Wine and the Eucharist

A Mid-Week
Thought from the Bottom of Evan Curry‘s Glass

“Then [Jesus]
took the cup, and when he had given thanks, he gave it to them, and
they all drank from it. ‘This is my blood of the covenant,
which is poured out for many,’ he said to them. ‘Truly I
tell you, I will not drink again of the fruit of the vine
until that day when I drink it new in the kingdom of God’.”
(Mark 14v22-25 TNIV)

I’m more of a
beer lover than I am a wine lover; just for preference sake. I drink
certain beers with certain foods and in certain times of year. For
instance, I drink Oktoberfest beers during October (that’s
simple enough to explain). I don’t really drink wine so I can
in no way claim to be a wine “connoisseur.” But I know
wine lovers do the same. Certain wines go with certain foods and with
certain times of year.

Over the years, there
has been a tension inside of evangelicalism, in particular, about
drinking alcoholic beverages. However, for much of church history,
wine (alcoholic) was seen as “the fruit of the vine” to
be used during the taking of the Eucharist. Due to the “moral”
issues evangelicals had with alcohol, they have often (if not always)
refrained from using wine in the Eucharist and thus substitute grape
juice. 
(Keep reading to take the survey!!!)

It seems to me that
Jesus used wine during the Last Supper, and, as part of reminding
ourselves of his death we would follow the same pattern. But I’ve
never had wine with Communion in my evangelical churches.
Evangelicals who disagree with wine at Communion, or alcohol in
general, usually use (what I believe to be) poor arguments against
it.

1. First, the wine
   was more like grape juice. OK…two problems. (a) Where did
   they get refrigerators to prevent fermentation? (b) Then, why are
   they warned not to get drunk on it? That’s a lot of grape
   juice.

2. Second argument,
   wine was better than the water of the day. True, and this is
   probably the same in many third-world countries today so should we
   ask them to refrain from using wine?

3. Third, we may
   have recovering alcoholics in our congregation, and we don’t
   want to tempt them to fall back into that. At church? Really?
   The fact that they are at church is already a step forward, don’t
   you think? (I’ll come back to this. Kids are also used as
   excuses to hide behind).

4. Four, my favorite
   – we don’t want to offend those against alcohol.
   Well, at least we are playing it safe with the whole Jesus died a
   bloody, gory death on the cross, and now you are eating his “body”
   and drinking his “blood.” Good thing that’s not
   offensive in any way (obviously, I’m being sarcastic). Not
   buying this one either.

I’m not trying to
engage in a pro or con alcohol debate, but I think we can get past
this when we think about how beautiful a picture, with some
creativity, Communion can paint if we use wine again.

My question is this,
What if we used certain wines for Communion for certain times of
the year? What if we followed the church calendar and chose wine
accordingly? Like I said, I’m not a “wine person”
so I’ll need your help here. I’m going to use a
“condensed version” of the Western church calendar (West,
only because most of you are from that tradition; and, if you weren’t
aware there was a church calendar, then, you’ll need
Wikipedia). So fill in the blanks in the comments below:

1. Advent:
   around Christmas season, I would use wine to celebrate
   the birth of Jesus. I would do that because _________. (Maybe
   something that people drink at the birth of children? Or at
   Christmas?)

2. Ephinany:
   for the coming of the Magi, I would use wine to express __________. (Maybe something people give others as a gift?)

3. Lent:
   during Lent, I would use wine because __________. (Maybe
   something to help remind us of the “bitterness” of our
   sins?)

4. Easter:
   during Easter season, I would use wine because ___________. (Maybe around Good Friday something deep red and heavy to remind us
   of the blood of Christ? At Easter, something celebratory, sweet, and
   light to remind us new life in the season—like flowers
   blooming—and in the resurrection?)

5. Ordinary Time:
   during the rest of the year, I would use wine to express __________. (Maybe something generic?).

I think this would be
beneficial for evangelicals on a number of levels.

(1) Kids and
alcoholics could see alcohol being used for beauty and life, instead
of revelry and something in which to drown your sorrows.
(2) We would
restore the old tradition of using wine.
(3) But ultimately,
it would help us give reason for why we chose a certain wine to
present a certain truth. We could explain it to our congregations why
we use this certain wine in communion.
(3b) It would help us refrain
from seeing it as a “boring ritual” because we are using
some type of creativity. How ‘bout this? – We could even
have lay people say why they chose this certain wine this week
to express such and such a truth.

I’m interested in
what people have to say about this. So, please leave comments and
fill in the blanks above. Also, I’m not sure where we are all
on this. Would everyone get offended? Would you be offended?
Would you appreciate this change and creativity? Is this even
possible? If so, please take a few moments to fill a quick
survey about this topic.