New Wine Skins
Scary Thought
When I was a boy, we decided to make some blackberry wine. After we went blackberry picking, we put the blackberries in a gallon glass jug, added water, sugar and a little yeast. Then we hid it under a friend’s bed. We were going to make us a little wine. It didn’t stay hidden long. His mother followed her nose a day or so later after an explosion boomed through her house. She found a shattered glass jug that had exploded spraying glass and “wine?” throughout the room. His bed smelled bad for a long, long time. The jug could not keep our new wine hidden. It exposed itself.
Jesus taught:
“And no one puts new wine into old wine-skins. If he does, the new wine will burst the skins and it will be spilled, and the skins will be destroyed. But new wine must be put into fresh wine skins. And no one after drinking old wine desires new, for he says, ‘The old is good.’”
I get the idea that new wine can’t be put in an old stiff container. It must be put onto something flexible and expandable. We tried again later and put a cloth over it instead of a lid. We hid it in the woods. It was pretty bad tasting. More like vinegar than anything else. We drank it anyway. I don’t think it was anything like what Jesus talked about.
I always assumed that Jesus was talking about the new wine being life in the Kingdom he was proclaiming. That life could not be kept in the old religious and cultural containers they were using. If they tried to keep it in the old system, it would destroy the system. It did and the “new wine” was lost.
Over the years it seems as if Jesus’ followers have changed the way they did things. Big, big shift when Christianity became a safe, recognized State religion. Later Luther created another big shift. The Catholic Church rejected him and continued their way with little if any reform. Others followed Luther’s thinking. This resulted in a major rift in Christianity.
Periodically other new thoughts came on the scene. American Frontier revivalism. The Jesus Movement. Lay Renewal. Small groups, House churches. Megachurches. Media churches. I lose track.
It seems to me that we may be approaching another turning point. Some Followers of Jesus are not dissatisfied with Jesus but they do expect more of their churches. They—and me— feel something is missing because we have a Church Culture that is isolated from our American Culture and is not a transformative force in our culture. Also, within the Church Culture, people conform to the expectations of that culture more than being transformed by the Spirit.
Jesus said that His followers would transform the world. He didn’t mention political power, voting power or changing the laws. He indicated that very little yeast or salt (His people in a society) would be transformative and change the culture.
American Evangelical Christianity seemingly has lost its transformative power. Jesus said when Salt lost its flavoring (trans-formative) ability it was good for nothing and was to be thrown out.
Scary thought!