Fresh Wineskins

Jesus went out again beside the lake; the whole crowd gathered around him, and he taught them. As he was walking along, he saw Levi son of Alphaeus sitting at the tax booth, and he said to him, ‘Follow me.’ And he got up and followed him. And as he sat at dinner in Levi’s house, many tax-collectors and sinners were also sitting with Jesus and his disciples—for there were many who followed him. When the scribes of the Pharisees saw that he was eating with sinners and tax-collectors, they said to his disciples, ‘Why does he eat with tax-collectors and sinners?’ When Jesus heard this, he said to them, ‘Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick; I have come to call not the righteous but sinners.’ Now John’s disciples and the Pharisees were fasting; and people came and said to him, ‘Why do John’s disciples and the disciples of the Pharisees fast, but your disciples do not fast?’ Jesus said to them, ‘The wedding-guests cannot fast while the bridegroom is with them, can they? As long as they have the bridegroom with them, they cannot fast. The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast on that day. ‘No one sews a piece of unshrunk cloth on an old cloak; otherwise, the patch pulls away from it, the new from the old, and a worse tear is made. And no one puts new wine into old wineskins; otherwise, the wine will burst the skins, and the wine is lost, and so are the skins; but one puts new wine into fresh wineskins.’ Mark 2:13-22

Since the worst of Covid was behind us, we all wanted to go back to the "way things were before the pandemic." And we are seeing that we truly cannot go back to the way things were since we were all changed by the experience. We cannot pretend such a powerful time in human history can be erased or forgotten. We have been remade, changed, even if we don't want to admit it. We cannot go back to all our old ways. We have to use fresh wineskins, look with fresh eyes, and follow Jesus into unknown territory. The times have changed us and the world around us. We are called to follow on a new journey, to places and with people we have not known before. 

Wondrous Creator, you restore all living things

you designed the seasons so we might turn

you changed the light and the wind by seasons

so that we might be refreshed and made new again.

We have suffered so many loses and changes

we ache to return to a safer, more familiar world

yet that old world cannot hold us anymore

we are all changed and heading to a new world.

Help us to follow you wherever you lead us

give us faith to trust your unfolding new way

make us brave enough to let go of old ways

so we might carry your love into this new season. Amen.