Upper Path Valley Presbyterian Church

Luke 5:27-39

“Something Old, Something New”

Rev. Meagan M. Boozer

After this he went out and saw a tax collector named Levi, sitting at the tax booth; and he said to him, “Follow me.” And he got up, left everything, and followed him. Then Levi gave a great banquet for him in his house; and there was a large crown of tax collectors and others sitting at the table with them. The Pharisees and their scribes were complaining to his disciples, saying, “Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?” Jesus answered, “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 to repentance.” Then they said to him, “John’s disciples, like the disciples of the Pharisees, frequently fast and pray, but your disciples eat and drink.” Jesus said to them, “You cannot make wedding guests fast while the bridegroom is with them, can you? The days will come when the bridegroom will be taken away from them, and then they will fast in those days.” He also told them a parable: “No one tears a piece from a new garment and sews it on an old garment; otherwise the new will be torn, and the piece from the new will not match the old. And no one puts new wine into old wineskins; otherwise the new wine will burst the skins and will be spilled, and the skins will be destroyed. But new wine must be put into fresh wineskins. And no one after drinking old wine desires new wine, but say, “The old is good.”

My dear father-in-law had the first heart the week before he died while he was planting gerber daisies by the front door of his house. He was down on his hands and knees and couldn’t get up. We didn’t know it at the time, but as we looked back over the several days before taking him to the hospital, we knew that incident as he was planting flowers, was the first explosion in his heart.

After he died, we all hated walking by those stupid gerber daisies each day. They were a constant, difficult reminder of our great loss as a family. And wouldn’t you know it- the very first flowers sent to the house after he died- was a basket full of gerber daisies! We couldn’t believe the irony of it. We didn’t even bring them in the house. No one wanted to see them, no matter how pretty they were. The day before the memorial service, with our emotions completely on edge, I personally pulled those stupid daisies out of the ground that PaPa had planted. We just couldn’t look at them any more.

Two years ago, Katy gave me a gerber daisy for mother’s day. I planted it, but it never bloomed….until this year…the day before Molly’s wedding. I was getting into my car, and noticed this orange-yellow flower across the yard in my flowerbed. I couldn’t believe this stupid gerber daisy would have the arrogance to finally show up when we were missing PaPa so much at our family celebration. I turned my back on the flower, but at the same time, a new thought began to form in my mind. Then it rained and rained and rained and squished that daisy down onto the earth.

On the day our grandson, Luke, was born, I was getting into my car to head to the hospital, and there that daisy was again. But this time, it wasn’t just one, there was a second smaller one right alongside the original. And that first thought came to full bloom- “Meagan, instead of cursing this flower, instead of making it a constant reminder of your loss, can’t you make it a constant reminder of what I gave you?” (This was from God, now.) “I gave you a father-in-law who planted flowers not because someone told him to plant them. He planted flowers because he liked them, and wanted to share their beauty with others.” It was a new way to think. It was a good way to think that was much more faithful to the God who is gracious and full of love for me.

So now, with intention (and with some effort, yet) when I see a gerber daisy, I say to the Lord, “Thank you Lord, for giving me 28 year with a father-in-law who planted flowers.”

Here’s the thing: The truth is the same. My father in law had the first heart attack that eventually cause his death while planting gerber daisies. The way I interpret and receive that truth has changed however. At first I said, “I hate gerber daisies and never want to see them again.” Now I say, “Thank you for the reminder of the gift of my father-in-law.”

It’s all about the way a person chooses to think. And the way a person chooses to think affects the way a person feels, and then affects the way a person behaves. I either think, “Gerber daisies remind me of the death of one of the most important people in my life. I hate gerber daisies. I’m going to pull out or stomp on every single one I see for the rest of my life.” Or I think, “Gerber daisies remind me of PaPa’s sweet kindness. Even though they are hard to look at right now, I like looking at them, and in fact, I just might plant a few around my own front door.”

The way we think affects the way we feel affects the way we behave.

This is what Jesus was teaching those around him in these lessons about sinners, about fasting, feasting, new garments, old garments, new wine, old wine, new wineskins, old wineskins. He’s teaching us about how to think and feel and behave based on what he taught us- the living, breathing, transforming Truth!

