The Soul of Wine

*** Revised Common Lectionary *** Lectionary Reading: Matthew 9:9-26 CLASSIC POEM: The Soul of Wine Charles Baudelaire One evening, the soul of wine sung from within the bottles: “Man, towards you I push, oh disinherited dear one, Under my glass prison and my vermilion polishes, A song replete of light and of fraternity! I know how much it takes, on the flaming hill, Of suffering, of sweat, and of stinging Sun To engender my life and to give me the soul; But I will not be ungrateful nor malignant, Because I experience an immense joy when I fall Into the throat of a man worn by his works, And his hot chest is a sweet sepulcher Where I am pleased much better than in my cold vaults. Do you hear the Sunday tunes ring out And the hope that chirrups in my pounding breast? The elbows on the table and rolling up your sleeves, You will glorify me and you shall be satisfied; I will illuminate the eyes of your delighted woman; To your son I will return his strength and his colors And I will be for that frail athlete of life The oil that strengthens the muscles of the fighters. In you I shall fall, vegetable of ambrosia, Precious grain tossed by the eternal Sower, So that from our love poetry shall be born Which shall gush forth towards God like a rare flower!” *** This poem is in the public domain, and may be read in a live-streamed worship service. CONTEMPORARY POEM: Patching Cloth and Bursting Wineskins Mary Harwell Sayler SNIPPET: And Jesus said: New wine needs new wineskins or, when the wine ferments and expands, the wineskin will burst and spill the wine and ruin your robe and spoil a perfectly good container. [ READ THE FULL POEM ]