Cafe Christians

For nearly three pre-dawn hours I sat in my office pondering the finer points of a sermon I was to deliver in a couple days. By my side were a number of essentials in this morning ritual. This is my ritual and while it may seem odd to some it is the manner in which I fully embrace my day and come to grips with it, clearly seeing it as a gift from God.

The first item is a small silver medal, kept in a wooden box in my office, one of the few reminders of a lost loved one. On it is a prayer that I use as my stimulus for prayer. The second item next to me is my pair of shoes. I remove them at least while I study to feel fully connected to the gift of this world. Third, and most obvious, are books, the simple smell of which triggers the want, need and desire to be studious and commune with the saints who wrote most of them, but are no longer among us. Finally, though this is not all that is involved, I have a cup of coffee, which I drinking fully, but slowly.

So, there I am, engaged in this odd scene, refining my sermon like a monk reciting some mantra, and in walks one of the leaders of the church. After a cordial greeting, he makes sure that he tells me “You shouldn’t be drinking that coffee…it is the Devil’s drink.” Well, so much for my focus. Switching gears however, I began to explain to him that I am only doing what religious men have done for years.

You see, coffee was not discovered until around 600 AD in the plateaus of central Ethiopia. At first it was worshipped (praised) for its medicinal qualities and was soon being used by the religious as a catalyst to meditation. Soon, coffee growing had spread from Ethiopia to India and from India to France. Europeans loved the strangely strong but enticing and aromatic brew. However, many warned, due to its origins use among pagans, that it was a threat to “Christianity.” The pope at the time, Clement VIII, decided to first try the drink before he issued a pervasive condemnation of the beverage. The result was not denunciation, but approval. As a matter of fact he blessed the drink and declared it “Christian.” His love for a good cup of “joe,” as some describe it, led to the springing up of coffee and tea houses across Europe, where the greatest of minds would gather and help usher in the “Age of Reason.”

By this time, my aged companion and fellow worker was not necessarily convinced of the Christian value of coffee, but was growing bored, so I cut right to the chase and said, “You shouldn’t be so quick to make assertions you know little about,” and went back to my work. It was a lesson I had reinforced for me time and again as a preacher. A lesson that says, “Don’t believe all you hear and make sure you know what you’re saying before you say it.”

We all do well to heed those words. As James would say, “Be slow to speak, swift to hear.” In this day, heed those words and live or… go ahead and put your foot in your mouth and suffocate in the generally accepted ignorance. The Devil’s drink is not coffee, but a good strong dose of ignorance on loose lips.

Ed