day no. 16,117: the grape juice Gospel

"A little learning is a dangerous thing ;

Drink deep, or taste not the Pierian spring :

There shallow draughts intoxicate the brain,

And drinking largely sobers us again."

- Alexander Pope, A Little Learning

Education should be like wine, not a juice box.

An education should be complex and change the way that you think. It should embody a sense of culture, refinement, and the patient pursuit of transformation. Wine is not merely hard grape juice, it is something entirely different. It is the product of a process, not mere processing. Grape juice may be sweet and produce a sugar rush of activity, but soon thereafter the crash comes. Education should make glad the heart of man, not make sad the state of his docility.

Psalm 104:14-15

He causeth the grass to grow for the cattle, and herb for the service of man: that he may bring forth food out of the earth; And wine that maketh glad the heart of man, and oil to make his face to shine, and bread which strengtheneth man's heart

Besides, wine is a better symbol of life and death and the power of the Gospel than juice. The joy of life and the pain of sorrow are better embodied by a substance like wine. Nothing complements the delight of a wedding or the grief of a funeral better than wine.

Wine is dangerous. It requires maturity to enjoy without abuse. A Christian education should also be dangerous. That's the point. It should change things. But because of this danger, the safetymarms prefer to prohibit it. They prefer an education that cannot offend or lead to the faithful activity of free men and women. They would protest that it's too dangerous and warn that whatever good can be gained by it, it should be abandoned as too risky. But too risky according to whom? By what standard do they arrive at their conclusion? The one that begins by assuming that danger and trouble are to be avoided at all costs and that juice boxes are to be preferred to wine glasses.

"The wine we use in communion should be like the gospel—and that is potent. As with anything potent, abuses are possible (e.g. “shall we sin that grace may abound?”), but the possibility of abuse should not be allowed to replace the authority of Scripture. We want in the first place to be biblical people. This means we do not want a grape juice gospel, but rather a gospel with a kick." -- Douglas Wilson, Wine in Communion