New Wineskins for a New Day

 

New Wineskins for a New Day

Mark 2:18-22 NLT; reading from John Dominic Crossan on parables

A meditation delivered electronically by Rev. Dr. Randy K. Hammer, Aug. 16, 2020

Pouring wine into skins mostly likely is a foreign concept to most of us.  Those who enjoy an occasional glass of wine bring it home in a glass bottle or Franzia or Bota Box.  But in Jesus’ day a common way to transport wine from the fermentation vat was in a bota bag made from the skin of an animal, such as dried, tanned and treated goatskin, because the skin was much lighter and easier to transport than a big earthen jug or jar.  Sounds appetizing, doesn’t it?

But as the wineskins aged, they became less pliable and more brittle.  So if you put new, still fermenting wine in an aged, brittle skin, as the wine continued to ferment and expand, it would crack the skin and the skin (which could have also been used as a water container) was ruined and the wine was lost on the ground.

Well, when being questioned about the way that he and his disciples were doing things (or not doing things), Jesus drew the parallel – with him it was a new day of new wine and new wineskins.  In other words, it was a new day with a new message and a new reality, along with a new way of doing things.

Well, I thought about this imagery while reflecting on our current situation.  The situation that has affected the whole world has brought with it a new reality, which has necessitated new wineskins, if you will.  New situations call for a new message and new ways of doing things.  In mid-March, we moved to online Sunday services via YouTube, to educational materials for the children by way of YouTube videos and website postings, and electronic Zoom adult Sunday school, children’s zoom session, and Zoom board meetings, and so on.  New wineskins!

And along with the new reality and new ways of doing things have come new messages, new sermons and meditations, and new prayers in response to the issues that we all face daily.

Or to put it another way, over the past five months a great many of the messages and services have addressed the changes that have occurred, the challenges we have faced, and some resources needed (such as flexibility, staying connected, and hope) until we get to the other side of this pandemic.

In many ways, my preaching topics, the readings I have chosen, the prayers I have prayed, the Light for the Journey photos and words, and so on have been much different than they would have been had we never heard of COVID-19.  New wine for a new day.

And the new wineskins and new wine that have been necessitated is not all bad.  Some good things have come of the new ways of doing things and the new messages that have come to birth.  Yes, new wineskins are new forms we have learned to use to be the container or carrier for the new messages that we have shared.

You know, there are some events in history that change the landscape and how we see things and do things.  For example, the Civil Rights Movement of the 60s and September 11, 2001, to cite just two life-changing events.  The jury is still out as to whether COVID-19 will permanently change how we see and do some things.  That is my estimation of it, at least.  Will we eventually be able to completely return to the old wineskins way of doing things exactly as we once did?  Will we in a few months be able to return to the old wine of traditional meditations, sermons, and small group meetings together as we had done for so many years?  Or will we want to?  We all certainly hope and pray that in a few months we will be able to look at the current situation in a rearview mirror, as past history, and that our personal lives and church life will return to what we once considered to be normal.

But as illustrated by Jesus, some new wineskins and new wine within them can be good too.  So, it may be that we won’t completely discard the new wineskins ways of doing things, even if we can.  We have learned some valuable lessons these past five months.  We may want to incorporate the best of some of the new with some of the old that we had grown accustomed to.

Just as flexibility in wineskins was important in Jesus’ day, flexibility in our personal lives and in our church life is important as well.  The key, I think, is to take each day and each week as they come with gratitude, and adapt and make the most of them with the grace and guidance we have been given.  May it be so.  Amen.