Old or New?

Similarly, no one puts new wine into old wineskins;

otherwise, the new wine will burst the skins and will spill out, and the skins will be ruined. 

But new wine must be put into fresh wineskins.

Luke 5:37-38

Dear Friends,

Are you someone who likes old things and keeps repairing them or are you someone who likes to buy the newest and latest? If I’m honest, I tend toward hanging on to stuff and try to keep using it as long as I can (If I’m really honest, it’s my frugality gene that doesn’t want to pay more money for new things!). Because of this, I sometimes try to keep “making do” with something that is too old or too broken or is just not the right “tool for the job.” On the other hand, folks who are locked in to always needing to have the latest, best, “new and improved” version of something can really get trapped into a very expensive lifestyle!

Those of you who know me well recognize that I’ve presented this as an either/or dichotomy… Either you hang on to stuff or you always buy new. The reality is that usually we are on a spectrum and will sometimes hang onto and repair things that have served us well in the past and when something gets broken or we get frustrated with not having what we need we’ll by something new that seems to provide a solution to our predicament or situation.

Now, when it is a tool or a car or a smart phone or a piece of clothing, these decisions or choices are a matter of preference and circumstances. When we start having to make these choices around church matters (such as worship and ministry), it gets a little bit more complicated for me. Quite often it can seem like a choice between old and new… to the way that we’ve always done things vs. a different way of doing things. I would suggest that it is not either the “old way” or the “new way” but an ongoing discernment about the things that we are doing that bring life to us and others and what are the things that no longer are effective in doing this.

Unless we do something different, we automatically tend to make choices like this based on what we are used to, what we like or don’t like, what works for us or doesn’t work for us. I would suggest this is an old wineskin way of approaching a problem. If we want to allow something new and fresh to happen, we’ll need new wineskins. It will begin with some new perspectives and orientations like:

·         What is God wanting to have happen here and through FLC?

·         What will deepen my and our discipleship?

·         What will have me (and us) engaging with our neighbours and with new people?

·         What can each of us do to contribute to the movement and work of the Spirit here?

In the past, FLC has been a new wineskin congregation.

Our neighbours need us to be a new wineskin people  now!

Peace,

Pastor Phil