❖ Video
❖ Audio (Message)
Vintage Wine and Pots of Meat
(Luke 5:37-39, 9:57-62, Exodus 16:1-3)
Andy Nagahara
A month ago I talked about what kind of church Your Church is, and today I’m going to continue with that. I’m sorry to anyone who saw today’s title and photo and expected an interesting story. I apologize in advance, but what I talk to you today is going to be an unpleasant, like astringent wine or tough meat.
1. New Wineskins (Luke 5:37-39)
Now, let’s read the Gospel of Luke 5:37-39.
And no one pours new wine into old wineskins. If he does, the new wine will burst the skins, the wine will run out and the wineskins will be ruined.
38 No, new wine must be poured into new wineskins.
39 And no one after drinking old wine wants the new, for he says, ‘The old is better.’
When Jesus began teaching, his teachings were so revolutionary that the religious leaders of Israel at the time could not keep up. It was seen as a heretical and dangerous cult.
Jesus was also disliked by many because he was close to people who were marginalized in society and whom the religious people of his day considered sinners.
Jesus’ words in this passage are his response to the question, “Why can’t your disciples be ‘normal’ like other religious groups?” We all have a tendency to prefer our familiar surroundings and avoid the new. The church is no exception. In fact, the tendency is even stronger.
This comes from an attitude of wanting to protect important teachings, and this attitude itself is essential. However, in reality, the Church has repeatedly made the mistake of preserving not only its teachings but also the traditions and culture that have been cultivated within itself.
The Reformation of the 15th century was about rediscovering the gospel that had been obscured by tradition and culture over 1,500 years of history. But, another 500 years have passed since then.
Even if it is not exactly 1,500 years, I think that the gospel of Jesus has been covered by a lot of unnecessary culture and tradition, making it difficult to see. Or even if we look at a shorter cycle, such as the last 50 years, we can see churches that cling to old culture falling away and churches that adopt new culture being born.
The problem is that we live in traditions and cultures that are as natural to us as water and air, and this ends up alienating those for whom they are not.
We started Your Church to invite people who didn’t fit in to churches that were traditionally there. You need a new wineskins (church) to hold the new wine. I learned this through two mistakes that I made.
My first mistake was trying to put new wine into old wineskin. I tried to create an environment in the old church where new people could come, but the old church members didn’t like it. It is not surprising when you think about it. For example, people who love the old hymns are not comfortable with the new worship songs. There is strong resistance to changing the form of worship that we are accustomed to. People wanted young people to come, but they weren’t willing to sacrifice their own comfort zone to do so. And I could no longer stay in that church.
My second mistake was putting old wine into new wineskin. We had a great opportunity to start a new church, but we started with people who were already matured in old wineskin. They put up with the new wineskin for a while, but a year was the limit. The new wineskin was uncomfortable.
And so Your Church began, aiming to be the wineskin for the new wine. Thirty years have passed since then. Are we no longer “new wineskins”? Should we accept that our wineskins have become old and can only hold old wine, and give up on trying to stay new?
I believe Jesus calls us to continue to be new wineskins. Last week, I introduced Jesus’ words:
“It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.”
Jesus also saw his mission not as just tending the ninety-nine sheep in the sheepfold, but as reaching out to help those sheep that have strayed and leading them back into the fold. Furthermore, in the parable of the prodigal son, Jesus has the father respond to the older brother who is upset at his father for welcoming his younger brother home, saying, “You have always been with me, so you ought to rejoice with me when you have your brother come home.” These things speak of Jesus’ intention for us to continue to be new wineskins.
I hope you understand what I am trying to tell you. We are already those who have been made healthy, we are sheep protected in the fold, we are older brothers who lived with the Father. In our comfortable lives with Jesus, we tend to forget that we too were sick, that we too were lost sheep, and like the older brother of the prodigal son, our concern shifts to how we are being treated rather than who God cares about. And that is what makes the wineskin of the church stale.
Verse 39 warns us: “And no one after drinking old wine wants the new, for he says, ‘The old is better.’” If YourChurch’s culture has become palatable to those who have been there a long time, YourChurch may not be able to stand up to new wine. This means Your Church will change into Our Church. When we begin to seek our own comfort, we are no longer Your Church but Our Church. The You in Your Church is the sick person, the lost sheep, the prodigal son, and God who wants to welcome them. Our name, Your Church, expresses our continued willingness to welcome new wine.
