by DeLana Dameron
WINE n. Fermented grape-juice known to the Women's Christian Union as "liquor," sometimes as "rum." Wine, madam, is God's next best gift to man. - The Devil's Dictionary
Because we are all sinners
and, in our sinning, continue
to sin, and in our cleansing
we are sinners still--being forgiven
over and over ad infinitum
while drinking the blood
of the Son of man.
Because we can get drunk
off our Savior,
we march, stumble
the aisles to purify
wash away--
because we can begin again.
~ This poem was written by a friend from undergraduate. She just published her first book, How God Ends Us. I've just started reading it and came across this poem which I thought wonderfully profound in how it relates our drunkenness from wine to our drunkenness from forgiveness.DeLana is a great friend and wonderful poet. I would highly recommend buying her book.
4 comments:
That's interesting, though I wonder if Paul's admonition to the Ephesians to "be not drunk of wine" should be taken into consideration. For him, being drunk is not a good thing (apparently he hadn't heard of the modern phenomenon of "being drunk in the Spirit"). The Bible, and particularly the Old Testament, does, nevertheless, have something to say about wine as a gift to make our hearts merry, so there's some level on which the metaphor works.
i think its interesting how sin and alcohol can be both addictions too
-walth
Thanks for the comments! I think I read the poem a bit differently. I didn't read this poem as an encouragement to the church to adopt a sort of drunken-like giddiness or addition over the depths of Christ's forgiveness.
Rather, I see the poem as an indictment on Believers who become drunk on forgiveness. Our addiction to forgiveness causes us to loose perspective on the weight of our sin and the weight of the penalty that was paid in order to make grace possible. Thus we continue to sin and then drunk on forgiveness "stumble/the aisles to purify/wash away..." Similar to what Paul discusses in the first part of Romans 3.
We are undoubtedly to rejoice in Christ's forgiveness and embrace the grace that has been made available to us. However, we are to do so with a perspective that spurns us onward toward a life which is free of sin and thus free of a need for forgiveness, regardless of whether or not we ever achieve it.
Yes, I didn't think of that on my first read, but I see what you are saying.
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