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Jesus' Dinner Table

OK, so the title of this piece may sound a bit religious, especially for a blog that started out discussing cutting holes in kegs, but stay with me. 

The season of Lent has arrived in the church calendar. For those who may not know, Lent is a 40 day long season during which Christians prepare ourselves for Jesus' crucifixion, death, and eventual resurrection. Individuals do this by "fasting" from things, like meat, sugar, and Facebook. Others abstain from beer!

Some others "add" something to their lives - like giving more to food banks, more devotional time, or the like. Many churches add extra worship services.

We're in that boat, and the theme we're using for our worship series is Jesus' Dinner Table. It's a fun idea where we get to explore more about Jesus' interactions with food and, more important, with whom Jesus ate. And while this could easily go down the pathway of Jesus' community and the craft beer and brewery community... I just did that. Like, last week.

But something else that came to mind was that at these meals Jesus shared, there was a fermented, festive beverage: wine.

Probably the most well-known story of this is the Wedding at Cana, where Jesus turned a lot of water into a lot of wine. Because of Jesus, the party could continue! Wine was a staple of celebration and fun. The Bible is pretty clear about that, not just in John 2 but elsewhere.

And not only that, wine was an important part of ritual and intimacy among friends. At Jesus' final Passover meal, often referred to as the Last Supper, Jesus took a cup of wine and shared it with his friends, remembering the work of God ages before. But not only that, Jesus reinvents for his disciples what that cup means. It's life, it's love, it's community that spans all time and all place.

And while wine was the festive drink readily available, I think of beer as a pretty festive drink, too. When there are a few friends gathered, sharing stories of glory days, talking of hopes for what could be, well, there definitely can be all those things Jesus wants for us. Friendship. Community. Festivity. Happiness.

Many have heard the quote, “Beer is proof God loves us and wants us to be happy,” which often gets attributed to Benjamin Franklin. While he didn't really say it like that, the idea is there: God provides things for us out of love, and God loves for us to be happy.

Cheers.

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