Spirits vs. Holy Spirit

from my message on June 8, 2014, Pentecost, from Acts 2:1-15

Are you thirsty?  For what or for whom do you thirst?

When I first started in ministry, I didn't know very much.  I was thirsty for knowledge.  I would find myself talking with a family in the church, and things were fitting together right.  I was confused.  One person would be overfunctioning, rescuing everything and everybody.  One would be quiet.  One would be acting out.  All would defer to one person as if they were afraid of him or her.

It wasn't until my third year out of seminary, when I was taking a course on chemical addictions and family systems, that things started to make sense.  I took this course at Austin Community College with a bunch of recovering alcoholics.  We read books together.  We attended lectures together.  I found out that alcoholism is a family disease.  No one becomes an alcoholic by himself or herself.  There are "enablers" around the alcoholic who all play their roles to help the alcoholic continue in their relationship with the chemical.  I found out that denial and blame are two key signs of addiction.  "I don't have a problem.....he is the problem, she is the problem...work is the problem.."  I found out the drug always works...I don't mean to pick on just alcohol, it could be food, or sex, or gambling or work.  The drug works on the reptilian part of our brains.  It produces a feeling, a high, but we always come down lower from the high.  Then we need more of the drug to achieve the high.  We sink lower.  There is a downward spiral.  This is where shame comes in.  We feel so out of control.

I was frustrated in class.  All of my other classmates were in recovery programs.  I wasn't.  One night I said, "Listen, I don't get how I can ever help any body on drugs.  I don't have a problem with alcohol.  I don't even drink."  One of the old alkies asked, "Have you ever been sick?"  "Well, yes, of course!"  "Well, we have a disease called alcoholism.  We didn't ask to get it.  It is progressive. But there is a treatment for it."

I found out that I could work with people who were addicted.  When I was in one of those confusing family situations, I learned to start asking the question, "What role does alcohol or other drugs play in your family?"
Almost every time, people would reflect and say, "Oh, yeah, we do have a problem."  I found out that the drug addiction was only 10% of the problem, but it was the first 10%.  We couldn't get to the other 90% until we got rid of the fog, the miscommunication, the dysfunction of the drug.

Are you thirsty today?  For what or for whom do you thirst?

We Methodists began as abstainers from alcohol.  The Methodists were a reform movement within the Anglican Church in the 1700's.  At that time the common working person's drug of choice was gin.  It was cheap and plentiful.  There was a saying at that time, "you can get drunk for a 1/2 penny, dead drunk for a penny."  So the Methodists saw a problem with alcoholism.  They were against hard liquor.

Where did grape juice come from, like we use at communion?  There was a communion steward, one who prepares the communion elements, named Thomas Welch.  He was a dentist.  One time when he prepared the bread and wine for communion, a friend of his got started on a bender by drinking the wine at communion.  Dr. Welch was determined to find an alternative.  He took some crushed grapes and pasteurized them to keep them from fermenting.  He made non-fermented grape sweet juice.  I bet you have had Welch's grape juice.  It rapidly caught on in the late 1800's and began to be used by Methodists and other denominations.

I saw an article in the Austin American-Statesman about a new church in Ft. Worth that billed itself as a Pub Church, complete with craft beer.  This was not a Methodist Church.  It was Lutheran.  We continue to this day using grape juice, not wine.

Wine is found all through the Bible.  Water purity was unreliable.  Water was often mixed with wine.  There are positive verses that talk about wine gladdening the heart.  There are verses that caution about overindulging and having wine make a mockery of us.  Jesus came eating and drinking the Gospel stories say.  Wine was a part of the Last Supper.

On the day of Pentecost, the on-lookers couldn't understand what was going on.  They thought that those who had been filled by the Holy Spirit had been filled with distilled spirits.  "They're drunk," they accused.  Peter and the others said, "No, they are filled with something better, the Spirit of God."

Are you thirsty?  For what or for whom do you thirst?

M. Scott Peck calls alcoholism the sacred disease.  We try to fill up on spirit when only Holy Spirit will satisfy. He calls all of our substitutes "Cheap grace."  All the treatment programs of which I am aware are spiritually based.  They have admit that we are powerless over the drug and that we need a higher power to save us.

The Holy Spirit can fill us and save us.  It looks like Kevin's story ( go to our website YouTube channel to hear his testimony).  Kevin just celebrated his first birthday of sobriety.  It is like going from death to life.

Why am I talking about this today?  I once had a member of my church in San Saba who said, "I found Jesus and salvation in AA (alcoholics anonymous).  The church was afraid to address my disease."  I am not afraid to talk about it, as it is one of the most pervasive issues around.

Let me do a little math with you.  We have just over 800 members here.  Some 62% of Methodists drink.  That means 500 of us drink in this congregation.  Ten percent of those who drink have a problem with alcohol.  That means 50 of us have a problem.

Some of you have had the courage to talk with me about your disease.  I try to work with the motivated people in families to get help.  Thankfully, there are all kinds of resources nearby.  We have an Al-Anon group that meets here on Fridays at noon for family members or friends of those who have problems with alcohol.  There are 12 step groups that meet at all hours of the day and night all around town. There are wonderful treatment facilities at hand.

When you get really thirsty, come talk to me.  Only the Holy Spirit can ever satisfy.  That's the good news I have to share today.