The Windows Preach:  Wheat and Grapes

NUCC

Maundy Thursday

April 13, 2006

            Wheat and Grapes.  You can see the Wheat Window as you come into church.  It is the first window on your right at you enter church.  The Grape Window is right here in the sanctuary.  Perhaps you can make it out in this evening light.

            Wheat and Grapes.  Of course we think of the wheat because it is made into bread, which becomes for us the Body of Christ.  The grapes are made into wine or juice, which becomes for us the Blood of Christ.  On this evening when we especially remember the Last Supper our Savior had with his disciples these are the obvious windows for our focus.

            Wheat is mentioned over fifty times in the Bible.

Exodus 34:

You shall observe the festival of weeks, the first fruits of wheat harvest, and the festival of ingathering at the turn of the year.

Ruth 2

²³So she stayed close to the young women of Boaz, gleaning until the end of the barley and wheat harvests; and she lived with her mother-in-law.

Amos 8 (Speaking of the forerunners of ENRON Executives)

When will the new moon be over

       so that we may sell grain;

     and the sabbath,

       so that we may offer wheat for sale?

Matthew 3

¹²His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor and will gather his wheat into the granary; but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.”

Matthew 21

Parable of the Weeds and Wheat

²⁹But he replied, ‘No; for in gathering the weeds you would uproot the wheat along with them. ³⁰Let both of them grow together until the harvest; and at harvest time I will tell the reapers, Collect the weeds first and bind them in bundles to be burned, but gather the wheat into my barn.’”

John 12

²⁴Very truly, I tell you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains just a single grain; but if it dies, it bears much fruit. ²⁵Those who love their life lose it, and those who hate their life in this world will keep it for eternal life. ²⁶Whoever serves me must follow me, and where I am, there will my servant be also. Whoever serves me, the Father will honor.

Wheat was very important to people of the biblical times because it was made into bread and bread was central to their diet.  It came to symbolize all that we need in life.  Therefore, on the night in which he was betrayed Jesus gathered his disciples in that upper room and shared bread with them.  The Bread of Life.  We will also share in bread this evening as we remember the one whose body is symbolized in that bread and in a way we do not understand as we eat that bread we become one with Christ who gave his body on our behalf and we become the “body of believers.”

Grapes

On Ash Wednesday I told you the story behind these windows ---- how Pastor Gene Lackore developed ideas for them, how Steve Meurett sketched out the forms and suggested the patterns so they would match the banners and other parts of the church, how Ray Woods, created the windows in his shop in Thorp and had his son Tom help him install them in our church.  Ray told me that the most difficult window to create was the Grape Window.  He didn’t want to just have a group of circles, but rather a bunch of grapes.  This was not as easy as one might believe.  It took artistry to make those grapes look like grapes!  Ray is now 76 years old and still enjoying a creative life.

            Grapes are mentioned over 30 times in the Bible.

Leviticus 19

You shall not strip your vineyard bare, or gather the fallen grapes of your vineyard; you shall leave them for the poor and the alien: I am the LORD your God.

Deuteronomy 23

If you go into your neighbor’s vineyard, you may eat your fill of grapes, as many as you wish, but you shall not put any in a container.

Isaiah 5

What more was there to do for my vineyard

       that I have not done in it?

     When I expected it to yield grapes,

       why did it yield wild grapes?

Matthew 7

You will know them by their fruits. Are grapes gathered from thorns, or figs from thistles?

Revelation 14

¹⁸Then another angel came out from the altar, the angel who has authority over fire, and he called with a loud voice to him who had the sharp sickle, “Use your sharp sickle and gather the clusters of the vine of the earth, for its grapes are ripe.” ¹⁹So the angel swung his sickle over the earth and gathered the vintage of the earth, and he threw it into the great wine press of the wrath of God. ²⁰And the wine press was trodden outside the city, and blood flowed from the wine press, as high as a horse’s bridle, for a distance of about two hundred miles.^£

            Of course grapes are made into wine and wine was a basic drink of the Middle East during biblical times.  Wine is mentioned 279 times in the NRSV!  We know many stories about wine ---- among them Jesus changing water into wine, but most memorably Jesus taking a cup of wine on that first Maundy Thursday as saying:  “This cup is the new covenant in my blood.  Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.”

            Tonight we gather around a table, figuratively.  We will not be sitting down or lying down as the disciples probably did with a table immediately in front of us.  But there is the table.  On it is bread made from wheat and wine and juice made from grapes.  We recognize that as these holy elements are made from the ordinary fruits of the earth, so God will take us, ordinary as we are, and turn us into instruments of his peace, just as God once took the disciples and used them for high and holy purposes.

            We gather on this Maundy Thursday, remembering Christ’s mandate to love one another, even to wash one another’s feet.  As we know there is plenty to do out in the world.  May we be strengthened as we remember those who gathered around a table over 2,000 years ago.  May God fashion us into works of beauty just as Steve and Ray fashioned these windows into wonderful remembrances of our faith.  May we go in peace.  Amen.