Wine as a "Splendid Symbol"

[qos]

Unfermented grape juice is a bland and pleasant drink ... [but] it is a ghastly symbol of the life blood of Jesus Christ, especially when served in individual antiseptic, thimble-sized glasses. Wine is booze, which means it is dangerous and drunk-making. It makes the timid brave and the reserved amorous. It loosens the tongue and breaks the ice especially when served in a loving cup. It kills germs. As symbols go, it is a rather splendid one.

-- Frederick Buechner, Wishful Thinking, 1971

Comments

[blessed-harlot.livejournal.com]

I am very, very fond of an intoxicating God.

[wordweaverlynn.livejournal.com]

Unfermented grape juice also does not exist in the wild. Natural grape juice starts fermenting immediately. You have to kill the yeast by pasteurization before you have your sterile juice.

(And I think this icon works here.)

[ogam.livejournal.com]

I always knew those damn kill-joy Calvinists and the rest of the Prots were unnatural!

Pasteurized, sterile, and homogenized, indeed—utterly lethal to culture: all you get left with are strip malls and Lawrence Welk!

*busts up laughing at your observation & icon allllllll over again*

[oakmouse]

I always thought, sitting in my Grandma's generic protestant church and watching the tiny wee cuplets of grape juice get passed around, that the people all around me were terrified of experiencing the wine of life. They were terrified of opening up to the mystery and intensity of contact with the divine. So they drank sickly sweet grape juice and wondered why their lives were unsatisfying.

[qos.livejournal.com]

they drank sickly sweet grape juice and wondered why their lives were unsatisfying

This is such a powerful image. . .

[oakmouse]

It was a powerful experience. I was only about 12, but it had a vividness, clarity, and power that have stayed with me ever since.

[oakmouse]

That was supposed to be "vividness, clarity, and almost mythic impact". Hit post accidentally while editing.

[elevengirl.livejournal.com]

What a lovely surprise...thank you! Wishful Thinking is one of my all-time favorite books, and Buechner a favorite author.

[ogam.livejournal.com]

I you, Queen of Swords.

[savantium.livejournal.com]

That is a wonderful quote!

[oakmouse]

Excellent quote.