Mark 2:18-22 - 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?”
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. But the time will come
when the bridegroom will be taken from them, and on that day they will fast.
“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. 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.”
March 2020, when the pandemic caused
a worldwide shutdown, seems like such a long time ago. As I take a few minutes to try and remember
how things were back then, it is difficult.
If someone back in January 2020 described to me in detail all that was
going to happen over the next year and half, I would have thought they were
certifiably crazy. What’s more, the
pandemic and the fallout from it continues.
What is clear is that we are still in the midst of humongous shifts in
our world that we can’t even begin to predict how we will live on the other
side of all these changes. We have some
hints, but I’m sure we’re in for even more surprises.
Faced with all of this uncertainty,
how do we cope? It seems that everything is different. Schools are different. Work is different in almost every sector of
society. Church is different. I know my
tendency is to try and hold on to the familiar – routines, ways of doing
things, activities that provide comfort.
There is nothing inherently wrong with that, but I know intuitively that
many of those old ways of doing and being will cease to provide the comfort
they once did (if they haven’t already).
I have heard many authors, preachers, and teachers use Jesus’s sayings
above about patches and wineskins to try and caution me about this tendency for
old structures not being able to support the new ways of being, but Jesus’s
words have never hit me harder than they are now.
I don’t know much at all about this
“new wine” being poured out right now, but I know my “old wineskins” won’t hold
it. I see some epic wine spills coming
and there is already a mess on the floor.
I have no tools to describe what our lives will be like even six months
from now, because I’m too busy looking for new tools to handle what is
happening right now. As I re-read the
last few sentences, it seems a bit over-dramatic for a pragmatist like me, but
it does describe my current experience.
From conversations I’ve had lately, I know I’m not alone.
There is good news in all this. God is still good and Jesus is still
Lord. A lot of things have and will
change, but I know that God is still good and Jesus is still Lord. I know that because I’ve experienced God’s
sweet goodness many times over the past two years. Many of those moments of
goodness have come from exchanges I have had with you all. Some have come from exchanges with people I
didn’t know before the pandemic started.
I’ve been reminded that Jesus is still Lord because I’ve watched needed
resources seemingly appear out of thin air.
I’ve gotten solutions dropped in my lap to address a problem I didn’t
even realize I had yet. Yes, we will have to find new wineskins (and clean up
all the messes) in order to make it in the future, but our good God/Lord Jesus
will be with us.
Prayer: Lord, help us to breathe when we feel out of
control and unable to face the future.
May we feel your Sweet, Sweet Spirit in that breath. May we trust in your goodness and Lordship.
Amen
Prayer Focus: Pray for first responders, recovery/rescue
teams, engineers, and other disaster response professionals as they try to get
in and begin their work in southwest Florida in the wake of utter devastation
of Hurricane Ian.
Song:
Just Be Held – Casting Crowns
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