I was in big trouble on Sunday- one of my parishioners complained that the Communion wine was alcoholic.
Whenever we have communion at church, I try to make sure that we have grape juice, and not port, sherry or wine. You never know if there are recovering alcoholics in the congregation who may get a whiff of the stuff and want to get back on the sauce. And you don’t know who is going to be offended. So I insist on grape juice (must be my strong Baptist heritage- thanks Mum and Dad!)
In my church however, there is a couple who are constantly offended that we use grape juice. So instead, we give them a seperate cup of port, but everyone else gets grape juice.
On this particular Sunday, since we had run out of grape juice, there was no other option but to use the port. I didn’t know at the time we had run out. Imagine my surprise when I took a cup and gulped it all down! Man, did that put hairs on my chest that morning!!!
Afterwards, a lady came up to me the following week and told me that she had taken a vow before the Lord that alcohol would never ever pass her lips again. D'oh!!!
So this Sunday, its back to the grape juice. The things a minister has to deal with…*sighs*
2 comments:
Did you say to her that Jesus didn't say "when you drink this grape juice and eat this bread remember me"!
Man, you can have it, all those church politics, I'm out!
Its not as bad as it sounds...every time there is a problem like this its an opportunity for a person to grow- in this case, to learn something about Christian freedom, and using one's freedom to serve the other.
Post a Comment