Today’s scripture: Matthew 9:14-17 (NRSV) (The Message) (KJV) What might God be saying to me?
My thoughts (Melody Merida):
More than a decade ago I made a decision that changed my life. It was a Sunday evening and I drove across town to a church I found in the Nuvo newspaper. I sat in my car in the parking lot and watched as dozens of people made their way into the rented church building. To say I was nervous was an understatement. I had my doubts that this could be a “real” church; after all, it was a bunch of gay people.
I waited until the service started and then tentatively walked into the building. I took my seat in the back of the sanctuary and waited for the lightning to strike us all dead. But something else happened. As worship progressed I often found myself in tears, moved by the presence of the Spirit of God. I wondered how God could be palpably present in a room full of condemned people. Yet, when I looked around the room, I saw a group of people authentically worshipping God; and it was more beautiful than any other worship experience I had encountered. There was no pretense, there was no show; it was church like I had never seen it. It was church that felt like what Jesus would have wanted for us.
Since that first day when I visited Jesus MCC, now LifeJourney Church, my way of being and moving in the world has been challenged. You see, growing up in a strict, fundamentalist, Baptist home meant that I had been given the answers to all things Christian. Or so I thought. At some point in my life, some of those answers stopped working for me. Change was necessary. But change is scary so I resisted it for some time. But what I started to realize on that first day at Jesus MCC was that the change I was being called to embrace was life giving.
In our scripture reading for today Jesus is challenged about the specific ways his disciples practice their faith. “Why don’t you stick to tradition, and do things the way we’ve always been taught to do them?” he is asked. “Why are you changing the rules? Why are you doing something new and different?” “Because the old cannot contain the new,” he says. “Because the fermenting power of this new wine that I’m offering would burst the tired, stretched-out skins of the old wineskin. Because the way we’ve always done things doesn’t have to be the way we keep doing things.”
Tradition can be a wonderful and beautiful way to grow and deepen our faith, but it can also be a barrier to new growth. Let’s stop holding onto ideas that aren’t working for us anymore and let’s start drinking some of that new wine Jesus was talking about. What is an old way of thinking that bogs you down, that keeps you from seeing others with love and grace? What are the rules you are following without knowing why? What is an old idea whose time has come and gone? Change is scary and really, really hard. But the old cannot contain the new that Jesus is offering us.
We encourage you to include a time of prayer with this reading. If you need a place to get started, consider the suggestions on the How to Pray page.