Scripture for the Day:
Then the disciples of John came to him, saying, ‘Why do we and the Pharisees fast often, but your disciples do not fast?’ And Jesus said to them, ‘The wedding-guests cannot mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them, can they? The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast. No one sews a piece of unshrunk cloth on an old cloak, for the patch pulls away from the cloak, and a worse tear is made. Neither is new wine put into old wineskins; otherwise, the skins burst, and the wine is spilled, and the skins are destroyed; but new wine is put into fresh wineskins, and so both are preserved.’ -- Matthew 9:10-17
Reflection – Cathy Ostuw
When I was in elementary school we memorized proverbs. I loved them. The rules of the world, made simple and succinct: “Too many cooks spoil the broth.” “Many hands make light work.” “Wait,” I asked, “which is it? Do too many cooks spoil the broth, or do many hands make light work? How can both of those be true?” My question was similar, I'm sure, to the question that this parable evoked almost 2,000 years ago. “No one sews a piece of unshrunk [new] cloth on an old cloak, for the patch pulls away from the cloak, and a worse tear is made.” "Yes," the elders would have nodded, "that which is old is good, what is new is raw, unseasoned, it has no value.” Jesus continued, however. “Do not put new wine put into old wineskins; otherwise, the skins burst, and the wine is spilled.” The young ones smirked, for they knew that the elders were brittle and inflexible, and that they could not compete with the exuberant, dynamic ideas and practices of the young. Which statement is true? What is better, old or new? The answer, of course, is both. In Jesus’ time, as today, there are times to embrace the old, and times to adopt the new. The very best plans appreciate and incorporate the value of each.
To ponder and pray:
Do you have some old patterns that don’t hold the new wine that God is offering you? Would you rather stick with the old wine, or get some new skins?
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One thing we need to do to being willing to part with our old wineskins, and embrace new structures/patterns/strategies, is to be convinced of the value of the "new wine of the Spirit" God is offering us. In Luke's telling of this parable, Jesus adds an enigmatic word: "But no one, after tasting the old wine, wants the new, for he says 'the old is better.'"
ReplyDeleteIt's easy to slip back into the old patterns and strategies - after all, they worked up to a point. Sometimes they're no longer working, but we still treasure them. My way forward is to ask God to fill me with the new wine every day (and every Sunday at the altar?), that I may come to treasure that gift and not want to see it draining away through my neglect and clinging to old ways of being.
Thanks for this, Cathy. Your reflection, in part, breaks open the nature of the and a parable. We don't get an answer, per se. We are left with more questions that challenge what came before and what will come after. The beauty is that we don't settle into old patterns nor do we embrace everything new. We are continually questioning. Good questions!
ReplyDeleteI love this sense of paradox and of just letting it be, embracing it. I was reminded of this watching this wonderful talk at TED by Elizabeth Gilbert titled, "Genius and how we ruin it." Watch through till the end, and you will hear the Ole, Ole, Ole! http://www.ted.com/talks/view/id/453 --Ed
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