And as he sat at dinner in the house, many tax collectors and sinners came and were sitting with him and his disciples. When the Pharisees saw this, they said to his disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?” But when he heard this, he said, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. Go and learn what this means, ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’ For I have come to call not the righteous but sinners.”
Then the disciples of John came to him, saying, “Why do we and the Pharisees fast often, but your disciples do not fast?” And Jesus said to them, “The wedding guests cannot mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them, can they? The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast. No one sews a piece of unshrunk cloth on an old cloak, for the patch pulls away from the cloak, and a worse tear is made. Neither is new wine put into old wineskins; otherwise, the skins burst, and the wine is spilled, and the skins are destroyed; but new wine is put into fresh wineskins, and so both are preserved.” Matthew 9:9-17
New Wineskins
Loving God who restored all creation
we are sorely troubled by sickness
abuse and violence has broken out
we ache to be made whole again.
Hell and destruction seem close
terrors of all sorts make people fear
leadership and compassion are lacking
we seem on the verge of end times.
Help us to see the new growth at hand
the world being reborn from these ashes
the church being made new, we pant in pain
these birth pains are constant and overwhelming.
Stay with us in our sheltered delivery rooms
be with those being beaten in the streets
Help us all to midwife and new beginning
bring love forth within our damaged world today. Amen
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