A Theology Of Wine

"One of the great strengths of the Jewish people throughout history has been their sheer love of life. L'chaim (to life!)." - Alan Hirsch

Yesterday... Sunday... was the perfect day. We went to church on Saturday night, and literally felt like we had checked it off our list because the whole deal was deemed poor by even the most positive of Scotts (guess which one). Quite simply, it was just very boring.

But Sunday was wonderful. Sherry and I slept in a bit, and then headed off for breakfast without the kids. We dined like king and queen beach bums at a small, outside, island cafe. We had a great time talking, laughing, enjoying the morning. I tried preaching my theology of wine to Sherry. My sermon thesis poignantly stated how most normal people who enjoy life drink wine. She smiled as she finished her orange juice. I couldn't tell what she was thinking because of those darn, stylish, reflective sunglasses of hers. There was a bit of a smirk pursed curiously on her sun-blossomed lips.

We went to wake and shake the kids, and then off to a local aquarium. From there it was back to our beach hangout, two episodes of Friday Night Lights, taking our family pictures on the beach, eating pizza, and taking a night walk with Michael down the coastline. What a great Sunday. This was a real Lord's Day.

Jesus came and dove into life. The humanity of Jesus was spectacularly human, not barely alive. In fact, Jesus was often belittled for living life too much... something I hope to be accused of some day. Jesus never, as Hirsch and Frost write (The Shape Of Things To Come), conjured up holiness by negation or avoidance; defined more by what we shouldn't do than by what we should.

Jesus' version of holiness was to live all of life and hallow every moment. I'm confident he had some really great Sundays too.

That was the way of the ancient Hebrews and of their Jewish faith. Right living was heralded more than right thinking. However, the further away from a Jewish thirst for life we moved (into Rome, Greece, and the West), the further away from zestful living we moved. Thinking, propositions, and philosophy began to take precedence over actually living. After a couple thousand years promoting right thinking causes right living (orthodoxy), we've accomplished a holocaust and a church that has no statistical separation from a pagan world in areas like pornography, divorce, and greed.

The Hebrew/Jewish people were proponents of orthopraxy... right living can provide the context for us to embrace right thinking. Think about how much the Bible focuses on living, abundantly, as opposed to nailing down correct theology.

And I'm beginning to reflect on the differences... There's a popular flavor of Christianity which relies on theology, propositions and compartmentalized thinking that boxes in our living and attempts to keep secular and sacred separate. The sucking sound you hear is the life being drained as right thinking tries again and again to create right living. It's also the reason so many people... especially those who might enjoy a nice glass of wine... really don't want anything to do with a church that would actually want and teach a minimized version of life itself. Quite simply, it's just boring.

Of course those who place a fish on their bumpers to prove their faith, and listen to only music with a CCM label to prove their holiness, will cry foul here. All of this "living" can get out of hand, right? Wasn't Jesus diving into life, however, always under the moral will of God while he was constantly redeeming and redirecting the life he lived and encountered? Embracing an abundant life didn't negate scripture and God's guidelines, it energized and validated them.

And therein lies the key. Redeeming and redirecting life, not negating it. Jesus jumped into life. That's the real theology of the incarnation. He embraced life. Celebrated it. Jesus of Nazareth placed himself in the mess and hurt, and now wants to continuing living as such in and through us. Someone has called this Jesus channeling. Wow. Turn the channel, right? Sounds weird and new age-ish, but it's exactly right. We are dead, and now Jesus lives in and through us. Jesus channeling.

With a thirst and zest for life, Jesus wants to live incarnationally through us. That might include an early-morning breakfast with a spouse, laughing with your kids, watching a great TV show, eating pizza (you know Jesus would have loved a deep-dish, Chicago-style, supreme pizza), and hand-in-hand walks with sons and daughters as you help them navigate land and sea. It would as Hirsch and Frost contend, "Free us to perceive life as ministry, work as mission, and play as worship."

Heck... all of this really just proves my theology of wine. From the goodness of the earth, and the fruit of the vine, we have an aromatic, rich, compelling, and relationally connecting glass of wine. This is not something to just drink. This is life-to-be-lived in a glass. No wonder Jesus' first miracle was turning water into wine at a wedding party. I'd bet (and this one will surely give me the heretic label) he may have even danced at that shin dig.