“And
no one puts new wine into old wineskins; otherwise, the wine will burst the
skins, and the wine is lost, and so are the skins; but one puts new wine into
fresh wineskins.” – Mark 2:22 NRSV
I must
admit that I am not a connoisseur by any means. I know basically about the three
colors of wine, and that I don’t usually drink wine much at all. I know that it
comes from grapes, and that the fermentation process involves a lot of transformation
from grape juice to wine. I can tell you about the story of Welch’s Grape Juice
(originally called non-fermented wine) and that Mr. Welch was a Methodist. Still,
I don’t know much about wine.
And yet,
in Jesus’ day, wine was very much a staple of every day life. (Water, it turns
out, was not purified then, and tended to cause more harm than good.) So when
Jesus is asked by some folks about John the Baptizer’s disciples and the
Pharisees practicing the spiritual discipline of fasting while Jesus’ own
disciples didn’t fast, Jesus answered them with the teaching about how silly it
is to fast while you are with the Bridegroom. That’s like not wanting to eat a
piece of the wedding cake because you’re on a diet! It’s not only wrong, it’s
downright rude! When the Bridegroom has left, then you can fast.
But then
he goes further. And he teaches them with two examples. First, the idea of
sewing a patch made of new cloth onto an old coat, which would be poor judgment.
The first time the coat is washed, the new patch will shrink, and make a bigger
hole. Second he talks about wineskins and wine.
As I said
above, I don’t know much about wine, but I do know that when grape juice begins
to ferment, the process usually makes the juice expand. Old wineskins (used
ones) have already reached the limit of their expandability, thus making it
highly likely that new wine would split the skins, wasting everything. (Not
just the wine, but the time and investment of growing, harvesting, and pressing
the grapes to get the juice is wasted as well.)
Why is
Jesus telling this story? Perhaps it is because he’s not talking about just fasting,
patching up old coats, and new wine in old wineskins. Maybe there’s something
deeper her. Maybe there’s a lesson for us all in this short little verse.
Mark’s
gospel was written to his own church at a later time than Jesus’ day. His
gospel was written not to individuals, but to the whole church. The various
parts of this teaching can be interpreted in many different ways, no doubt. But
the way that I have come to understand this particular passage of scripture, especially
since it is so early in Mark’s gospel, has to do with the way things had been,
and the advent of this new Kingdom of Heaven.
If the
old wineskins relates to the ways we’ve “always done things,” and the new wine is
the life in the Kingdom of Heaven that Jesus is introducing, we’re headed for
trouble. The thing about Jesus’ Kingdom is that it is going to grow and grow
and grow. And it is so expansive that it will never work in the systems and
patterns of the ways we’ve always done things. It is going to take a major
shift in our understanding of how things work in order for us to adapt. It is
going to take new wineskins, wineskins that will expand with this new, ever-growing
and fermenting Kingdom that we’re being introduced to. The same old same old
isn’t going to cut it anymore.
The Bridegroom
is here – Jesus. And the wedding is now. It is not time for fasting, it is time
to celebrate. The Kingdom has come, and is breaking in upon us as we speak. If
we’re so stuck in our ways that we cannot see this new life upon us, everything
we are trying to hold on to will literally burst around us, and we’ll lose
everything. (“Unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains
just a single grain… Those who try to keep their life in this life will lose
it, but those who are willing to lose their life – read ‘spend it’ – for my
sake and the sake of the gospel, will keep it for eternal life.”)
We’ve
seen some hard times over the past several years. It has been difficult. Even
scary. But God isn’t done with St. Luke’s yet. There’s still more ahead of us. 2022
will be the 75th Anniversary of St. Luke’s. Think about that for a
moment. Seventy-five years! Can anyone begin to count the number of people who
have ventured through these doors, sat in our pews, worshiped and learned about
Jesus throughout these seven and a half decades? Is there a way to put a number
on that?
And what
of the next seventy-five years? And beyond? How many people will wander in,
searching for something that will help them make sense of their life and this
world? How many people will hear – some of them for the very first time – about
Jesus Christ, and what he did on that cross two thousand years ago? How many
children will come through these doors, sit down in those colorful little
chairs in the classrooms and hear about Jesus, Noah, Jonah, Abraham, Sarah,
David, Peter and Paul? Is there a way to begin to guess that number? God knows.
And God knows each and every name.
Since Easter this year, St. Luke’s
has had over twenty new people come to join our church. This is 16% growth in
just five months! It is time to see this new thing that God is doing among us! It
is time to put away our fears and anxieties, and to begin to grow again. God’s
vision for this congregation has yet to be fully realized. God is not finished
with St. Luke’s. God is just getting started!
But we’re going to need to get rid
of our old wineskins, because this new wine of God’s Kingdom is going to burst
our old ways of doing things wide open. And I’m getting ready for it. Are you?
See you in Church!
