July 5, 2015, "New Wine, New Skins"

First Congregational Church of Los Angeles

July 5, 2015

Mark 2.21-22

Oh Jerusalem, Jerusalem …

Can you be more than you are?

And so begins a new sermon series today …

A sermon series Dr. Colglazier and I will be working on for the next two months … we’re excited about the series and grateful to share with all of you in the Parables of Jesus.

Because parables are the way Jesus taught … and why did he teach this way? 

Parables provoke, raise questions, startle us with unexpected images … 

A dishonest steward who knows what he’s doing with money … a shepherd unwilling to lose even one sheep … a pearl merchant making a deal … a father who never gives up hope for a wayward son.

Parables offer a different way of thinking about the tried and the true … maybe the tried and the true can tell us more than we expect … maybe the tried and true ain’t so true anymore, and it’s time to try something new.

Which reminds me - last week, I put a dollar into a change machine, and nothing changed! 

Shall we move on?

Today’s parable: new wine, new skins … a parable understood by everyone, growers and consumers alike … the last of the old, and soon the new … hip hip hooray, a new vintage comes our way.

And who knows, the new wine might surpass the old in flavor and quality!

Wine is one thing … but religion another …

Religion tends to settle down and settle in … hard and fast … decades worth, centuries worth … smells, bells and doodahs … this is the way it’s done because this is the way we’ve always done it, and by golly, no one’s gonna change our mind.

And here comes Jesus … pushing hard to make some changes … and lot of folks didn’t like it one bit.

Scribes question his “table manners” - eating with “sinners and tax collectors.”

People wonder about his fidelity to the rules of fasting.

Pharisees question his commitment to Sabbath restrictions.

The prim and the proper are offended by the woman who anoints his feet with her tears.

Jesus speaks to all of them of new times and new ways.

The old is good, but it’s time has passed.

Nothing lasts forever.

Several months ago, a Sunday morning, getting ready for church, I put my Bible on the trunk of the car, brought a bag of garbage to the trash bin … went back upstairs … returned a few moments later, walked around the front of the car, got in and drove off to church: you know what happened.

My Bible was gone.

A hour later, my wife and son followed my route to church, looking for it, but to no avail - it was gone. 25 years worth notes, cross-references and comments. 

Gone!

Jesus my LORD.

I ordered a new Bible … and here it is … clean and fresh … and it feels great …

Would I have willingly set aside the old one?

I don’t know. Nostalgia and familiarity are powerful resistors to change.

Let me say that again: Nostalgia and familiarity are powerful resistors to change.

I miss that old Bible sometimes, just the thought of it - wondering where it is, what happened to it, but I’m glad the LORD took it from my hand … new wine, new skins.

On another note:

The Santa Monica Art Museum is moving out of Bergamot Station … the Executive Director said:

I want it to be very clear that we are not closing. We are moving. Our museum is all about agility and experimentation and being a collection of ideas, not being a permanent collection of art. Although this is not something we had planned, we realize we have to take the mission, vision and purpose to a next stage.”

Sometimes by choice, sometimes by chance, sometimes by necessity, the next stage … time doesn’t stand still … and God moves on … new wine, new skins.

As for Jesus, he’s no iconoclast … though he does overturn a few tables.

Jesus honors the traditions … and then plays with them.

Like Christoph on the organ, and Peter Fennema today.

Take what is, and play with it.

Bring out new insights.

Raise questions:

Maybe we can go this way.

Or that way.

Let’s see what happens.

Like a potter with clay.

An artist with paint.

A dancer with form and movement.

An actor with a script.

And Jesus with his stories.

“You have heard it said thus and so, but I say unto you, here’s another take on it.”

New wine, new skins.

Last year’s vintage is done.

It was good.

We drank it all.

The skins are depleted now.

And what we didn’t drink, turned to vinegar.

“Fear not,” says God.

Never ever, ever, ever, be afraid.

A new season is upon us.

Grape clusters hang heavy on the vine, ready for harvest.

God is never done with us.

And we are never done with God.

The nature of faith is dynamic … moving, shifting, dancing.

They shall mount up with wings like eagles,

      they shall run and not be weary,

      they shall walk and not faint.

The nature of faith prompts us to change:

Change of heart.

Change of mind.

And who doesn’t need a change of mind now and then?

Moses said, “I can’t do that,” and then changed his mind.

King David said, “I didn’t do anything wrong,” and then changed his mind.

Jesus said to God, “Get me outta here,” and then changed his mind.

Saul, on the Damascus Road, said, “I know everything about God,” and then God showed up in a bright light, and Saul changed his mind real fast, and God changed Saul’s name to Paul.

And in our time and place … changed minds have made for a better world … school desegregation, voting rights and lunch-counter integration, women’s ordination … and these days Marriage Equality and the Confederate Flag … changed minds, changed hearts … new wine, new skins …

Jerusalem, Jerusalem.

Can you be more than you are?

Some turned away and said, “No thank you.”

We’re satisfied with the way things are.

And, by the way, Mr. Jesus, don’t press your luck with us.

Others heard the invitation and said, “Of course, tell us more.”

Jesus said, “It won’t be easy, but it’ll be good.”

And people still said yes!

Peter, Andrew, James and John left their nets to follow him.

Mary and Martha opened their hearts and home to him. 

Joanna and Susanna, women of means, provided for him.

Matthew set aside his stacks of coins to join him on the way.

One-by-one, two-by-two, they heard the call and followed him.

Jerusalem, Jerusalem …

Can you be more than you are?

New wine, new skins.

Because we’re not done with God.

And God isn’t done with us.

From the Pilgrims of Plymouth Rock 

To the First Congregational Church of Los Angeles.

You and me, right here, right now!

For this world, and for the glory of God.

What else can we do?

