Mark 2: 18-22
18 Now John’s disciples and the Pharisees were fasting. Some people came and asked Jesus, “How is it that John’s disciples and the disciples of the Pharisees are fasting, but yours are not?”In these passages Jesus chastises people who mistake outward signs of piety for true faith. Folks assumed that since the Pharisees and the disciples of John fasted while Jesus' followers did not, the Pharisees and John were holier, more reverent, closer to God. Jesus reminded them all that God can't be contained in any ritual or sign. Rituals like fasting are meant to point to God, but they are not God. God is with people who fast and people who don't.
19 Jesus answered, “How can the guests of the bridegroom fast while he is with them? They cannot, so long as they have him with them. 20 But the time will come when the bridegroom will be taken from them, and on that day they will fast.
21 “No one sews a patch of unshrunk cloth on an old garment. Otherwise, the new piece will pull away from the old, making the tear worse. 22 And no one pours new wine into old wineskins. Otherwise, the wine will burst the skins, and both the wine and the wineskins will be ruined. No, they pour new wine into new wineskins.”
Jesus follows this up with an interesting paragraph about not trying to repair old garments with new cloth, nor putting new wine in old wineskins. Fasting (or the lack thereof) wasn't really the issue here. The real problem was that people thought they already knew who God was and what he wanted so they weren't prepared to see or hear him when he showed up in a way they didn't expect. They shoved God in a box too small for him. When he slipped out and tapped them on the shoulder to say hello they wouldn't believe it was him because the were sure he was still in their box.
This short paragraph reminds us that we are supposed to approach God as a blank slate, ready to be written upon. Our rituals, habits, and preconceptions can be useful in pointing us to God. Ritual and habit remind us to go to church every Sunday, for instance. But once we're actually together with God we have to be ready to change. God transforms us. He makes us new every day. Refusing to be made new is the same as refusing God. We cannot come before him saying, "It's good to see you but don't touch this, don't change this, and don't transform any of these six things." When we do that, we're not really ready for God. We already have one: all those things we're protecting.
When we approach God in the words of the Bible we should be prepared to read them new and fresh even if the words are familiar to us. We don't open the Bible already knowing what it says, but asking what it's going to say to us today. Each sermon should be an opportunity to think new things, to open new avenues of understanding and service. Each time we come to the altar for communion we should regard that as a transformation, a fresh start. We do all these things out of habit, but the substance of them is so much more.
This extends to our daily lives as well. We shouldn't wake up each morning already knowing what we're going to do. Even if we have a schedule and it's the same as it has been for as long as we can remember, we should be ready for God to touch us in new ways through familiar tasks. We shouldn't assume we already know the people God sends into our lives, even those we are closest to. We need to open our eyes, be prepared to see some new facet of them in this day. We should not allow our relationships to get in ruts even if they're comfortable ones for all involved. Here, too, refusing to be transformed is refusing to hear God's voice.
Each day is a new opportunity. God calls us to see it that way and act accordingly. The new wine is ours and the old, familiar wineskin of our lives won't hold it without bursting. Maybe it's time to get a new skin, a little roomier, and take a fresh look at the world God has given us and the people therein as well.
--Pastor Dave (pastordave@geneseelutheranparish.org)
No comments:
Post a Comment