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Real Life Lessons

Wine, Women and Song
by Dr. Monte E. Wilson, III

Stereotypes are like vampires. You can't kill them unless you drive a stake through the heart. Take for example, the Puritans. These people always wore black, were dour sourpusses and defined "sin" as anything that made the individual happy. Correct? Not at all. Read their journals. These people wore bright clothing, enjoyed life and loved their port. What surprises me, is not that unbelievers have this misconception of the Puritans, but that so many people today have adopted this false notion and made it their standard of morality.

Jesus said that the enemy comes to rob, to steal and to kill. Jesus, on the other hand, said that he came to give us abundant life. (John 10:10) Yet, how many Christians live and teach just the opposite? Everything about them declares, "Jesus came to rob us of life, to steal our joy and to kill our dreams."

What was the first miracle that Jesus performed? It was at the wedding party in Cana. (John 2) He turned water into wine. And not just any wine but the best wine of the day. After all, can you imagine Jesus giving anything but His best? And what amazes me in the story is that the miracle was covert. He didn't stand and call for everyone's attention-"And now for my first act!" It was a quiet deed performed only for the enjoyment of the wedding guests.

Given modern misconceptions of Jesus, I believe His first miracle was the act of going to a party. The world is dying in darkness and despair. And here is Jesus attending a party. He didn't pass out Ten Commandment tracts. He didn't make people uncomfortable because they were enjoying themselves. No, he added to the over-all mirth and merriment of the feast by secretly giving them the best of wines.

Isn't wine amazing? It is such an incredible gift. What astounds me about wine, as well as so many of God's other gifts, is that they are unnecessary.For example, there is no pragmatic reason for having more than a few stars in the sky. But that is the whole point of so many of His gifts. There is no utilitarian purpose for His creating so many different kinds of roses. Their beauty is simply a gift that reflects a portion of His beauty and adds to the joy of life-that is, if we take the time to enjoy such gifts.

David said that wine was given to make the heart merry. (Psalms) And he wasn't talking about grape juice! Yet, how many evangelicals are convinced that wine is a gift from the devil? Of course, you won't find this sentiment in church history-not until the mid to late 1800's. Why would people condemn a gift from God as evil? After centuries of the church serving wine in the Lord's Supper, why would Christians now decide that it is evil and always has been evil? Of course this is when Welch's grape juice also began.

I wonder if this new teetotaler attitude originated from a conspiracy to create a market niche. "What? You can't serve wine in communion any more? Well, you are in luck. Introducing new Welch's Grape Juice! " Seriously, it probably was because there were some who were abusing the gift. So why not throw out food? People abuse themselves with food, don't they? Sugar and cholesterol kill people everyday. I know; let's declare from this day forward that both are of the devil. Ludicrous isn't it?

I don't think it is a good idea to establish rules for healthy living that God hasn't already given to us. After all, wouldn't such rules imply that God was not holy enough? "Well if he would have seen the trouble that wine was going to cause then He would have made it a sin." Well, He saw the trouble that sex was going to cause and He didn't outlaw that did He?

Every time you are tempted to think that God doesn't wish for us to enjoy life or find pleasure in all of His many gifts to us, think about sex. What in the world was He thinking when He made sexual relations so…so…fine? When we consider that it was He who created us with both the desire and the capacity for such pleasure we should be inoculated against the error of those who assert that the body is evil and that God wishes for the normal Christian's life to be defined by suffering.

I wonder how these people would have acted in the Garde n of Eden.

"Okay. We can't eat the fruit of that tree, so let's make it a law that you can't touch the tree."

"No, no, no. Still too dangerous," yells someone else. "Let's erect a fence around the tree."

"But" interjects a concerned parent, "what if a child should be playing and their ball bounce over that fence and they accidentally touch the forbidden tree?"

"I know. Let's build a second fence that will protect people from going over the first fence!"

Then, of course, there would be another fence and still another until we were all fenced out of the Garden. Even those areas where we were free to move about would be denied us. Whereas God gave us complete liberty in the Garden with only the one prohibition, people driven by fear would lock us out of the garden altogether.

The problem is not wine or sex. The problem is with leaving God's parameters. Wine in moderation is fine. Sex with the person you are married to is healthy. Parties can be fun, even if you don't share your faith!

The point here is not so much about wine or sex, but about an approach to life. How often are Christians ridiculed and rejected by unbelievers, not because of righteousness, but because of legalism? I have actually seen people get up and leave a party because the host wouldn't stop playing CDs of the Beatles.

What made the situation so sad was that these people made certain everyone knew they were leaving "rather than compromising our Christian witness." If they could have only heard what the non-Christians were thinking of their vaunted "Christian witness."

"But that music is written by unbelievers!" So is much of the great literature of the last 500 years, as was many of the greatest symphonies. If God providentially chose to bless someone with a talent for creating beauty, who am I to reject the individual's creation? Certainly I would not applaud the person's beliefs or behavior, but that is another matter altogether. Truth is truth no matter how evil the person is who speaks it. Beauty is beauty no matter how wicked the person is who created it.

There was something about Jesus that made Him the life of the party. Sinners loved being around Him: not because He winked at their sin, but because the life He emanated was so much more attractive and powerful than their sin. What about our lives? Are we experiencing the abundant life promised by the Lord of Life? Are sinners drawn to our lives? Or do we live beneath our inheritance and needlessly repel non-Christians because we have erected fences where God never intended for there to be fences.