SCRIPTURE READING - DAY 37
Mark 2:21-22
No one sews a patch of unshrunk cloth
on an old garment. If they do, the new
piece will pull away from the old, making
the tear worse. And people do not pour
new wine into old wineskins. If they do,
the wine will burst the skins, and both
the wine and the wineskins will be ruined.
No, they pour new wine into new
wineskins." (TNIV)
MEDITATION BY Rob Yackley
A few years ago, a friend visited our missional community in South Africa to talk about the church in our changing world. Daniel began by asking us this question: “What was the last church you attended?” While most of us instinctively responded by naming the church where we last attended a worship service, the youngest guy in the room responded in a whole different light. His answer signaled that he had actually begun to imagine a new reality.
Ryan replied, “Well, when I came downstairs this morning and was cooking breakfast with some of you, I was experiencing church in the kitchen. And then when we met in the lounge to pray; I was experiencing church there too. And now as we’re sitting here in this room having this conversation, I’m experiencing church again. So to answer your question, the last church I attended has been the one I’ve been with all morning.” Ryan’s answer revealed more than just a new way of thinking. It revealed an insight about church that was actually allowing the Spirit of God to breathe fresh life into him and us—life that was taking hold and not tearing away at the seams.
The lesson in the parable of the wineskin is straightforward: whenever the Spirit breathes fresh life into God’s people, they will need to create new forms and expressions to take it in and live it out. But letting go of what is familiar to forge something new is neither simple nor popular.
In the verses surrounding this parable, we find Jesus and his followers under serious scrutiny. They’re hanging out with sketchy characters. They’re feasting instead of fasting. They’re blurring the lines between the secular and the sacred. You can almost hear their detractors saying, “Hey, you aren’t taking your faith very seriously. In fact, you’re exhibiting a wholesale lack of respect and commitment to the way we do things around here.”
Jesus responds to these criticisms with this parable that challenges the religious status quo and marks the end of an era. He implies that it’s actually impossible to hold fresh movements of God in the structures and practices we’ve depended on in the past. Jesus challenges us to let go of the familiar routines that have shaped our experience and our identity and imagine a new reality in order to take in all that God is up to. A simple upgrade to the way we “do church” today won’t work any better than a simple upgrade of Judaism would have worked then.
It is one thing to give up something that’s inherently bad for us—whether for Lent or for the long run. It is another thing to shed something from our lives that feels core to our identity and our sense of belonging. But that is exactly what Jesus asks us to do in the parable of the wineskins.
REFLECTION
If you are not being criticized for following Jesus, why might that be?
What religious routines are you holding onto that need to be torn out of your experience to make room for God?
What would a life-giving community of faith look like to you?
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