In our past worship services at Grace Lutheran Church, we’ve offered wine at communion in addition to the grape juice we typically offer at Creekside. I wanted to briefly explain why as we prepare to meet at Grace Lutheran again this Sunday.

Let me start on a personal note. I grew up in the Southern Baptist church which has a denominational proscription against all alcohol. I never partook of wine in communion (I still don't really like wine). There are many Bible-believing faithful Christians that view alcohol as inherently sinful or unnecessary. If that’s you, I deeply respect your conscience and conviction. That’s why I need to explain why we will offer wine at communion when we can (Castro Valley schools have a policy forbidding alcohol on the premises). I’ll first address the matter biblically, historically, and then pastorally from a view of conscience.

The main reason we will serve wine is a matter of simple obedience to Christ's command. The supper Jesus instituted involved unleavened bread and drinking wine. Jesus refers to the cup as the “fruit of the vine” (Matt 26:29, Mark 14:25, Luke 22:18). Regarding this term, a biblical scholar explains that “the Jews from time immemorial have used this phrase to designate the wine partaken of on sacred occasions, as at the Passover and on the evening of the Sabbath… The Christian Fathers, as well as the Jewish rabbis, have understood 'the fruit of the vine' to mean wine in the proper sense.” (Philip Schaff, ed. A Religious Encyclopedia, 1887, pgs. 2537-2538). Jesus then calls all his disciples to “drink of it, all of you” (Matt 26:27) as does Paul’s institution of the Lord’s Supper: “Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me” (1 Cor. 11:25). Jesus calls us to total and complete obedience as disciples and followers of him (“observe all that I have commanded you” Matt. 28:20). Jesus drank wine and calls us to drink that same cup in the Lord’s Supper.

When we zoom out to the rest of the Bible, it was natural for Jesus to use wine. Presbyterian pastor Ken Golden insightfully points out that in the Bible, wine was considered both a common blessing and a covenantal blessing ("Drinks and Concessions"). As a common blessing, wine is a gift from God to man that is for his joy (Psalm 104:15), his health (1 Tim 5:23), and for celebrations. That's why Jesus provides the wine at a wedding for his first miracle (John 2). But more importantly for the Lord's Supper, wine was used by God as a means of representing and sealing his covenants with Israel. Wine was offered as a drink offering to the Lord (Exod. 28:40; Lev. 23:13; Num. 15:5). And overflowing vats of wine were one of the preeminent symbols of God's blessing contingent upon Israel's obedience to the covenant (Deut. 7:12-14; Jer. 31:11-12). The prophets envision the restoration of all things to be marked by an abundance of wine: "the mountains shall drip sweet wine, and all the hills shall flow with it" (Amos 9:13-15; cf. Joel 3:18). Biblically, wine is a gift from God to man that is for his joy (Psalm 104:15) and symbolizes God's covenantal grace.

Like all gifts of creation, it must be stewarded well. Drunkenness is a state of foolishness and a sin. Drunkenness reveals a lack of control and an indulgence that is not proper of God's redeemed people. Proverbs 23:29-35 insightfully lays out the appeal and danger of alcoholism. Proverbs 20:1 calls alcohol a "mocker" and a "brawler" and can easily lead you astray if you're not wise. Paul similarly calls Christians to be wise and "do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery, but be filled with the Spirit" (Eph. 5:16-18). Alcohol has its dangers, yes. But to forbid it is to go beyond Scripture. In fact, Paul warns against such a teaching in 1 Timothy 4:1-5: For everything created by God is good, and nothing is to be rejected if is received with thanksgiving. There's an analogy to sexual union. Sex, like alcohol, has tremendous power to lead us astray. But within God's design and boundaries, it is a good and beautiful gift that points to greater spiritual realities (Eph. 5:22-33).

I'll keep my historical observations brief. The replacement of wine with grape juice is an American novelty and an innovation from the centuries and centuries of Christian practice at the Lord's table. After the Civil War, a temperance movement gained a lot of momentum and the support of many Christian pastors who thought total abstention from alcohol to be necessary. A teetotaling Methodist Thomas Welch was determined to replace communion wine, which he believed to be the "cup of devils" rather than the cup of our Lord. Remember, this was before the time of electric refrigeration. He applied the pasteurization process to grape juice to prevent fermentation into wine. Welch's grape juice would take off as many churches, especially Methodists, Baptists, and liberal Christians, replaced wine with juice. The temperance movement culminated in a federal ban on alcohol in the passing of the eighteenth amendment to the American Constitution which started Prohibition. After the 21st Amendment reversed the eighteenth and ended Prohibition, conservative evangelicals, especially those of the fundamentalist and Baptistic traditions, maintained alcoholic abstention as a hallmark of Christian living. Many of you, like me, came from churches in those traditions.

So what do we do? Paul in Romans 14 lays down some relevant principles. The presenting issue seems to be differing convictions in the church about eating meat. The issue was not merely about the validity of vegetarianism but probably had deeper theological stakes since much available meat came from animals who had been sacrificed to idols. The principles Paul lays out are as follows: (1) Don't quarrel over matters of relative indifference, and food and drink qualify; (2) You are fully entitled to your own opinion. In fact, follow your conscience as long as it does not violate God's Word; (3) Don't judge your brother or sister who disagrees with you. God is the judge; and (4) Rather, love your brother or sister and do not grieve their conscience. The practical application of this to communion for many churches is to provide both wine and grape juice to accommodate those who have conscienced objections to wine. In my view, this is a wise and loving solution that honors Scripture, our particular context and history, and the diversity of conscience present in our congregation.

So in conclusion: any time that we can serve both wine and grape juice, we will, both in obedience to Christ's command to drink his cup and to his command to love one another. Because that is, let me remind us, the meaning of the Lord's Supper. It is an expression of our unity in Christ. We have all been saved by Jesus and welcomed to feast at his table, where the wine will never run out. In fact, it is making us one even as we eat and drink it. The cup of blessing that we bless, is it not a participation in the blood of Christ?...Because there is one bread, we who are many are one body, for we all partake of the one bread. (1 Corinthians 10:16-17).

Pastor Jesse