Heavenly Hops

A ditty my college friends used to sing*:

In heaven there is no beer,

That's why we drink it here,

And when we're gone from here,

Our friends will be drinking all the beer

Theologically, technically correct (maybe), but for all the wrong reasons. The implication is that heavenly life will be unspeakably dull, so we'd better get in some good times while we can... the exact reverse of the truth.

The Bible gives us images of stuff in heaven - streets of gold, the Temple made of jewels - and of course we are told and affirm that our bodies will be resurrected, but spiritual and incorruptible. What all this will actually be like, the actual experience of what C.S. Lewis called "the furniture of heaven", is impossible to know, and probably useless to speculate on.

Beer in heaven?  I will only say that, whatever creative ideal beer expresses, whatever aspect of God's glory is dimly reflected in it, will be fulfilled in an ultimate sense in heaven.

In Hell, I'm almost certain, there will be great, foaming pints of every kind of beer imaginable to tease and tempt those tormented in the flames, but it will all - no matter how rich and dark - taste like Bud Light.

*This demonstrates how extensively the art of the Drinking Song had been corrupted since the time of Hilaire Belloc, mere decades before.

Comments

[JoeyG]

Well, Our Lord says that He will drink "the new wine" in the Kingdom with His followers. A lot of respectful spiritual writers have hypothesized that wine will somehow be a part of the heavenly banquet. Why not beer, too? After all, Saint Brigid is there: http://www.beliefnet.com/Faiths/Christianity/2000/03/A-Lake-Of-Beer-For-God.aspx

[Shmikey]

The Irish Monks of Glenstal Abbey produced an album with Nóirín Ní Riain, whose angelic soprano mixed with the chanting of these Irish monks is ethereal, recorded the Prayer of
Saint Brigid(Whose feast day is today!!) that posits the idea of a lake of beer in heaven that will be drank as a prayer to God. Only the Irish, God lovem!!!

[Darin]

It reminds me of a sign I've seen in a few pubs.

When we drink, we get drunk.
When are drunk, we sleep.
When we sleep, we commit no sin.
When we commit no sin, we go to Heaven. . .

So let's all get drunk so we can go to Heaven.

I'm not sure that's the best way to get there, but God loved us each so much that he gave us the ability to choose how we wanted to come home to him . . .