Daily Bread

Then the disciples of John came to him, saying, ‘Why do we and the Pharisees fast often, but your disciples do not fast?’ And Jesus said to them, ‘The wedding-guests cannot mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them, can they? The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast. No one sews a piece of unshrunk cloth on an old cloak, for the patch pulls away from the cloak, and a worse tear is made. Neither is new wine put into old wineskins; otherwise, the skins burst, and the wine is spilled, and the skins are destroyed; but new wine is put into fresh wineskins, and so both are preserved.’

Fasting is associated with grieving and lament. People fasted as a sign of their respect to something that had been lost (spiritually) and as an appeal to God. In the time of Christ, the Pharisees fasted twice a week (on Mondays and Thursdays). As their appeal to God, they would wear sackcloth, rub ashes on their faces, and sucked their cheeks in to look as gaunt and as miserable as possible. John’s followers, who came to Jesus to ask about fasting, were probably fasting in mourning for their rabbi — John the Baptist.

Jesus told them (and I paraphrase), "How can my disciples fast for something that is lost when I am here with them?" Jesus then went on to talk about how new ways of thinking and being could not be poured into old structures or ways of thinking, and that the 'new wine' of the kingdom needed to be poured into minds and hearts that were receptive and responsive.

Okay, so I'm gonna project my own stuff onto this (and you expect anything else?). As many of you know, I struggle with the old structures and ways of thinking of the Anglican Church. I have been a member of the Anglican Church for almost 40 years and have been ordained in it for 20 years today! I long to pour new life into the church! If Helen and I want to pour new life into the Church (capital C) then we need to do so with new wineskins — with people who will be receptive to new ways of being church and open to the leading of the Holy Spirit.

We human beings get locked into ways of thinking and patterns of behaviour that become so entrenched that we cannot break free from them. We like the familiarity of ritual and repetition, and the security that comes with it, but as C.S.Lewis reminds us in the Narnia books, Aslan is not a tame lion! We cannot tame the Holy Spirit, and the Spirit blows wherever she chooses.

As well as being the anniversary of my ordination, today is the Pride march in Bermuda. The Spirit is telling us that members of the LGBTQIA+ community are welcome in God's kingdom, yet the Anglican Church here cannot accept this. Only this week, a gay priest in the Church of England wanted to apply for a job here but was told that if he was married or in a civil partnership he was not eligible to do so. Old wineskins?

Today, may you be open and free to hearing the guidance of the Holy Spirit, and may we all be obedient to God's leading. Have a blessed weekend.

Holy God
I rejoice that your Spirit
leads me to
new ways of thinking.
Help me to be obedient
and to follow you,
wherever you may lead.
As your Spirit
widens the circle
of those who are
included in your kingdom,
may I shout
this message of welcome
from the rooftops!
Now and forever.