The first words I heard this morning - "Is there coffee?" Chris has been feeling good since surgery, but even better this morning.
The last great effort to capture Vienna - and possibly Europe - was turned back by a Polish general, Sobieski. The defeat of Ottoman forces was so great that the threat against Europe ceased at that point.
But more important to coffee drinkers, the coffee beans left behind introduced Vienna to the brewing of the roasted beans, and the Vienna coffee house was born.
A second great turning point was the imposition of tea taxes on the American colonies by the British government. The Boston Tea Party inspired opposition against British taxes and laws, leading to American independence. Thus Americans began favoring coffee while the Canadians remained loyal to their tea.
My father insisted on the best coffee at his bakery and donut shop. We threw away coffee older than 15 minutes, since coffee sitting on a burner is quickly demolished. We even blended the coffees in advance, combining Maxwell House with Yuban.
Even at home we had the quaint and seldom used vacuum system. The water was boiled and the top attached. We loved seeing the water drawn up and then filling the glass container below.
The French press is similar, with arm power used to push the grounds to the bottom of the cylinder where coffee grounds and hot water mix. That does make a very good coffee, but in smaller amounts.
The total negation of good coffee was this abomination in the olden days:
- Start with cheap Robusta beans, already ground, in a tin can.
- Use tap water in an aluminum percolator.
- Percolate until the coffee aroma in the kitchen provides an illusion of coffee in the aluminum pot.
- To disguise the flavor or lack thereof, add sugar and cream, or better - a powdered mix that makes the coffee more tolerable.
Starbucks invented the $4 cup of coffee by adding a fake cream and sweeteners to their cold brewed coffee. People caught on to the folly of paying $4 for ten cents worth of coffee, so the corporation is not doing so well.
How Does This Apply To Theology?
For some of us, the analogy is clear. Everyone welcomed coffee in America as a substituted for British tea. According to one story, peaberry was popular because housewives roasted their own green beans in frying pans. The round beans were easier to roast, and naturally they ground their own beans.
Convenience led people to accept worse and worse coffee, the dreaded church coffee leading the list of bad brews percolated and heated forever. Restaurant coffee was often no better. As long as people were used to this, they were passive and obedient in accepting the substitute.
When people are introduced to Luther's sermons and to the clear Gospel of the Lutheran Reformation, they lose their apathy and begin to enjoy again the best of Christianity.
Likewise, if enough people, laity and pastors, know Greek, they are unlikely to accept the horrid mess of the NIV, which is eagerly sold by the "conservative" Lutherans.
Rejecting the NIV has been a reason for kicking out pastors in the WELS for decades, when that action should have resulted in kicking out the DPs and the low-IQ professors of Mordor. Once the WELS cult members got used to the abuse and accepted the classic NIV, which was bad enough, the entire cult adopted the disastrous New NIV. The newest NIV makes Professor Kloha seem to be another Martin Luther in comparison (but only in comparison).