2. Pots of meat in Egypt (Exodus 16:1-3, Luke 9:57-62)
(EXOD 16:1-3)
1 The whole Israelite community set out from Elim and came to the Desert of Sin, which is between Elim and Sinai, on the fifteenth day of the second month after they had come out of Egypt.
2 In the desert the whole community grumbled against Moses and Aaron.
3 The Israelites said to them, “If only we had died by the LORD’s hand in Egypt! There we sat around pots of meat and ate all the food we wanted, but you have brought us out into this desert to starve this entire assembly to death.”
Have you read the Book of Exodus? There are many parts of the Old Testament that are so difficult and boring that they can be used as a sleeping pill on sleepless nights, but the Book of Exodus is such an interesting story that it was made into a movie.
The Book of Exodus tells the story of how God used Moses to lead a people who had been subjected to slavery into the Promised Land. The straight-line distance on that route is about 400 kilometers, about the distance from Machida to Kobe. Of course, their mode of travel was by foot, and they were an ethnic group that included elderly people and young children, but even so, they must have intended to arrive in a few months. Yet it was not until 40 years later that they actually entered the Promise Land.
The events we have just read about took place only about a month after the Exodus from Egypt. They had just begun their journey to the Promised Land in high spirits, praising God after having escaped from Egypt where they had suffered as slaves, but their dreams and hopes quickly faded as they faced various hardships along the way.
The second mistake I made because I was ignorant of the wineskin principle was exactly like what is in this text. People had high hopes for the new ministry, but when it did not immediately take shape, they began to feel disappointed in the church that had just begun. And they started to miss the things they had done in their former churches. They started saying, “Let’s sing older hymns” and “Let’s have a ‘proper’ worship service. I refused to go back into the old wineskin, and the people went back to their comfort zone.
After the two failures, I struggled to find the courage to start, but then God spoke to me through various people and I decided to start Your Church. And although not as long as the 40 years that the Israelites wandered in the wilderness, we have been walking for 30 years.
Even as we go through this journey, we sometimes hear people say that they miss the meat hotpot they had back then. They are the most depressing words to me. Because I have been telling people for 30 years that this is an idea that has no place in Your Church. Let’s just sing the song “I Want to Go Back to That Day” at karaoke.
There is a church in Southern California named “Church on the Way”. I visited there about 40 years ago. The Church has been on the road for 40 years, and is still on the road. The name, as much as “Your Church,” expresses the essence of the church. Yes, the Church is always on the way. The church is on the way all the way to the time when Jesus comes again and the kingdom of God is completed. This is neither the starting nor the ending point, but the middle of the road. It means that we keep moving forward without stopping.
If there is anyone who says to us nostalgically, “We should go back to the Your Church of 30 years ago,” then that person is actually just a bystander who is not moving forward together.
It’s true that there are many unpleasant things that happen along the way. But weren’t we willing to sacrifice our own comfort zones to become Your Church? Jesus Himself tells his disciples about the hardships that come with following him. And he encourages us to keep moving forward without looking back. Let’s read the Gospel of Luke 9:57-62:
As they were walking along the road, a man said to him, “I will follow you wherever you go.” Jesus replied, “Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head.” He said to another man, “Follow me.” But the man replied, “Lord, first let me go and bury my father.” Jesus said to him, “Let the dead bury their own dead, but you go and proclaim the kingdom of God.” Still another said, “I will follow you, Lord; but first let me go back and say good-by to my family.” Jesus replied, “No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for service in the kingdom of God.”
This is the reality of the way to follow Jesus. How do you respond to Jesus’ call, “Follow me”?
(Prayer) Thank you God, for calling each and every one of us to follow you.
And thank you for walking with us to this day.
Please continue to guide us so that we may continue to walk in accordance with your will.
Thankfully and hopefully, we pray in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Summary
Jesus came to this world to restore the dignity of all people, teaching people and entrusting his work to those who have decided to live according to Jesus. That is the church. However, the church’s aspect as a “gathering of sinners” always has a tendency to distort the church. Let us be aware of this and continue to be new wineskins.
For Discussion
1. What is the new wineskin church like?
2. Why do people like the good old things?