Word to the Wise
Friday, September 4, 2015 - Friday in the 22th Week in Ordinary Time
[Col 1:15-20 and Luke 5:33-39]FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 4, 2015 FRIDAY IN THE TWENTY-SECOND WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME [Colossians 1:15-20 and Luke 5:33-39] "The disciples of John the Baptist fast often and offer prayers, and the disciples of the Pharisees do the same; but yours eat and drink." [Luke] On the surface this seems like a fair question. Jesus and his disciples do not act the same way as the disciples of John the Baptist and the Pharisees, and Jesus is asked why this is so. [The lectionary has skipped over Jesus' first encounters with the scribes and Pharisees in the Gospel of Luke, so it might be helpful to go back and read the first part of chapter five.] Jesus' reply deals with the tension between what is traditional and what is new. He clearly speaks to what he is doing as something new, but he gives tribute to what is old as well. "And no one who has been drinking old wine desires new, for he says, 'The old is good.'" The tension between old and new seems always to be at work in our church as well as in society. A major computer company, Apple, will introduce a new product, and some of us will say, "What's wrong with the old one? I've just gotten used to it!" The same is true in our church. Change is hard to deal with. Just when we get used to doing something and become comfortable with it, a new generation comes along with a new way and we feel like the old wineskins. Jesus was definitely something "new" to his audience and the resistance would be strong. But, his message is one of "conversion" which means change, and it is a challenge in every age. We have to learn to drink new wine as well as old. AMEN
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