Sermon

Mark 2:18-22

Old Coats and New Wine

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Mark 2:18-22

Old Coats and New Wine

By Dr. Jeffrey K. London
It’s an age old question, “What’s worth keeping and what needs to be discarded?”

It’s an age old question that gets at the heart of an age old human struggle…our struggle with change.

I always find it fascinating that the person of Jesus is used by some to try and resist change, to try and maintain the status quo.  Jesus not only ushered in change, he embodied it so thoroughly that it cost him his life.  Which then resulted in one more big, big change…resurrection.  But let’s save that for another sermon.

No, Jesus had a lot to say about the positive, necessary place of change in daily life.  It’s not that Jesus wanted to rid the world of everything old, or traditional, or known — no, not at all.  Jesus understood the value of tradition in telling the story of God’s saving acts, but Jesus also called for change to be a part of the human equation in the present, lest we end up living in the past and not seeing or experiencing the saving acts of God in the here and now.

The controversy in our text starts with Jesus eating with sinners but quickly focuses on Jesus and his disciples being criticized for not fasting.  The Pharisees were fasting.  Even John the Baptist’s disciples were fasting.  Everyone else is following the rules, so why are Jesus and his disciples not?

The answer Jesus’ critics receive from him comes in the form of three short sayings.  The first has to do with the proper etiquette afforded the bridegroom at a wedding.  Now notice, Jesus is referencing another old tradition, one that he says is more appropriate under the circumstances.  Jesus is the bridegroom and no one fasts when the bridegroom is around.  You do the opposite, you celebrate!  The reason Jesus’ disciples aren’t fasting is because Jesus, the bridegroom, is here and that means it’s time to throw a party.

It’s an interesting idea, isn’t it?  When Jesus is around it’s time to celebrate?!  Do you realize that if we were to really take that seriously it  could well change forever the way we do church!  To think that Jesus’ presence among is the only reason we need to celebrate, to rejoice, to give thanks.  Wow!  That really could change everything!

But Jesus isn’t done offering parabolic metaphors in response to this criticism about fasting, about change.  The next thing Jesus says is very interesting.  Jesus makes a common sense sort of comment that everyone would have agreed with.  He said, “No one sews a piece of unshrunk clothe on an old coat; otherwise, the patch pulls away from it, the new from the old, and a worse tear is made.

This saying seems to suggest that there is a place for the old coat, that there are good reasons to hold on to the old, to tradition.  But the last thing you want to do is impose something brand new, force something that doesn’t fit, onto the old.  That’s not going to do any good, it’s only going to make the situation worse, it’s only going to cause a bigger rip.

But right on the heels of that saying, Jesus offers another saying that goes in a different direction.  Jesus says, “No one puts new wine in 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.”

Jesus is saying here that there is also a time to throw out the old completely.  He’s saying there are some circumstances in which the old and new are simply incompatible and the old must give way to the new.  The long and the short of it is that the life of faith involves perpetual change.  We’re constantly being called to make faithful decisions about what to keep and patch up, and what needs to be discarded and replaced with something new.

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We need our old coats and we also need our new wine.  Most of the time old and new are compatible.  It’s kind of like singing an old hymn tune to three different sets of new words.  There are ways to faithfully incorporate the old and the new.  We need both.  Which flies in the face of one of the primary measures of success used today.

There are those who embrace the new to the total neglect of the old.

There are those who embrace the old to the total neglect of the new.

Think about how this has become the battle ground for what has been described as the “worship wars” today. The mega-churches have largely tried to turn their backs on tradition, going so far as to call themselves “non-denominational,” that is to say, they claim no denominational affiliation, no tradition, it’s as if they just popped up out of thin air.  Of course, that’s preposterous.  They do come from somewhere, some tradition, they just feel like any link to tradition is a negative.

On the other side of the spectrum are the traditional churches that are so resistant to change that they won’t even entertain the idea of doing things differently.

Now, you might argue that the mega-churches are doing a booming business while many of the traditional churches are dying. And I suppose you could make that argument.  But such an argument is based on some very worldly measures of success.

How do we measure success in the church of Jesus Christ?  Numbers?  Budgets?  Buildings?  Programs?

All of those things have their place, but I would argue for a more Biblical measure of success — Faithfulness.

I was talking to someone recently about measures of success and I said that what we’re trying to do here at John Knox Presbyterian Church has nothing to do with becoming a mega-church or a die-hard traditional church.

What we’re trying to do is live out Jesus’ call to honor old coats while making way for the new wine.  Our measure of success is different than a lot of churches out there and certainly different than the world’s.  We don’t see ourselves as a corporation that’s trying to get as big as possible.  We don’t see ourselves a museum trying to maintain the past.

No, we see ourselves as the body of Christ, as a family that’s trying to live out its baptismal identity, we see ourselves as disciples of Jesus Christ living lives of celebration and invitation.  We focus on worship, education, fellowship, mission, and acts of love and compassion. — and if that’s our focus, if we’re doing those things, we being more than merely successful, we’re being faithful.

*************

Once upon a time, an Eskimo hunter went to see the local Presbyterian missionary who had been preaching in his village.

“I want to ask you something,” the hunter said.

“What’s that?” the missionary replied.

“If I did not know about God and sin, would I go to hell?”

“No,” the missionary answered, “not if you didn’t know.”

“Then why,” asked the hunter, “did you tell me?” (Barbara Brown Taylor, Speaking of Sin: The Lost Language of Salvation, pages 42-43).

One way to interpret that story is to say that it suggests that God, sin, and hell are things that do not exist unless a Presbyterian missionary comes to town and starts preaching about them.

But I think there’s a better way to hear it.  I think the story suggests that with the gift of salvation comes faithful responsibility.  We are the ones God has saved, set apart, not only to manage change faithfully, but to show the world that faithfulness is a way of life in which God’s people can live together in peace.  Now isn’t that a word the world needs to hear today!

There’s no question that change is a part of life.  There’s no question that not all change is good.  But thank God faithful change IS a part of the human condition.  For without it, we’d still be lost in our sins.  The very gift of Jesus Christ is the gift of faithful change that has forever altered human history and given us a new identity, a new way of life, and a promise of future change we call eternal life.

Today is ordination and installation Sunday.  It’s a day in which we celebrate change, a day in which we celebrate God’s presence among us calling and challenging us to new heights of faithfulness.

Our new officers embody the best faithful change has to offer.  But before anyone starts feeling the least bit elitist

about our call to be vessels of faithful change I want us to think about this.  I don’t know if you’ve ever thought about it this way before, but ordination, like baptism, is the celebration of a demotion.  Unlike sorority initiations or Eagle Scout ceremonies, it is a rite in which we step down, not up.  It is a ritual in which we are made the servants of all, and it seems to me that there is a rich irony in our lining up to do this kind of work.  Would any of us answer a classified add that said, “Menial labor, long hours, high expectations, low pay?”  And yet here we are (Ibid., page 75).  Willingly.

The faithful change we are called to embody is lived out through lives of service.  We are called to be the seamstress that sews a pre-shrink patch on an old coat.  We are called to be the bold ones who introduce new wineskins for the new wine needed to celebrate Jesus’ presence among us.

Folks, we’re called to a faithfulness that recognizes the presence of Jesus Christ among us!

Change is not something we need to fear, it’s something we’re called to celebrate in our life together with one another, with our neighbors, and with our God.   Now is not the time for fasting.  Now, my friends, is the time for rejoicing.  Amen.

Copyright 2006, Jeffrey K. London. Used by permission.