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“Playing Fast and Loose” Monday Meditation. 04/27/20. Alan Neale. Trinity Church, Newport RI

Mark 2: 18 Now John’s disciples and the Pharisees were fasting; and people came and said to him, “Why do John’s disciples and the disciples of the Pharisees fast, but your disciples do not fast?” 19 Jesus said to them, “The wedding guests cannot fast while the bridegroom is with them, can they? As long as they have the bridegroom with them, they cannot fast. 20 The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast on that day.
21 “No one sews a piece of unshrunk cloth on an old cloak; otherwise, the patch pulls away from it, the new from the old, and a worse tear is made. 22 And no one puts new wine into old wineskins; otherwise, the wine will burst the skins, and the wine is lost, and so are the skins; but one puts new wine into fresh wineskins.”

Some Bible commentators have identified this and ensuing chapters as “Controversies with the Religious Leaders.” We’ve seen already how when Jesus forgave the paralytic the religious leaders mumbled and complained. In today’s passage “certain people” (probably agent provocateurs) come to Jesus literally spoiling for a fight.

I think we can feel some sympathy for the religious leaders – their authority, their control, their world view is being challenged and not only by this upstart carpenter Galilean; they’re seeing the crowds begin to associate, identity, align themselves with Jesus.
These chapters remind us of a fundamental human dynamic… when we feel we are losing control, when we feel we are being dragged into an experience of surrender and trust then one knee-jerk, default reaction is to “enter into controversy”. We argue, we resist, we fight, we become angry. We see this in families, in churches, at work and in government.

It’s been my experience personally, and pastorally, there are times when our relationship with God becomes testy, terse, tense. These verses show us that Jesus accepts our challenge, respects our questioning and does not succumb to simply deserting us. We are in tough and challenging times right now… we are challenged and fearful to the core; sometimes our frustration is taken out on those we love the most, always our frustration can be safely directed at God… the arms of Jesus are wide open to embrace us and our, shall we call them, dispositions.

The religious leaders boast of their commitment to fasting, remember how Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount discouraged people from displayed gloomy faces to advertise their fasting. John’s disciples were fasting as they lived in the arena of repentance. Jesus cracks this practice wide open and declares that with his advent, a new religious day has dawned. In the presence of the bridegroom (Jesus) it would be ridiculous to fast and mourn. In our lives there have been times when Jesus has felt so near that we could almost reach out and touch him… how could we possibly respond by fasting and gloom. At other times, he seems distant… unresponsive… disengaged and then… we are called to fast. BUT not as the Pharisees fasted in mourning, but fasting in anticipation of a new advent, a new divine word, of our Lord Jesus.

And then a few words from Jesus concerning things sartorial and matters of fermentation process.

Like me, you have heard (maybe read) these words often. No matter how much I read them I do not detect any dismissal of old cloth or old wineskins; it seems to be that wisdom dictates we sew old material onto old cloaks and new wine into new wineskins without discarding and rejecting the old.

It is generally engaging, sometimes amusing, a few times embarrassing to see mainline, traditional churches trying to adapt and respond to this present crisis where church gatherings of any size are disallowed. At times I feel we are all being “subzoomed” into trading message for medium… but, again, these are strange times and I sense a strong desire to maintain social nearness in the spirit while maintaining reasonable and required physical distancing.

For some time there have been mega-churches that boast of their non-denominationalism, the quintessential cry of the neophyte. But consider, they had a beginning… their presence is no divine act of creation ex-nihilo. Conversely, there are churches who mantra is “as it was in the beginning, is now and ever shall be” (I remember this paraphrase “like a mighty tortoise moves the church of God, brothers we are treading… where we’ve always trod”).

Jesus calls us to embrace the past with gratitude and discernment, and to embrace the future with hope and discernment.

And, no matter what new clothes we wear or new wine we drink (ecclesiastically), thank God the message (if not the medium) remains constant “Tell me the old, old story of Jesus and his love”

Tell me the old, old story,
Of unseen things above,
Of Jesus and His glory,
Of Jesus and His love;
Tell me the story simply,
As to a little child,
For I am weak and weary,
And helpless and defiled.

Tell me the same old story,
When you have cause to fear
That this world’s empty glory
Is costing me too dear;
And when the Lord’s bright glory
Is dawning on my soul,
Tell me the old, old story:
“Christ Jesus makes thee whole.”