The Percolating Gospel

When I was growing up, coffee was usually made in a percolator. A coffee percolator is a type of pot where you put the coffee grounds in the metal basket at the top, water in the pot, and then placed it on the stove. As the water boiled, it saturated the coffee grounds. The longer you boiled (“percolated”) the coffee, the stronger it became. Percolators went out of style in the 1970’s when automatic drip coffee makers came into fashion. These were easier to operate. Put the coffee grounds into the paper filter, then into the basket. Fill the reservoir with water and turn on. Several minutes later you had a pot of coffee which stayed hot as it was sitting on a heated plate. These automatic drip coffee makers were pretty much the standard for twenty or so years. They improved over time. I had one that you could set a timer so that it would begin brewing in the morning, finishing, just as you were ready to fill your travel mug and walk out the door

There was also a trend that arose of grinding your own coffee beans. For years, I bought cans of ground coffee until whole bean became available. I went out and purchased a coffee grinder so that the beans were always freshly ground before putting them in the paper filter. I also tried using a French press. Putting freshly ground coffee on the bottom of a container and then pouring hot water over it while pressing down on a filter pushing the water through the beans. It is said, plunging slowly maximizes the extraction of the oils and flavonoids from the ground bean.

Of course, if one was in a hurry, there is always instant coffee. Growing up, Sanka was what one found in restaurants. Starbucks even launched a line of instant coffees back in 2009.

Everything changed in 1998, when Keurig introduced the K-cup brewing system. I would say 90% of the coffee I consume today are from K-cups. It’s just so easy. Pop in a pod, and less than a minute or two later you have a cup of fresh-brewed coffee. In 2014, nine billion K-cups were sold.

Why all this talk about coffee? Well, while people may have a favorite method, the basic premise of making coffee has not really changed. How we do it or how fast we do it has, but eventually, it is still just a matter of running hot water through roasted, ground, coffee beans.

The same could be said for the gospel. We are called to share our faith. Jesus says, “…go and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Teach these new disciples to obey all the commands I have given you” (Matthew 28:19-20), and “Go into all the world and preach the Good News to everyone” (Mark 16:15). It’s pretty clear that we are supposed to share our faith. How we do that has changed. Unlike, our brothers and sisters-in-Christ in the early church, we have a variety of options beyond verbal communication. There is now radio, television, texting, websites, You Tube, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and on and on. It’s still the gospel though. That has not changed. Jesus died for our sins so that we could be forgiven If we repent and believe in Him, we will be saved. However you choose to share does not matter. Just share. It is the most important thing you have to share. There is no right way or wrong way to do it, just do it. Here’s an idea. Maybe you could invite a friend to get a cup of coffee?                

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