“Everyone brings out the choice wine first and then the cheaper wine after the guests have had too much to drink; but you have saved the best till now." (John 2:10)
“No one pours new wine into old wineskins…both the wine and the wineskins will be ruined.” (Mark 2:22)
“Do not join those who drink too much wine…Your eyes will see strange sights; your mind will imagine confusing things. “They hit me,” you will say, “but I’m not hurt! They beat me, but I don’t feel it! When will I wake up so I can find another drink?” (Proverbs 23:20, 35)
“Do not get drunk on wine…but be filled with the Spirit, speaking to one another with psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit. Sing and make music from your heart to the Lord, always giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.” (Ephesians 5:18-20)
Wine in quality and quantity brings different results. Being filled with the wine of the Spirit leads to praise and thanksgiving. Cheap wine, especially in excess, yields whines of dissolution and disillusion. In Scriptures, wine is a cause for drunkenness and debauchery from the days of Noah. It also symbolizes the redemptive blood of Christ in the Eucharist and of the Holy Spirit. Choose our wine wisely.
Speaking, singing, making, and giving thanks in Ephesians 18-20 are participles to the single verb imperative—be filled. They are not separate or independent acts but a cluster of praise (c.f. fruit of the Spirit as a singular noun with multiple qualities.) Praise and worship for everything in the name of Christ is not to celebrate all including evil, but to acknowledge that God is in control for all things. Equally Romans 8:28 doesn’t say “all things is good” but that in all things (even evil and suffering) God can ultimately redeem for good. Lament as we should in the light of injustice and iniquity. Don’t whine foolishly.
In a drunken state without the Spirit, our perceptions and perspectives are strange and confused—indeed often simply wrong. Intoxicated into a stupor of self-delusions and self-denials, we seek relief with the temporizing comfort of “more of the same”—when can I find another drink? Instead of becoming new wineskins that can accept the best new wine that Jesus offers, we whine and complain about God’s injustice. We may pity ourselves as victims, or just curse the darkness instead of becoming the light. Take courage. Shine brightly.
