Bread and Wine

This is an excerpt from a sermon preached on Psalm 104. Here’s what I said about this issue five years ago:

Psalm 104:14-15 He makes grass grow for the cattle, and plants for man to cultivate– bringing forth food from the earth: wine that gladdens the heart of man, oil to make his face shine, and bread that sustains his heart.

Two things are mentioned specifically in verse 15 that God provides for man. Wine which gladdens man’s heart, and bread which sustains man’s heart. Bread and wine. Sustenance and gladness. Life and Joy. I don’t want to spend too much time on this point, but I feel I must linger for a while and make you grapple with this neglected truth. God provides wine for man to gladden his heart. Now of course this gift of God, like all gifts of God, can be abused. And in our culture it is horribly abused and so it is right that the church preach loud and long against the sin of drunkenness. But—the teetotaler who thinks that wine is evil, that wine is the devil’s drink, has a flawed theology of creation and providence. And no matter how noble the moral crusade against drunkenness may be, we must not sacrifice truth at its altar.

John Piper, although I know that he himself never takes a drink, nevertheless wrote this, “Whenever happy confidence in the sovereign power of God for our own lives and the lives of others grows weak, legalism creeps in. We inevitably try to compensate for loss of dynamic faith by increased moral resolve and the addition of man-made regulations….[But] It seems beyond doubt that God hates legalism as much as He hates alcoholism. And I believe it is a literal understatement that legalism has brought more people to eternal ruin than alcohol has, though the devastations of alcohol are huge.”

And when we read of God providing bread and wine in Ps 104:15, we can’t help but think of the Lord’s Supper. Why did Jesus serve wine at the Last Supper? Was it merely because the color of wine would bring to mind his blood? Perhaps. But could it also be that Jesus wanted to say to us not only “I am your bread, I am your sustenance, I am your life” but also “I am your wine, I am your gladness, I am your joy?” The church always used wine in communion until the temperance movement of the 19th century. Maybe by following their lead we’ve actually lost something in the symbolism of the Lord’s Supper? I’ll just sow that thought in your minds for now and let it germinate and see what happens. I feel strongly enough about it to teach it to you, but not strongly enough about it to force it upon you in a communion service, until my suggestion commends itself to your conscience.

The Hammer of God

I just finished this novel on Monday that I had received through interlibrary loan. It was so good, that I have now ordered my own copy and I plan on reading it to the family. It’s a story that takes place in Sweden of three Lutheran pastorates spanning 200 years. Each pastor has his own awakening as the law hammers on his heart and drives him to the gospel. If you’re curious why your pastor is getting all Lutheran, but you’re not curious enough to read a book like Walther’s Law and Gospel, then this is the book for you. Click to order. You’ll love it.

Real Help for Hard-Boiled Sinners

Luther wrote a letter to friend Spalatin who had fallen into a great depression over his sin.

“Do not let your sin stick in your mind, but get rid of it. Quit your despondency, which is a far greater sin….It must surely be that heretofore you have been only a trifling sinner, conscious only of paltry and insignificant faults and frailties….Therefore my faithful request and admonition is that you join our company and associate with us, who are real, great, and hard-boiled sinners. You must by no means make Christ to seem paltry and trifling to us, as though He could be our Helper only when we want to be rid from imaginary, nominal, and childish sins. No, no! That would not be good for us. He must rather be a Savior and Redeemer from real, great, grievous, and damnable transgressions and iniquities, yea, from the very greatest and most shocking sins….you want to be a painted sinner and, accordingly, expect to have in Christ a painted Savior. You will have to get used to the belief that Christ is a real Savior and you a real sinner.”

And on another occasion Luther wrote, “Beware of your ceaseless striving after a righteousness so great that you no longer appear as a sinner in your own eyes and do not want to be a sinner. For Christ dwells only in sinners.”