Tonight is Dydd Dewi Sant (Saint David's Day.) Saint David is the patron saint of Wales. As I have for the last three years, I went to Boston for the St. David's Day gathering of the Boston Welsh group.

This year they asked me to say grace before the meal. I have been asked to do that in previous gatherings, but this time I prayed in the language of heaven. Yr iaith nefoedd (the language of heaven) is what the Welsh call their ancient Celtic tongue. I am just a Welsh learner, so I asked a native Welsh speaker to translate my simple, broken Welsh into English as I prayed.

I did well. One lady told me that my accent, and pronunciation was "very good." Someone else thought that I had a translator, because I couldn't speak English. I really only had someone translate to make the experience more fun.

At the end of the prayer, I had everyone in the room pray in Welsh with me. Now only about 30% of the room spoke Welsh, but everyone had an opportunity to say a few words. Together we prayed, "Diolch yn fawr iawn am y bwyd, y ffrindau, a'r cwrw," which means, "Thank you very much for the food, the friends, and the beer." This was a decidedly non-religious man's Welsh prayer, and received a decidedly hearty Welsh laugh, and an Amen.

Sometime in the 20th century, when Welshmen, and Welshboys were getting thoroughly "pissed" (the British term for falling down drunk), the church preached abstinence from alcohol. In 1904 during the great Welsh revival (still considered one of the great revivals in human history by many people) this was a hallmark of the revival. Drunks were getting cleaned up, and becoming respectable citizens. They began to work hard, and take care of their families.

Periodic revivals occurred in Wales in the 20th century, and each time the excesses of alcoholism were replaced by a love for God, and personal responsibility. Over time this good thing became some kind of unwritten law. Abstinence was not only encouraged among those who lived in excess, but became a mark of true Christianity. This would be fine if indeed we could find total abstinence as a requirement of the Bible, but we can not. Our religion serves a Savior who turned the water into wine.

The Welshmen in Boston I know drink beer, but do not get falling down drunk, in fact, I have not seen the local Boston Welshmen drunk at all. They want to know what's wrong with the church which serves the wine making Savior, and yet has demanded that people practice complete abstinence from all alcohol.

Those who left the church long ago, and now sit outside offer us some of the most valuable critiques. These Welshmen hear us speak about moderation in all things, and yet they see that we can not moderate our theology enough to see that Jesus made wine, Paul encouraged Timothy to "take a little wine for the stomach's sake," and yet they still discouraged drunkenness. If they could walk that simple balance, why can't we? they wonder.

Did they say Amen with me, because they wanted to get "pissed" tonight? No, they said Amen, because someone was willing to shed the unwanted, stiff standards which fitly applied to another people at another time, and simply give thanks for something which probably has a lower alcohol level than the wine which Jesus vinified from water in Cana at the wedding two millennia ago. At least that's what appeared to be the case in discussions which followed the meeting
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Thanks for the cwrw (pronounced "cooroo") may have been a prayer which did not meet the specifications of the typical Welsh Non-Conformist Chapel, but it resonated in hearts of some Welshmen tonight. Prayers about cwrw do not resonate in the heart only because they speak against the status-quo, but because they say something about the heart of God. Tonight thanks for the cwrw said something about the heart of God which encouraged freedom, and joy in the human experience, and the Welsh said Amen, and laughed for simple joy.

 

Pastor Phil
written March 1, 2006