But then we remember:
some drink too much, or for vexing reasons. Does booze become the secret elixir
without which we cannot have fun? After a hard day do you "really need a drink"?
Can you get to sleep without a glass of wine? Think of the freight our society
piles on top of alcohol, like being hip, or a chic entertainer, or a business
mogul. Marriages and families crash and burn - and doesn't alcohol too often
fuel the explosion? Death claims too many who are too young because all of us
buy the lie that is alcohol. When will we stand up and say "Enough!" or "God
help us"?
All biblical people
drank wine, including Jesus, Mary, Moses, Abraham. Wine was normal table fare;
vineyards and the production of wine are used in some of Jesus' best stories,
and by the prophets describing our life with God (Luke 5:37, Matthew 20, Isaiah
5, John 2). Paul recommended wine for its medicinal value (1 Timothy
5:23).
And yet the Bible,
pressing not for abstention but for moderation, warns of the perils of alcohol.
"Wine is a mocker; strong drink is a brawler" (Proverbs 20:1); and how observant
is Proverbs 23:31: "You who drink will be like one who lies down in the sea; you
will see strange things, and utter perverse things."
Alcohol seems to be this
lovely gift, yet one replete with peril. Can we consecrate our drinking, or our
lack of drinking, to God in some meaningful way? Am I willing to engage in some
probing diagnosis of why I buy, drink, or serve what I do? Is some regular
practice of fasting - just to prove I am not dependent - in order?
And can't the
organization that meets in many churches, Alcoholics Anonymous, teach us much
about how to be the Church? People who are broken, who know they are lost
without each other and the power of God, meet, share, bolster, encourage, lift
up, are brutally honest... Sounds like what Church was supposed to be.