Coffee had a nickname. The Devil’s drink! How did that happen?
About 900 AD, Ethiopian Cadi the goat herder, discovered his goats eating berries that made them go crazy from what we know to be caffein! He tried it and made a drink. Eventually, word of mouth taste tests promoted the drink to Yemen. 600 years passed and in 1511 it comes to Mecca 🕋. First is banned by the Muslim clerics because this unwanted innovation with unknown consequences and side effects kept drinkers congregating in coffee bars instead of the mosque! But eventually, the Chief Muslim cleric enjoyed it so much, he lifted the ban! A hundred years after that, coffee reaches the trade routes to Europe. By 1600, Europeans are loving coffee, but this drink innovation was hurting the pocketbooks of proprietors selling beer 🍺and wine 🍷. Foreign innovation from the competing Muslim Ottoman Empire brought on another ban.
Church leaders called it the Devil’s drink! Coffee houses threatened the beer houses.
One day, anti-coffee Bishops petitioned Pope Clement 8 to excommunicate anyone who drank the Devil’s Drink! But, when the Pope asked to taste it, he found it to be delicious!
Instead of banning coffee, the Pontiff blessed coffee and said it should be baptized as the new Christian drink!
We fear new things and we doubt that something we believe to be “new” can be true. There is an anxiety over loss. When we doubt, we are protecting ourselves from loss.
With everything new, we risk the future we had been planning.
While we celebrate Easter every year, the resurrection of Jesus from the dead means we can enjoy a resurrection-way of life every day. At Sunset Beach’s sunrise service, the message offered resources on what we do with fear. Fear is understandable. Even expected to be experienced from time to time. But what about Doubt? This week, bring your doubts, your struggles of faith as we look in on many women and men disciples who expressed their doubt. Jesus appeared in their midst! Where did Thomas put his doubt? Find out where to put your doubt this Sunday as we gather for the Second Sunday of Easter and hear a message from John 20:19-31. (Hint: Doubt is not lessoned by more facts, but with personal experience with the truth. Jesus is alive! Meet him and see!)
