Creekside Church Sermon of August 26, 2001 "The Old and the New" Luke 5:33-39	Rev. David Bibbee
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"Jesus, why don't your disciples fast?" Jesus' disciples conducted themselves in a markedly different manner than the Pharisees and the disciples of John the Baptist. "Why don't your disciples fast?" wasn't a question in search of information. It was an accusation. They were really saying, "Why don't you do things the way they have always been done? The old time religion is good enough for us. Why isn't it good enough for you?" People couldn't understand why Jesus didn't behave like a good Jew and follow all the observances like everyone else.

Jesus' orientation was radically different. Compared to the religious folks of their day, Jesus' disciples seemed so normal…even happy. The Pharisees were so busy being religious they didn't have time to enjoy themselves. Their religion had become entangled and encrusted with rules. Instead of helping them, their beliefs haunted and hounded them. Life was an exercise in restraint. Their understanding of God had become warped. Instead of being joyful, they were suspicious that someone, somewhere, might actually be enjoying themselves.

Then along came Jesus saying, "You have heard it said of old…but I say to you…" Religion to Jesus wasn't all rules and rituals. It was a relationship with God. The Pharisees lived like faith was a funeral. Jesus lived it like it was a wedding. He dismissed his critics, "You can't expect guests at a wedding party to fast while the bridegroom is still with them, can you?" And someone said, "Jesus didn't make fun of the Pharisee's religion. He made fun out of it."

This scripture is an important one for our church. Those who have spent years studying the church and society point to the seismic shifts that are happening all around us. Waves of change are rolling beneath us which, depending upon our response, will provide opportunity or danger. The kind of future that awaits us will be determined by how we handle change. Things are not the way they used to be in the church. Small churches are disappearing. Once large churches are shrinking. The younger generations are leaving traditional churches in droves and are going to churches where the music is played by bands instead of organs to a rhythm that is decidedly up-tempo. Churches are divided by worship wars between generations who fight over contemporary versus traditional music.

Churches which look up their ancestry and reminisce about the way things used to be have their days numbered. The answer to whether we will be a strong, vibrant, spirit-filled, growing church in the future will be determined by how we handle the old and the new. What is necessary is a new vision of a preferable future for Elkhart City. What is required is a radical confidence that God has a plan and purpose for us, and the wisdom to know what to hang on to, what to let go of and what new directions to follow.

In the late 1800's in England there appeared a strange novel titled Flatlands. It is a story about a world in which everything is flat and two-dimensional. The chief character of the story is Mr. Square, who, of course, lives only in two dimensions. One day Mr. Square is visited by Mr. Sphere who was in three dimensions. Mr. Square was suspicious of Mr. Sphere, especially when he spoke of the world he was from which had three dimensions and was not flat at all. But Mr. Square refused to believe such a place existed. Eventually Mr. Sphere was persecuted and expelled by the Flatlanders who would not believe him.

I recall a Mr. Square experience. Shortly before coming to Elkhart, I performed the wedding of my physician, Michelle, to an internationally recognized math professor at Notre Dame. Mathematicians from 14 countries were present at the wedding. At the reception I sat next to a young man who I guessed was in his early twenties. He said he was from the University of Sydney in Australia. "What year student are you?" I asked. "I teach there," he replied. "Oh…Where were you before you went to the University?" "M.I.T." he said. "Were you a student?" "No, I was a professor." "Oh…I see. What's your current field of study?" I enquired. "It's very new," he said. "As far as I know I'm the only one working in this area." "Really? What is it?" "Topography in the sixth dimension." I replied… "I understand it is winter in Australia right now."

We learn and we grow and are stretched by those who push the boundaries of what is and ask what more there is to learn. Much of the time, though, we live comfortably and predictably in a world of two dimensions. We find it hard to imagine what is possible in the third, the sixth, or in the spiritual dimension.

The new perspective on living and believing which Jesus brought was too big to be housed in temple religion and the old covenant. The old coat of Judaism would not fit on Christianity. It would split at the seams. Jesus reinforced this by saying that new wine cannot be put into old wineskins. Wineskins grew hard and brittle with age. New skins, however, were elastic. They stretched to hold the expansion created by the fermentation of the wine. The old skins had no give. New wine would cause old skins to burst and both wine and skin would be lost.

The vintage truth which Jesus brought into the world gave sight to the blind, legs to the lame, freedom to prisoners, and hope and love to the hopeless and loveless. He offered direction to the lost, and life to those at death's door. "This new wine must be poured into each new generation," someone said, "from one perishable vessel to another without spilling a drop."

We must remember that the wine is more important than the bottle. The gospel is bigger than any one denomination's expression of it. The truth of the Bible is bigger than any single interpretation of it. Emersion baptism, three times forward is not the only valid form of baptism. Gospel hymns or contemporary praise isn't the final measure of good church music. Bricks and mortar and stained glass can be assembled by an architect into a beautiful building. But buildings are only churches when the followers of Jesus Christ gather within them. We confuse containers with contents. Too many people are so wrapped worshipping buildings and traditions and styles of worship that they fail to notice the Spirit has moved elsewhere and is being experienced in new ways.

Whether we seek it or not, want it or not, or like it or not, life changes. Someone offered this insight: "Change is far more common in our development than continuity. We prepare for continuity, but it is change we must always expect." The story of Jesus and his love is a constant, but the container in which it has been carried from one generation to another constantly changes. The truth which has been entrusted to us requires new wineskins…ones that are flexible, ones that are open to new ways of worship and deeper ways of relating and helping each other be more committed to following and living like Jesus, and being born again with a desire to share Christ with others outside our little circle.

What is necessary for this to happen? I came across something by the Christian author Joyce Landorff which gives a clue. Since she was 15, Joyce had searched for the perfect pair of jeans. Her search had gone on for many years and she had reached an age where her figure was sort of… lumpy, and lumpy and jeans didn't make a wonderful combination. She writes:

"When designer jeans were introduced I thought, 'Aha! These jeans will satisfy my urge to 'live in jeans'.' They will be cut differently, made of more expensive fabric, and perhaps I will know exactly what this basic love of jeans is all about but alas, I still looked lumpy."

Later she went into a discount store and found a whole rack of designer jeans. An hour and twenty pairs later she was ready to give up when she spotted a rack of no-name jeans. She continues:

"The third pair not only fit…it felt great. I still looked a bit lumpy, but they were so comfortable I rationalized myself out of my insecurity. All the way home I wondered why the jeans felt and fit so good. Later, while cutting off the labels and price tags I read these words: 95% cotton, 5% spandex.

"'So that's it!' I shouted. Spandex. 5% spandex is what makes the difference. The flexibility of the threads makes the jeans go in where I go in, and out where I go out. Then suddenly I knew why we have such problems with change and listening to others and making allowances for them. We don't have 5% spandex in our attitudes."

Jesus told another parable in which he said, "The Kingdom is like a man who brought forth from his treasure things old and new." Jesus used soap on the past, not acid. He didn't disparage the past or ignore it. He was indebted to the patriarchs and prophets. He was grateful to Abraham and Moses and David and Jeremiah. Jesus revealed facets of God which his tradition could not. He took over from the point where the faith of his fathers could go no further.

There is no future for the church that polishes antiques. There is no future for the church that falls for every new "church fad" that comes along, either. The treasure entrusted to us is old and new.

Yogi Bera, who had an interesting way with words, offered this gem about the necessity of vision: "You'd better know where it is you want to go. Otherwise, you might not get there."

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