But follow Christ anew.

“Come and follow me,” says he.

I’ve places to go and people to see.

Lives to change and a world to set free.

New wine, new skins!

Dear People of God.

Are we ready?

I know that we are! Amen and Amen!

January 20, 2013, "Water Into Wine"

1 Chronicles 22.17-19; John 2.1-11

How strange … how curious … how wonderful …

The ministry of Jesus begins …

At a party … a shindig … a wedding feast … several days of drinking … lots of drinking … and the wine runs out …

Oh oh … someone miscalculated … too many guests showed up … or not enough wine was ordered … or maybe everyone was just feeling so good, they drank more than should have … 

The wineskins are flat … empty … the wine is all gone … and the host is about to be embarrassed … perhaps not his fault, but embarrassed nonetheless … it’s his party … and guests will talk about him … he’ll become the joke of the town … years afterward, folks will hoist a cup of wine, and say to one another, “Remember when we ran outta wine at the wedding party? What a cheapskate, stingy host … didn’t get enough wine for all of us … well, I’ll tell ya’ this much, if it was me, there’d be enough wine, enough wine for everyone. Wouldn’t run outta wine at my party! No siree, wouldn’t run outta wine at my party.”

But the best laid plans of mice and men often go astray, as the poet puts it … things happen … we plan carefully, we set our strategy, and then, the unexpected … the hiccup … the strange twist of fate and fortune … who knows where that came from … who knows why … and there we are, the wineskins are empty … we did our best, or thought we did, or hoped we did, and the best wasn’t good enough … and now we’re about to be pay the price … 

Life is full of blips and bumps … gaps in memory, lapsed promises, dreams ignored, promises made and forgotten, plans gone astray and maybe we did our best, and it still didn’t work out, and maybe we didn’t do our best, and we hoped no one would notice, and sometimes no one does notice … there is the unexpected grace in all life …  we breath a sigh of relief when we finally pile into bed that we made it through the day … it wasn’t as bad as we thought … or even it it was bad, really bad, and sometimes things get really bad … we made it anyway … we came out the other end, and it was okay … not that it was easy … very little about life is easy … but we make it through the day … we make it through the dark night of the soul … there is grace to be had, grace that comes our way, whether we ask for it or not …

Maybe someone else steps into the gap for us … for our sake.

Did the groom know that the wine was gone?

Did the host know how close he was to failure?

He didn’t know it … but others did … Mary’s mother was drinking her share of the wine, and when she held out her cup for a refill … the servant shook his head, and said, “Sorry, ma’am, we’re out … this has been one heck of a party; folks were real thirsty; there’s no more wine left.”

Mary tells her son, “There’s no more wine left” … and he tells her right back, “Woman, what’s that to me? My time hasn’t yet come yet; I’m not ready for this.” 

Was Jesus reluctant to get involved!

Did Jesus have an inkling where it would all go if he took the first step? … “If I do this now, then I’ll no longer be just Jesus the rabbi, Mary’s son, but a man destined for who knows what? … once I say, Yes, there’ll be no end to it … when the wheels of history begin to turn.”

Jesus is fully human … he’s not so sure he wants to say yes … does he know the fateful road that lies ahead of him?

Perhaps he did … and maybe he needed Momma to give him a gentle push to take the first step.

A little more wine for a wedding feast.

Do what he says, says Mary to the servants … and we know the rest of the story.

The wine made by Jesus is the best of it … 

There are so many things in this remarkable story …

I think of Mary ...

She’s an intercessor for the groom, for the party, for the guests.

She doesn’t waste time wondering if her son might do something … she tells him the deal …

I like that about Mary … she’s on the side of the host … she’s not willing to let things take their course … she doesn’t want the groom to be embarrassed … she doesn’t want the party to flop … 

She’s got compassion in her heart.

She’s got some courage, too.

She’s not afraid to put the question to Jesus?

Are you gonna do something about this?

Maybe when Jesus says to his Momma, You think I care about this?

Maybe it’s a rhetorical question … a good question put to all of us … Does God care about the stuff of our life? 

Right now, in our study of Job, that’s one of the big questions - does our life matter to God? Does God even care what’s happening to us? Is God gonna do anything about it, or do nothing about it?

Dear friends, this little story, the wedding at Cana, is a very big story …

Perhaps the story reminds us, that in all of life’s many difficulties and sorrows, there is grace.

And in ways we cannot even imagine, or see, God is at work, because others are at work, too … I wonder how many people are praying for us right now, and we don’t even know it … 

When the headwaiter samples the wine, he’s surprised - it’s the best wine yet.

He compliments the groom for saving the best wine for the last … most parties begin with the best; when folks have had they’re third or fourth cup, or fifth or sixth, then bring out the cheap wine; folks won’t even notice.

Perhaps the groom, already a couple o’ sheets to the wind, simply smiles and enjoys the compliment … the party goes on.

Only a few know the real story … the grace, the grace unexpected, that saves the day.

When I was in high school, I was the third or fourth car in a line waiting for a train to pass … I’m not sure if there were gates, or just lights, but when the train passed, the cars ahead of me crossed the tracks, and I did, too … I wasn’t very much on the other side of the tracks when I looked in my rearview mirror only to see a high-speed freight train rumbling through the intersection from the other direction.

I came close that day … close, but no cigar, as they say.

I wonder how many others moments I’ve had that I don’t even know about … when grace unexpected came my way.

How many times have we been saved, all of us, and we didn’t know it? … grace shown to us, and we didn’t see it? … folks interceding for us, and we haven’t a clue?

Life is full of grace … 

We don’t always see it … we can’t always see it … much of it behind the scenes … those who pray and those who serve … parents and teachers, friends and family … the saints of old, and the saints today … 

Water turned into wine.

The party goes on.

Amen and Amen!