Friday, September 12, 2025

It is the 12th of September 2025. Welcome to the Christian History Almanac, brought to you by 1517 at 1517.org; I’m Dan van Voorhis. 

A very happy Friday- I should be in Switzerland by now… a cruise on Lake Constance is in the cards… more mailbag shows because you are all so kind to send in your questions to me at danv@1517.org.

Got an email from Mik [M.I.K. hope that’s your pronunciation] in Ojai, California-

Ojai: a jewel in the shadow of the Los Padres National Forest north of Ventura.

The email reads:

“I wondered why in the episcopal worship they pour water into the wine for the sacrament? I looked it up, something about water represents our humanity and it mixes with Christ’s blood/wine and it got all very mystical to my brain so is there more explanation? Did this come from the Catholic tradition? I’ve been to other denominations and have never seen this”

This is one of those things that you might think, “Doesn’t everybody?” Or “they do what?” So, let me start my explanation of this with a guess about the trip I’m on- at some point, someone will ask how the early Reformation movement split up on account of a disagreement about the Lord’s Supper. Yes! Our practices and preferences regarding this have a special feature of being physical and visual, and so it is participatory in a way that other aspects of the service aren’t (and think of the centuries for those in the church where singing was done by the choir, and the sermon may not be in a language you understood. And so I try to handle these things tenderly, knowing these beliefs are held tightly.

The early church has a fair bit of a common voice on this one! Jesus instituted the use of wine, the fruit of the vine, and in Jesus' time, it would have been wine, but if it was for drinking (as it was), it would be mixed with water (so it was). SO, if you believe that fidelity to Jesus’ instructions requires the same substances as he did, water mixed with wine would be the right substance to use.

But some Church Fathers couldn’t let a practice go un, or perhaps misinterpreted, and so we read about the “real” meaning behind the practice. Someone as early as Clement of Alexandria (so, around 200) would explain the mixing of the water with the wine not as just a common practice, but as a specific liturgical practice with its own incarnational meaning.

The water and wine represent the two natures in Jesus- his human nature represented by the water and his divine nature represented by the wine. There are two things present, and they are one thing… almost all analogies break down into some heresy, so proceed with caution. For some, this was rectified by explaining the water as representative of our human nature that is absorbed into the divine nature represented in the wine.

This would be the common practice amongst almost all of the earliest churches in the East and West. Fun fact: in the East, some Orthodox Christians practice something called Zeon- this is adding warm water into the chalice- the warmth is to represent the Holy Spirit.

Adding the water in a liturgical context (meaning visually for all to see as part of the service) was also said to recall the rush of both blood and water from the side of Jesus when pierced by the soldier.  

At the Reformation, one of the self-assigned tasks of the various reforming groups was to remove anything that they believed had crept into the church and was not in, or at least commanded in Scripture. For some, it was the majority of anything liturgical- the emphasis came to center on the preached word, both heard and sung. But those churches of the “middle way”, liturgically at least, had to decide what to do- these were the Lutheran and Anglican churches.

Luther himself was opposed to the mixing, or at least the liturgical mixing, but he believed it to be in the category called adiaphora, or things indifferent: things Christian’s could have honest disagreements with but stay in communion despite differences.  

The Book of Common Prayer- the liturgical playbook for the Church of England states in its directions: “it is customary to add a little water to the wine,” which is a brilliantly English and droll way of saying “do what you will and don’t blame us”. And so, Mik: the answer is:

Water and wine mixed was a common practical practice..

It developed into a liturgical practice with various theological interpretations- “was it Jesus' two natures?” “Our humanity and his divinity?” It varied.

And then, at the Reformation, it was abandoned as a practice by many within Protestantism, with the Lutherans and Anglicans both being open to doing it, or not.

Thanks for the email!

 

 The Last word for today comes from the daily lectionary and Psalm 51, which feels like a mandatory read whenever it comes up:

Have mercy on me, O God,
    according to your unfailing love;


according to your great compassion

    blot out my transgressions.

Wash away all my iniquity

    and cleanse me from my sin.

For I know my transgressions,

    and my sin is always before me.

Against you, you only, have I sinned
    and done what is evil in your sight;


so you are right in your verdict

    and justified when you judge.

Surely I was sinful at birth,

    sinful from the time my mother conceived me.

Yet you desired faithfulness even in the womb;
    you taught me wisdom in that secret place.

Cleanse me with hyssop, and I will be clean;

    wash me, and I will be whiter than snow.

Let me hear joy and gladness;

    let the bones you have crushed rejoice.

Hide your face from my sins

    and blot out all my iniquity.

Create in me a pure heart, O God,

    and renew a steadfast spirit within me.

  

This has been the Christian History Almanac for the 12th of September 2025, brought to you by 1517 at 1517.org.

The show is produced by a man who knows that Ojai bans chain stores by a town ordinance to encourage local and independent ownership- if he didn’t know, he does… he’s  Christopher Gillespie.

The show is written and read by a man intrigued with Hot Communion, Dan van Voorhis.

You can catch us here every day- and remember that the rumors of grace, forgiveness, and the redemption of all things are true…. Everything is going to be ok.