Early Christians were called “People of the Way.” Transformation of our lives by God’s love is the way. It is the purpose of our church communities, our liturgies, our spiritual disciplines. As we are transformed by love, we seek to become agents of transformation in the world God loves.

The wine is ready to start. There are two things we need: juice from grapes and yeast.

The bag of concentrated juice is 10 litres. It goes in the pail with the bentonite slurry, and about 9 litres of water. The water that goes in is slightly warm, so that we end up with 23 litres of grape juice that is just the right temperature.

Everything we need is here. The sugars in the juice will be transformed into alcohol. The tannins from the grape skins, stems and seeds give the wine texture. The varietal of the grapes give the wine particular smells and flavours.

You and I are like this pail of grape juice ready to become wine. Everything God needs is right there. You are the complete package, full of the raw ingredients that God will use and transform with love, making a new thing. Even the parts we might not be proud of make us who we are, and are included in the final product.

The transforming agent in our wine is yeast. It gets sprinkled on the top of the juice, and gets to work right away. We’ll be careful not to disturb it too much. It needs the right conditions to thrive. Enough sugars, the right temperature. We’ll need to keep the temperature of the room even for the next 14 days. Sometimes the yeast stops working. It can be reactivated, or if need be, another packet of yeast can be added.

If we are to be fully transformed by God’s love, there will be an incubation period where we need focus and attention to what’s going on around us. It seems delicate and fragile at first, but once it takes hold in our lives, the process cannot be stopped.

Follow this series at http://stjamescarletonplace.ca/wine-into-water/