Those who had been brought up in Judaism were stuck in old rituals that didn’t really mean what God meant them to mean. Fasting was fine, but only at appropriate times, and only with the appropriate attitudes. The old-school Jews were using fasting as a means to get attention and show others how spiritual they were. Jesus said, “Dump the attitude.” It is those who desire to be humbled before others who are truly filled with the Spirit of the Lord. Get rid of that old way of fasting,” This was no small request.

When Jesus came to minister to the Jews, he really came up against some long-help ways of thinking, feeling, and behaving. Over and over he taught them the truth about God’s grace being the way to eternal life, but most of them couldn’t stop thinking that the way to eternal life came by way of what they did, how they did it, how often they did it, and how many people saw what they did. He tried to get them to stop trying to patch up their old way of doing things with a small piece here and a piece there of the Gospel truth- he tried to show them that the whole old garment needed to be replaced with the new garment- woven carefully together with threads of the past- but truly a new a special fabric. But they couldn’t let go- not like Levi, who immediately left his former way of life of oppressing people through taxation to follow Jesus. The text shows us, “He got up, left everything, and followed Jesus.” Then he showed he had given up his old ways by throwing a major feast for free!

Jesus talks about wine and wineskins: And no one puts new wine into old wineskins; otherwise the new wine will burst the skins and will be spilled, and the skins will be destroyed. But the new wine must be put into fresh wineskins.

In ancient cultures, the skins of goats were stripped off as nearly whole as possible and partly tanned so the could be filled with new wine. Their natural elasticity and strength would allow the fermenting new wine to expand. However, if new wine was put into old wineskins, their brittle, inflexible condition would cause them to burst, and both wine and wineskins would be lost.

Jesus tells us that once we know the truth of the Gospel (which is the truth of the life, death, resurrection, and return of Christ which makes all things new), we must choose to apply that truth to enable new ways of thinking, feeling, and behaving. We mustn’t take the truth of the new life that Christ gives us and try to make it fit into old ways of thinking, feeling, and behaving. It simply will not work.

Here’s an example: I know so many people who are caught in this way of thinking, “I don’t matter to God. I’m glad other people around me matter to God, I can see how God is working in their lives, but God doesn’t really pay attention to me. He doesn’t work in my life because He doesn’t really care about me. All the hard stuff that happens I my life is simple proof that I don’t matter, even a little bit, to God. I still believe in God, but I don’t think he believes much in me because I guess I’m just not worth it.”

The truth of the Gospel is that Jesus Christ died for every single person who has been or will be born. “For God so loved the world.” The Scripture tells us that not a hair falls from our head without the Lord knowing about it. Jesus tells us he will never leave us or forsake us. We read that he know every one of our thoughts before we think it, and every word we’re going to say before we say it. We are reminded again and again in the honest truth of Scripture that he has plans for each one of our lives to bring us life, and life abundant!

Now, try to put these good truths form Scripture into those old wineskins of “I don’t matter to God.” It does not work. You can try, and try, and try, and try, and try- but until you make the choice to get some new wineskins, God’s truth is not going to change your way of thinking, feeling, or behaving. It just can’t. It leaks right out.

Then there are the worriers. Oh my. There are many among us- good Christian people- who live in worry and fear about what might happen, what could happen, if this or that or that or this…. This is their wineskin. And it’s very, very old. For many of us, this wineskin has been passed down through the generations. Worry and fear begets worry and fear, you know how it goes. Good Christians don’t really want to be this way, but this old wineskin is so familiar they don ‘t really want to give it up.

Now try putting into this old wineskin the truth of the Bible- the truth that says to put our whole trust in the Lord- the truth that tells us that fear is not from God- the honest truth of Scripture that perfect love casts out fear- and because God is love we can understand the truth that God’s perfect love working in us should be casting out fear, worry, and distrust. Try putting that amazing new truth into that old familiar wineskin and what happens? Nothing. That new truth will accomplish nothing in that old skin because it cannot stay in there long enough to seep in even a little. No matter how hard you try, if you call yourself a worrier, “a born worrier,” until you make the choice to get some new wineskins, the truth of the Gospel is not going to change your way of thinking, feeling, of behaving. It just can’t. It leaks right out.

