PrintToday's "Moment With Mark" (35) -Wine & Wineskins
17 December, 2012
"And no one puts new wine into old wineskins. The wine would burst the wineskins, spilling the wine and ruining the skins. New wine needs new wineskins." (Mark 2:22 NLT)
Perhaps the greatest challenge in the Church today is how the "old" can accommodate the "new". Jesus recognised the problem. And I, for one, am greatly relieved that He did (and does). One of the images that He used to explain the interaction of 'old' and 'new' was what would happen if new wine was placed in to old wineskins. Pressure would build until eventually there would be an 'explosion' and both the new wine and the old wineskins would be lost. Everybody suffers loss.
Does this description remind you of any situation in your experience of Church? One group hangs on to the old ways of worship and ministry while the other group wants to modernise everything it can. It takes a great deal of maturity on both sides of the discussion to reach a place of agreement and mutual respect.
Maybe such negotiations are unfruitful anyway. Jesus seems to be saying that new wine needs to be put into new wineskins. Full stop. Don't even try to make the old accommodate the new. That will lead to compromise on the part of both parties. What do you think?
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