant that it tasted good, though. Of course, this is God manifest in the flesh we are talking about. He could very easily have made wine that tasted strong, but really wasn’t. Keep in mind also, a couple of cultural things: One, most of their water was just plain dirty. Granted, most of the population of Israel had probably developed immunity to whatever bacteria were prevalent in the river Jordan, but, still. Some have suggested that wine really meant grape juice. I don’t think so, because grape juice needs to be refrigerated. Even modern day grape juice, with all the preservatives they add to it, still needs to be kept cold to keep from spoiling. Of course, the citizens of Ancient Israel would not have understood the idea of lukewarm grape juice attracting insects, which would then leave bacteria in the juice, which, in turn, would make people sick. They also would not have understood that allowing the grape juice to ferment would create an alcohol content that would kill the germs. They would have understood, though, that drinking grape juice often made people sick, while drinking wine almost never did.

The Bible also says that wine is a mocker (Proverbs 20:1): Let’s face it, whether you subscribe to the theory that alcohol causes you to do strange things, or whether it just lowers one’s inhibitions so that people can do what they really wanted to do all along anyway, or maybe just causes enough cranial impairment that things that would normally be obvious bad ideas suddenly seem like flashes of brilliance; let’s face it, people act different when they are drunk. I don’t know anybody that acts better when they are drunk, either. Part of the problem is that almost anybody can take a drink, and the most serious effect that it has is that drink will convince him or her that a second drink will not seriously impair them, either. Of course, two drinks can easily convince one that a third drink is a good idea…

On the other hand, Paul told Timothy to take a little wine, for his stomach's sake (1 Timothy 5:23). In the days before Tums, Rolaids, and Pepto-Bismol, wine was one of a very few things known to settle a stomach. I personally don’t recommend the “medicinal use” of alcohol, because I know that it is more often misused or abused than actually used for medicinal purposes. Besides, in modern days, there really isn’t much excuse. There are a number of things that are considerably more effective.

I think that the best response really comes from Romans 14:21: “It is good neither to eat flesh, nor to drink wine, nor any thing whereby thy brother stumbleth, or is offended, or is made weak.” For me to tip back a little wine might not (probably would not) send me to Hell, but if you see me imbibing and you are not a Christian, or you are young in the faith--and you have no way of knowing how much I have consumed--my few sips of wine could result in you (or someone like you) to sin grievously. Even if you understand and appreciate that I have had very little, there are many people that believe that if a little is good, then more is better. I will not be a party to that. I am a long-time teetotaler.

The Hand of God

Some time ago I posted about the mysteries in Scripture—things that are written about but never completely explained. I can only assume that those things are not really important. One of the things I mentioned was, “What did Jesus write on the ground?” In the story of the adulterous woman, the Pharisees brought a woman, “taken in the very act,” to Jesus, to ask His judgment. He stooped down and wrote on the ground, as though He heard them not. What did He write? The Scriptures do not record that. I offered several theories before, but over the weekend I heard something that I think is a piece of the puzzle and had never even occurred to me before. In Exodus, when God gave Moses the Law, God didn’t just tell Moses what to write, God wrote the Law by His own hand. Granted, Moses broke those tablets, and so, the second time, Moses wrote the Law out by his hand, but, originally, the Law was written out by God’s hand.

Now we know that the coming of Christ meant a New Covenant with man. Not so much a rewriting of the Law, but a fulfillment of the Law. Many things changed as a result of the Christ’s sacrifice. Dietary restrictions, proscribed punishments for sins committed, etc.

