Link to AGM reflection of 29 August 2010
Luke 5.33 – 39 – A Church In Ferment
Reverend Chris Bedford
Luke 5.33 - 39
33They said to him, "John's disciples often fast and
pray, and so do the disciples of the Pharisees, but yours go on eating and drinking." 34Jesus answered, "Can you make the guests of the bridegroom fast while he is with them? 35But the time will
come when the bridegroom will be taken from them; in those days they will fast." 36He told them this parable: "No one tears a patch from a new garment and sews it on an old one. If he does, he
will have torn the new garment, and the patch from the new will not match the old. 37And no one pours new wine into old wineskins. If he does, the new wine will burst the skins, the wine will run out and the wineskins
will be ruined. 38No, new wine must be poured into new wineskins. 39And no one after drinking old wine wants the new, for he says, 'The old is better.' " About this time in 2006 Sue and I were travelling along the Dalmatian coast of Croatia – the area that the Dalmatians came from. We stayed in a Bed and
Breakfast place at the town of Omis. It was a moderately sized family house. Shortly after we had arrived a medium sized truck arrived, tipped up its tray, and dumped load of grapes outside the garage door – and the men of the
family proceeded to start making the family's new wine for the season. Given the role that the Dalmatian settlers in New Zealand have had in establishing the wine industry here, it was very interesting.
Seeing them starting to make the new wine was how I felt after last Sunday's Annual meeting. "We're starting to making new wine. New wine of life and possibilities and growth." 1: You said maintenance of the
buildings is important but we want mission and outreach to be seen as at least of equal importance. It is an outward looking attitude. 2: There was a high level of participation. I set it up that way, but you responded. You could have just
looked at the floor. 3: You asked the Church Council to initiate a full review of the inside of this building – so that it may be a springboard and useful resource for the mission that God is calling you to. It
didn't take long for ideas to start flowing about that! 4: You put in place the new Church Council – which will have a new way of leading this parish ahead in the future. This is rather like getting a new
car. You know it's going to go well but it takes a trip or two to get it going at its best. It suggests to me that you're saying that 'the issues of the last 18 months are behind us, it's time for this church to start
fermenting.' And I sensed a certain impatience to get going. "Let's do something." Which links to the new wine and raises and important challenge.
What are we going to do with this new wine of faith and hope that is fermenting in this church. So let's get back to the wine business. Many of us grew up through the era when wine in New Zealand was something of a
novelty. Sure, lots of Frenchmen and Italians drank wine every day – you don't do that in New Zealand. There were the Dallies I West Auckland – all the 'ovich's', and the viticultural research place at Te Kauwhata.
It might have been a bit remote for us 5th generation NZers of British stock, children of the temperance movement. But it wasn't remote for the people Jesus was speaking to. He came to talk about a new way of
connecting with God and living out his life in the world, but there were a group of people – mostly religious leaders (ministers and elders) who couldn't see beyond the old ways. The disciples – the group of learners – of
John the Baptism, and those of the religious teachers, the Pharisees – observed the old ways of following the faith. But yours don't. We don't get it. 1 large scale evangelistic meetings. 2 The charismatic renewal. 2 Scripture in song – the choruses. 3 Home groups and house churches 4 Praise and worship
Now we see the importance of there is a new move which getting our focus out into society, bringing Jesus into the community in ways that ordinary (unchurched) people can understand. God is encouraging us to be those who
care about the world and people around us. 39And no one after drinking old wine wants the new, for he says, 'The old is better.' " It is
true that aged wine often tastes better than newly bottled wine. Often we want the old things – old songs, old experiences relived, old styles, old well proven techniques. These are good things and still to be savoured, but if we
don't bottle new wine, there will be no wine in the future.
Warm and smooth and lifegiving.
The wine making process, is I am told, a cross between a science and an art. Like a lot of you, I've been around a few wineries, wondered at the big oak barrels of steadily aging wine and listened to the scientific
language – and been grateful when we got to the wine tasting bit.
So you asked the Treasurer to take half of what he had budgeted for maintenance, and reallocate it into a section of the
budget set aside for growth and development possibilities.
Jesus is actually in the home of Levi (later called Matthew), who
has called together all his tax collecting and sinning friends.
Anyway Jesus visits his home then even calls him as one of his disciples. The Pharisees couldn't get hold of this – everything Jesus could do wrong, he was
doing! However they were intrigued by Jesus and were trying to understand him. The problem was that their criteria for measuring spirituality, was not God's and Jesus didn't fit! He didn't tick the boxes of fasting, associations,
etiquette etc.
Rather than walking away from this, Jesus told two parables, one about sewing, one about winemaking, which is the one we're focussing on today.
The Wineskins Jesus referred to would most likely have
been whole goatskins. The practice was to remove the skin, cutting off the lower leg parts then sewing everything back together, with only the neck remaining open. The skins were tanned and prepared for the wine. So imagine a goat
sized bag, with four leg shaped bulges. The pressed grape juice was then poured in and left to ferment. Through the fermentation process, the skin would inflate, due to the carbon dioxide generated by fermentation. After a while
the whole thing would be like a big balloon. It relied upon the flexibility of the goatskin to contain this expansion until the fermentation was complete.
It must have been that occasionally one of these things would go
bang – spraying partially fermented wine all over the place. No one wanted this to happen, because they'd have lost some good wine and there was a terrible mess to clean up afterward. This scenario would have been relevant and
pertinent to the audience.
Jesus pointed out that no one in his right mind would try to recycle one of these skins – the process and the presence of alcohol for a prolonged period stiffened the skin and greatly reduced its
pliability.
So what was Jesus saying through this parable?
We can look back through the last 30 years or so and see how the church in this country has changed considerably.
We can remember the different emphases that came through the church.
In this church you are saying, what is God calling us to be and do in this region of the vineyard, in Birkenhead and Birkdale and Beachhaven?
There is new wine flowing – how
do we respond? How do we take what God is doing and bring it to the people? New strategies of God require new ways of thinking.
It's easy to fall into the mould of trying to keep things as they are, to maintain the status
quo, rather than to flex and expand to accommodate the new things God is wanting to do. We're wise to listen to the younger generation. Some ideas and ways of doing things may not be our cup of tea, but we're wise to take notice.
They often have keys we don't think of, because they have a more open view of the world.
In Luke 5, v 39:
There is a richness in the old, but it will become rare unless it is bottled or packaged in ways that connecxt with the people of a coming age.
And that's what I heard you saying at the AGM.
A new world and new ways require a flexibility for life in today's society. An imagination and innovation.
There are not short cuts or easy answers, but let's get the
fermentation going and see where God takes us and enjoy the wine we have as we go!