Wine is a mocker and beer a brawler; whoever is led astray by them is not wise. – Proverbs 20:1

Today’s Scripture Reading (April 13, 2013): Proverbs 20

A number of years ago I was given the task of picking up an African who was about to start a Canadian speaking tour. He arrived at the local airport in all of his native garb, and it was about a forty-five minute drive from the airport to the place where he would be staying. And to complicate the task, I am extremely shy and I knew that for the better part of an hour I was going to have to converse someone who might as well be an alien from another planet.

He arrived and the conversation started and I had long ago learned in these situations that the easiest way keep the conversation going was to get the person to start talking about himself. Unfortunately, I think he went to the same school of conversational thought that I did, and so as intent as I was on having him talk about his background, he seemed equally intent about me discussing mine. At the time I had just returned from denominational meeting in Indianapolis, and so the conversation quickly turned to that content – and he asked this question, what was the biggest argument about at the denominational meetings. We talked about a couple of the conflict areas and then finally the conversation turned to the consumption of alcoholic beverages. That issue had been a huge area of unrest, and the two dominate forces on the issue were geographical – North America argued for non-consumption while Europe argued for moderate consumption of alcoholic beverages.

But my new friend was from Africa – and I had no idea where Africa stood on the issue. So I cautiously began to lay out both sides of the argument to the best of my ability – and admittedly I was a little apologetic in laying out the North American view, which as I understand it is to limit the consumption of alcohol not necessarily because there is something evil about alcohol, but rather because in our society alcohol has caused, and continues to cause, and inordinate amount of death and damage. And my suspicion was that because the consumption in Europe starts earlier in life, the damage potential may not be as great there as it is on this side of the pond. But when I started to apologize for the North American stance, by new friend quickly stopped the apology. As far as he was concerned, alcohol in all of its forms was evil – everywhere.

It has been noted that this Proverb places an absolute ban on the consumption of alcoholic beverages. While some have tried to say that this passage is about moderation, there is precious little here to lead us to that conclusion. And the predominate idea is that alcohol deceives us – it promises more than it can deliver and leaves us worse off than when we started. Of course, deception about our own life (or escaping our own life) is precisely why some of us drink in the first place. But, whether or not we decide that consumption of alcoholic beverages is permissible (and I very strongly believe that this is a personal choice issue), we need to be well aware of the effects that alcohol has on us – and our motives for drinking in the first place. For me, my stand continues to be that I do not drink not because I am morally opposed to alcohol, but rather because I know that there are people around me that cannot drink, and I want to support them to the best of my ability. And if that means removing alcohol from my life, I am okay with that.         

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Proverbs 21

Note: The VantagePoint Community Church Message "I Thirst" from the Series "Blood, Sweat and Tears: Death on a Friday Afternoon" is now available on the VantagePoint Website - you can find it here.