This is the only recorded time that Jesus wrote anything, in His entire ministry. He didn’t write down the names of His disciples, He didn’t write down instructions, He didn’t write down His sermon notes. If it were not for this one incident, I’m sure that there would be people that would accuse Him of being illiterate. The Scripture clearly says, though, that He wrote on the ground. He didn’t draw on the ground, or doodle on the ground. He wrote on the ground. The significance of this is that, just as the hand of God wrote out the Law, the hand of God (Jesus being Emmanuel, or God with us) wrote out a new Law, part of the New Covenant. The Pharisees couldn’t understand this (possibly never even stopped to read what Jesus wrote), and were not willing to accept His authority to write new Laws even if they did, but, in retrospect, we can see that Jesus did have the power and authority to do exactly that. So what did He write? I still don’t know, but I am now fairly certain that it had to do with the fact that this woman was brought before Him to face judgment according to the Law, and He was the One who wrote the Law. I feel confident that He didn’t repeal the law against adultery, but He may have mandated a lesser sentence, particularly for one with a penitent heart, and a stiffer sentence for those that would use an adulterous woman in a show of hypocrisy…

The Stones Lyrics

Christmas Time

It’s that time of the year again. Christmas: the celebration of the birth of Christ. Of course, there are several other holidays that come about this time of year, so a lot of retailers instruct their clerks and cashiers to say, “Happy Holidays,” rather than “Merry Christmas,” in an attempt to avoid offending any non-Christian customers. Of course, some Christians then get offended.

Really, we shouldn’t get offended. This hardly qualifies as persecution, after all. This is a retailer trying not to lose customers. One thing that I have found, is that when a retail clerk says, “Happy Holidays” to me, and I respond, “Merry Christmas,” they almost always return my sentiment. And if somebody wants to wish me a Happy Kwanzaa, what of it? If I know that you celebrate Kwanzaa, I have no heartache wishing you a Happy Kwanzaa…

Sometimes we hear about some store or another that won’t allow bell-ringers outside their store. Again, this is an attempt not to offend. Personally, I think it’s a little silly: If you can’t walk past a bell-ringer without either dropping in a few coins or feeling guilty the rest of the day, then maybe you need some help—assertiveness training or something. Bottom line, if you don’t want to give any cash to the Salvation Army, that’s your business. I would hope that, if you call yourself a Christian, that you support some form of charity, but if the Salvation Army is not what you choose to support, that’s your business.

To be honest, Christmas is kind of a funny holiday anyway. We celebrate Jesus birthday, and we give each other presents. A lot of people celebrate Christmas without ever really considering whose birthday it is. Don’t misunderstand me, I don’t have a problem with gift giving at Christmas, I think Jesus wants us to be generous towards each other, but let’s not forget the Who in the equation.

I’ve heard a lot of talk about the “War on Christmas,” but, to be honest, most of the evidence of such a war seems fairly thin. People being hesitant about saying Merry Christmas, or not wanting bell-ringers at their door, isn’t exactly earth shaking. It does, however, give those of us who are people of Faith, an opportunity to shine, just by saying, “Merry Christmas,” and meaning it.

Testing God

In James 4:2-3 we are told that we have not because we ask not, and when we do, we ask amiss. In James chapter 1, James tells us that when we ask, we need to ask in faith believing. I think a lot of us have trouble with the part about asking in faith believing. For most of us, it isn’t even a question of can God do it, it’s more, will God do this for me? Each of us knows, at least on some level, that we don’t really deserve God’s grace. We are reminded frequently about how many times we have failed God; why would He even listen to someone like me?

King David once referred to himself as a worm. It’s easy for us to feel unworthy of God’s love, and yet, God says, “Come, let us reason together…” (Isaiah 1:18) Of course, John 3:16 tells us that God loved us enough to sacrifice His only begotten Son for us. We all know that verse, and, yet, we always seem to think that He did that for everybody else. He didn’t. He did it for everybody. You have as much right to claim that promise as anybody else. Remember the man who asked Jesus to heal his son: Jesus asked him if he believed, and his answer was, “Lord, I believe; help thou mine unbelief.”

Somebody told me yesterday that asking God for something was like testing God, and you shouldn’t do that. Let me refer you back to James again, where he said, you have not because you ask not. Don’t misunderstand me: God is not a Genie in a bottle that you can go to when you need something, or just want something. There has to be some relationship there first. It doesn’t necessarily have to be a strong, long lasting relationship, at least, not to ask God to teach you how to be closer to Him. You can ask that one even if you barely have an inkling of who God is.

