New Wine Skins

I'm sitting in Panera, with my portable blogging device (i.e. laptop), enjoying a breakfast of 4-cheese souffle and bagel. I am on VACATION. If I ever win the lottery (which might be hard, since I never buy a ticket), this is what I will do everyday. I'll come here for breakfast, which I will eat without feeling rushed. I'll bring my laptop and write.

We had a meeting yesterday at our church about the possibility of purchasing a projection system and screens for our Sanctuary. We already use "PowerPoint" for two services on a regular basis, and for the other one on a not-so-regular basis, but this purchase would involve permanent installation of the system.

I think we should do it, and I think most of our congregation does, but a few are uncomfortable with it, to say the least.

If you go back a couple of posts, WabiSabi left a comment (that's a hyperlink), which I thought was very interesting. I especially liked how he ended it. Consider this scripture:

Matthew 9:16-17 -- No one sews a patch of unshrunk cloth on an old garment, for the patch will pull away from the garment, making the tear worse. Neither do men pour new wine into old wineskins. If they do, the skins will burst, the wine will run out and the wineskins will be ruined. No, they pour new wine into new wineskins, and both are preserved.

He then goes on to say "those new wineskins are just way too risky, aren't they?"

I think that's the crux of the whole discussion. Risk. This doesn't just apply to our discussions about technology yesterday, but to so many things in the church. Sometimes we are afraid to risk. We like the way things are. We don't want them to change. We are AFRAID for them to change. What will we lose if we risk what we have?

• What if we feed people from the City Mission on Thursday night? We might lose our sense of security. We might lose our ability to avoid seeing homeless people.
• What if we allow a woman to be a preacher? We might lose our ability to ignore that ANYONE can be called by God to do ANYTHING, even though we might try to limit it.
• What if we let the youth plan a church service -- not just a little one, held at a different time, and not just one that fits our expectations of what worship should be, but the MAIN service, with NO limitations on what they can do? We might just see God through our own children.
• What if we give every child a percussion instrument to play during a song in the service? We might lose our hearing, but we might also hear joy in abundance.
• What if we clapped in the service to show our praise of God? The ceiling might fall in, or maybe we'll realize that the applause is as much an offering as the music is.

I have a feeling that old wine skins are soft, supple, drapey, and comfortable. They hang from their straps just right. Wine and use have given them a patina and color that is familiar and comforting. Even when they drip, spring holes like a sieve, we don't want to give them up. It's frightening. It's RISKY.

But this journey we are on is a Risky Business. We are called to take what we have been given -- our blessings from God -- and put them to work. We are called to have enough faith in God that we know that whatever we risk will be returned to us in abundance -- Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you." (Luke 6:38)

What's important, though? That we love each other. That we realize that some people are angry because they are afraid. (I know that's idealistic, and I know that some people are just angry, but I think fear of risking what we have plays a big part in our fear).

S said something yesterday that I loved. He told a story of Apollo 1. A spark ignited the pure oxygen in the capsule, causing a fire that killed all three astronauts on board. When testifying in Congress about the accident, someone from NASA (S would know who; I can't remember) said that the fire was a results of a "failure to imagine."

Sometimes we won't risk what we have due to a "failure to imagine" what wonderful blessings God will give us in return. We have to risk new wine skins.