New Drinking Guidelines & Abundant Life

 

 When the person in charge tasted the water that had become wine and did not know where it came from (though the servants who had drawn the water knew), that person called the bridegroom and said to him, “Everyone serves the good wine first and then the inferior wine after the guests have become drunk. But you have kept the good wine until now.”

                                       John 2:9-10 NRSVue

The Son of man came eating and drinking, and they say, Behold a man gluttonous, and a winebibber, a friend of publicans and sinners. 

                                                            Matthew 11: 19 King James Version

So, have you decided to drastically alter your habits in consuming alcohol? Last week the Canadian Centre on Substance Use and Addiction served up a report saying that no amount of alcohol is safe and those who consume up to two standard drinks per week face a low health risk. This increases to moderate risk for three to six weekly drinks, and is high beyond that. In the blink of a bleary eye the safe standard went from two drinks a day to two a week. 

It's been fascinating to see and hear the response to this report. The sputtering outrage amongst some would suggest that the booze-busters will be showing up at doors to spirit away our spirits.We all still have the freedom to decide about our alcohol consumption, providing we don't climb behind the wheel of a vehicle. 

I've mentioned that I have been the source of some amusement in our immediate family through the years because even though I enjoy craft beer and wine, I would fit in the low to moderate range for consumption, all the time. Interestingly, several of those family members now drink rarely or never, for various reasons. 

I didn't start drinking, even in moderation, until my late teens. The outlook of my tee-totalling parents (they had grown up Salvation Army) seemed to temper my consumption -- older child? When I did a chaplaincy internship at Kingston Penitentiary in my early twenties I saw the disastrous outcome of alcohol use and abuse for so many of the guys and I gave up drinking altogether for a year or more. 

The United Church has expressed an ambivalent outlook on alcohol consumption since its formation in 1925. The Methodists were strongly anti-alcohol and often supported Prohibition, which didn't work, along with formidable organizations such as the Womens Christian Temperance Union. When I began ministry in very Methodist outport Newfoundland having a beer with the floor hockey guys was a secretive experience. The general United Church tone seems to have been that it's okay to drink, as long as you don't enjoy it too much, and don't ask about serving alcohol at church functions. 

There is the awkward gospel fact (for some) that the first miracle Jesus performed was turning water into wine at a wedding feast, and it was the good stuff. I've heard earnest Christians attempt to weasel out of that one, but I was never convinced. And Jesus was accused of enjoying a glass or three too much by some sanctimonious religious types. The King James term "wine-bibber"  has always seemed to be a rather jolly condemnation. Conviviality with food and drink is not a sin, if we follow the example of Jesus. 

I suppose we all have to decide what health risks we're willing to take -- is my love of bacon more hazardous than my alcohol consumption? There is no doubt in my mind that our society has steadily drifted toward more acceptable and too often excessive drinking. Through years of ministry I saw the negative effects in the lives of families, often hidden from others. I even had a public health nurse tell me that alcohol abuse was a signficant problem in the seniors community where many of the members of one congregation lived.

Perhaps the next time we're taking the miniscule amounts of non-alcoholic grape juice in a United Church communion service we can ponder what the new guidelines mean for us. Bottoms up!