I think as a congregation, our partnership with Head Start has brought forth the challenge Jesus presents in this parable. This congregation has always taken pretty good care of this property. Things done to upgrade the building have been done well and with a sense of pride and accomplishment. No problem there. But along with such diligent care seeps in the thought: “This is our building. This is our property. The bank funds are ours to save and ours to spend.” (In a sense it is, but only because God has given it to us to use for a time.) The truth is that this is God’s property- every single inch of ground and every single brick belongs to God. What’s in the bank belongs to God. We are to use this property, as God would have us use it- not as we want to use it to protect it from getting scraped or chipped. If God wants it scraped and chipped, so be it- but the new wine has to be poured into new wineskins. Once we really, really receive the truth that this is God’s property, letting this truth seep in deeply, we will not struggle with having new friends, young and old, in the building every day.

A couple of weeks ago, descendents of Rev. McGinley, one of the first ministers of this church, stopped by to look at some records and to see the memorial window placed in his honor. One of the records we laughed over together was the chart used for seating and pew rent in the old stone sanctuary. What was so funny to me is that the most expensive seats were the ones closest to the pulpit. Nowadays the most expensive ones would be the ones in the back since you all seem to prefer sitting back there instead of sitting up front close to me. Rev. McGinley himself paid $4 in pew rent per year- one of the highest fees listed on the chart.

We don’t charge pew rent any more. Why? Because it was an old wineskin that simply could not hold the new wine. That old wineskin saw particular places to sit as a person’s right because they paid for it. The more they paid, the better seats they got. The Gospel truth says that the first shall be last and the last shall be first. The Gospel message tells us that the only things that gives us a “right” to sit here before a holy God is the blood of Jesus Christ. He alone paid the highest price for our seats. Amen? Eventually the old wineskin had to be tossed out and replaced with the new wineskin that says, “All are welcome here. We are all sinners saved by grace. Sit anywhere you like. No one has their name on a pew- cause these pews all belong to God.” The new wine of grace in the new wineskin of grace. (And if you are accustomed to sitting in the same pew, and find yourself feeling a little uptight when you can’t sit in that same pew each week, I advise you to move around from week to week to make sure you are not allowing yourself to be stuck with an old wineskin that simply cannot hold the new. No one is immune. No one.

To finish this parable about the wine, Jesus shared a proverb, saying “And no one after drinking old wine desires new wine, but says, ‘The old is good.’” Many people who have not tasted the new are determined never to try it, because they imagine that what they have is “good enough.” They won’t even taste the new for the sake of comparison. Sort of like the Pharisees, but without realizing it, they are exhibiting an attitude of arrogance and stubbornness that says, “I know better than God. I know what the Bible say, but…” They are deceived by the evil one who rejoices in their imprisonment.

God still gives all of us an incredible offer: He wants to pour new life into us so that it will not leak out, but so that it will completely fill us up with joy, deep satisfaction, and peace. But this ONLY happens when we can accept the realization that our old life, our old ways of thinking, feeling, and behaving are NOT adequate. Real, new life ONLY happens with the acceptance of the truth that Jesus Christ is everything. We sand as we started our worship today, “From age to age He stands, and time is in His hands; beginning and the end, beginning and the end. The Godhead three in one, Father, Spirit, Son- the Lion and the Lamb, the Lion and the Lamb. How great is our God- sing with me- how great is our God! And all will see how great, how great is our God!”

What old wineskin do you need to toss out today that is hindering you from singing a song like that with the fullness of heart? What old ways of thinking- what old patterns of believing- what old rituals do you need to leave at the altar today? Self-worth issues, worry & fear, control issues, unresolved grief, sin patterns that you haven’t been able to break, pride, un-forgiveness, shame, bitterness, selfishness, hating gerber daisies, etc. Whatever it is that you know is holding you back from receiving the fullness of the Gospel in your life- in your thinking, your feeling, and in your behaving…

I want to invite you to come forward. You know what needs to be done. Please come. I’m just going to ask you to stand here- speaking to God alone- telling him what you’re leaving behind. But coming forward signifies a deep commitment to change- and to move forward in freedom today. Please come, and then I’ll pray for all who come as a group.

Thank you, Lord.

Thank you that you receive us today. Thank you that you know our needs before we ask. Thank you that your strength will enable each one here today to let go of the old and receive the new as a gift of grace from your hand. Help each of us to remember that we can do all things only through Christ who gives us strength. Help us to remember that on our own we cannot accomplish anything of value. Help us, great God and King, to open ourselves, right now, to the fullness of your boundless truth- and may it remain within us forever and ever. Amen.

Upper Path Valley Presbyterian Church

07-16-06