Open to change
“No one puts new wine into old wineskins. For the new wine would burst the wineskins, spilling the wine and ruining the skins. New wine must be stored in new wineskins. But no one who drinks the old wine seems to want the new wine. ‘The old is just fine,’ they say.” Luke 5:37-39
Wine skins, usually made from goat hides, were the normal way of preserving wine in Jesus’ day. As we all know, skin dries out with time and so it would be absurd to put new wine into old wineskins. It would soon be completely lost. Jesus’ point was clear: he was introducing new wine and there was absolutely no point trying to contain it within the old wineskins of Judaism. He was ushering in a completely new age, but this was exactly what many people didn’t want to hear. They wanted to stick with
the familiar.
Through the centuries, the Church has been famous for resisting change. We like to hang on to the old, familiar ways and are often resistant to new ideas. But Jesus has called us to be like children; to have an adventurous spirit in which we are continually learning, growing and discovering. I thank God for the godly older people I have known, whose love for the Lord has led them to be generously open to new ideas and new ways of doing things. We should never embrace change for change’s sake, but because we see the Lord leading us in new and exciting ways.
I love the story of General William Booth, founder of the Salvation Army. He once met up with the writer, Rudyard Kipling, who had an intense dislike of the Salvation Army’s use of tambourines and their enthusiastic worship style. Booth told him: “Young man, if I thought I could win one more soul for Christ by standing on my head and beating a tambourine with my feet I would learn how to do it.”
As we follow Jesus day by day, we need to be continually open to the new wine of the kingdom of God, and be ready to embrace new ways of serving the Lord.
QUESTION
How open are you to change?
PRAYER
Lord God, I thank you for the new wine that you have given me. Help me to always be thirsty for more. Amen