March Madness.

"May he kiss me with the kisses of his mouth! For your love is better than wine." So begins the epic canonical verse that we know as the Song of Songs. These are the words of a bride intoxicated with sweet affection of her lover. The bridegroom responds in kind: "How beautiful is your love, my sister, my bride! How much better is your love than wine" and "I have come into my garden, my sister, my bride! I have gathered myrrh along with my balsam, I have eaten my honeycomb and my honey; I have drunk my wine and my milk. Eat, friends, drink and imbibe deeply, O lovers." According to the bridegroom, the navel of his bride is like a "round goblet, which never lacks mixed wine," her mouth is "like the best wine." The bride longs to lead her lover into a house, where she "would give her lover spiced wine to drink from the juice of her pomegranates." Ah, the sensuous expressions shrouded in imagery of food, spices and (heaven-forbid) spirituous drink. The clandestine joy that one raised in fundamentalism has to read such words of scandalous description.

For the Bridegroom in the Song of Songs, the bride's body is a vineyard, a garden, a field, a promised land flowing with milk and honey, where the Bridegroom can gather fruits for the intoxicating wine of love. She is a garden of pomegranates, of spices and aloes, a garden spring that runs with fresh water. In response, the bride unlocks the gate of her garden to her lover: "May my beloved come into his garden and eat its choice fruits."

When God created Adam he gave him a garden. The garden was filled with lush fruits, plants and animals by the score. Despite partaking in these vast blessings that were found within Adam's garden home, he still thirsted for the sweet intoxication of one that could share in his dreams, hopes and fears. So God, as the eternally gracious vine dresser, induces a state of slumber on the man and literally "builds" a suitable vessel from which he can drink. So God gave the first Adam a bride and a garden; a bride that is his garden. Every Bridegroom who rejoices that he is one flesh with his bride is a new Adam; every bride who is a garden of delights for her husband is a new Eve; every godly and loving marriage, however marred by sin, is, in sense, a re-establishment of Eden.

According to the prophet Isaiah, God himself has a vineyard. This vineyard was planted on a fertile hill. He dug around it, removed the stones and planted it with the choicest vine. In the middle of his garden he built a great tower and hewed out a wine vat. This vineyard is also Yahweh's bride, so he built a wall on her and set a hedge round about her. Yahweh established His bride, His vineyard, and expected to gather good fruit from her, to make wine that gladdens the heart of man and the heart of God.

All of these come together in Jesus, who is both the Last Adam and God incarnate. Jesus comes into the world, as bridegroom, lover and as caretaker of His vineyard. Let's look at the non-synoptic gospel as a case in point. The first miracle that we encounter in the Gospel of John finds Jesus at a wedding feast in Cana. It seems that the party will be cut short when the drink of choice runs dry. When Jesus hears of the situation he fulfills the role of bridegroom and turns water into wine. It was customary in that day for the bridegroom to supply the wine for a wedding feast. So in providing wine Jesus has taken over the responsibility of the bridegroom.

When Jesus had to go through Samaria He had an intimate encounter with a woman beside a well. Many of Jesus forbears had done the same; Issac met Rebekah by a well, Jacob first met Rachel at a well with a stone that covered it and was rolled away to water the sheep, Moses, due to his heroics by a well in Midian, was given Zipporah to take as his wife. Jesus through His encounter with this adulterous woman by a well in Samaria, gives us a hint as to the type of bridegroom that He will be, offering her life-giving water and forgiveness for her past and present offenses. As well as giving us a semblance of the kind of bride that He would take for Himself.

This role as bridegroom is fleshed out beginning in John's gospel and is given its incarnational glory at the end of Revelation. Jesus is identified as the bridegroom from the outset of the gospel, and the bride is finally revealed, white linen purity and all, at the end of Revelation. The Spirit descends from heaven to anoint Jesus at His baptism, and at the end of Revelation the bride descends to be eternally joined to her husband. This romance that John writes about Jesus and His lover, "the lost sheep of the House of Israel", is sprinkled throughout with references to the all-embracing passion that Jesus has for His lover.

Finally, this marriage of Jesus, the true bridegroom and true vine, to His unworthy, yet perpetually fruitful and eternally exquisite bride, was brought to consummation when the bridegroom, in a most intimate act of love, sent His Spirit to dwell within His bride. The effect of the bridegroom's Spirit is like the effect of wine: When the Jews saw how the apostles were acting at Pentecost they believed that they were drunk with new wine, and Paul exhorted the Ephesians not to be drunk with wine but to be filled, inebriated as Ambrose said, with the Spirit.

Which brings me to the real subject of this post. An adventure on which I have embarked to a choice wine vineyard. The landscape is a breathtaking view of rolling hills, rich vegetation and lush foliage. It is a place that sparks the imagination, while bringing the soul a sense of peace and tranquility. The chateau is filled with superior wine that purifies the heart and excites the mind. To repose within this vineyard and feel the gentle "pnuema" is to exist within the rubric of the great outpouring of the bridegroom's Spirit at Pentecost. What fullness of joy and breadth of love to enjoy the sweet intoxication of this winery that is truly a gift from God.

And its name is Sara

I have nothing profound to say tonight.

when I get the notion to do so.