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| Jesus making wine from water in The Marriage at Cana, a 14th-century fresco from the Visoki Dečani monastery (Photo credit: Wikipedia) |
The first thing was when the pastor of our church said a few things that I felt were insulting to my (or our collective) intelligence. Now, keeping in mind that this is a Baptist church and one of their tenets in no alcohol. At the time I was not drinking. It was one of the periods in my life when I abstained from consuming alcoholic beverages. I have never felt that the consumption of alcohol was a sin, but the excess consumption of it (getting drunk) is, not to mention that the consumption of alcohol can lead one to lower their inhibitions and do things that are sinful.
During one particular sermon, the pastor was teaching on the passage in the Gospel of Mark where Jesus talks about how one would not put new wine in old wine skins otherwise the skins would burst. The pastor made the argument that the new wine was not wine, but was instead grape juice. To me, that stretched the boundaries of logic. After all, Jesus was often accused of being a glutton and a drunkard. To me, I logically came to the conclusion that Jesus did in fact partake of wine.
Perhaps the biggest thing that happened, was due to some things that were happening in my personal life. When I began going to Seabrook, I was working my way through college at a small, local grocery chain. It was a union shop, but had a much lower pay scale that the other major chains in the area. At the time, I was making $5 per hour, which was a good bit better than minimum wage at the time. I didn't have a lot of money, but I had enough for what I needed.
One of the larger chains in the area, Memco Stores, was getting ready to open two new stores in the area, one very close to where I lived. They were a part of the larger union contract. I was able to get a job with them. I more than doubled my previous hourly rate. On top of that, they offered double time as a premium if you worked on Sundays or holidays. My previous job only offered time and a half. I started signing up for a lot of Sundays. It was over $20 per hour.
With my new job, I started to not attend services at Seabrook as often. Sadly, my new found gold mine of cash wasn't to last very long. The company decided that they could no longer afford to pay the high union wages they were required to pay under the union contract and decided to leave the area. Why they would go to the expense of opening two new stores and then decide to close them and all other stores two months later still baffles me.
I believe it was a Saturday night and I had just finished my shift. After counting out my register, the managers informed me that I would no longer be needed. I knew it was coming, but I was still stunned. I went out to my car and it wouldn't start. The battery had died. I had to have my father come out to help me. It was a rough night. I had just lost a good paying job, and on top of that I had to buy a new battery for my car. So, I did something I hadn't done in a couple of years. I bought some beer.
Later that night, or maybe the next night, I was talking on the phone to one of my closest friends at church. I told her what had happened and about buying and drinking some beer. Instead of being compassionate and encouraging, her response was, "Oh, Richard," in a very condescending and disappointed tone like I had committed some grievous sin. I pretty much stopped attending the church after that. Perhaps if she had encouraged me to put it behind me and move forward things would have been different. As it was, I was very hurt.
In retrospect, it was wrong for me to let somebody else's disappointment in what I did affect my attitude towards the church. Unfortunately, I am a flawed individual living in a world of flawed individuals. It is also a behavior that I have repeated at subsequent times in my life, but I am getting ahead of myself. I will get to more of that when I talk about the next phase of how I got to where I am today.
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