Seriously, though, look through the Gospels: How many people got healed without asking Jesus? I can’t think of one. There were even two blind men that cried out to Jesus when everybody else told them to leave Jesus alone. Don’t you know that He’s busy? Don’t you know that He has more important things to do than to worry about your eyes? You’ve been blind a long time, you’re used to it now; leave Him alone. These blind men were smart enough to know that if they wanted to be healed, they were never going to get a better chance. Sometimes we think our own problems are too trivial for God, and so we don’t ask. Sometimes we let other people tell us that our problems are too trivial for God. You can’t bother God with that! Don’t you understand who God is? I understand that God is someone who cares about each individual person that He created. He wants the best for each one of us. The reason we don’t have the best is because too many of us try to do things our own way, instead of praying through what we want with God, and finding out what He wants us to have.

When Jesus prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane, He asked the Father would “take this cup from me,” in other words, find some other way to impart salvation other than through the crucifixion, but He also said, “nevertheless, Thy will be done.” We, too, must be prepared to accept that God may not want us to have what we want to have. What seems the best in our eyes may not really be the best at all. God understands that. I mentioned earlier that David called himself a worm, but when Nathan confronted David about the matter of Bathsheba, God spoke through Nathan and reminded David of all the things that He had given him, and told him that He would have given him more if those things had been enough. Think about that for a minute: David wasn’t in trouble so much for wanting, but for not asking. What do we settle for, when God has so much more for us?

Dealing with Losses

I mentioned last week that my cat died. I was talking to a relative about that this past week, and we got reminiscing about his son, who died before the age of thirty. I’m pretty sure that he didn’t know that today was world AIDS day. I think we were just talking about losses that we had felt. This was someone that I had known practically my whole life.

When I found out that he had AIDS, I was somewhat conflicted. I was a new Christian, and of course I had heard generalities about how homosexuality is an abomination, and about how AIDS is God’s punishment for sin. Still, this is a relative; someone close to me. I didn’t know how to react; I had no idea how I was supposed to react. You may have heard the expression, “Love the sinner, but hate the sin.” I wasn’t sure how contagious AIDS really was; I don’t think anyone truly did at the time, but I felt an assurance from God that I could spend time with this person much as I had before, and I wouldn’t get sick. I tried to share the love of God with him, and talk to him about forgiveness, but he heard too much about how his disease was retribution for his sins.

To be honest, I think the idea that God created AIDS specifically to deal with evil doers is absurd. If God wanted to kill off sinners, He spoke the world into existence; He could just as easily speak those people out of existence. Granted, He has used disease to get people’s attention before, but did you ever notice that the ten plagues in Egypt only affected the Egyptians, not the Israelites? If God was going to use a disease to wipe out one or two groups of sinners, He could create a virus that would be extremely selective.

I’m afraid that when it comes to cases like this, too many of us are afraid of what might happen if they associate with “those people.” Jesus took a lot of heat from the Pharisees for the type of people He hung out with, but He understood that God so loved the world, in other words, God loves everybody. God doesn’t love one group of people because they are obedient, and then hate some other group of people because they have committed some unpardonable sin. We all sin. Sometimes the worst sin is thinking that you are better than somebody else simply because you’ve managed to avoid the sin that ensnared them.

Sometimes we have to undo the damage done by those that have come before us. The Bible says that the Word of God is a two-edged sword; it’s capable of doing a lot of damage, but it can also be used, in the hands of one who is skilled in its use, as a scalpel. The really unfortunate thing is when a situation arises when it should be used delicately, and the person using it starts swinging it like a machete. That’s hard to clean up.

I guess the bottom line is, AIDS victims are exactly that: victims. We have no business judging how they got the disease (if they contracted through sinful actions, that it between them and God). We can minister to them, as long as we take reasonable precautions for not spreading the disease. To be honest, it sort of seems like AIDS today is a lot like leprosy in Biblical times. Nobody wanted to associate with lepers then, because they weren’t ‘clean,’ but Jesus healed a lot of them. God loved them then, and He loves people with socially awkward diseases now.